Snakes Are A Plane? The Physics Of Snakes That Fly
Thursday, January 30, 2014 - 09:30
in Biology & Nature
What would make snakes scarier? For spiders, the answer is easy. If you see one big enough to be feasting on Orc flesh in the caves under Mt. Doom, run, but snakes are tougher to make scary because they are slow. Not all of them. Snakes may not look aerodynamic but some snakes can fly - literally. They slither in air, creating an S shape as they glide as much as 90 feet. But how do they generate the lift to stay airborne? Jake Socha has spent much of his career figuring out flying snakes and says "They look like they are swimming. They turn their whole body into one aerodynamic surface." read more