ENST: Mammals Are Masters of Physics
Four mammals are featured in
this article about animals that
really know how to get around
Hippos, Cheetahs, Bats: Mammals Master Physics
by David Coppedge
Evolution News & Science Today, July 23, 2024
Whether sleek, lumbering, or aerobatic, mammals are well equipped with the know-how to push their movements to the limits of the possible.
From high school physics, we learned that the kinetic energy needed for movement is a function of mass and velocity: (K = 1/2 mv2), and that mass is proportional to density and volume (M = Vd). Additionally, the mass of a body grows by the cube as the surface area grows by the square, so that as an animal grows from baby to adult, it will require more energy from its muscles to move at the same speed (think of a newly hatched Ultrasaurus growing up to be a towering adult). These laws of physics determine how much energy must be produced by muscles to move an animal during its life and how strong its bones must be to withstand the stresses of movement. There are also limits to how quickly neurons can signal the muscles to contract; a giraffe’s brain has a longer distance to traverse when signaling its feet compared to the corresponding path length in a mouse.
Today let’s investigate new findings about three mammals — one large, one medium, and one tiny — that show mastery of the physics needed to perform extraordinary feats.
Hopping Hippos
The humor in one of Disney’s original Fantasia segments stems from the incongruity of imagining fat hippopotamuses dancing daintily on their tiptoes and leaping into the air. Something not quite so fanciful happens in the real world….
Click here to continue reading.