In recent years, scientists and engineers have been instructed, by plants and animals. Such experts study and imitate the characteristics of living beings in an attempt to create new products and improve existing ones.
They learn from the fins of the whale
What can aeronautical engineers learn from the humpback whale? Apparently, a lot. An adult specimen weighs about thirty tons (the same as a loaded truck), its body is relatively rigid, has large wing-like fins and measures up to 12 meters (40 feet). All in all, its agility in the water is amazing.
The researchers were very curious to know how this creature with an inflexible body swims in such incredibly closed circles. They discovered that the secret lay in the shape of their fins. These do not have the smooth front edge, like the wings of an airplane but jagged, with a series of protuberances called tubers.
When the whale moves through the water, such bulges increase the thrust, or lift force, and decrease the resistance to advance. How? According to the magazine Natural History, the tubers accelerate the passage of water over the fin and generate an orderly rotating flow, even when the whale rises at very steep angles.
What practical applications does this find offer? If the wings of the airplanes follow this same model, they will need less ailerons and other mechanical devices to modify the air flow; in addition, they would be safer and their maintenance would be facilitated. According to John Long, an expert in biomechanics, "it is very likely that soon we will see in all passenger airplanes the same protuberances that the humpback whale has in the fins".
Let's think, if the humpback whale gives us these findings, that other opportunities can give us the variety of species that exist in the world, so we must be wise and feel grateful to Mother Earth, how? take care of her as she takes care of us, let's have aware and let's be can be grateful and so, we will get great rewards.