A new look at scaling of samara flight

Winged, autorotating seeds from the genus Acer, have been the subject of study for botanists and aerodynamicists for decades. Despite the attention given to samaras by scientists and the relative simplicity of these winged seeds, there are still significant gaps in our understanding of how samara dynamics are informed by their physiological features. Additionally, questions remain regarding the robustness of their dynamics to physiological alterations such as mass addition by moisture or damage. In this talk, we further explore samara dynamics by applying a classical aerodynamic model to determine additional correlations. We augment seed mass and wing area and measure corresponding alterations to their descent velocity and rotation rate, thereby probing their inherent robustness to environmental perturbations. We find seeds can withstand up to a 200% increase in mass before they are unable to autorotate.