Chapter 2, Problem 17STP

Summary Introduction

To analyze:

How birds and bats fly considering their structure of the wings.

Introduction:

Bats and birds both are very different fliers. They both fly by flapping their wings, but they use upstroke in a different manner. They both use air currents to fly but in different manner.

Explanation of Solution

Both birds and bats fly by flapping their wings in downward and forward direction to generate the lift. But bat has additional fingers which are used while flying. Wings of bird consist of elongated arm with single finger whereas bats have three fingers which are covered by the skin. This allows bat to have better range of motion during flying. Batalso has small hairs which detect even small changes in the air current.

Bats flick their wings in upward and backward directions, where birds do to gain the lift.

Birds can open their feathers whereas bats have developed a twisting wing path that increases the lift during upstroke.