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Science to the rescue

 
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Shawn
I'll sell you map to Lost Dutchman mine!




Joined: 03 Jan 2003
Posts: 2592
Location: Ahwatukee, AZ

PostPosted: 2/23/2008, 5:43 am    Post subject: Science to the rescue Reply to topic Reply with quote

Thank God this is finally settled . . . . .

Andrea Thompson
LiveScience Staff Writer
SPACE.com
Fri Feb 22, 6:25 AM ET


A straight line may be the shortest distance between two points, but on a steep slope, a zigzagging path is the fastest way to go, a new study confirms.

On flat terrain, a straight line is typically still the best way to get from point A to point B. But climbing up a steep hill is a whole different ballgame; the mechanics and energy costs of walking up a hill alter the way we negotiate the landscape.

"You would expect a similar process on any landscape, but when you have changes in elevation it makes things more complicated," said study author Marcos Llobera of the University of Washington. "There is a point, or critical slope, where it becomes metabolically too costly to go straight ahead, so people move at an angle, cutting into the slope. Eventually they need to go back toward the direction they were originally headed and this creates zigzags. The steeper the slope, the more important it is that you tackle it at the right angle."

Llobera and co-author T.J. Sluckin of the University of Southampton in the U.K. developed a simple mathematical model showing that a zigzagging course is in fact the most efficient way to go up or down a steep slope.

Most people don't need a model to tell them that though, they do it without even thinking.

"I think zigzagging is something people do intuitively," Llobera said. "People recognize that zigzagging, or switchbacks, help but they don't realize why they came about."

The work is detailed in the Journal of Theoretical Biology.
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AFScout80





Joined: 16 May 2007
Posts: 82
Location: Colorado

PostPosted: 2/23/2008, 6:39 am    Post subject: Reply to topic Reply with quote

Quote:

Most people don't need a model to tell them that though, they do it without even thinking.



Wow I guess our fellow scientists don't give the general population credit for common sense. I'm considering spending the rest of my life to the devotion of building a model that includes pie charts (everybody loves pie charts) on a whimsical theory that it would be faster to get from Point A to B if we could fly, however we cannot. I bet you never thought about why you can't fly. Maybe we can fly we just haven't thought about it yet and it's something that goes deeper than intuition. I'll let you know how the study goes.
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IGO





Joined: 08 Feb 2005
Posts: 4144
Location: Las Vegas

PostPosted: 2/23/2008, 6:58 am    Post subject: Reply to topic Reply with quote

I like pie!

What if somebody zigs when they should have zagged?
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AFScout80





Joined: 16 May 2007
Posts: 82
Location: Colorado

PostPosted: 2/23/2008, 7:09 am    Post subject: Reply to topic Reply with quote

Then one might fall to your doom, however if you knew how to fly...
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azhiker96





Joined: 05 Jan 2003
Posts: 1419

PostPosted: 3/10/2008, 10:59 pm    Post subject: Reply to topic Reply with quote

So I wonder what prompted them to do the study. Perhaps they experienced the switchbacks at Havasupai or Peralta Trail. Perhaps their next study with be something along the lines that although a straight path is the fastest on a descent, the abrupt stop at the end may cause injury or death.
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