The Physics of Butterfly Wings

https://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2015/08/11/the-physics-of-butterfly-wings/

by boringg • 2 years ago

71 14 2 years ago

johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com

The 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• 2 years ago

Those 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.

ryanmcbride• 2 years ago

sure but they're both cool bugs so they belong together imo

bch2• 2 years 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.w...

[1] https://www.amentsoc.org/insects/fact-files/life-cycles.html

112358132134552• 2 years ago

They're indeed super efficient, protein eater vs sugar eater, both are excellent at flying but butterflies are more spectacular, artistic, dragonflies more robotic

popalchemist• 2 years ago

Yin and Yang arise together.

jethkl• 2 years ago

I 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• 2 years ago

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/study-reveals-secr... (2021)

Study mentioned: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsif.2020.085...

Robotenomics• 2 years ago

Fantastic 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• 2 years ago

The 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• 2 years ago

the world is a vampire

lloeki• 2 years ago

Reminder that most picturesque images of butterflies are of dead ones, including the emoji!

https://www.emilydamstra.com/please-enough-dead-butterflies/

nimih• 2 years ago

Happily, the butterfly pictured at the start of Baez's post appears to be alive.

The Physics of Butterfly Wings

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