Perhaps you already know, the geese are winter migratory birds, every autumn and winter season, will be from their old home around Siberia, flocks, voluminous to the south of our country for the winter, it must be said that in the long-distance trip, the formation of the geese is organized quite tightly, they are often lined up in a herringbone or a zigzag, so that people can not help but be curious about the geese when they migrate south, why do you want to line up in a zigzag and herringbone?
Did you know? People generally call this phenomenon for the geese, although the flight speed of the geese is very fast, can fly 69-90 kilometers per hour, at the same time, we also need to know that the geese this meaningful trip takes about a month or two, it can be said that the reason why the geese south of the zig-zag and zig-zag, mainly in order to save energy, geese accelerate the flight, their team will be lined up in the shape of a zig-zag, at this time, the head of the geese in front of the wings in the air, and the geese will be in the shape of a zig-zag. In front of the head of the geese wings in the air across, it will form a low-pressure area behind it, so that the geese immediately after the flight, can make good use of the low-pressure area to reduce the resistance of the air, so as to save energy, due to the head of the geese do not have this weak updraft can be utilized, and therefore it is very easy to fatigue, so in the long-distance migratory process, geese need to constantly replace the head of the geese, and often change the The geese need to change their head geese and change their formation frequently during the long-distance migration, so that they can migrate southward for the winter smoothly.
Do you know? Geese compared to the general birds, fly higher and fly farther, in addition to geese or the world's few birds can fly over the entire Himalayas, comprehensive view, the geese flight, lined up into herringbone or zigzag mainly for the following reasons, one is, generally speaking, the front of the geese, relatively speaking, more power, more experienced, and because the role of the head of the geese fanning the role of the bladder, driven by the airflow, so the geese will fly in a formation, the geese will fly in a formation. So the geese flight is will be lined up in herringbone or zigzag, this is because they are in a longer period of time are flying, rely on the strength of a goose is obviously not enough, so the geese must help each other, another reason is that when encountered the natural enemy can be quickly dispersed, do not collide with each other.
It is worth noting that geese that are a little behind can also use this updraft to glide through the air, and from this point of view, even small geese that have traveled long distances will not easily fall behind. In fact, a long time ago, mankind has observed that large birds usually choose herringbone or zigzag linear formation, small birds tend to gather together in a group, in fact, mankind's scientific exploration of the mystery of large birds flying in formation, but also can be traced back to the early twentieth century, that is, the Wright Brothers just opened the aviation era of the years.
In 1914, when the German aerodynamicist Karl Weisberger after a simple calculation, the first proposed geese flying herringbone can save energy this hypothesis, he believes that the flap of the geese's wings will trigger the vortex of the wake, and the vortex of the outside is just upward of the airflow, if neighboring geese happen to be in the upward air vortex, which means that the process of their flight can be to a large extent, save energy. Although the hypothesis has been popular with ornithologists since its inception, it was not until decades later that humans actually quantified it.
It wasn't until 1970 that Rissamon and Schellenberg, using the maturing theory of aerodynamics, concluded that a herringbone formation of 25 geese could fly 71 percent more range than a single goose, and furthermore, they noted that the optimal herringbone angle was 120 degrees. Surprisingly, the results of this exciting study are nowadays always found in success and leadership textbooks, where the above conclusions are used to illustrate the greatness of leadership and the efficiency of teamwork. In examining the number of degrees of herringbone angle in field observations, they showed that, assuming that aerodynamic advantage was the only reason geese chose either herringbone or zigzag, the geese should make sure that the angle of the herringbone was at the optimum or near a fixed number most of the time, and also avoid flying zigzag, since the upward airflow on one side of the symmetrical contrail would be wasted in the process. .
Reality, however, ruthlessly undermines these assumptions, as radar and optical tracking studies have found that large birds fly herringbone angles that vary wildly from 24 to 122 degrees and change dramatically in flight, and, most puzzling of all, that the geese opt for herringbone only 20 percent of the time, with a zigzag formation preferred by the geese most of the time. Most of the time, the serpentine formation is more popular with the geese.
Many people call the geese a group of dancers in the sky, few people know that their eyes are on both sides of the head, which means that they can effectively observe the changes around the 128-degree angle within the scope of the whole sky will make the whole sky in the scope of their monitoring, which makes the geese enough to observe and master the surrounding environment, and in the event of a danger can also be predicted in advance, a bit of saving for the rainy day, the geese will be able to observe and master their surrounding environment, the geese will also be able to observe and master their surrounding environment. After all, no matter how to change the formation of the way, any one of the team of geese can see the whole formation, and thus more effectively follow the team to adjust, so as not to fall alone, this point of view is also agreed by the majority of people, in general, at least so far, the geese's formation of flight whether it can save the physical strength, but also the lack of sufficient scientific evidence.
The above points of view are just in the exhibition of different assumptions, different is to avoid loneliness and defense of natural enemies is beyond doubt, nowadays, with the further development of science and technology, as well as biologists and aerodynamicists after the mathematicians and physicists are also involved in the study of geese formation flight, some scientists also pointed out that geese flying in formation is due to the earth's magnetic field and so on rich in novel hypotheses. New hypotheses.