Hyperreality
Aug9-04, 10:10 PM
One of the major focus in Athens Olympics this year will Michael Phelps break the gold medal record? This year swimming is not all about skills and endurance, is also about "what to wear" would most likely to put you on the podium.
An article on the Scientific American website
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa004&articleID=000902AC-487A-1112-B89C83414B7F4945 (http://).
The swimsuit company giants Speedo and Tyr are likely to be the center of attention in the swimming with both companies claiming to have the upper edge.
The surprising thing is the making of the Speedo's Fastskin Suit and Tyr's Aqua Shift. While Speedo is trying to reduce the drag between swimmer and water to minimum, Tyr has increased the drag force!
Speedo has it all wrong, according to swimsuit maker Tyr. To go faster in water, you need to increase friction drag, not reduce it, argues David Pendergast, one of the inventors of Tyr's Aqua Shift suit and a professor at the University of Buffalo's Center for Research and Education in Special Environments (CRESE), an institution that counts the U.S. Navy SEALS and NASA among its clients. After studying swimmers in a special donut-shaped pool--a lane-wide loop that enabled continuous swimming--Pendergast found that boosting friction drag lessens two more detrimental types of drag: pressure drag, caused by the shape of the body, and wave drag, the wake created by the swimmer. Friction drag generally occurs at slower speeds, whereas pressure drag and wave drag are encountered as the swimmer moves faster.
An article on the Scientific American website
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa004&articleID=000902AC-487A-1112-B89C83414B7F4945 (http://).
The swimsuit company giants Speedo and Tyr are likely to be the center of attention in the swimming with both companies claiming to have the upper edge.
The surprising thing is the making of the Speedo's Fastskin Suit and Tyr's Aqua Shift. While Speedo is trying to reduce the drag between swimmer and water to minimum, Tyr has increased the drag force!
Speedo has it all wrong, according to swimsuit maker Tyr. To go faster in water, you need to increase friction drag, not reduce it, argues David Pendergast, one of the inventors of Tyr's Aqua Shift suit and a professor at the University of Buffalo's Center for Research and Education in Special Environments (CRESE), an institution that counts the U.S. Navy SEALS and NASA among its clients. After studying swimmers in a special donut-shaped pool--a lane-wide loop that enabled continuous swimming--Pendergast found that boosting friction drag lessens two more detrimental types of drag: pressure drag, caused by the shape of the body, and wave drag, the wake created by the swimmer. Friction drag generally occurs at slower speeds, whereas pressure drag and wave drag are encountered as the swimmer moves faster.