Orb webs: stopping an impact
Trace impact energy through an orb, distinguish stopping from sticking, and compare rebound in the lab.
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Original WebTug explanation with animated teaching diagrams and credited still photographs. On-screen text carries the lesson; there is no audio narration.
Diagrams simplify the science. Animation timing and diagram dimensions are illustrative, not measurements of live spiders.
Compare orb rebound →Read the full transcript
- Read the web's structure
This still photograph shows a shamrock orb-weaver's web. Look for spokes running outward and a capture spiral crossing between them.
- An insect brings the energy
A flying insect arrives with kinetic energy. On contact, the web deforms: several silk threads help carry the load.
- Stopping and sticking have different jobs
In the studied orb webs, radial threads absorbed most impact energy. The glue-coated spiral helps retain prey after contact.
- Stretch does more than store energy
Some energy returns as the web recoils. Some dissipates within stretching silk, reducing energy available to throw the insect back out.
- Simplify the whole web
Our lab replaces many threads with one spring and damper. Its settings illustrate behavior; they are not measurements of this photographed web.
- Which web rebounds more?
Keep impact energy and stiffness fixed. Change only energy loss, replay both settings, and compare the size of the rebound.
Scientific sources and media credits
Araneus trifolium — Araneus trifolium and its web with fog droplets.jpg by Brocken Inaglory, CC BY-SA 3.0. Photograph fitted within the video without changing its composition; labels and animated diagrams added around it. The photographer combined multiple focus planes (focus stacking).
Script, diagrams, animation, and editing: WebTug, September 27, 2026. This video adaptation is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; individual photographs retain their credited licenses.
What the game helps you notice
Orb-web radial threads absorb much of an incoming insect’s energy. In this challenge, every impact excites a spring-and-damper: the web stretches, recoils, and loses energy. Holding increases damping, so oscillation settles sooner.
What changes when you damp an impact?
Less energy returns as rebound. A web needs both room to deform and ways to dissipate energy, not stiffness alone.
Moving the entire web is a catching-game device, not spider behavior. The damping button and tear threshold are teaching controls; real webs distribute forces across many threads.
Try this experiment: Which web rebounds more?
Keep impact energy and web stiffness unchanged. Predict what happens when energy loss increases, then replay both versions.
Open this experiment and compare A / B →Meet Araneus trifolium and explore its research, then use the return link to play again. The challenge scores are game feedback, not measurements of your scientific understanding.
Primary research: Sensenig et al., Journal of the Royal Society Interface (2012)