Researchers looked at how seemingly unaerodynamic snakes are able to glide through the air.
Certain snakes have the ability to glide in an S-shaped "slither" up to 100 feet through the air, a Company of Biologists news release reported.
"They look like they are swimming," researcher Jake Socha said in the news release. "They turn their whole body into one aerodynamic surface."
Socha's research showed the snakes are able to flex their ribs in a way that allows them to "stretch and flatten" their bodies. The movement changes the snake's profile from a circle into an "arched semicircle."
"It looks like someone's version of a UFO," Socha said.
The researchers, along with his colleagues Daniel Holden, Nicholas Cardwell and Pavlos Vlachos used a 3D printer to create a rod with the same UFO cross-section as the snake's body possess. The team placed the snake-shaped rod in a tank that flowed water over the object in a way that simulated a flight through the air.
The team measured the lift and drag forces imposed on the model at different angles and water speeds. The team found that at most angles sufficient lift was provided to allow the snake to perform its impressive glide; but when the rod was tilted 35 degrees there was a spike in the lift.
The team used tiny microscopic beads to visualize the flow below the rod, and found it formed a turbulent vortex.
"Maybe the snake does hold part of its body flat at some point, using it as a mechanism for control," Socha said. "If you make a rough estimate of the lift to drag ratio for the real animal, it appears to do better than what we got from this study. So even though this shape produced more lift than we were expecting, it doesn't get us the glide performance that snakes can attain, giving us a hint that there is something in what the animal is doing aerodynamically that is not captured by the cross-sectional shape alone."
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