The episode that will air next Wednesday, May 6th is called "Swimming in Syrup." I guess they got Cal Bear and Olympian Nathan Adrian to help out with the episode. Not much info available, but presumably they will test out how greatly increasing the viscosity of water affects swimming speed. I remember someone did a test like this a few years ago. If I recall correctly it was at the U of Minnesota. In that test they only made the water something like twice as thick and their results were that it did not affect swimming speed. Obviously there's more drag, but you also generate more propulsion because you have a thicker substance to apply force against.
edit: yeah, here's a story about the Minnesota experiment www.it.umn.edu/.../goingforthegoo.html
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Former Member
Instead of viscosity, what if you think about substances with varying degrees of adhesion and cohesion? If you are swimming through a highly cohesive substance with an extremely low adhesion, you would get increased propulsion, increased drag on blocking surfaces (head, shoulders, arms on entry) and decreased drag from the substance passing along the other surfaces of the body.
This assumes that it is possible to make a substance that is more cohesive then water and less adhesive and still be able to swim through it.
Another thought is increasing the density of the water without changing its other properties. This should increase the body's buoyancy, the drag on the non-blocking surfaces of the body should remain the same, but I don't know what affects increased density would have on propulsion and over coming blocking drag.
Someone round up some kids who need science fair projects and have them hop to it. We have knowledge to acquire.
Instead of viscosity, what if you think about substances with varying degrees of adhesion and cohesion? If you are swimming through a highly cohesive substance with an extremely low adhesion, you would get increased propulsion, increased drag on blocking surfaces (head, shoulders, arms on entry) and decreased drag from the substance passing along the other surfaces of the body.
This assumes that it is possible to make a substance that is more cohesive then water and less adhesive and still be able to swim through it.
Another thought is increasing the density of the water without changing its other properties. This should increase the body's buoyancy, the drag on the non-blocking surfaces of the body should remain the same, but I don't know what affects increased density would have on propulsion and over coming blocking drag.
Someone round up some kids who need science fair projects and have them hop to it. We have knowledge to acquire.
