The jumps of aquatic animals

A wide range of water and semiacuatic animals jumps from water. Those animals, with several five taxonomies (Insects, fish, amphibians, swimmers and mammals), jump out of the water to escape the predators, catch dams, breathe, communicate and also recreational. Even people partially jump out of water in water sports. Although swimming mechanics has been a subject about which scientific articles have been published for years that are considering asymmetry, scale laws, etc., there are few that study the hydrodynamic forces that control the jumps in the level of aquatic animals. Today we wither in this world that goes from insects to large animals, such as dolphin or whale.

Theoretical and experimental studies distinguish three types of skippers: The impulses are located near the surface and start a quick jump from half -time by beating their or attachments of a single blow; That of Impuls, who start to swim away from the surface to achieve it at the maximum speed. And the mixed sweater, which in his leap shows something of the other two. The Olympic height jump can be a good representation. The jumper that is attached to the bar carries out the impulsive jump, which makes a long race, performs the impulse and the person who makes a two or three step race carries the mixed.

As an example, a result is obtained with a simple reasoning in which, among other things, appendices and physical wavy movements are shown. From the theoretical calculation of the power generated by the animal for the jump and the dissipation by the resistance to which the medium opposes, a scale law that says: The quotient between the height of the jump and the animal length is proportional to the reverse of the cubic root of the length of the animal. The constant is related to the resistance coefficient that the environment opposes. This law differs considerably from those obtained from the jumps of land animals. Quantitative observations carried out using ultra-opted optical measuring systems and experimental studies with robots that simulate animals, coincide reasonably well with the predictions of this law. For example, the jump of 25 times its length of the Copépodo.

Until now, the models do not take into account the water dragged by the animal into the leap. However, quantitative deductions, as well as qualitative observations, indicate that the volume of dragged water is small compared to the volume of the animal. For the large, this water breaks into a small spray. These studies, in addition to satisfying the wish that man must find explanations in the world around him, They offer information and considerations for the design of robots and vehicles for the transition between the Agua-Air-Interface and environmental detection systems.