BIO325H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Vortex Ring, Mushroom Cloud, Posterior Chamber Of Eyeball
Document Summary
The collective discharge of many spores is required to tip the aerodynamic forces to inertial forces. A single spore projected at the same speed would decelerate so fast by viscous drag that it would travel only a few millimeters. The power for the launch explosion is from the compressed air in the spore capsule. But if this was all that"s involved the spore mass won"t achieve the observed height. Additional work is added (force through a distance) from a doughnut of rotating air that forms, a mushroom cloud, a vortex ring. The original authors whitaker & edwards end: vortex rings are commonly generated by animals such as jellyfish and squid for propulsion. Here we report vortex rings generated by a plant. The enhanced dispersal from vortex rings explains in part thersuccess of sphagnum, a nonvascular plant that has thrived even after the appearance of land plants with the benefit of well-developed vascular systems.
