Is this "Did you know?" statement REALLY that true?

[trickedoutbiker]

I just read this today at the bottom of the forums, in that small little area titled "Did you know?"

It stated this, in exact words:

The chameleons tongue accelerates towards its target at over 1642m per second. Chameleons rarely miss their intended food item.

Am I reading this correctly? That means over 1642 METERS per second yea?

Is this a typo or am I just not reading it correctly?

I was curious as to exactly how fast that was in m.p.h., so I did a quick search in Google to convert it. Here, check it: https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=1642m+per+second+to+mph

According to Google, that is 3673 MPH. That is INSANE fast. Is that correct, did I read that right? That's like going Mach 4.8 in a jet.... dang near Mach 5. Even Google turned the "m" in the Chameleon Forums' statement into "meters" ... so converted, 3673 mph HAD to be right, right?

But then I went to Google again.... and did another search for "how fast is a chameleon tongue" and got this: https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=how+fast+is+chameleon+tongue

That says the tongue "can snag prey located more than one and a half body lengths away. The duo found that the chameleon's tongue accelerates from 0 to 20 feet per second (0 to six meters per second) in about 20 milliseconds—a rate so fast it defies the general principles of power production in muscles."

If you read some of those articles that came up with that second search, you will find some articles dealing with speed testing how fast a chameleon tongue goes..... a couple of those articles say that "In automotive terms, the tongue could go from 0 to 60 miles per hour in a hundredth of a second, though it only needs about 20 milliseconds to snag a cricket."

So..... it only needs 20 milliseconds to snag a cricket....... and then you add the statement we found just before that where it says "the chameleon's tongue accelerates from 0 to 20 feet per second (0 to six meters per second) in about 20 milliseconds—a rate so fast it defies the general principles of power production in muscles."

So in 20 milliseconds, it accelerates to 20 feet per second.....

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=20+feet+per+second+to+mph

20 feet per second, converted to mph, is only about 14 mph.....



So which is it? I feel as if I am examining this too much and missed something....


- Chameleon forums "Did you know?" section stated the tongue goes over 1642m per second.

- A Google search of the conversion to mph showed that to be 3673 mph.....

- Another Google search of "How fast is chameleon tongue" said it goes from 0-20 feet per second (0 to six meters per second) in 20 milliseconds

- ANOTHER Google search showed "20 feet per second" to translate to about 14 mph....



So now I have no idea which is more fact out of everything I read. Can someone who actually knows, chime in and let me know? I'm very curious.

It's GOTTA be faster than 14 mph, but is it really 3673 mph?

HELP!!!!!!??????

 

[KapitalJ]

According to Google, that is 3673 MPH. That is INSANE fast. Is that correct, did I read that right? That's like going Mach 4.8 in a jet.... dang near Mach 5. Even Google turned the "m" in the Chameleon Forums' statement into "meters" ... so converted, 3673 mph HAD to be right, right?

I think you may be converting it wrong.
1642 meters/second = 1.02... miles/second x 60 = 61.2 miles/hour (rounded number)

I could totally be wrong... just my thoughts on the conversion of units.

pretty neat fact though..

 

[kiwilulu]

Dr Anderson should chip in shortly. He did his PhD on chameleon tongues! -he is da man

 

[jcarlsen]

The speed answer is at about 2:17 in this video, with Dr. Anderson narrating:

 

[trickedoutbiker]

I think you may be converting it wrong.
1642 meters/second = 1.02... miles/second x 60 = 61.2 miles/hour (rounded number)

I was just assuming it meant METERS per second since that is typically what a single "m" in a distance numerical value means. Then I typed it into Google exactly how I read it here, which said "towards its target at over 1642m per second" so I put into Google "1642m per second to mph" and it spit out the "3673" number.

@KapitalJ - in your conversion, where did you get the " x 60 = 61.2 miles/hour " part? I understand how you converted meters to miles (1 mile = 1609.34 meters) and 1642 meters = 1.02 miles ...... but if you are going 1.02 miles per second.... that is in one second. Multiplying that by 60... you would have 61.2 miles per MINUTE I do believe, because you are multiplying your single second by 60, which gives you 60 seconds = 1 minute. So 61.2 would actually be the miles per MINUTE then and not miles per HOUR..... right?

 

[trickedoutbiker]

The speed answer is at about 2:17 in this video, with Dr. Anderson narrating:

Thanks!

 

[KapitalJ]

You are correct. @trickedoutbiker good catch. As I said, I can be wrong... and I was!! lol.. better make the next coffee a little stronger!!

 

[Fiona's Mom]

All I can add is sit back....take a deep breath...and B R E A T H E!

 

[trickedoutbiker]

New All I can add is sit back....take a deep breath...and B R E A T H E!

I was just trying to get to the bottom of what exactly the statement I read here on CF meant..... I'm going to assume that the "m" is not for meters and instead stands for something of which I'm not aware, all converted somehow to get the end value of a 14 mph tongue speed. Chameleons are absolutely fascinating creatures!

 

[cyberlocc]

Wait now you got my questioning every single did you know dangit Tricked

 

[Cheeky]

The chameleons tongue accelerates towards its target at over 1642m per second. Chameleons rarely miss their intended food item.

You are confusing accelerating with traveling at a constant velocity.

A constant speed is measured in metres per second. While acceleration is metres per second per second (huh!?)

Real world example. You are travelling at 0 metres per second, you start to move (accelerate) and as every second passes you are travelling 10 metres per second faster than you were before. Therefore your acceleration is 10 metres per second, per second.

You could accelerate at 1,642 metres per second per second. Say you maintained this for 0.5 seconds. You would end up travelling at 821 metres per second. (1,642 x 1 x 0.5)

If you accelerated at this rate for only 0.1 seconds you would end up traveling at 164.2 metres per second (1,642 x 1 x 0.1)

If you accelerated at this rate for 0.020 seconds (20 miliseconds) you would end up travelling at 32.84 metres per second. (1,642 x 1 x 0.02). ~33 metres per second equates to about 70mph so we are in the right ballpark now and the remainder will be down to rounding errors on the 0.02 seconds.

At least im pretty sure thats what the article means.

 

[Daypaul]

https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/speed-of-a-chameleons-tongue.22803/ this says around 13 mph

 

[Cheeky]

Hmm if we took the time duration down from 20 milliseconds to only 2 milliseconds you would get a speed of around 3.3ms (13mph) otherwise to keep 20 milliseconds you would only have an acceleration of ~300ms-2 rather than 1,642ms-2.