
Vine seeds become gliders with 12% descent angle - pg
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8391000/8391345.stm
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noisedom
Nature is a great place to steal ideas from.

Here's a fine example of seed gliding inspired design:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbuGCgc-
JCM&feature=playe...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbuGCgc-
JCM&feature=player_embedded)

~~~
wallflower
Thanks for bringing back memories. As a kid, I was always fascinated (and
still am) by the helicoptering action of maple seeds when my sisters and I
dropped then into the air from our deck.

[http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/TRC/Aeronautics/Maple_Seed....](http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/TRC/Aeronautics/Maple_Seed.html)

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raquo
That's nearly as good gliding ratio as Boeing 747, FWIW.

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streety
On first reading your comment my reaction was, "No way." With a little
research though it appears the angle for a 747 is only 5.9 degrees.

Thanks for the perspective.

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raquo
Actually, I now see that I have originally misread descent angle for glide
ratio, but still, even 1/2 of 747's performance is great. Natural selection!

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prakash
I love David Attenborough's narration. Be it this video or any of the Planet
Earth series or the older videos from the BBC.

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whatajoke
His narration is virtually unchanged since he started about 60 years ago.
Please do watch _Life on Air: David Attenborough's 50 Years in Television_. He
tends to wear similar looking dresses for all episodes of a series, so that
the attention of the viewer is not on the anchor, but on the topic at hand.
And when his trousers start fraying near the ankles, he snips off the cloth
with a scissor.

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ice_man
Apparently, this method of dissemination is most effective when the vines grow
on an especially tall breed of Redwood.

