Informations et ressources scientifiques
sur le développement des zones arides et semi-arides

 With nothing to guide their way, people really do walk in circles

  ScienceDaily (August 21, 2009)

• ScienceDaily (Aug. 21, 2009) - With nothing to guide their way, people attempting to walk a straight course through unfamiliar territory really do end up walking in circles, according to a report published online on August 20th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. Although that belief has pervaded popular culture, there has been no scientific evidence to back it up until now, according to the researchers.

• "The stories about people who end up walking in circles when lost are actually true," said Jan Souman of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Germany. "People cannot walk in a straight line if they do not have absolute references, such as a tower or a mountain in the distance or the sun or moon, and often end up walking in circles."

• The researchers tested the idea in both forest and desert environments. Participants were instructed to walk as straight as they could in one direction, and their trajectory was recorded via GPS. Three participants walked for several hours in the Sahara desert, in southern Tunisia

 Pour en savoir plus sur le site de ScienceDaily