Sunday 2 May 2021, 00:27
Animal proceedings are and remains an important subject of research for many reasons, including the application in people. In the case of elephants, it is observed that their legs are much more straight than those of other animals and support their weight very well. When it comes to their feet, they are flat. This is due to a large cartilage cushion, under each heel, which acts as a shock absorber and also helps them to walk in silence. Elephants spend most of their lives on long distances. His feet are adapted to this lifestyle and suffer diseases in the zoos, with their trips limited. Even more, elephants can ‘hear’ with their feet. They register low frequency rumbles produced by other animals to distances of 30 kilometers.
When talking about the movement, a technical term is introduced: the effective mechanical benefit (EMA). Different components participate in its calculation: orientation of the soil reaction vector (GRF), the position of the pressure center of each limb, the muscle moments given by the postures of the extremities, etc. With the EMA components you can perform calculations that lead to the role that the limbs play. In the case of large land animals (more than 300 kilos) it seems that there is a limit of effective mechanical benefit (EMA), which is associated with an escalation of the musculoskeletal system. Current calculations indicate that elephants reach the maximum EMA limit for slow march. This happens even with newborns with only 100 kilos of weight. It is because they have the same leg orientation as adults. With elephants, however, EMA decreases dramatically with speed. It reaches values close to people, but in the human case with a more discreet change of attitude and march. Other four -legged friends, on the other hand, maintain the almost constant EMA with speed.
With the help of the current three -dimensional movement reception technology, the elephants were analyzed, with different speeds, along a stroke equipped with power -sensitive platforms. It turned out that their legs are mechanically between two and three times less efficient than expected. This justifies that his movement is slower than that of many other animals. Surprisingly, elephants use their front and hind legs in similar brakes and propulsion functions. That is, they distribute, such as supposedly, these functions between the limbs do not as it seems that occurs with the other four -legged friends. This means that they apply energy, regardless of every limb. It can therefore be said that the function of his limbs is analogous to that of vehicles with four wheel drive. It seems that the other four -legs – animals have “behind traction” – the back is used to accelerate – and to use the most to stop at the front.
