snake locomotion

How do snakes move without legs? It took a team of mathematicians to figure out that the secret is in the snakes' scales. Check out this video to hear from the researchers themselves.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• snakes
• mathematics
• mathematicians
• snake movement
• snake motion
• moving snake
• snake locomotion
• how do snakes move
• Snake
• Reptile

[QwertyTSecond]

It's maths! MATHS! Gah, American English will be the death of me.

Anyway, back to the land of the sane; I found this very useful. I'm going to be building a snake robot as my final year project, and emulating how they move in nature is so much easier than making a new method. Why reinvent the wheel, eh?

[VideosatNSF]

@QwertyTSecond - I'm glad you found the project useful. As for our use of 'math' on this side of the pond, I've always thought it's a bit like describing every tongue spoken on Earth as 'language.' That said, in your opinion, do you think conceptualizing it as 'maths' helps people better understand the complexity and beauty of mathematics?

[jslatertv]

shivers!

[FDD2012]

@QwertyTSecond It am okay. He was just jokings abouts the maths things. why is you such an jerks?

[Whammytap]

I myself only discovered the linguistic difference of "math" and "maths" while reading Stoppard's "Arcadia" last night. Yet another division by common language! I prefer 'maths,' now that I've heard the term.

Have you ever watched a snake slowly crusing in a straight line along a smooth, flat surface? Their stomach muscles undulate in a way that calls to mind a millipede's legs. I used to marvel at my boa constrictor this way. Thanks for uploading, very informative video!

[EverboundVenvel]

Finally a good animation ref for this!

[QwertyTSecond]

@VideosatNSF @VideosatNSF Very true, yes, it is a trivial matter, and neither really does mathematics justice. I've always seen it as maths due to it being a collection of smaller subject areas, but then, viewed as a whole, math is equally logical. Well, enough of me going off on a linguaphobic tangent. Viewed mathematically, this could be represented by two sinusoidal waveforms at 90 degrees to one another and in phase, I believe?

[tanevivan]

Very nice video, thanks for sharing! I have done some simulated evolution of locomotion of snakes without anisotropic friction (e.g., either without scales, or with scales but on a loose surfaces on which they cannot provide significant anisotropy of the friction), and sidewinding emerges in a way much similar to the natural sidewinders (e.g., crotalus cerastes). Anyway, thanks again!

[juiceforhim]

Why doesn't this have more views? It's NSF