Are washing machine designers going to the dogs?

Man's best friend comes to the rescue, again. As most pet owners know, wet dogs do a great job shaking themselves dry. In fact, their technique is so precise, that researchers think it can teach an old washing machine designer new tricks.

Discovery News reports that a new study from the Georgia Institute of Technology found that washers, dryers, and other machines could be improved by understanding the physics of a dog throwing off water. Researchers relied on high-speed videography and X-ray cinematography to observe what happens, when our furry friends shake dry, and found that a ratio of centripetal force and surface tension help explain the drying effect.

"The animal's head, body and skin all move during a shake," project leader Andrew Dickerson, a researcher at Georgia Tech, told Discovery News. "The body, though it shakes at the same frequency of the skin, cannot rotate as far. The skin effectively twists around the body, traveling faster than the body and head can move."

And the water comes flying off, as anyone who's been in the way of the spray can attest.

—Kimberly Janeway