Physics. Reactive movement in nature and in technology

Jet propulsion in nature and in technology is a very common phenomenon. In nature, it occurs when one part of the body separates with a certain speed from some other part. In this case, the reactive force appears without the interaction of the given organism with external bodies.

In order to understand what is at stake, it is best to look at the examples. Examples of jet propulsion in nature and technology are numerous. First we will talk about how it is used by animals, and then how it is used in technology.

Jellyfish, dragonfly larvae, plankton and mollusks

Many, swimming in the sea, met jellyfish. In the Black Sea, in any case, they are missing. However, not everyone thought that the jellyfish are moving with the help of jet propulsion. The same method is used by larvae of dragonflies, as well as some representatives of marine plankton. The efficiency of invertebrate marine animals that use it is often much higher than that of technical inventions.

Many mollusks move in the way that interests us. As an example, you can bring cuttlefish, squid, octopus. In particular, the mollusc scallop is able to move forward using a jet of water that is ejected from the shell when its wings contract sharply.

And these are just a few examples from the life of the animal world, which can be cited, revealing the theme: "Jet movement in everyday life, nature and technology."

How does the cuttlefish move?

Very interesting in this respect and cuttlefish. Like many cephalopod molluscs, it moves in water using the following mechanism. Through a special funnel, located in front of the body, and also through the side slit cuttlefish takes water into its gill cavity. Then she vigorously throws it through the funnel. The cuttlefish tube directs the cuttlefish backwards or sideways. This movement can be carried out in different directions.

A way that uses salpa

Curious and the way that uses salpa. This is the name of a sea animal with a transparent body. Salpa while driving draws in water, using the front hole for this. Water is in a wide cavity, and inside it gills are located diagonally. The hole closes when the salpa takes a big sip of water. Her transverse and longitudinal muscles contract, the entire body of the animal is compressed. Through the back hole water is pushed out. The animal moves forward due to the reaction of the escaping stream.

Squids - "live torpedoes"

The greatest interest is, perhaps, the jet engine that the squid has. This animal is considered to be the largest representative of invertebrates, inhabiting large oceanic depths. In jet navigation, squid has achieved real perfection. Even the body of these animals resembles a rocket with its external forms. Rather, it is a rocket that copies squid, since it is he who owns the undisputed primacy in this matter. If you need to move slowly, the animal uses a large diamond-shaped fin, which bends occasionally. If you need a quick throw, the jet engine comes to the rescue.

From all sides the body of the mollusc is surrounded by a mantle - muscle tissue. Almost half of the total body volume of the animal falls on the volume of its cavity. The squid uses a mantle cavity for movement, sucking water inside it. Then he sharply throws the collected stream of water through a narrow nozzle. As a result, he jerks back with great speed. In this case, the squid puts all its 10 tentacles in a knot above your head in order to get a streamlined shape. The nozzle has a special valve, and the muscles of the animal can turn it. This way the direction of motion changes.

Impressive squid movement speed

I must say that the squid engine is very economical. The speed that he can develop, can reach 60-70 km / h. Some researchers even believe that it can reach up to 150 km / h. As you can see, a squid is called "a live torpedo". It can turn in the right direction, bending down, up, to the left or to the right the tentacles folded by a bundle.

How the squid governs the movement

As compared to the size of the animal itself, the steering wheel is very large, so that the squid can easily avoid a collision with the obstacle, even moving at maximum speed, only a slight steering movement is sufficient. If it is sharply turned, the animal immediately rushes in the opposite direction. The squid bends back the end of the funnel and as a result it can already slide head first. If it bends it to the right, it will be thrown to the left by a jet thrust. However, when you need to swim quickly, the funnel is always directly between the tentacles. The animal in this case rushes its tail forward, like a runner-hound running if he had the speed of a horse.

In the case when it is not required to rush, cuttlefish and squid swim, undulating with fins. In front of them run through miniature waves. Squids and cuttlefish gracefully slip. They only occasionally push themselves with a jet of water, which is thrown out from under their mantle. Separate tremors, which the mollusk receives when erupting jets of water, at such times are clearly visible.

Flying Squid

Some cephalopods can accelerate to 55 km / h. It seems that no one carried out direct measurements, but we can call such a figure based on the range and speed of flying flying squid. It turns out that there are such. Kalmar stenotevtis is the best pilot of all mollusks. English sailors call it flying squid (flying squid). This animal, the photo of which is presented above, is small in size, with about a herring. He is so swiftly pursuing fish that often jumps out of the water, sweeping an arrow over its surface. This trick, he uses, and in the case when he is threatened by predators - mackerels and tuna. Having developed the maximum reactive thrust in the water, the squid starts in the air, and then flies over 50 meters above the waves. At the same time, the apogee of his flight is so high that often flying squids fall on the decks of ships. The height of 4-5 meters for them is by no means the record. Sometimes flying squids soar even higher.

Dr. Rice, a researcher of shellfish from the UK, described in his scientific article a representative of these animals, whose body length was only 16 cm. However, he was able to fly a fair distance through the air, and then landed on the bridge of the yacht. And the height of this bridge was almost 7 meters!

There are times when a lot of flying squid is falling on the ship at once. Trebius Niger, an ancient writer, once told a sad story about a ship that seemed to be unable to bear the weight of these marine animals and sank. It is interesting that squid can fly even without overclocking.

Flying octopus

The ability to fly has also octopuses. Jean Verani, a French naturalist, watched as one of them overclocked in his aquarium, and then suddenly jumped out of the water. The animal described in the air arc about 5 meters, and then flopped into the aquarium. The octopus, gaining the necessary speed for the jump, moved not only through reactive thrust. He also rowed his tentacles. Octopus baggy, so they swim worse than squid, but at critical moments and these animals can give odds to the best sprinters. Workers of the California aquarium wanted to make a photo of an octopus that attacks the crab. However, the octopus, rushing to its prey, developed such a speed that the photos even when using a special mode turned out to be blurry. This means that the throw lasted a fraction of a second!

However, octopuses usually swim quite slowly. Scientist Joseph Seinl, who examined the migration of octopuses, found that an octopus, 0.5 m in size, floats at an average speed of about 15 km / h. Each jet of water that he throws out of the funnel, propels him forward (more precisely, back, as he swims backwards) somewhere at 2-2.5 m.

"Squirting cucumber"

Reactive movement in nature and in technology can be considered and using for its illustration examples from the plant world. One of the most famous is the ripened fruit of the so-called furious cucumber. They bounce off the stalk at the slightest touch. Then a special adhesive liquid is thrown out of the resulting hole with great force, in which the seeds are found. The cucumber itself flies in the opposite direction for a distance of up to 12 m.

Law of conservation of momentum

It is necessary to tell about him also, considering the jet movement in nature and in technology. Knowledge of the law of conservation of momentum allows us to change, in particular, our own speed of movement, if we are in an open space. For example, you are sitting in a boat and you have several stones with you. If you throw them in a certain direction, the boat will move in the opposite direction. In outer space, this law also operates. However, rocket engines are used for this purpose .

What else can be noted examples of jet movement in nature and technology? Very well, the law of conservation of momentum is illustrated by the example of a gun.

As you know, a shot from it is always accompanied by a kickback. Let's say the bullet weight would be equal to the weight of the gun. In this case, they would fly apart at the same speed. The recoil is because the reactive force is created, since there is a mass that is discarded. Thanks to this force, movement is ensured both in the airless space and in the air. The greater the speed and mass of the expiring gases, the more the recoil force that our shoulder feels. Accordingly, the reactive force is higher, the stronger the reaction of the gun.

Dreams of flying into space

Jet propulsion in nature and technology has been a source of new ideas for scientists for many years. For many centuries, mankind has dreamed of flying into space. The use of jet propulsion in nature and technology, it must be assumed, by no means exhausted itself.

And it all began with a dream. The science fiction writers several centuries ago offered us various means how to achieve this desired goal. In the 17th century, Cyrano de Bergerac, a French writer, created a story about a flight to the moon. His hero got to the satellite of the Earth, using an iron wagon. Above this design, he constantly threw a strong magnet. The wagon, attracted to it, rose higher and higher above the Earth. In the end, she reached the moon. Another well-known character, Baron Munchausen, climbed the moon along the stalk of a bean.

Of course, at this time, little was known about how the use of jet propulsion in nature and technology can make life easier. But the flight of fantasy, of course, opened up new horizons.

On the way to an outstanding discovery

In China at the end of the 1st millennium AD. E. Invented a rocket propulsion system. The latter were just bamboo tubes, which were filled with gunpowder. These missiles were launched for fun. The jet engine was used in one of the first projects of cars. This idea belonged to Newton.

About how the jet movement in nature and in technology arises, thought and N.I. Kibalchich. This is a Russian revolutionary, the author of the first draft of a jet aircraft, which is designed to fly a man on it. The revolutionary, unfortunately, was executed on April 3, 1881. Kibalchich was accused of having participated in the attempt on Alexander II. Already in prison, awaiting execution of the death sentence, he continued to study such an interesting phenomenon as the jet movement in nature and in technology that occurs when a part of an object is separated. As a result of these studies, he developed his project. Kibalchich wrote that this idea supports him in his position. He is ready to calmly meet his death, knowing that such an important discovery will not perish with him.

Realization of the idea of flying into space

The manifestation of jet movement in nature and technology continued to be studied by K. E. Tsiolkovsky (his photo is presented above). As early as the beginning of the 20th century, this great Russian scientist proposed the idea of using rockets for space flights. His article on this issue appeared in 1903. In it, the mathematical equation, which became the most important for astronautics, was presented. It is known in our time as the "Tsiolkovsky formula". This equation describes the motion of a body having a variable mass. In his further works, he presented a diagram of a rocket engine operating on liquid fuel. Tsiolkovsky, studying the use of jet propulsion in nature and technology, developed a multi-stage rocket design. He also owns the idea of the possibility of creating in a near-earth orbit entire space cities. Here's what discoveries came to the scientist, studying the jet movement in nature and technology. The missiles, as Tsiolkovsky showed, are the only vehicles that can overcome gravity. He defined the missile as a mechanism with a jet engine that uses the fuel and oxidizer on it. This apparatus transforms the chemical energy of the fuel, which becomes the kinetic energy of the gas jet. The missile itself starts to move in the opposite direction.

Finally, scientists, having studied the reactive motion of bodies in nature and technology, went on to practice. The large-scale task of realizing the long-standing dream of mankind was to be realized. And a group of Soviet scientists, headed by Academician S. P. Korolev, coped with it. She realized the idea of Tsiolkovsky. The first artificial satellite of our planet was launched in the USSR on October 4, 1957. Naturally, a rocket was used.

Yu. A. Gagarin (pictured above) was a man who had the honor of being the first to fly in outer space. This important event for the world occurred on April 12, 1961. Gagarin on the ship-satellite "East" flew all over the globe. The USSR was the first state whose missiles reached the Moon, flew around it and photographed the side invisible from Earth. In addition, it was the Russians who visited Russia for the first time. They brought scientific instruments to the surface of this planet. American astronaut Neil Armstrong - the first person to have been on the surface of the moon. He landed on it on July 20, 1969. In 1986, Vega-1 and Vega-2 (ships belonging to the USSR) investigated at close range the Halley comet, which approaches the Sun only once every 76 years. The study of space continues ...

As you can see, physics is very important and useful science. Jet propulsion in nature and technology is just one of the interesting issues that are considered in it. And the achievements of this science are very, very significant.

As in our days, jet propulsion is used in nature and in technology

In physics in the last few centuries, especially important octreats have been made. While nature remains virtually unchanged, technology is developing at a rapid pace. In our time, the principle of jet propulsion is widely used not only by various animals and plants, but also in astronautics and aviation. In outer space, there is no environment that the body could use to interact to change the module and the direction of its speed. That's why for flights in the airless space you can use only missiles.

Today the jet movement in everyday life, nature and technology is actively used. It is no longer a mystery, as before. However, mankind should not rest on its laurels. There are new horizons ahead. I want to believe that the jet movement in nature and technology, briefly described in the article, will inspire someone to make new discoveries.