If you’ve spent any significant amount of time trying to use a beermat as a frisbee, you’ll know that they’re not very suitable. What you may not know, is the physics behind why they’re not. A research team from the Helmholtz Institute of Radiation and Nuclear Physics and the Argelander Institute for Astronomy at the […]
Tag: flight
The vortex and the dandelion seed: a newfound physics of flying
A new paper (“A separated vortex ring underlies the flight of the dandelion“) published in Nature tells how dandelion seeds create a vortex that keeps them floating through the skies. This little video shows and tells the story of that: (Thanks to the ever-discovery-filled Cocktail Party Physics for bringing this to our attention.) UPDATE (October […]
Hydroplaning Eider Ducks – the math(s)
Ducks can fly. Ducks can swim. And, unusually, they’re pretty good at something in between – viz. hydroplaning (a.k.a. ‘Skeetering’). If you’ve seen them doing it, you might have wondered about the physics (and math(s)) behind it. In which case, you are not alone … “Common eiders (Somateria mollissima) are heavy sea-ducks that spend a […]
How do albatrosses fly around the world? (studies)
This is what Professor John Cleese (Cornell University) had to say about albatrosses in 1970 * But Professor Cleese is by no means the only academic to have taken a keen interest in the enigmatic birds. Many have pondered the question of how wandering albatrosses spends weeks, even months, at sea without ever returning to […]
