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Physicists Discover Universal "Wet-Dog Shake" Rule
Dog owners can sleep easy tonight because physicists have discovered how rapidly a wet dog should oscillate its body to dry its fur. Presumably, dogs already know. From the article: "Today we have an answer thanks to the pioneering work of Andrew Dickerson at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta and a few buddies. But more than that, their work generates an interesting new conundrum about the nature of shaken fur dynamics. Dickerson and co filmed a number of dogs shaking their fur and used the images to measure the period of oscillation of the dogs' skin. For a labrador retriever, this turns out to be 4.3 Hz."
Let's hope this doesn't catch on in Japan. We don't need Dog shaking machines to complement their dog washing machines.
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...finally solved. The world is saved!
Omnes tuae crepidines sunt nobis sunt. Ascendo tuum!
Here we come!!!
The formula is significant for us in the ad/entertainment industry who relies on algorithms to animate such motions. It sure beats trying to manually animating each fur (impossible), or coming up with a workaround that only approximates reality through trial and error. This will significantly reduce render times.
The same could be said about fluid dynamics a decade ago - now we can create whole above/underwater environments within the computer - saving time and cost of flooding entire soundstages.
We have Classic Poop, New Poop, Cherry Poop, Diet Poop, Salty Lemonade, and our new Wet Dog Shake!
Caveat Utilitor
Physicists have proposed a new research lab with a linear accelerator for dogs which should clear up any remaining confusion given enough collisions.
Ok, FTFA, it seems that the researchers did a very simplistic model and then found some videos so that they can measure what the animals actually do and noticed that they did not fit their model. So, nothing to see here until someone really sits down and models the wet dog oscillations with accuracy and tell us what the optimal frequency is (so that we can teach our dog if it is not that good with drying of course!).
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
What possible application could this research be for? In what way does this benefit mankind, expand out understanding of the universe, or improve the Human Condition. And perhaps the most important question, what moron paid for this? Please tell me it wasn't taxpayer money, because then technically I am one of the morons, and I don't very much appreciate it!
Common Sense isn't as Common as people think...
Leave it to a bunch of nerds to focus on wet dogs. I for one would rather focus on wet t-shirts: what is the period of oscillation of those boobs?
What one fool can do, another can. (Ancient Simian Proverb)
The perfect dog martini...
...that's a cutline to a Far Side cartoon.
If it's not, it should be.
Who gives one?
This would be the complement to the Super Monkey Collider, no?
I can see the fnords!
They missed the 2010 deadline and no one is going to remember this next October.
What I really want to know is the set of environmental cues that trigger this action. How long after emerging wet into an otherwise dry environment does the dog take action to achieve some degree of moistness equilibrium? Is (as I suspect) proximity to other pack members a triggering factor?
...who will win the IgNobel Prize for Physics next year.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
We have two dogs: a sparsely haired Chinese Crested and a rather fuzzy Bichon cross. They are about the same Sd (dog shake diameter) but we have been bothered for a long time by the dissonance created by the subtle difference in their Fd (dog shake frequency). The resulting low frequency rumble has attracted what we thought were "Graboids" but in reality were just large, obnoxious, pocket gophers. Time to reach for the Rodenator.
Thanks to this article, we have successfully brought them into tune with each other by adding some velcro'd shag carpet (red) to the Crested and by judiciously trimming the Bichon. However, we still have some annoying phase shift issues when they start shaking at different times.
I don't know how seriously the scientist took this research.
But I do remember that Richard Feynman wrote a paper on the wobbling movement of a spinning plate. He did this because he was depressed and had scientific writer's block. And nobody would deny the importance of his later work.
Science is science. If what they find is correct in the scientific sense, it really doesn't bother me too much.
I'd be worried if scientists started really competing for the Ig Nobel prizes. But I doubt that they ever will :-).
JP http://www.wearerite.com
I smell pork.
Claiming that a dog dries his fur by shaking is a bit of a stretch. They shake off excess water, but you're still left with a rather wet dog.
I've also found this to be the perfect masturbation frequency.
I hope the Nobel committee has been notified! Now all that they need it to make the doggy-sweater with piezoelectric fibers and we can reduce our fossil fuel dependence. Note to self: invest in IAMS
the speed that my dog shakes seems directly related to how much soap is on him when i bath him and whether or not i'm wearing my glasses....
stephen
...a spherical dog of uniform density?
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Douglas Adams has had it all this time. Only it's 4.3, not 42. Perhaps a typo?
Now that they have solved this pressing problem, the researchers have moved on to filling out grant application for their next project: the Large Doberman Collider.
Why would they assume the dog would shake perfectly? As long as it's good enough, evolution doesn't care.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
And does it matter at what rate a girl jiggles her body?
'Nuff said.
Ig Porno awards, here i comes! (Cums?)
soylentnews.org Go there to enjoy the people!
This one is a shoe-in to win.
Great, Let the dog shake a bit faster put an antenna on him and put him on the air! Dog Radio Rules
Long haired Blondes coming out of the pool have a similar method of drying their hair.
They could have just studied this.
-But then again, for physicists wet dogs are probably easier to acquire.
Never mind then.
I bet these guys got the same kind "what's-the-point-of-this" shit:
robot dog.
Or the person who studied the motion & propulsion of jellyfish....end up winning the MacArthur grant for this year.
(John O. Dabiri of Princeton)
Just because you're too short-sighted to see the purpose of basic/foundational research, doesn't mean it's completely useless. The same was said about lasers.
To all who criticize the money spent on this research: Do you really think we ever can or should stop a question from being answered? Are not scientists in their position because at some point they were curious about the world and went about getting educated in skillfully pursuing answers? I think in this case a simple question was answered and presented decently with the first empirical data. Next, they can dig out a theoretical model that fit the observed data. If they struggle finding a good theoretical match, then things get interesting.
Introducing:
TCP over Wet Dog... you can tell if it's active by the smell!
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
This is such an amazing time in history. It's such a wonderful time to be a wet dog.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
For a labrador retriever, this turns out to be 4.3 Hz."
Yes but where do I get a labrador for that dog to retrieve.
Did you know 80 to 90% of the moderators on slashdot wouldn't recognize a troll even if one dragged them under a bridge.
I would be willing to bet that the most effective frequency would be equal to the natural frequency of the hairs if one approximates hairs as cantilever beams with a distributed load (water) as this would produce the most motion in the hairs laterally wrt the skin, which would cause centrifugal (yes) acceleration of fluid particles on such hairs.
Think of it like projecting balls from within a long tube by slinging the tube radially. If the frequency of the dog's shaking doesn't match, motion is cancelled and hairs don't move as much as they could.
I love this place.
These scientists must be getting bored believing that random data will help some future discovery. My dog, Nikita, hates the water; but she loves to eat watermelon and wear her favorite large dog clothes.