What do bats and skateboarders have in common?

David Pescovitz 12:25 pm Fri Nov 20, 2015

Bats twirl like Tony Hawk to land upside down

Bats twirl like Tony Hawk to land upside down Watch this video on YouTube. Bats and skateboarders have something special in common. They both use inertia to land their tricks…

Bats and skateboarders have something special in common. They both use inertia to land their tricks which, in a bat's case, means landing upside down.

Researchers from Brown University used high-speed video of actual bats and also computer simulation to understand bats'"remarkable agility in flight, reorienting from a horizontal flying position to a heels-over-head roosting position and recovering from aerial stumbles with ease."

"Falling with Style: Bats Perform Complex Aerial Rotations by Adjusting Wing Inertia" (PLoS)

(Video via PBS NewsHour)

PLoS

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