Monday, June 10, 2024
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Dragonflies are some of the world’s best fliers. Pantala flavescens, also known as the Wandering Glider or Globe Skimmer take part in a multigenerational migration every year. They make an 18,000 km (11,200 miles) journey, in which individual dragonflies fly around 6,000 km (3,730 miles). As a result, they might be some of the most widespread dragonflies, with populations on every continent except for Antarctica. The Wandering Glider is about 4.5 cm long, with wingspans of 8 cm. How do insects so small fly so far? Dragonfly wings and flight dynamics are a wonder and a great biomechanical inspiration.
Several characteristics of dragonfly wings enable efficient flight. One of these is how they beat their wings. Dragonflies have a pair of forewings and a pair of hindwings and can modify the phase those wings beat at. The wings can beat together (in-phase) or out-of-phase, where a pair of wings point up and a pair of wings point down. Studies have shown that in-phase flapping creates lots of force, which is best for takeoff or quick, demanding manoeuvres. Out-of-phase flapping is for steady flight and hovering. This mechanism has been termed ‘counter-flapping’. When the forewings flap, they create a leading-edge vortex that the hindwing anticipates and catches. This means that the hindwing captures the energy that is ‘wasted’ by the forewing, decreasing the energy the dragonfly uses and increasing its lift.
The incredible flight dynamics of dragonflies is one of the concepts I have been trying to turn into a demo for this year’s SOCK. This week, I wrote a demo on electromagnetic waves and how dragonflies can see UV light and a demo on wave phases. I also went to the AIP Maryland office and got to search through the basement of Treasures for games and materials I could use for the SOCK. My goody bag of craft supplies was fantastic for the paper aeroplanes and straw wave I made at ACP-DC. On Thursday, I met with my high school physics teacher and some of his current colleagues. I pitched all my demo ideas to them and got lots of advice on how to make demos consistent, how to implement my ideas, how to integrate demos with the arts, and how to create write-ups that are appropriate for different age groups. I’m glad I got to discuss demo ideas with physics teachers early on in the SOCK-building process–it was super helpful for my thought process!
Aside from my SOCK work, this was an exciting week for internship programming. On Wednesday, we got to attend a Trimble lecture with John Mather and Mark Clampin on the development of space telescopes and future searches for life outside the solar system. Thursday, we went on a dinner cruise down the Potomac. I’ve gotten to speak with lots of incredible scientists and communicators about their work (and also about dragonflies), which has been very exciting!
This weekend, I went to the zoo with a few other interns. My favourite part was the bird exhibit (Jenna’s least favourite). They had little cards with identifications of all the bird species, and I had a really fun time trying to find all of them (Where’s Waldo but better because of birds). We took lots of silly pictures of the animals. While there was no insect exhibit at the zoo (sad) I did spot a dragonfly nymph exoskeleton in the pond. Happy birthday, dragonfly!
Maia Chandler