Physical review letters.
Publisher:
American Physical Society
Frequency: Weekly,
Country: United States
Language: English
Author(s):
American Physical Society.
Start Year:1958 -
ISSN:
0031-9007 (Print)
1079-7114 (Electronic)
0031-9007 (Linking)
1079-7114 (Electronic)
0031-9007 (Linking)
Impact Factor
8.6
2022
| NLM ID: | 0401141 |
| (DNLM): | P14000000(s) |
| (OCoLC): | 01715834 |
| Coden: | PRLTAO |
| Classification: | W1 PH739 |
Thermodynamics of Animal Locomotion. Muscles are biological actuators extensively studied in the frame of Hill's classic empirical model as isolated biomechanical entities, which hardly applies to a living organism subjected to physiological and environmental constraints. Here we elucidate the overarching principle of a living muscle action for locomotion, considering it from the thermodynamic viewpoint as an assembly of actuators (muscle units) connected in parallel, operating via chemical-to-mechanical energy conversion under mixed (potential and flux) boundary conditions. Introducing the energy cost of effort as the generaliza...