Mention of which word will instantly cause you to lose friends or stop a conversation at a party in California?
lemme see...any talk about sports? No
Uhh.. what about physics or math? No
Let me give you a hint.. it rhymes with fun.
Uhh.... is it sun? No.
Ok, it is something that people run in the opposite direction when they see it.
Nun? Noo, why would you run from a Nun? Did you eat paint chips as a kid?
I don't know...bun like a man bun. You really are sharp as a marble.
Gun! I was talking about guns!
Now, whether you have ever used a gun or not, we all know how to fire one.
- Load the bullet.
- Using your hand pull the slide to its rearmost position leaving the gun ready to fire.
- And ultimately, squeeze the trigger to fire.
At this point some of you might be confused where this is heading and some of you might even be concerned for my mental wellbeing. So let me assure you these are points we will come back to later in the post.
But first, let's find a grasshopper. See if you can spot one on the ground below.
Aaah there it is! Took a while to find it.
Just like pulling the slide of a gun to the rearmost position before one can fire, the grasshopper, before it can successfully jump will have to bend its hind legs at the knee, thus storing all the potential energy.
When the grasshopper is spooked by a curious naturalist or a predator, it relaxes its legs thus releasing all the pent-up energy by the knee and ultimately propelling its body into the air.
What is fascinating in the above clip is if you look at the frame that pauses the action, you see that the grasshopper is already in the process of doing a 180° flip mid-air, such that when it lands it has eyes on the predator and can judge how long before it has to jump again.
Here are some more scenes showing the grasshopper turning its body during the jump.
The frustrating part of this whole ordeal was the camera struggling to autofocus on the grasshopper since it blends so well with its surroundings. So much so, my camera ended up asking for a raise towards the end of the shoot.
Here is a wide angle of the grasshopper jumping, turning mid-air and landing with its head facing the threat. Observe the shadows to see how the body changes direction in the air.
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