But how much does a Rainbow Lorikeet have to eat to get 10 joules?
Judy
At 01:49 PM 9/09/02 +1000, you wrote:
>On Mon, Sep 09, 2002 at 12:43:40PM +1000, Terry Pacey wrote:
>> Just a short time ago, I was watching Rainbow Lorikeets feeding in a tall
>> Silky Oak (grevillia robusta) behind our place. Suddenly, one of the birds
>> flapped its wings and took off vertically and with another flap moved to a
>> branch about 4 metres directly above the branch it left.
>>
>> This was accomplished with the two or three flaps of the wing previously
>> mentioned and then continuing straight up with the wings folded. It was
>> like a rocket launch.
>>
>> What amounts of energy are required for a bird of the size and weight of a
>> Rainbow Lorikeet to glide in a vertical direction?
>
>The basic theory is easy. A Rainbow Lorikeet weighs about 0.12 kg,
>gravity is 9.8ms^-2 so to raise a lorikeet 4 metres, you need 0.12*9.8*4
>joules. In other words roughly 4 joules of energy. This could be
>achieved by 4 watts applied for a second.
>
>This is a minimum energy expenditure. Due to inefficiencies such as
>energy lost to air turbulance, the lorikeet may have to expend several
>significantly more energy. 10 joules is a safe order-of-magnitude
>estimate for the amount of energy your Lorikeet expended.
>
>Andrew
>Birding-Aus is on the Web at
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>
>
>
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