19
An Ant Enters the Room
Recently, there was a scream in the house. I stepped out of my office and
entered the kitchen where I ran into Joey, my 20-year-old daughter, screaming.
I said, "What happened?" She responded, "Ants! They are all over the place."
I did not see any. I said, "Where?" Joey pointed and said, "There!" I saw a
towel on the floor. I picked it up. It was moist, and due to the hot weather here
in Texas (>38˚C at present), I assumed the ants were taking advantage of the
simultaneous joy of shade plus water. I quickly brushed them up and threw the
dustpan out the door onto the lawn so that they could fend for themselves in
the great wilderness of my backyard.
That got me thinking about how those amazing creatures can do so much
while being so small. They seem to be able to show up anywhere, and
because of their small size they can get into any location they deem of interest.
In a completely different respect, they also have enormous power.
I have never measured the mass of an ant, but Google says it is on the order
of 0.005g. While I am busy trying to stay fit so I can continue to bench press
my weight (75kg), ants reportedly can lift two to three orders of magnitude over
their body weight. If I could do so, I would be considered a superhero.
Ants to Amps
Obviously, I am not a myrmecologist (Greek myrmex, "ant" and logos, "study")
who studies ants. However, I am an electronic engineer, and to that end, I have
Tiny Yet Mighty: Low Voltage Operational
Amplifiers, with a Small Footprint
By Paul Golata, Mouser Electronics
You may not realize that
ants and electronic amplifiers
have some things in common.
Learn how the tiny yet mighty
ant shares the characteristics
of small physical size and
high performance with a
look at Texas Instruments'
TLV9062 low voltage
operational amplifier.
