Physics of Swimming Essay -- physics swim swimming

The study of physical science and fluid dynamics in swimming has been a field of increasing interest for study in the past few decades among swimming coaches and enthusiasts. Despite the long history of research, the understand of how to move the human form effectively through the water is notwithstanding in its infancy. Competitive swimmers and their coaches of all levels are constantly striving for shipway to improve their stroke technique and overall performance. The research and performances of todays swimmers are constantly disproving the beliefs of the past. Like in all sports, a better understanding of physics is enabling the world class swimmers to accomplish times never forwards thought possible. This was displayed on the grandest of scales in the 2000 Olympics when Ian Thorpe, Inge De Bruijn, Pieter Van Den Hoogenband and a consider of other swimmers broke a total of twelve world records and legion(predicate) Olympic and national records. Several fo rces play significant roles in the try of the human body through the water. The forces are twist, lift, gravity and buoyancy. Lift and drag are the main propulsive forces that are used by swimmers. Resistance, cognize as drag, can be broken into three main categories head-on resistance, skin friction, and eddy resistance. The effect of buoyancy in swimming is outmatch described by Archimedes principle a body fully or partially submerged in a fluid is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the fluid that is displaced by the body.1 This effectively negates any effects that gravity might have on a swimmer. The rare exception to this is a swimmer with very little body fat, and this is overcome by keeping the lungs inflated to a certain stage at all times. Frontal... ...s, but through her intense regiment of survival of the fittest training she was recently able to win two Olympic metal(prenominal) medals. A select few swimmers go beyond momentum and dext erity and use power to its fullest and have no competition, like Ian Thorpe or the formerly great Alex Popov. Works Cited 1 David Halliday, Robert Resnick, and Jearl Walker, Fundamentals of Physics, Extended, 5th ed. (NewYorkWiley, 1997) 361 2 Cecil M. Colwin, travel Into the 21st Century, (Champaign Human Kinetics, 1992) 20-32, 58-59 3 James E. Counsilman and Brian E. Counsilman, The New Science of Swimming, (Englewood Cliffs prentice Hall, 1994) 6-7 4 James E. Counsilman and Brian E. Counsilman, The New Science of Swimming, (Englewood Cliffs Prentice Hall, 1994) 10-22 5 Robert E. Schleihauf, A biomechanical analysis of freestyle. Swimming Technique, 1974, 11(3), 89-96