When I was a little girl a man across the road used to keep homing pigeons. He told me he use to take them out into the country let them go and they would come home. My question is, how do these birds know where home is? Do you have a question you have always wondered about?
Quote by Theladyisaminx When I was a little girl a man across the road used to keep homing pigeons. He told me he use to take them out into the country let them go and they would come home. My question is, how do these birds know where home is? Do you have a question you have always wondered about?
yea a bit like using birds to send messages, how do they know where they are going, each bird must only be used for one route or they would be confused surely! I have no idea on the answer to your question though i am sure i must have a question will have to come back when i think about it
I've always wondered how homing pigeons find their way 'home' too. Same with cats and dogs. You move away, or they go to a new home and can still find where they were. Great Satnav eh?
Interesting question. Pigeons, like many species of animal (even some humans) have a great homing instinct. I think the jury is still out on *exactly* how they do it. Some people think that pigeons (and other species) have a way of tapping into the earth's magnetic field, so can always locate north. That's debatable, but what is quite likely is that they use the sun as a navigator. It is also very likely that they use landmarks like trees, hills, and even man made objects, like roads - just like we do in direction finding. You have to remember that birds have good eye sight and travel over long distances, so what we think is amazing is actually pretty "samey" to them.
one of the river cottage episodes Hugh wanted to move the bee hives (apiery?) but only a matter of metres, bee dude said you cant, you have to move them over 100 metres away first then move them back cos they recognise landmarks and will go back to the original hive placement if not moved far away first
Quote by Earthchild one of the river cottage episodes Hugh wanted to move the bee hives (apiery?) but only a matter of metres, bee dude said you cant, you have to move them over 100 metres away first then move them back cos they recognise landmarks and will go back to the original hive placement if not moved far away first
I can relate! Having reversed car into gatepost because it had been moved 12 inches the points of reference I used to line up said car were instinct and twit here just didn't think to move the points of reference! I will also add, I was 18 and inexperienced as a driver so no idea how this compares to bees
Quote by Trevaunance My question is, how do these birds know where home is?
They have little A-Z maps. i did once type up the whole homing pigeon handbook for Up North Combine ready for reprinting and for a short time i knew loads about the placcy rings on pigeons an some of the names for them were mental like Princess woodland lovely and that kind of thing but that was years ago and cant remember owt now
How do planes fly? Is it Newtons 3rd law - i.e. wing pushes air down, resulting in wing being pushed up, or was Bernoulli right all along and it's all down to pressure? And another thing - how do bikes stay upright? Recent studies have shown that the conventional thinking (centripetal acceleration of the wheel) doesn't provide enough force to maintain a balanced system. So, what gives? *Him*
Thrust and lift overcomes weight and drag. Basically a wing is shaped so that it's upper surface is curved and longer than its flat lower surface. As it thrusts forward, therefore overcoming it's drag the air must rush over the top half of the wing faster than the lower portion, therefore creating an area of low pressure above it and forcing the higher pressure air below to push it up. When the amount of lift is greater than the weight the aircraft will lift from the ground. But I'm stuffed if I know about bikes!
Quote by couplefunuk How do planes fly? Is it Newtons 3rd law - i.e. wing pushes air down, resulting in wing being pushed up, or was Bernoulli right all along and it's all down to pressure? And another thing - how do bikes stay upright? Recent studies have shown that the conventional thinking (centripetal acceleration of the wheel) doesn't provide enough force to maintain a balanced system. So, what gives? *Him*
I think (so I heard from a man down the pub) we have a built in gyroscope in the way of fluid in our inner ear. This sends information back to the brain that makes adjustments that we are not aware of. If we didn't, we would fall over signals get stored in the brain for reference hence you never forget how to ride a bicycle! But I prefer to think that it is magic that keeps the bike upright though. Pigeons do see magnetic fields and do recognise landmarks, but they still fly home from places they have never been to before. It is thought that the do use the sun as well as the stars to navigate and it has been suggested they can smell the right way. None of this has been confirmed because nobody has thought to ask the pigeon's! Bee's communicate to each other by dancing. They will tell the rest of the hive the best place to go through a series of wiggles. If they are moved a short distance then they give the directions from there familiar location but if they have been moved 1 metre away then the rest will be 1 metre away from there intended destination (big miss for a bee)but if you move they a long way away, they have to start there dance from there as they have very few points of reference and have to explain new ones. (I think) I thought that they only had to move the queen though and the rest of the bees would follow. I really should go to a different pub! Your excuse of "I only drove into the house coz somebody moved it" is genuine too (to a degree)we see things differently at different times of the day and in different conditions. If you do a repetitive task (not that one)at the same time every day in say bright sunshine your brain stores the information so you don't have to use as much new brain power next time. If the situation changes ie you do it 3 hours later in the bright sunshine your brain does not always make the necessary adjustments and because we are not concentrating (we don't have to as we have the information stored)shit can and does sometimes happen. As far as "the house moved" we spin on our own axis, we circle the sun, the sun circles the milky way, the milky way moves in the universe and the universe is constantly expanding so no wonder you hit the house. But why is the Moon called "The Moon"?
