Tagged: hummingbird

Application of Hummingbird Physics

In a previous post from the last quarter, Grace Ingalls talked about the physics of how hummingbirds fly.  The hummingbird was described to fly more like an insect rather than a bird since it was able to hover in every direction as opposed to conventional birds who flew only in a forward direction. Impressed by […]

Hummingbird’s Wake

One of my favorite things about spring and summer is lying in an open field watching the clouds go by. Every once and a while a plane will go by leaving an enormous wake of what looks like white clouds behind it. Only recently did I learn that these cloud trails are caused by vortexes of […]

It’s a bird. No it’s an insect. No, wait, its a hummingbird!

When we are young, we classify everything into very black and white catagories. What is a bird? Orginally, our response was a tiny flying animal with feathers and wings. However, that description is astronomically incorrect. Birds do not have to be small. The largest flying bird, the Argentavis, (extinct as of 2009) has a wingspan […]

AeroVironment, Inc.’s Nano Hummingbird

The flight of a hummingbird has been fascinating to study since it is able to fly backwards and hover. The amount of energy it must use to flap its wings 12-90 times per second seems impossible for a creature its size. It  also manages to control its flight so precisely that it can  point its […]

Are hummingbirds just insects with feathers?

While hummingbirds are, of course, birds, which make up the Trochilidae family, their aerodynamic characteristics have been more closely attributed to insects.  Not only can the hummingbird hover indefinitely, in midair, it also makes up the only group of birds that possess the ability to fly backwards.  The humming bird, therefore, takes flapping flight to […]