Breathing room

Classical Mechanics Level 1

Are any of the penguins in the huddle above losing more heat more quickly than they would if they were standing alone?

No Yes

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Josh Silverman by Josh Silverman

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6 solutions

Danny Shiraz
May 17, 2015

Consider the penguins on the outside of the huddle, they are the most exposed yet they still have half there body insulated by the huddle, so they can't be as cold as if they were alone

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For a moment, I thought that the penguins were huddling in the shape of a penguin.

Calvin Lin Staff - 6 years ago

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Rorschach test with penguins, I thought it was a demon head...

Kimberly Sae-Ung - 6 years ago

Yea, i thought that too..

Saiteja Pathivada - 6 years ago

It is also possible to attack this problem from biological standpoint. Common sense dictates that the penguins outside will be the coldest. If they are losing more heat in a huddle than alone, they should prefer to leave the huddle and keep warm alone. Peeling off layer by layer, there should be no huddle left.

Because the huddle exists, there should be less heat lost in a huddle than alone.

I guess this is also kind of mathematical; proof by contradiction.

Jake Lai - 6 years ago

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That's assuming that penguins are rational, which has yet to be shown :p

Calvin Lin Staff - 6 years ago

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Well, they've shown that pigeons can solve the Monte Hall problem . If urban birds can, why can't penguins?

Source: Are Birds Smarter Than Mathematicians?

Brock Brown - 6 years ago

Happy Feet taught me something.

Kimberly Sae-Ung - 6 years ago

The penguins keep moving so the penguins on the outside get to go more inside as well. The process is cyclical.

Janmejay Sinha - 6 years ago
Terina Jose
May 28, 2015

By huddling together, the penguins are able to share body heat and gain insulation from the harsh cold temperatures. To maximise it's effectiveness, the penguins huddle into the shape of a duck in the hopes of flying away to a tropical island because they do not like being next to each other. They do not know how ducks work.

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Pranav Malik
Jan 28, 2016

the question's language turns out to be a-bit tricky. The only thing, we need to focus on, is "losing more heat more quickly". So, the crux is, they are losing heat anyways. But, if they all stand alone, they will lose heat MOST quickly (I don't know whether this is grammatically correct). Hence, consider any penguin, inside or on the outskirt, if not in the huddle and standing alone, will shiver. Therefore, NONE of the penguins (just by being in the huddle) are losing more heat more quickly than they would if they were standing alone

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Sharad Tiwari
Jun 3, 2015

see the surface area exposed to DIRECT atmosphere in each case it's less then it if they were to be alone so they would lose less heat then during standing alone.

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Meynard Yadao
May 20, 2015

The body is a natural heater. More heaters mean lesser or even no heat loss.

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Shahab Hussain
May 20, 2015

they huddle to provide an optimum incubating temperature for the hatching of the eggs

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