Dandelion Seeds Fly Using ‘Impossible’ Method Never Before Seen in Nature

Re:Dandelion Seeds Fly Using ‘Impossible’ Method Never Befor... by jacobush on Thursday October 18, 2018 @02:58AM (#18246471)

Could it work at higher speeds, like a craft in re-entry from space? Like a dandelion pre-chute.

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Re:Dandelion Seeds Fly Using ‘Impossible’ Method Never Befor... by btrettel on Thursday October 18, 2018 @04:26PM (#18251809)

I don't know much about high speed flows, but I imagine the answer is no.

While the gas temperatures would be higher due to viscous heating, which would increase the viscosity of the air, the increase in viscosity is much lower than the increase in velocity. So the Reynolds number would still increase. I very strongly doubt the turbulence intensity would be lower in this case too.

Plus, I imagine the bristles would be quickly ablated away.

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Re:Dandelion Seeds Fly Using ‘Impossible’ Method Never Befor... by jacobush on Friday October 19, 2018 @07:49AM (#18255989)

That gave me an idea for the bristles being fritzy ends of cables, slowly being wound out and sacrificed to the wind. Like an ablative shield.

Not saying that it would be good for anything, it just produced a cool image in my head. :-)

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