Flies flies everywhere

This post is going to capture some macro shots of flies, ponder on the nuisance of flies and teach you a new mathematical principle that I reckon you didn't know and I bet you'll all be trying to find a tennis racquet after reading about it and the racquet and the flies are related, as is the mathematical principle!

I'm not sure what it is this year, but the auld flies seem to be worse than ever and although I know the uses and benefits of bees, sometimes I wonder about flies. They are up there as the most annoying little beings on the planet.

On the golf course for example, they will fly around my head or my face when I'm about to play a shot or take a putt and no matter how much you concentrate on your routine, they will always put you off.

At home they can be pretty damn annoying too I must admit, landing on kitchen counters and buzzing around generally wrecking people's heads.

I do need to thank them today though, as they were the inspiration for today's post. I found one on the ground in the kitchen and decidednto get a few close ups which now follow.

Horror Movies

When you get up close and personal with these guys via a zoomed in photo, you begin to wonder is this where the first movie makers go their ideas for bad guys and aliens that they developed for their movies?

Looking at these shots below its certainly a plausible hypothesis

Take that

No, no, no not Robbie Williams and them other aging crooners, no I mean that's what I say when I swat the annoying flies with my weapon on choice, "Take that!" . I remember when my wife first bought the zapper and I thought it was a bit cruel, but the little flying swines are really annoying and plentiful this year, so needs must.

As I swung for the fly with the racquet, it reminded me of a video I watched the last day which explained a mathematical principle. I wasn't searching for it or anything, but it showed up in the sidebar on YouTube and I had a quick look at the video and found it really interesting. I'll explain it as well as I can below.

The Maths of a racquet turn

It is widely known as the Tennis racquet theorem. Another name for this is the Dzhanibekov effect. Ok enough about the name and more about what it is.

The Theorem states that an object with three unique moments of inertia, rotation about the axis of intermediate moment of inertia is unstable, while rotation about the other two axis is stable.

At this stage, we've two options, equations like this or a really handy gif borrowed from Wikipedia.

I had ye at Gif didn't I, so basically the phenomenon is demonstrated in the Gif below and explains that turning the racquet length over length or sideways causes no affect, but when you try it with the racquet parallel to the floor the racquet will spin 180 degrees while you spin it. I thought that was really interesting and was news to me. Now go on, find a racquet and give it a go and don't worry if all else fails use your phone. It kind of works, just be careful not ro smash your screen! Have something soft under where you flip the phone and don't come crying to me if you smash your screen!

Thanks as always for stopping by everyone.

Peace Out