Scientists have figured out who will win the race between the tortoise and the hare
MOSCOW, 27 Jun — RIA Novosti. Turtle must defeat the hare in the race from Aesop’s fables due to their endurance, if they’re moving their entire life. To such conclusion the American scientists who published an article in the journal Scientific Reports.
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There are dozens of types of animals that can run, fly, jump, or move in other ways with the speed of a car, plane or other man-made objects, are considered the standard speed. On the other hand, very slow creatures such as sloths, turtles, koalas and seahorses has not disappeared and flourish for many millions of years.
This became possible because of the fast and slow animals occupy different ecological niches and produce food differently. Usually last feed is more affordable but less nutritious food, and the first — higher quality food, which is much harder to get.
The differences in the manner of obtaining food, as explained by Bejan, directly affect the manner of locomotion of the animals — the slow beings are forced to move constantly in search of food, while their “fast” competitors spend most of their time in the place, storing up energy for the next “March”.
Such considerations forced scientists to check who will actually be faster throughout life and who will be the greatest distance, adjusted for size — constantly migrating tortoise or the hare who spends most of the day in idleness.
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For this, they have created a computer model of both runners that took into account how much energy they expend during the movement and how quickly they recover, as well as many other physiological and physical parameters, including weight, density and other things.
Using these sets of formulas, biologists figured out that who wins the race in Aesop, and also revealed many other interesting patterns. For example, they found out why the fastest fliers among birds and insects are characterized by small sizes, and the fastest floating creatures, by contrast, are amongst the largest inhabitants of the deep.