SLED Design Project: Simple Machines
Simple Machines, Examples from Nature
draft
The Lever
Your skeletal muscles work as levers to move your body.
The Lever
The Wheel and Axle
Salamanders and Caterpillars, oh my!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmLS2WXZQxU
http://videosift.com/video/Nature-invented-the-wheel
And Golden Wheel Spiders, too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4odlo0Afjs
The Wheel and Axle
Planthoppers hop with a modified wheel: The Gear.
Planthopper nymph
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq0Mf2pt2XA
http://www.npr.org/2013/09/13/219739500/li
ving-gears-help-this-bug-jump
Gears on hind legs
Planthopper synchronize their hind leg movements in 30 millionths of a second using small
gears on the first segment of its hind legs (similar to the top of your thigh bone).
As one leg prepares to leap, the interlocking gear system causes the other leg to move at the
same time. This lets the planthopper to propel itself faster and farther and in a straighter path to
escape danger. At such speeds, synchronizing leg movements is very important, as one wrong
move could send the insect springing to the side instead of forward.
The Pulley
“The pulley is a way of getting force to go around corners…”
“The patella, or knee cap, allows your thigh muscles to lift your lower leg without crushing
the knee joint. If the quadriceps were connected directly to your shin, every time it
contracted, the bones of the lower leg would grind into the base of the femur, and it
would take a lot of effort to move. But by routing the connection over the top of the
patella, evolution changed the geometry--when the quad pulls on the lower leg, the force
comes from in front of the shin, rather than from directly above, so the shin moves easily.”
The Inclined Plane
Cats like them.
Penguins, too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkMzHGA8GgM
The Inclined Plane
The Inclined Plane
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e81J915TEXg
J Exp Biol 214:2354-2361, 2011
Wing-assisted incline running (WAIR): when a bird flaps its wings to aid in climbing a
slope. Ground birds use this as an escape strategy.
The Wedge
The Kingfisher
“If a kingfisher had a rounded beak, such as on the left, it would push water ahead of it,
scaring or displacing the prey. Instead, the wedge-shaped beak and head (right) enters the
water without a splash, increasing the changes of a successful hunt. Artist: Emily Harrington.
Copyright: All rights reserved.”
http://www.asknature.org/strategy/4c3d00f23cae38c1d23517b6378859ee
The Kingfisher fishing!
The Wedge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CsyenHR
OSE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YRM0sy3
xIY
http://besttravelphotos.me/2012/11/14/airborne-fishing-kingfisher-england/
The Screw
Papuan Weevils have leg joints that screw together!
The nut: The outer part of the joint (the coxa) has an inner screw thread (A & B).
The screw: The inner part of the joint (the trocanter) has an external screw thread (C & D).
The beetles’ muscles pull on the leg to turn the screw!
The Screw: Hermit Crabs
As hermit crabs grow, their abdomen grows into a “corkscrew” spiral shape to
“screw into the shell” that they are living live in. Most shells contain a righthanded (clockwise) spiral, and most hermit crabs have a “right-handed spiral”
for their abdomen. Some species of hermit crabs live in left-handed (counterclockwise) spiral shells and have a “left-handed spiral” abdomen. As the hermit
crab grows, this puts such a hermit crab at a disadvantage in the housing
market as left-handed shells are less common.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGwoOO
z2s2g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8hZ7MM1rOg
A hermit crab out of it’s shell.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermit_crab
Combining Simple Machines:
the hamster trap.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogCp1W7cRZ4
The Lever References/Image Sources
http://www.google.com/search?q=lever+skeletal+system&client=safari&rls=en&tbm=i
sch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=p6B5UtePEubiyAHRjYG4Dw&ved=0CCkQsAQ&biw
=1275&bih=953#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=sDuxkUW9R68CM%3A%3BX2GoUnx7KNuikM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.rci.rutgers.edu%2
52F~uzwiak%252FAnatPhys%252FAPFallLect14_files%252Fimage001.jpg%3Bhttp%253
A%252F%252Fwww.rci.rutgers.edu%252F~uzwiak%252FAnatPhys%252FAPFallLect14.h
tml%3B640%3B480
http://classes.midlandstech.edu/carterp/Cours
es/bio210/chap10/lecture1.html
http://discovermagazine.com/galleries/zenphoto/s/simple-machines#.UnmekChUBQY
The Wheel and Axel References/Image Sources
Salamander and caterpillars
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmLS2WXZQxU
http://videosift.com/video/Nature-invented-the-wheel
http://www.notcot.org/post/45960/
Golden Wheel Spider
http://www.digitalspy.com/british-tv/i524620-8/davidattenboroughs-africa-episode-one-pictures-a-golden-wheelspider.html
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/meet-crafty-spider-rollswheel-escape-predators-video-002553142.html
Planthoppers & Gears
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2013/09/a-clockworkinsect-common-garden-bug-sports-mechanical-gears.html
Malcom Burrows, Gregory Sutton. Interacting Gears Synchronize Propulsive Leg
Movements in a Jumping Insect Science 341:1254-1256 2013.
The Pulley References/Image Sources
http://discovermagazine.com/galleries/zenphoto/s/simple-machines#.UnmekChUBQY
The Inclined Plane References/Image Sources
J Exp Biol. 2007 May;210(Pt 10):1742-51.
Aerodynamics of wing-assisted incline running
in birds.
Tobalske BW, Dial KP.
http://www.vetstreet.com/welcome-to-bobwalkers-feline-fun-house
http://skyharbor.com/images/SideBar_Switchb
ack.jpg
http://www2.umt.edu/urelations/rview/winte
r04/flight.htm
The Wedge References/Image Sources
add
The Screw References/Image Sources
Thomas van de Kamp, Patrik Vagovič, Tilo Baumbach, Alexander Riedel. A Biological
Screw in a Beetle’s Leg. Science 333:52 2011.
http://strangebehaviors.wordpress.com/2011/06/
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2011/06/30/zooming-in-onbeetles-knees-biologists-find-tiny-screws-and-nuts/#.UnmUgyhUBQY
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20638-beetles-beat-us-to-the-screwand-nut.html#.Unmy8ihUBQb