Key principle of the efficient running, swimming, and flying

Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Instituto de Ciências Exatas - Caixa Postal 702, CEP 30123-970, Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Corresponding author: valery@fisica.ufmg.br

Received: 16 April 2010
Accepted: 18 May 2010

Abstract

Empirical observations indicate striking similarities among locomotion in terrestrial animals, birds, and fish, but unifying physical grounds are lacking. Being coherent in displacements, velocities and forces, the body appendages of animals are tuned to the natural propagation frequency through elastic muscle moduli. When applied to efficient locomotion, the analytical mechanics principle of minimum action yields two patterns of biomechanical similarity via two explicit spatiotemporal coherent states. In steady-locomotion states, the slow muscles, determining maximal optimum speeds, maintain universal intrinsic muscular pressure. In transient states, maximal speeds are due to fixed mass-dependent stiffness of fast muscles generating a uniform force field, exceeding gravitation.