SPOILER ALERT!

Furry Logic - Progress [end Chapter 2]

Furry Logic: The Physics of Animal Life - Liz Kalaugher, Matin Durrani

Snap-shot

"So the Komodo dragon compensates for its feeble bite force with a strong neck and body, and mosquitoes play with momentum and impulse to battle damage from raindrops. The harlequin mantis shrimp uses high acceleration to batter crabs with a large force according to Newton’s beautiful second law (F=ma), and receives pushback from their shells in line with Newton’s third law, protecting itself with a clever ‘bone’ structure. The trap-jaw ant uses the same acceleration technique to stun its chemical-spraying prey, again with power amplification releasing the blow faster than the animal’s muscles could without it. Geckos, meanwhile, add a lot of small van der Waals forces together to stick themselves to the ceiling. They can even hang on when it’s wet, leading us seamlessly to the topic of our next chapter: fluids."

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Chapter 2 deals with forces and Newton's laws of motion.  I liked the animal examples used in this chapter.  Nature produces some fascinating creatures.