Quote:
Originally Posted by sjastro
In a gravity environment birds and insects perform work to get airborne. When landing work is mainly done by gravity.
In a zero G environment, an object is in free fall which means there is a fictitious force of equal but opposite magnitude to the weight of the object.
While a bird and insect in free fall can take off at any given angle, there is a vertical component of the force acting in the same direction as the fictitious force. Under these conditions gravity doesn't overcome the inertia of the vertical force.
In order to land a bird or insect will have to perform the work instead of gravity.
So how can the biomechanics of a bird or insect be utilized to perform the work for landing instead of gravity?
Regards
Steven
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Who are you directing your question to Steven?
Myself, I've not mentioned anything about taking-off or landing, only normal [straight and level] flight, ie "a wing which produces thrust along the longitudinal axis", or turns. In my opinion, in a zero G environment, there is no such thing as a take-off or landing (true?), as the moment you touch something or bang into something, like the floor, a body will bounce and become airborne again, so it makes no sense...you might as well call it another wall instead.