Quote by Theladyisaminx Do you have a question you have always wondered about?
How can Geese fly over 3000 miles to get to warmer climbs, and then get all the way back again. Or how do Salmon know where to go to spawn, and always go back to where they were born themselves. Amazing at times nature is.
Quote by Lizaleanrob why do women put on 100 dresses then go out in the first one they put on
Because that's usually the one their bum looks smallest in There is a scientific theory to back this up. The woman tries on the first dress and says the immortal line "does my bum look big in this" and the fella dutifully replies along the lines of "Of course not sexy, you've got the cutest little bum". However after being asked many times the man screams out her bum would look big from the moon and so the first dress is then worn.
Quote by Lost If the universe is finite but expanding as we are lead to believe then what the hell is it expanding into?
Unless you know the mathematical principal about spacetime then the question is moot. Expansion is a 3 dimensional concept whereas the universe occupies 4 dimensions. So it expands in 4 dimensions not 3. The 4th dimension being time which is how future is created. One of the reasons we can remember the past and not the future is we haven't "travelled" in to it yet. Anyway the current new theories do not strictly hold with a finite universe there are some speculations regarding an infinite universe model.
Quote by Rogue_Trader If the universe is finite but expanding as we are lead to believe then what the hell is it expanding into?
Unless you know the mathematical principal about spacetime then the question is moot. Expansion is a 3 dimensional concept whereas the universe occupies 4 dimensions. So it expands in 4 dimensions not 3. The 4th dimension being time which is how future is created. One of the reasons we can remember the past and not the future is we haven't "travelled" in to it yet. Anyway the current new theories do not strictly hold with a finite universe there are some speculations regarding an infinite universe model. And I thought twin peaks was complicated! So Stuff cant exist without time but time can exist without stuff? If so infinite is not relevant as at the edge of the universe there isn't anything because the space beyond doesn't exist because it's not populated by time? In which case the universe is infinite because everything exists only within time and only the universe has time? I like the theory that the universe expands and collapses in cycles, not in a uniform way but like a snake eating it's tail. Only because it's the only theory that I can actually picture. Blimey, I only came on to see if there were any good knob gags!
Regarding this universe malarkey .... I've never bought into the theory about time being the fourth dimension. I know that's kicking the great Albert Einstein in the teeth, but he was pretty much guessing too, as we all are. What the universe might be expanding into warps your mind, it's a proper brain teaser. No one knows, but my guess is that the current ideas that the universe is approximately 13.8 billion years old and continually expanding is going to be seriously challenged quite soon. I'm not saying the universe isn't expanding, I think there is some quite clear evidence that it is. What I think will be challenged is the notion that 13.8 billion years ago there was a puff of something and the universe has been expanding even since. It may be that yes, something did happen about 13.8 billion years ago, BUT that wasn't the creation of the universe. If you accept that, then it opens the possibility that what we can currently see, or know, is just a small speck in a much greater spectrum. Still, the Big Bang is a very media friendly topic that has made science a lot of money, so I can't see them dropping the idea very soon.
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the points of reference I used to line up said car were instinct and twit here just didn't think to move the points of reference! 
