Abumblebee can sense electric fields. the most likely mechanism underlying this sensitivity is motion of hairs on the bee’s body; the hairs bend in response to an electric field. support for this mechanism as the source of the sensitivity is the fact that putting an electric charge on a bee (as occurs when a bee flies through the air) dramat- ically increases electric field sensitivity. explain why adding charge to a bee would cause hairs on the bee’s body to bend more in response to a field.

If the electrical field stays the same, the size of the electrical force on the bee's hair would be proportional to the size of the charge on it.

Explanation:

The question implies that:

Consider the bee's hair as a point charge. The force between an electrical field and that point charge would be equal to

.

In this equation, the size of the electrostatic force is proportional to the size of , the charge on the bee. Adding charge to the bee's hair would increase the size . Even if the size of the field stayed the same, there would be an increase the size of .

The hairs would now bend more since the force on them has become stronger. That means the bee would become more sensible to the electrical field.

well clustered together.

points close on a scatter diagram