{"id":4533,"date":"2014-08-27T10:54:25","date_gmt":"2014-08-27T09:54:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/ajb\/?p=4533"},"modified":"2014-08-27T10:54:25","modified_gmt":"2014-08-27T09:54:25","slug":"assume-spherical-sheep-in-vacuum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/ajb\/2014\/08\/27\/assume-spherical-sheep-in-vacuum\/","title":{"rendered":"Assume spherical sheep in vacuum&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<table border=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.clker.com\/cliparts\/y\/G\/5\/t\/O\/z\/sheep-looking-left-md.png\" alt=\"sheep\" width=\"150\" \/><\/td>\n<td style=\"vertical-align: top\">Scientists have now used GPS to uncover the rules that describe how sheepdogs are able to herd sheep.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Str\u00f6mbom et al [1] have shown that there are surprisingly few rules here; in fact they suggest just two rules.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>The sheepdog learns how to make the sheep come together in a flock.<\/li>\n<li>Whenever the sheep are in a tightly knit group, the dog pushes them forwards.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The sheepdogs make the most of what is know as &#8220;selfish herd theory&#8221;, that is the tendency of a given sheep to want to be near the centre of the flock when under threat.<\/p>\n<p>There is a Welsh connection here. One of the authors, Dr. A. King is based at Swansea University, which is where I studied for my undergraduate degree.<\/p>\n<p>Now, anyone know any good jokes about Welsh people and sheep? Can&#8217;t say that I have herd many&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong>References<\/strong><br \/>\n[1] Str\u00f6mbom et al, Solving the shepherding problem: heuristics for herding autonomous, interacting agents, <em>J. R. Soc. Interface<\/em> <strong>11<\/strong>(100) (2014).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists have now used GPS to uncover the rules that describe how sheepdogs are able to herd sheep. Str\u00f6mbom et al [1] have shown that there are surprisingly few rules here; in fact they suggest just two rules. The sheepdog learns how to make the sheep come together in a flock. Whenever the sheep are &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/ajb\/2014\/08\/27\/assume-spherical-sheep-in-vacuum\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Assume spherical sheep in vacuum&#8230;<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-mathematics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/ajb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/ajb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/ajb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/ajb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/ajb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/ajb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4533\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/ajb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/ajb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/ajb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}