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Diffusive Motion of Jumping Beans Research Talk

Jumping Beans
October 19, 2021

Diffusive Motion of Jumping Beans

Thursday | October 14th | 12:30-1:20pm | SINE 110

Mexican jumping beans are seed pods containing the larva of a moth and appear to jump around at random. This motion is driven by larval body motion, making these jumping beans a simple representation of an "active particle." We quantify the motion of these beans using video recording and image analysis and find that their average motion is described by diffusive motion. We further investigate the statistical behavior of individual jumping events and use this information to build a computational simulation that mimics jumping bean motion.

Devon McKee, SU CPSC student, will present his research conducted under the direction of Dr. Pasha Tabatabai.

 This will be an in-person event in the new Sinegal Center and there will be PIZZA! Hope you can join us!