Scales from the skin of a shark. These sharply pointed placoid scales are also known as dermal teeth or denticles. They give the shark’s skin the feel of sandpaper. The tip of each scale is made of dentine overlayed with dental enamel. The lower part of each scale is made of bone. The scales disrupt turbulence over the skin, considerably reducing the drag on the shark as it swims. This design has been investigated by engineers for use on the surfaces of aircraft and boats.
The other nine photos are at eMazings.com.
They look like Jedi Pi Fighters, flying in formation.
Sorry, I mean that it looks like one of these…
if i remember correctly from my aerodynamics class in college, what the scales are doing is disrupting the laminar flow (ie smooth) and creating turbulent flow, meaning less drag
jm. You beat me to that thought.
Which made me wonder about laminar flow aircraft wings, while other wings have little fences to create the same kind of micro-eddies.
RBG
#3 I thought it looked more like a droid bomber
It’s a pretty cool image. But, I have to wonder … wasn’t the shark using that skin?
Does a Pi fighter fly around the galaxy shooting down math teachers ships?
Unlike whale skin, mollusks can’t grow on this skin either. Navy keeps looking at this to keep their ships speedy.
Some very intelligent design going on here–if God is pro-shark and anti-mollusk. But why doesn’t he treat all his children the same?
#3: what the scales are doing is disrupting the laminar flow (ie smooth) and creating turbulent flow, meaning less drag
From what I remember of my aerodynamics classes (not much), doesn’t turbulent flow cause more drag? (But then I flew helicopters that were about as aerodynamic as a brick…)
I think turbulent flow creates drag, but reduces stresses that interfere with efficient movement… especially suction in the back. I remember that in the 50’s the Canadian aviation company Avro was experimenting with the shape of their new fighters airframe, and found that at high speeds the body would buckle under the pressure of air around it. I’m sure the USAF found the same thing in their designs. The only way to decrease the external air pressure was to introduce turbulence. In the Arrow, they simply gave the body a coke-bottle shape which introduced enough turbulence. On modern jets there are mini fences, as the poster above noted.
There are some impressive micrographs in the 10. However, I find it somewhat disturbing that most of them are “false color” images. The information in the image is more than enough without the colorizing. The shark skin would look even better in the original grey scale.