BE/BIO 105: Introduction to Biomechanics
Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 2:00-3:00, 102 Steele
Instructor: Michael Dickinson [email protected] Teaching Assistants: Peter Wier: [email protected] Sawyer Fuller: [email protected] Text: Comparative Biomechanics: Life’s Physical World Steven Vogel, Princeton, 1st Edition
Schedule:Lectures – M W F (2-3pm)
Monday & Wednesdays – standard lectures Friday – lecture & discussion on assigned reading (required)
Office Hours (MD)– Wednesdays (3-5pm) 207 Keck
Grading: There will be 2 take home exams (33% each) and homework (33%)
Grading policy: Homework will be handed out (and posted) in class on Friday. Homework is due by 5pm the following Wed. (deposit box outside Keck 207). Each day an assignment is late results in a 10% reduction in score (compounded daily).For take home exams, the daily reduction rate is 20%. For these purposes, each day is defined from 5pm to 5pm. Please take note, Keck Hall is locked at 5pm each day.
Gwyneth Card
flight initiation
voluntary
escape
Integrative Approach
central nervous system
musculoskeletal system
motorcommands
dynamics& environment
kinematics & forces
Behavior
sensory systems
sensory feedback
olfaction
mechano-sensory
vision
Comparative Biomechanics:The application of physics and engineering to study principles of organismal design
A short history of biomechanics
Part 1. The Greeks
Socrates469-399 b.c.
Good points: fostered interestin natural world.
Bad points: liked hemlock drinks
Plato427-347 b.c.
Good points:liked math
Bad points:hated experiments
Aristotle384-322 b.c.
Good points:liked experiments
Bad points:hated math
Wrote: De Motu Animalium
Part 2. The Romans
Galen129-200 AD
Physician to one of the 5 ‘good’ emperors, Marcus Aurelius
Good points: initiated use of ‘animal models’ in physiologyand medicine.
Bad points: Promoted wacky Hippocratian notions, e.g. four body humours (blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm)
Influence lasted until Renaissance.As important in eastern Islamic culture as western Christian culture
Part 3. The Italians
Leonardo da Vinci1452-1519
Good points: genius
Bad points: paranoid genius
Direct combination of engineering and biology
‘Bio-inspired’ engineering
Galileo Galilei1564 -1642
Good points: great scientist
Bad points: terrible politician
Modern concepts of staticforces and scale.
Consider ‘simple’animal/plant:
Mass xgravity
strength~ sectional area
Length = LMass ~L3
Strength ~L2
Force/Area scales with L.
big things need thickLegs.
Principle of Similitude
Giovanni Borelli 1608-1679
Good points: father ofbiomechanics
Bad points: grimaced a lot
Conceived musculo-skeletal system ascollections of levers and gears:
e.g. ‘Borelli’s Law’work to jump ~ mass x height;therefore, height ~ work/mass.muscle work ~ muscle mass,therefore height is independent of size!
Carl Culmann Hermann von Meyer1821-1881 1801-169
Good points:Collaborative team of engineer and paleontologist
Bad points:facial hair style
Part 4. The Germans
Stress lines in crane and femur
Part 5. Other People
Darcy Thompson 1860-1948
Good points:•Father of developmental mechanics.•Considered by many to be greatest scientific writer in English language•Wrote On Growth and Form
Sydnie Manton 1903-1979
Good points:•Combined study of phylogeny with biomechanics•Anticipated synthesis of evolution and development
Edward Muybridge 1830-1904
Good points:•Figured out horse gallop•Anticipated importance of high speed cine/video
•Bad points: Hung out at Stanford
Steven Vogel
Steven Wainwright
Lecture #2: StuffBE/Bio 105
Central question: how do things work?
Why is oak tree shaped like this? Why is alder shaped like this?
What is role of leafmorphology?
Why do/don’t trees fall down?