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2. Air pressure on a small lizard. A gecko (a small lizard) can easily walk across a ceiling as shown in the middle picture. Two
2. Air pressure on a small lizard. A gecko (a small lizard) can easily walk across a ceiling as shown in the middle picture. Two hypotheses for how the gecko is able to do this are: (1) the toes on a gecko's foot make a "vacuum seal" against the surface and air pressure holds it up, and (2) the gecko's feet have a sticky substance that allows it to hold on. Here we will do some calculations to determine whether air pressure alone is sufficient to keep the gecko on the ceiling. a) Modeling the gecko as a cylinder that is 4 cm long and 0.5 cm in diameter, estimate the total mass and weight of the gecko. State your assumption about the mass density. b) From the picture, we might estimate that a single gecko toe has a diameter of about 0.4 mm. Approximate the shape of the toe as a circle. What is the total surface area of the gecko's toes that are in contact with the ceiling? c) If air pressure is about 105 N/m, what is the total force of the air pushing against the toes of the gecko? d) Is this force from the air large enough to overcome the downward weight of the gecko
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