There’s physics to having your ducklings in a row.
By paddling in an orderly line behind their mother, baby ducks can take a ride on the waves in her wake. That boost saves the ducklings energy, researchers report in the Dec. 10 issue of the Journal of Fluid Mechanics.
Earlier measurements of duckling metabolism showed that the youngsters saved energy when swimming behind a leader, but the physics behind that savings wasn’t known. Using computer simulations of waterfowl waves, naval architect Zhiming Yuan of the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, and colleagues calculated that a duckling cruising in just the right spot behind its mother gets an assist.
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