Comment on *tap tap tap*
Deme@sopuli.xyz 3 days ago
IIRC this theory was debunked some time ago by a study. If you think about it, any dampening within the skull would lessen the force of the pecking and the bird would have to hammer away harder.
socsa@piefed.social 2 days ago
Not trying to contradict the study, but force and impulse are different. You can apply the same force over a longer period of time and lower the impulse. This is why a boxer wearing a glove can actually deliver more total energy without breaking their own hand - the energy transfer is more complete because the greater surface area and longer impulse.
Deme@sopuli.xyz 2 days ago
Impulse is the integral of force over time, but I get what you’re after.
When pecking at a tree, the maximum force exerted is what pushes the wood beyond its breaking point. That maximum force can be increased by increasing the impact energy as a whole (wasteful and costly) or shortening the impulse. A woodpecker isn’t trying to do soft blows to shake some branches, it’s trying to shatter a small portion of the trunk, much like someone looking to shatter their opponents nose would choose bare fists over boxing gloves.