It’s a Simple Question of Weight Ratio! June 16, 2008
Posted by Colloquy in Education, Humor, Science.Tags: Education, Humor, math, Personal, Science
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If you are a Monty Python nut like I am, you know exactly what I am about to talk about!
Is it possible for a 5oz. bird to carry a 1lb. coconut?
My son thought that the answer to the question might be a good extra credit project for his math class. So he started doing some research and found a terrific source.
Airspeed can also be predicted using a published formula. By inverting this midpoint Strouhal ratio of 0.3 (fA/U ≈ 0.3), Graham K. Taylor et al. show that as a rule of thumb, the speed of a flying animal is roughly 3 times frequency times amplitude (U ≈ 3fA).5
We now need only plug in the numbers:
U ≈ 3fA
f ≈ 15 (beats per second)
A ≈ 0.22 (meters per beat)
U ≈ 3*15*0.22 ≈ 9.9
… to estimate that the airspeed velocity of an unladen European Swallow is 10 meters per second.
The paper is full of terrific information – most of which I don’t understand at all! I highly reccomend you read it and explain it to me! Thanks!
I convinced my son to do a different extra credit project after he told me that his teacher is in her early twenties. I told him that she probably wouldn’t have a full appreciation of the project unless her parents were as deranged as I am! 
At least he’ll be able to answer this all important question if he ever has the necessity:
