A01=R. McNeill Alexander
Accuracy and precision
Action potential
Aphid
Author_R. McNeill Alexander
Available energy (particle collision)
Barbary dove
Bayesian
Bayesian statistics
Buckling
Calculation
Catastrophe theory
Category=PDE
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Category=PSV
Compressive stress
Control variable
Counting
Diameter
Digestion
Drinking
Dynamic programming
Eating
Eggshell
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Estimation
Ethology
Factor of safety
Fecundity
Female
Flesh fly
Food energy
Foregut fermentation
Freshwater fish
Gait (human)
Grandparent
Great tit
Grebe
Guppy
Herbivore
Hymenoptera
Insect
Larva
Linear programming
Local optimum
Mammal
Marginal value theorem
Mathematical optimization
Maxima and minima
Mealworm
Microorganism
Ommatidium
Optimal control
Pitcher plant
Polistes
Population
Porosity
Probability
Probability distribution
Quantity
Requirement
Result
Running
Sarcophaga
Sex ratio
Sexual reproduction
Shape factor (image analysis and microscopy)
Shrub
Skewness
Slow flight
Sodium
Standard deviation
State variable
Tit (bird)
Viverridae
Western honey bee
Product details
- ISBN 9780691027982
- Weight: 255g
- Dimensions: 197 x 254mm
- Publication Date: 01 Dec 1996
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Optimization theory is designed to find the best ways of doing things. The structures of animals, their movements, their behavior, and their life histories have all been shaped by the optimizing processes of evolution or of learning by trial and error. In this revised edition of R. McNeill Alexander's widely acclaimed Optima for Animals, we see how extraordinarily diverse branches of biology are illuminated by the powerful methods of optimization theory. What is the best strength for a bone? Too weak a bone will probably break but an excessively stout one will be cumbersome. At what speed should humans change from walking to running? Should a bird take only big juicy worms or should it eat every worm it finds, and do birds make the best choices? Why do the males of some species of fishes and the females of others look after the young, while the young of others are looked after by both parents or neither? Is it possible that all these policies can be optimal, in different circumstances? This book shows how these and many other questions can be answered. The mathematics involved is explained very simply, with biology students in mind, but the book is not just for them.
It is also for professionals, ranging from teachers to researchers.
R. McNeill Alexander is Professor of Zoology at the University of Leeds and Secretary of the Zoological Society of London. The author of fourteen books, most of them on the mechanics of human and animal movement, Alexander is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a recipient of the Muybridge Medal of the International Society for Biomechanics.
