Spirals And Conchospirals In The Flight Of Insects
Spirals and Conchospirals in the Flight of Insects
Author: Boyadzhiev, Khristo N.
College Mathematics Journal, Vol 30, no. 1, pp. 23-31, 1999
The author analyzes the flight of insects which are attracted by a light source. For planar motion, the insects' trajectories are equiangular spirals. In three dimensions, the trajectories are spirals that (individually) wind along a cone. Special cases are also considered.