When your predators use echolocation to locate you, it pays to have an ultrasonic deterrence. So, many species of ermine moths have structures on their wings known as tymbals. These Keep reading
Tag: aeroelasticity
Rattling Feathers for Attention
Peacocks are known for their colorful mating displays, but it turns out there’s more to them than meets the eye. To help them gain a penhen’s attention, peacocks will sometimes Keep reading
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge
One of the most dramatic and famous engineering failures of the twentieth century is also one of the most complicated: the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. This early suspension Keep reading
Pigeon Flutter
Birds are well-known for their vocalizations, but this isn’t their only way to produce noise. A new study on crested pigeons finds that the birds’ wings produce distinctive high and Keep reading
Flag Flapping
Everyone has watched a flag flutter in the breeze, but you may not have given much thought to it. One of the earliest scientists to consider the problem was Lord Keep reading
Inside Singing
These are the vocal folds of a woman singing. Human speech (and song) results from interactions between elastic muscles and aerodynamics. As we exhale, the vocal folds are initially pushed Keep reading
Buzzing Straws
Many woodwind instruments owe their sound to the vibration caused when air moves past parts of them. As Nick Moore demonstrates in this video, you can create a simple version Keep reading
Fluttering Feathers
Birds do not always vocalize in order to make their songs. The male African broadbill, shown in the top video above, makes a very distinctive brreeeet in its flight displays, but Keep reading
Flapping Flags
Sometimes structural forces and aerodynamic forces combine to produce instabilities. One of the most common and familiar examples of this, a flag flapping in the breeze, remains extremely complex to Keep reading
Hummingbirds Singing with their Tail Feathers
Aeroelastic flutter occurs when fluid mechanical forces and structural forces get coupled together, one feeding the other. Usually, we think of it as a destructive mechanism, but, for hummingbirds, it’s Keep reading