Angry Bird Nerd Examines The Yellow Bird

Wired.com writer Rhett Allain, who has written several physics articles detailing everyone’s favorite irate avians, is at it again. His most recent addition is a spotlight on the yellow bird. Ah, the yellow bird. He’s a brave little guy that will zip his way toward any obstacle once you tap the screen to activate him. It’s this behavior that Allain analyzes, or rather, he addresses the question of whether the tapped yellow bird travels at a constant velocity. Allain used the Google Chrome version of the game, which allowed him to take screen captures, and a video analysis program called Tracker. I won’t go into detail about Allain’s methodology because he does a good job explaining it in his article. However, here are the two key things he found: the yellow bird’s velocity on average after tapping is 30 m/s, and if you tap the yellow bird once he has started in a downward direction, the bird’s acceleration will be lower. So what’s the implication of Allain’s research? Well, put simply, if you have the need for speed with the yellow bird, you’ll want to tap him before he begins his downward descent. With force equaling mass x acceleration, the faster the bird zips along, the more force he can impart. Although the converse is true as well. If you’re looking for some precision destruction, you might want to let the yellow bird start arcing down until using him. Just don’t try to make him break the stone pieces. Poor guy's noggin can only take so much.

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