outrageous?

moggins7

ok i'm confident that this fits here..

i thought of this a few months ago and discussed with some friends to mixed reactions/thoughts.

ok so if every winged animal/mammal/insect etc. in the world needed one less wingflap per minute to stay in the air would the weather be completly different. would all the little changes in the wind and/or air tempature due to the lessened wingspeed all add up to have massive consequences on "mother nature"??

ok i no theres no real answer to this question, but whats people opinions?

Kevster

Hey,

I don't think that it would have any effect on the weather at all, but I am struggling to expess in words why I believe so. Hmmm, let me try: Basically, weather systems (anticyclones, depressions, fronts, etc) are caused by changes in air-pressure, which are themselves caused by differences in the temperature of the air and in air-density. The flapping of a wing - any wing - has therefore got no bearing on these weather systems.

Kevin

SOL

And if all the creatures travel the same ammount in each direction surely it's not going to change the net airflow or weather?

Kevster

I don't think so, SOL, because any change that the wing-beats exert on the air is going to be neutralised quickly, especially considering how spread-out across the world these particular animals are. Sure, if they were all confined into one area, then - yes - you could probably measure the effect, but not while they are spread-out.

ga2re2t

moggins7 wrote: »

ok i no theres no real answer to this question, but whats people opinions?

Eh, actually the answer is quite simple: NO!

The weather would be the exact same. Of course, due to the nature of chaos, the word "exact" is an exaggeration on my part , but it's safe to say that every weather phenomenon that we experience today would still be experienced in the scenario you presented.

The butterfly effect does not create the weather, it only introduces the possibility that the weather might be locally different during a specific time frame.

Morbert

Non-linear, chaotic systems are very sensitive to slight changes in initial conditions, but they are still bounded by recursive behaviour. So the weather might change slightly, but the climate and weather patterns in general would be unaffected.

SOL

Although I'd say the (now extinct) passenger pigeon might be an exception, they used to move in such large groups that they may indeed have had a noticeable affect on the weather, if only by changing the sunshine levels reaching the surface!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_Pigeon