Collective Motion
Scientific Enquiry Report by:
Claudia Molina
Benjamin Moylan
Daniel McNamara
Mark Murnaghan
Shane Mulvaney
Sarah Nolan
Contents:
1. Introduction
1.1. What is collective motion?
1.2. Where can collective motion be observed?
1.3. The unanswered questions regarding collective motion
2. How physicists address the problem
2.1. Collective motion in humans
2.2. Collective motion in locusts
2.3. Collective motion in birds
3. The principles that have been established
4. Possible applications of this knowledge
5. Summary and conclusions
6. References 1. Introduction
1.1 What is collective motion?
Though collective motion is a relatively new field of study in the word of physics, most of us have observed it and appreciated…show more content… 1.2 Where can collective motion be observed?
There are several examples of collective motion that can be observed in the world around us; these include the swarming of insects, movement in schools of fish, the much documented and often breathtaking flocking of birds and even the movement of humans in large crowds. On a smaller scale, bacteria often grow in formations similar to the models predicted by the study of collective motion. There has even been low-frequency collective motion observed in DNA and proteins. Collective motion is incredibly applicable to many every day scenarios, and it is our hope that this report shows this as well as possible.
1.3 The unanswered questions regarding collective…show more content… As this is a relatively new field of study, physicists still have a lot of work ahead of them to expand and refine their knowledge of the subject. At the moment, we must put in place restricting simplifications such as only studying a flock far from its boundaries and deep within its ordered state. In the future, the hope is that we can move away from these simplifications and discover how to characterise other phase transitions, yet to be studied. 2. How physicists address the problem
Computer simulations are utilized to model the motion of stereotypical swarms using simple laws of interaction between self-propelled particles and these models are then transposed onto living organisms such as birds, or even humans. These efforts can then be collectivised and generalised to give us specific equations ands laws that apply to all self-propelled particles. We looked to emulate this approach in this report.
2.1 Collective motion in humans
In the case of human collective motion there are many different situations and scenarios in which it occurs. Several cases have been studied and modelled. Some of the examples we have looked at are the popular phenomenon of ‘Mexican waves’ that usually occur in stadiums at sporting events, the collective motion of human at metal concerts which manifest as ‘mosh pits’ and ‘circle pits’ and the collective motion in escape