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The Physics of Butterfly Wings
- 11235813213455 2y agoThe most beautiful flying creature imo, they fly almost effortlessly. I often work remotely in the nature, standing hours in front of my laptop, and sometimes a butterfly or a dragonfly lands on my arm or shoulder, and stays a while. When you think about it, it's probably the safest place for them, since their predators (lizards, ..) don't come close to humans
- mistrial9 2y agoThose two, butterfly and dragonfly, could hardly be more different - sort of humorous to put those two creatures in the same thought. Dragonfly is the most accurate predator in the whole animal kingdom.. making falcons and large cats look like beginners. Meanwhile the butterfly is unable to hunt at all, a truly powerful "changeling", starting life as a worm-like thing.
- popalchemist 2y agoYin and Yang arise together.
- ryanmcbride 2y agosure but they're both cool bugs so they belong together imo
- bch 2y ago> starting life as a worm-like thing. Not that different from a dragon fly[0], really. Most insects go through distinct metamorphosis[1]: egg -> larva -> pupae -> adult. [0] https://media.australian.museum/media/dd/images/Some_image.width-1600.f7b3bd0.jpg https://media.australian.museum/media/dd/images/Some_image.w... [1] https://www.amentsoc.org/insects/fact-files/life-cycles.html https://www.amentsoc.org/insects/fact-files/life-cycles.html
- bch 2y agoI might stand corrected - my own citation lists dragonflies as incomplete metamorphosis. I guess it’s true that they don’t pupate, but I thought the juvenile was still striking enough to mention as not necessarily obviously a dragonfly.
- 11235813213455 2y agoThey're indeed super efficient, protein eater vs sugar eater, both are excellent at flying but butterflies are more spectacular, artistic, dragonflies more robotic
- jethkl 2y agoI thought the article would discuss physics of flight, but it's about physics of iridescence. Cool, but not what I expected. I've seen butterflies fly in a stiff wind. It seems impossible even when you watch it. I was hoping for some insight into that.
- bloopernova 2y agohttps://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/study-reveals-secrets-butterfly-flight-180976808/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/study-reveals-secr... (2021) Study mentioned: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsif.2020.0854 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsif.2020.085...
- Robotenomics 2y agoFantastic study thank you and such evocative language “The fluttery flight of butterflies over a sunny meadow instils fascination, yet the flight of butterflies remains somewhat a mystery. The few flight mechanistic studies performed so far on butterflies have triggered suggestions that they use a variety of unsteady aerodynamic mechanisms for their force production. Among these mechanisms, the upstroke wing clap, first described by Weis-Fogh for insects already in the early 1970s, is one repeatedly reported as used by butterflies. Despite the importance of this mechanism, as far as we know, quantitative measurements of the aerodynamics of the wing clap in freely flying animals are still lacking.”
- hengheng 2y agoThe interior of my 3d printed parts has that exact gyroid pattern by the way. They put that in SuperSlicer, and presumably in PrusaSlicer, because it is really easy to print by running wiggly lines along x and y direction. Works great.
- awinter-py 2y agothe world is a vampire
- lloeki 2y agoReminder that most picturesque images of butterflies are of dead ones, including the emoji! https://www.emilydamstra.com/please-enough-dead-butterflies/ https://www.emilydamstra.com/please-enough-dead-butterflies/
- nimih 2y agoHappily, the butterfly pictured at the start of Baez's post appears to be alive.