Life's Devices (eBook)

The Physical World of Animals and Plants

Steven Vogel (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2020
384 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-20949-4 (ISBN)

Infos

This entertaining and informative book describes how living things bump up against non-biological reality. "e;My immodest aim,"e; says the author, "e;is to change how you view your immediate surroundings."e; He asks us to wonder about the design of plants and animals around us: why a fish swims more rapidly than a duck can paddle, why healthy trees more commonly uproot than break, how a shark manages with such a flimsy skeleton, or how a mouse can easily survive a fall onto any surface from any height. The book will not only fascinate the general reader but will also serve as an introductory survey of biomechanics. On one hand, organisms cannot alter the earth's gravity, the properties of water, the compressibility of air, or the behavior of diffusing molecules. On the other, such physical factors form both constraints with which the evolutionary process must contend and opportunities upon which it might capitalize. Life's Devices includes examples from every major group of animals and plants, with references to recent work, with illustrative problems, and with suggestions of experiments that need only common household materials.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 31.3.2020
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Humanbiologie
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Geowissenschaften ► Geografie / Kartografie
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Physik / Astronomie ► Angewandte Physik
• Schlagworte: abductin • acceleration • Accuracy and precision • Addition • Airfoils • Albumin • Antheraea • Appendage • Argyronetes • Ascaris • axonal transport • Basic dimension • Bending • biologist • Biology • blimp • Blood vessel • Bombyx • boundary layer • buckling • Buoyancy • Calculation • Cantilever • Capillary • capillary action • cell wall • centroid • circumference • clockwise • Coating • Collagen • Composite material • conservation law • Continuity • convection • corn syrup • Cost of transport • creeks • cyclosis • Cylinder (geometry) • Dendraster • density • detergent • Dimensional Analysis • Dimensionless quantity • Dineutes • drag coefficient • Echinoderm • Echinoderms • Ecology • Elastic modulus • Energy Storage • Equation • exoskeleton • fabrics • fiberglass • foraminifera • Frameworks • Froude number • fuel • gait • Gelatin • gravitational acceleration • Gravity • Halobates • Halosaccion • high pressure • hinge • Hydra • hydrostatics • insect • Internal pressure • International system of units • Jellyfish • kilogram • kneecap • length • Lever • logarithm • Luna • Macronema • Measurement • Mechanical Advantage • Metridium • micrometer • microscope • Mimosa • Molecule • Motility • Muscle • Nereocystis • Net force • Newton's laws of motion • No-slip condition • oak tree • Order of magnitude • organism • perpetual motion • Pilobolus • Potamodytes • Pressure • Projectile • Proportionality (mathematics) • Proportion (architecture) • Protein • Quantity • Quetelet • Requirement • Resilin • result • Reynolds Number • Scientist • second law of thermodynamics • shock absorber • square root • Stiffness • stress concentration • Stress–strain curve • Suggestion • Surface Area • surface tension • Swim bladder • Technology • Temperature • Tension (physics) • tentacle • Thermoregulation • tire • Ultimate Tensile Strength • Uncertainty • Vacuum • Variable (mathematics) • Velcro • Velocity gradient • Vertebrate • viscosity • Wind Tunnel • Young's Modulus
• ISBN-10: 0-691-20949-9 / 0691209499
• ISBN-13: 978-0-691-20949-4 / 9780691209494