MetaChat - Would you swim faster in water or in a 'syrup' do you think?

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25 February 2006

Would you swim faster in water or in a 'syrup' do you think? →[More:]Read this after you think about it or come to a conclusion. [via]
Otherwise, what's your favourite bathing fantasy medium?

post by: peacay at: 16:13 | 9 comments

Otherwise, what's your favourite bathing fantasy medium?

Phlegm. A bathtub of phlegm full of a hot Korean robot #8 like Grace Park.

posted by orthogonality 25 February | 16:19

≡ Click to see image ≡

posted by orthogonality 25 February | 16:23

The best swimmer should have the body of a snake and the arms of a gorilla,"

What's wrong with flippers?

Otherwise, what's your favourite bathing fantasy medium?

It used to be Jack Daniels, but then I thought about how much that was sting.

Cute, but as implied by the researchers, it will depend on how syrupy the syrup is.

posted by porpoise 25 February | 16:24

I'd swim faster in a LearJet.

posted by Smart Dalek 25 February | 16:24

what is this 'bathing' you speak of, strange one?

posted by jonmc 25 February | 16:40

Water.

Where's that Reynold's Number article? Here it is. It's worth reading. My former GF, when she was a grad student in astro, had a class where the prof posed this question in terms of "what would happen if you tried to swim in a liquid with zero viscosity?"

Ah. (I followed the link. Spoilers follow.)

That's not always the case. Below a certain threshold of speed and size, viscous drag becomes the dominant force, making gloopy fluids are more difficult to swim through. Had Cussler done his experiment on swimming bacteria instead of humans, he would have recorded much slower times in syrup than in water.

posted by kmellis 25 February | 17:08

I remember reading about a similar question in on of Richard Feynman's books (probably Surely You're Joking...). His question was water vs. jelly.

posted by Miko 25 February | 17:11

Zero viscosity = no traction (or whatever you wanna call it.) So this rules out swimming in Helium II.

posted by warbaby 26 February | 01:59

Hmm, that zero viscosity/no traction thing - this implies pushing against water to move, n'est pas?

What about turbulence type of propulsion?

posted by porpoise 26 February | 13:14

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