Hooray for Nature (Uh-oh, Macbeth reference)

In the middle of starting my Macbeth paper for Brit Lit, I decided to visit my pet birdies outside. Little did I know, a dead bee was being carried off by a bunch of harmless red ants by the cages. I knew they wouldn't hurt my pets, so I was about to go off back into my paper. And then I realized, the little bugs were doing work! I immediately got my camera and spent 5 minutes getting the darn tiny creatures into focus for the picture (why my flash went off in the middle of the day beats me).

First, they gave their victim a little potential energy by lifting her up in the air (mgh), then started going off to their nest somewhere. They did work by lifting her several millimeters high, but I'm pretty sure measuring the potential energy of it would need an extra-sensitive mass measuring tool. If they had continued on their way, they would have had a measurable x-displacement so that I could say they had done work. But I think they to be a bit organized in their movements. They were going in weird directions, like a pencil creating a doodle. By the time I left, they were back to were I saw them originally. If we assume that that is where they started, one can effectively say that no work has been done (at least in the horizontal direction). Poor ants, they're working so hard to put food in their nests, but they don't know where they're going, so they just waste their time. At least they demonstrate their monster strength. And I can go about my day without those ants killing me and taking me into their nest for food (I swear, they're scavenger ants or something since I haven't seen them kill or bite anything ever).

Yay for non-murderous insects doing work (sorta)!