Why the Palm Fronds are Bending Like that?
It was very long time ago I was thinking why the palm fronds, banana leaves, and other long-shaped leaves are bending like we observe? This must be caused by interplay between gravitation and the mechanical properties of the fronds/leaves. But how? What kind of equation we can use to explain this phenomenon. Because the shapes of palm frond and banana leaves are very complex, it is difficult to apply the equation directly to such objects. For approximation we must first consider a simple shape that resembling the bending shape of palm fronds or banana leaves. Our choice has fallen on the bending behavior of other papers or sheets.
When exploring the bending behavior of papers and other sheets, we found a number of interesting properties. One of the highlights behavior is the presence of phase transitions with a certain scaling behaviors. The transition can be explained by the Landau equation. Although this is not an extraordinary result, but for us it is still interesting to be reported. We published the results in Journal of Taibah University for Science with the title: “Second-order phase transition and universality of self-buckled elastic slender columns”. This journal has an impact factor of 1.640.
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