Daily Archives: September 25, 2011

The Physics of Wingsuits

The amazing thing about the flight of animals is the seemingly simple nature yet unbelievable complexity of their evolved structures.  You would think that to mimic a flying squirrel would be easy, right? You know, just slap on a pair of wings and jump off of something. It couldn’t be that difficult. Wrong. It has […]

Gliding Vine Seeds

Alsomitra macrocarpa, known as the Alsomitra vine or the Javan cucumber is “a type of climbing gourd.” The vine is found mainly in the forests of Java, Indonesia.  Where it grows truly remarkable seeds by the hundreds in “football-sized pods.” What makes these seeds so remarkable is the fact that they are virtually aerodynamically perfect […]

Sharkskin Paint

The idea of shark attacks has terrorized humans for years, helped along by movies like Jaws. When we imagine them, we mostly think about the sharks’ vicious, powerful jaws, filled with hundreds of razor-sharp teeth that are so adept at killing. But what we don’t always think about is how they swim quickly, efficiently, and […]

Robots in Disguise

Cornell University has recently been working on perfecting the replication of insect flying techniques in robots.  While not a new idea, their approach uses new technology to make the process of creating the robot less time-consuming and faulty.  The wings of the rob-insect were created using a 3-D printer in order to achieve the optimal wing shape […]

Bernoulli’s Principle Explained:

Before we begin here’s a few definitions to make following this post easier. 1. Kinetic energy – noun. the energy of a body or a system with respect to the motion of the body or of theparticles in the system. 2. Potential Energy – noun. the energy of a body or a system with respect […]