This November, join Professor Ian Stewart from University of Warwick for a free talk to understand the maths behind how different animals walk and move.
Animals with legs move using many different patterns. The walk, trot, canter, and gallop of horses are familiar examples. Even humans, with only two legs, use several different ‘gaits’, as these patterns are called. We walk, run, hop, skip, jump...
The mathematics of animal gaits studies various aspects - the movement of muscles, the dynamics of the animal itself, the timing of the nerve impulses that drive the muscles. Most of the common gaits are symmetric, in some manner, and these symmetries are clues to the structure of the network of nerve cells that drives the muscles. The talk will be non-technical, focusing on the role of symmetry, with numerous illustrations of real animals.
This talk is free to attend, although event booking is required. The recommended age is 16+.