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It gives one hope…
Participating in the fair for his first time, third-grader Matthew Keane of Westlake Elementary stood proudly in front of his biomimicry display.
“I wanted to learn if the leading edge of a humpback whale’s fin made it more efficient and hydrodynamic,” Keane said. “So I made two different whirly birds and dropped them from 18-feet. I found that the bumps on the edges of the fin cause the whale to turn sharper, and the shape increases lift and decreases drag.”
Continued at http://www.mercurynews.com/centralcoast/ci_11970162
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See also the Biomimicry Institute’s Ask The Planet CD designed to encourage students like Matthew.