Obesity, body heat loss, and efficiency in movement.

This article makes an unexpected, counterintuitive theoretical step. Excessive inactive body mass (fat, carried load) has a negative impact on the efficiency of life movement to distances. Also negative is the impact of loss of body heat to the cold ambient. Surprisingly, the two negative impacts evolve naturally to a tradeoff such that the living body benefits from maximal efficiency in movement and access on the globe. The tradeoff reveals the amount of inactive mass (e.g., thickness of fat layer) most beneficial for movement. Tradeoffs between negative impacts govern the evolution (the morphing) of all moving design (animal, vehicle, river, etc.). For example, fat tends to be stored primarily at the interface between the warm inner body and the cold ambient. That's design in nature, configuration evolution. Furthermore, the perception of cold is physical and measurable in terms of physical outcomes: design for greater efficiency in movement on the globe, greater power, easier access, farther reach, economy and longer lifespan. Traditionally, perceptions are thought of as intangibles, opinions, beyond the predictive reach of physics. The physics underpinnings of perceptions, reaffirmed in this article, are essential to the future of robotics and AI, if such technologies are ever to compete with naked animal thought and action.

Duke Scholars

Author Adrian Bejan Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materia ...