hey, look. this one's interesting. (sorta.) (it all being relative.)

[fflo]

I wouldn't mind being named "Z. Jane Wang."

"Energy-minimizing kinematics in hovering insect flight" by Gordon J. Berman & Z. Jane Wang
J. Fluid Mech. 582 (2007), 153--168

Summary: "We investigate aspects of hovering insect flight by finding the optimal wing kinematics which minimize power consumption while still providing enough lift to maintain a time-averaged constant altitude over one flapping period. In particular, we study the flight of three insects whose masses vary by approximately three orders of magnitude: fruitfly (Drosophila melanogaster), bumblebee (Bombus terrestris), and hawkmoth (Manduca sexta). Here, we model an insect wing as a rigid body with three rotational degrees of freedom. The aerodynamic forces are modelled via a quasi-steady model of a thin plate interacting with the surrounding fluid. The advantage of this model, as opposed to the more computationally costly method of direct numerical simulation via computational fluid dynamics, is that it allows us to perform optimization procedures and detailed sensitivity analyses which require many cost function evaluations. The optimal solutions are found via a hybrid optimization algorithm combining aspects of a genetic algorithm and a gradient-based optimizer. We find that the results of this optimization yield kinematics which are qualitatively and quantitatively similar to previously observed data. We also perform sensitivity analyses on parameters of the optimal kinematics to gain insight into the values of the observed optima. Additionally, we find that all of the optimal kinematics found here maintain the same leading edge throughout the stroke, as is the case for nearly all insect wing motions. We show that this type of stroke takes advantage of a passive wing rotation in which aerodynamic forces help to reverse the wing pitch, similar to the turning of a free-falling leaf."

Comments

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

An infinitely large turkey, having no surface area per pound of flesh to readiate away its metabolic heat, would cook itself to death.

I've been hanging out in filk, an artistic community where half the artists are scientists. So maybe I've just found a place that's utopian in that regard.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

i'm just listening to that ol' laurie anderson, "let x=x," on internet radio. remember that one?

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

I haven't listened to Laurie Anderson much in a lot of years. I remember "Let X Equal X," at least from the beginning. That was "Big Science" wasn't it. A lot of the stuff on that runs together in my head. You can't have an album with a title like "Big Science" with cover art of the artist in a lab coat wearing blinders without getting a just a little inkling that this is an artist on the front lines of the art vs. science wars.

"big science, halleluja, every man for himself."

[fflo.livejournal.com]

that's the one!