Trapped in a dungeon this time, eh? Have no fear… to get out, you will just have to master the electromagnetic wizardry of a gecko!

Lizard on the wall, with the force of van der Waal!

Ever wonder how a gecko can stick to smooth surfaces so effortlessly? They have specially formed toes with hundreds of thousands of microscopic hairs called setae, and each seta splits into hundreds of tiny pads called spatulae (that you see in the right most picture). These pads act like tiny capacitors with the wall, as atoms in the wall and in the pads polarize to create an electromagnetic attraction. The sum total of all these spatulae of all the setae allow the gecko to stick like tape! They can run up polished glass at over a meter per second!

To get out of this dungeon, you will need to calculate the strength of the adhesion force between the gecko and the wall! Round to the nearest newton. (You could technically do this from scratch, but the clue should make it a lot easier)

Solve Puzzle

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *