Getting round on sandy slopes isn’t any simple feat. On steep inclines, even small disturbances will trigger an avalanche. The predatory antlion takes benefit of this reality by constructing a conical pit that makes ants that stroll in slide down into its ready jaws. However a new examine exhibits that it’s extra than simply stress that determines when an object slides down the slope.

To simulate hapless ants sliding into an antlion’s pit, researchers used plexiglass disks with 4 smaller disks that act as legs on the granular slope. By various the space between these factors of contact, researchers discovered that stance additionally impacts when a slide begins. The nearer collectively the contacts are, the extra seemingly the disk would slide. In distinction, spreading the factors of contact elevated stability, which means that adopting a wider stance might hold an animal, human, or robotic from sliding as simply. (Picture credit score: NEOM; analysis credit score: M. Piñeirua et al.; through APS Physics)