Physics: Principles and ProblemsChapter 13:
States of MatterProblem of the Week (0.0K) | Hydrostatic
Pressure
What do an octopus' tentacle, an elephant's trunk, and your
tongue have in common? They all make use of hydrostatic pressure
to move. Most movement in your body results from muscles tugging
on bones; not so for your tongue. Basic tongue motion relies
upon having liquid in a chamber with muscles wrapped around
it. When you put the liquid under pressure, the chamber, and
consequently your tongue, will move. | When
you squeeze a water balloon what happens? The part where you
are not squeezing moves. (0.0K) | Caecilian
Not a snake and not a worm it is a legless amphibian.
Caecilians move around in a fashion similar to your tongue.
A caecilian's body cavity acts as a pressurized container. Muscles
surrounding the cavity squeeze on the liquid. This increase
in pressure causes the caecilian to elongate, that is, to get
longer. Using this method, caecilians can produce about twice
the forward force as a similar sized burrowing snake. | (15.0K) | (0.0K) | What
is the forward force that a caecilian can generate?
To start the answer, we need to make an assumption about the
muscular strength of an caecilian. Lets say that a caecilian
can generate a pressure of quarter newton per square centimeter
acting inward due to its circular muscles. To do the calculation,
use a standard caecilian 12 cm long and 1 cm wide. Think about
Pascal's principle as it applies to pistons: a force applied
to one piston, the sides of the cylindrical caecilian in our
case, will produce a force on a second piston, the front of
the caecilian. Determine this force. | (1.0K) | For
much of what you'll ever want to know
about caecilians, see http://www.sfo.com/~morriss/eels.html#Info.
Clicking will launch a new window. | (0.0K) | (0.0K) | (0.0K) | (0.0K) |
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