They say that there's a set of simple equations that govern the movement 
of flocking animals.

They say that there's a set of equations that describe the pigment 
patterns of leapards, zebras and fish.

It took about 20 minutes to find evidence for the first claim:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flocking_%28behavior%29

Apparently, the model works by each bird trying to not hit any of the 
other birds, fly in roughly the same direction as everybody else, and 
try not to get seperated from the flock. Seems simple enough to me... 
I'll have to simulate it sometime! ;-)

I had significantly less luck with the second claim. The best I could do 
is this:

http://www.popmath.org.uk/rpamaths/rpampages/leopard.html

OK, so a formulas exists. But what is it?

http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/murray.htm

Ouch. My head hurts.

Does anybody have a clue what the hell this means? Better yet, does 
anybody have a better document?

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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