When wind or other disturbances detach winged maple seeds called samaras from their parent tree, they spin through the air – ...

Whether you know them as samara seeds, maple seeds, or helicopter seeds, most of us know the seeds that spin down to the ground on one or two blades. They have been served as the inspiration for ...

Next, my colleagues and I hope to unravel the flight mechanics of the “rolling samaras” found on tulip poplar and ash trees. These seeds rotate like maple samaras, but the wing also rolls ...

Some seeds can even travel hundreds of miles. The spinning flight of a maple samara. From an engineering perspective, the insights gained from our study could inform the design of new types of ...