Chemical energy and lizard push-ups

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Chemical Energy and Lizard Push-Ups
Introduction
Lizard push-ups play a significant role in their sexual reproduction as it is their method of mating and projects their territorial nature. The act of doing push-ups in front of female lizard makes the male appear stronger. It is also a way of attracting the female. According to Goldman (n.p.), the act of the male lizard doing push-ups in front of a female can make a receptive female mate with it. However, a male lizard doing push-ups in front of another male can be a sign of threat or trigger a fight between them. In this case, if both male lizards do push-ups and head bob, there is a possible chance that they may end up confronting each other. Therefore, push-ups can be used to trigger receptive females to mate or threaten other males to leave another male’s territory.
Scientists have invested much of their time in studying the push-ups behaviour of lizards so that they can understand how lizards communicate with each other. Goldman (n.p.) states that the evolution of communication signals between lizard species can be studied through their behaviour when they are about to mate and when they are confronting with each other. Lizard push-ups display perfect physical form of communication that can be easily studied to decrypt the exact meaning of the lizards’ body language and the rest of the reptiles’ species.
Materials and methods
The materials to be used in the experiment include a computer and the Lizard Push-up video link.

To experiment, I clicked on the link to access the video and recorded the number of times the lizard did push-ups within a second. In relation to the assumptions guiding the experiment, I counted the number of crickets that the lizard consumed to give it energy for its 30-day push-up. Also, I calculated the number of calories contained in a single cricket and the number of crickets the lizard need to consume so that it can fuel all its push-ups. Using the data, I computed the number of dietary Calories the lizard burnt during all the push-ups it did per day.
Results
Seconds No. of Push-ups done
1 1
2 1
3 1
4 1
5 1
6 1
7 1
8 1
9 0
10 0
11 0
12 0
13 0
Discussion
Taking the assumption that there are 121 Calories in 100 grams of crickets, a single gram of cricket, therefore, has 1.21 calories. For 0.5 grams of crickets, each cricket will have 0.605 calories.
Total push-ups in a month
The rate of push-ups
8 push-ups per 13 seconds
138=1.625Therefore, we get a rate of 1.625 seconds for every push-up.
Converting the rate from seconds to minutes
601.625=36.92Therefore, we get 36.92 push-ups per minute.
For every thirty minutes, the lizard makes
36.92×30=1107.6 push-upsFor thirty days, the lizard makes
1107.6×30 days=33228 push-upsDietary Calories burnt
For every push-up, the lizard burns 0.1 dietary calories
Therefore for 33228 push-ups, the lizard will burn
33228×0.1 diatery calories=3322.8 diatery caloriesNumber of calories in a cricket
If 100 grams contain 121 calories, then 1 gram will have
121100=1.21 caloriesIn 0.5 grams of crickets, each cricket will have
0.51×1.21=0.605 caloriesIn 30 days the total number of crickets required will be
3322.80.605=5492.23That is 5492 crickets
Discussion
Doing push-ups consumes energy, and just like human beings, lizard must find a way to communicate to express themselves even though they will end up using energy. Communication can easily be misinterpreted, and the same case applies for push-ups in lizard. The fact the push-ups are a form of visual conditioning, they are prone to be affected by distance or light. In low light or long distances, the lizards will have to make a fast set of four-legged push-ups before they could send the message. The absence of the alert might result in the misinterpretation of the message and hence the lizard ending up having wasted its energy.

Work Cited
Goldman, Jason G. “Robot Lizard Push-Ups.” Scientific American Blog Network, 25 Oct. 2010, blogs.scientificamerican.com/thoughtful-animal/robot-lizard-push-ups/.