Talk:Ballooning (spider)
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[edit] Ballooning is not mechanical ballooning, but kiting.
Editors are invited to get citations that give balance for the reader; the "ballooning" term is prominent for the action of the spider for aerial transport, but the mechanics is kiting, indeed dynamic soaring kiting withthe spider's body providing the lower dynamic kiting anchor while the silk's undulations and form give kiting lift and drag. Not all spiders fly far, but when the kiting occurs well, the spiders can get long distances. There silk that gives the winging for the kiting never forms a mechanical lighter-than-air balloon, only forms that result in dynamic kiting. Notice in some sources that authors will see the kiting of the bridge silk, but then use the prominent term for ballooning when transport is done. The term "ballooning" has been unfortunate because of its mismatch of the physical facts; but while that prominence is there, an encyclopedic effort should be made to indicate that what is called "ballooning" is mechanically free-flight dynamic kiting. For example, a clip:
"" 8. Kiting - spider let go a bundle of silk, wind blow the silk and carry it to the other end, and attached. Details can also be find on our Garden Orb Web Spider page. 9. Ballooning - most young spiders distributed by ballooning. When the young spiders grow strong enough to leave their mother, they hold a short length of silk and wait for the wind. When there is the wind, because of their light weight, the wind carry them to the sky as someone holding a big balloon in air. The highest record of animals in the sky is not the flying bird nor the flying insect. It is the ballooning spider."" http://www.geocities.com/brisbane_spiders/ScientificPage.htm
Joefaust (talk) 02:49, 16 March 2008 (UTC) The references gives already have in them that the obervers had open questions about the "ballooning" silk; they noted that the individual threads seemed to stay apart from each other and sometimes formed a triangular sheet...without tangling; thus no mechanical balloon is formed. Since the density of the silk is heavier than air, then the thermals of the air and the gusts ...react on the silk and deflection enough occurs to keep the spider flying; such mechanics is kiting by all prominent definitions of kiting. That insect observers apply the term "ballooning" does not mean that the article be absent of recognizing that the prominent term "ballooning" is historical and not mechanical. Serve the reader with the chance to understand the mechanics over the misnomer. Joefaust (talk) 03:09, 16 March 2008 (UTC)
