THE ant – a short story
THE ANT – By PACE
Oh! The small thing is making my head scratch. That was the reaction when I saw the ant army brigades brisk march all along over the neat floor tiles. The discipline was amazing as usual. I put an obstacle on the path and thought the game is over. The small ant needs a simple solution after all it is nothing! Hmm–. I returned to find the ants walking all over the object as if the object has fallen accidentally. I took out the magnifier to have a look at them. I zoomed on one of them among the many. It stopped and pulled up its antenna as an expression. Strange from human sense point of view, I could see sugar it was carrying on the antenna. Aha it has sugar on the raised fist. A sweet in the raised fist on a ### situation. This is interesting.
I stood up and looked down on the ants! Hey you are too small, I will push you out.I took the broom stick and did lot of carpet shots. It was like somebody throwing balls all over the floor. I was careful not to crush down the ball but roll it over. Finally the game was over and gate was closed. I had the Cup of satisfaction in my mind and success on my head!
They are back! Oh ho, the reserve battalion was there. Hmm–, the ants are not too small. They are small.
The human history which to my knowledge was the world history came to my mind. How some humans have won war? Block the beautiful flow. Build huge dams as trenches and walls are crossed by many. These are there in our human life and are overcome with humane love. I blocked the gaps of human construction with glue. The glue will make these tiny ANTs to stick to it. It will stop those rallies which often provoke us and make us think, this is ridiculous small nuisance.
Yes it finally worked. Those on the lead had turned away the followers.
The ant brigade faded away. I was on the top of the world. The war is over. I took a cloth and crowned my headgear. I my wife, all over dear! She did that beautiful smile. The Feminine smile, the smart provoking compassion.
I went back and sat on a chair. My innocent daughter giggled in. The cute asked, “Hey dad, what are you doing? Are you inventing something?” I told her, “I have overcome an irritation”; and explained the whole thing.
The cracker laughter burst-ed. She was rolling all over the ground with laugher, with tightly held palm. Her childish innocent laughter was like flowers bunched into huge balls banging all over the body and mind!
After intermittent sessions of laughter, the music stopped. She came to me and unfolded the secret. She had sugar in her hands.
I walked down to the kitchen. My ego was going down. I found that the sugar box was not closed properly. I could see some ants, dead ants! Too rich can kill anybody! I removed them and closed the lid.
I went back to the chair and sat down. These ants are really marvelous creatures. They are animals, not small. I settled down on the chair. My mind started settling down. I Snapped. A snap in time helps a lot.
I woke up feeling fresh. I removed the glue out of curiosity. There were no ants glued to the obstacle! Great.
I looked out of the window and could see them marching somewhere else with same seal as if nothing has happened.
I took out the magnifier. I showed my hand for ant to roll on. Ant rolled on my hand without outbursts of biting. I focused the magnifier on it. It was carrying some dust. It was put down and I could see the antenna up curved smoothly.
I sank into the chair.
Ants had warned me to say something is not in order, and the gigantic human being could not understand. So pity! History is the story of the universe and not limited to humans as we have misunderstood!!
The leadership skill of these beauties is immense. They lead and turns you and them away from dangers!!
ANT is not small animal but A Nice Truth!
** By a Humble Human, from a great land in this wonderful EARTH **
Ahh, one engineer to another with Ant stories! As an Electrical Engineer, I found myself leaning towards education in the world of Electricity. Fund myself in a class talking about the development of a Conduit System and the types of bends that can made on the Conduit pipe so as to have the Conduit System fit into the contour of the surface on which the Conduit was to be mounted. Brought our conversation to a particular type of bend called a, Hypotenuse Bend. This type of bend allow the pipe to make a 90 degree turn on a inside 90 degree corner when there is an obstacle, like a water pipe, is located in the corner of the 90 degree turn. Introduction to Pythagoras’ theorem. When dealing with a triangle in which one of the angles is a 90 degree angle, the Hypotenuse of the triangle is equal to the Square root of the Sum of the Square of the two Opposite Sides of the Triangle. Goodness me, this sure makes perfect sense, Basic Trigonometry. However, for some reason I could not grasp, just did not click with my students. Explanation after Explanation, demonstrations on the chalk board. It was the squares and the square roots that were throwing the monkey wrench into the machinery.
Break for lunch. Maybe something to eat and a break from class would stimulate a bit of understanding. I grabbed my lunch and went out to the faculty lunch area which was in a gardened area. I sat on one of the benches and something caught my eye. It was the Ants. They, for what ever Ants decide to relocate their home, were, in force marching from one corner of the garden to another, carrying their eggs and food. But, they had made a turn from the gardens edge and were marching across open areas of the garden till they reached the far edge of the garden and turned again to continue on to their new chosen home.
What amazed me about what I was looking at, was that the Ants had developed a hypotenuse to the 90 degree turn that they would have had to make if they had kept marching along the edge of the garden. The good thing here is that a colony of Ants is not two or three hundred. Could very easily run into the millions. So this march I was looking at was not going to end any time soon.
Lunch ended and I met my class back in the classroom. I open my desk draw and took out two new pencils and my roll up rule. Said to the class, “Follow me” and I walked out the door and led my class to the Faculty lunch area and had them arrange themselves around the edge of the garden. The Ants were still at it. I took the two pencils and gently tapped one into where the Ants left the edge of the garden and the other at the point where the Ants met the other edge of the garden. The class and I then took measurements from the two pencils across the open area (the hypotenuse) and the distance from each pencil to the 90 degree turn the Ants had so cleverly cut out of their march.
“Look at them!” I said to my class, “These are Ants but it sure seems that they have the ability to work out Pythagoras’ Theorem!!! But you can”t? What? You are going to tell me that Ants are smarter than you are?!” We went back to the classroom
On the chalk board I drew out the dimensions we had measured out in the garden and then worked the equation of Pythagoras’ Theorem on the board explaining what I was doing and expressing the thoughts about what they had seen the Ants do in the garden. “SNAP!” All of a sudden they understood. Would seem that a whole bunch of Ants taught the practical aspect of applying Pythagoras’ Theorem to a class full of budding Engineers.
Not to take to much of your time, but another time I was sitting out in the lunch area was watching a little Ant carrying a wing of some insect. There was a breeze and as the little Ant made his way, a puff of air would blow him back only to have to start all over again. I watched this little Ant for a while and he was in a no win situation. Got involved with my lunch and after a while looked down to see the Ant and what do I see? The Ant is tacking back and forth across the breeze like you would do with a sailboat if you wanted to sail into the wind.
Amazing little things these little insects that live all around us!
Rick
It was really an electrifying observation.Quite surprised at the observations.really a nice observation