Friday, October 10, 2008

Archer Fish

An Archer Fish. No particular reason; just part of the general sea monster theme here. The fish can shoot an insect several inches away, making allowances for the fact its eyes are underwater and its target above water (which changes the apparent position of the prey by refraction) and adjusts for the effects of gravity. The narrator calls it computation, which isn't strictly true. A kid who knows no math can shoot hoops, which is much the same thing, minus the refraction. But the really cool feature of the video is the "bullet time" photography (array of still cameras trigged by a very fast event) which freezes the "arrow" in the middle of the action and allows you to see what a great shot this fish is.

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