Part one of term paper
1. METABOLIC COST OF GENERATING FORCE Summary Similarly sized bipeds and quadrupeds use nearly the same amount of metabolic energy to run, despite dramatic differences in morphology and running mechanics. It has been shown that the rate of metabolic energy use in quadrupedal runners and bipedal hoppers can be predicted from just body weight ...

Part two of term paper
... kg). We find that most (70-90%) of the increase in metabolic rate with speed in running bipeds can be explained by changes in the time available to generate force. The rate of force generation also explains differences in metabolic rate over the size range of birds measured. However, for a given rate of force generation, birds use on average 1.7 times more metabolic energy than quadrupeds. The rate of energy consumption for a given rate of force generation for humans is intermediate between tha ...