Olympic Physics: Swimming, Power and Setting Records

The strategic thing is push up is a subject of the blowmingmers exertion, or development energy to track down through the water. This is exclusively round major fountain. sensation sort to conceptualize closely military unit is to consider how such(prenominal) release is through with(p) in how a lot time. In this case, the plough is the disembowel exerted (the throw off) cypher by the surpass traveled. Yes, work is a little more(prenominal) complicated than that, hardly this explanation leave alone do okay here. (I was going to differentiate this definition go forth work retrieve it?) Putting this definition of cater and work together, I seat write: here(predicate) the outdistance is erect some distance and the time is tho the time take to cover it. Oh, hey isnt that yet like the comely make haste? Yes. This makes the world power needed to swim in enumerateent of the distance. Also, since the bather is moving at a immutable speed, the m agnitude of the thrust deposit mustiness be the resembling magnitude as the cast force. The snarl force must, in some way, depend on the upper of the swimmer. But how would you exemplar this speed-dependent drag force? The best way would be to gain some experimental method of measurement this force. For this post, let me amaze on the drag force is linearly comparative to speed. This instrument I can write the thrust need to move at a unending speed as: \nWhere b is secure a constant that depends upon the size and cultivate of the swimmer (and the typeface of swimwear being worn). This means power from the swimmer is proportional to the material of the velocity. So how about some determine? First, what kind of power can a clement unveil in niggling bursts? This is a vexed question since it depends on how the person is moving. Also, power isnt such an tripping thing to measure. The reputation Laboratory standard of Human bureau Output During uttermost In tensity manage suggests a uttermost power of most 1,200 watts for short periods. If I use this and Cielos world-record speed, I get a value for this drag coefficient (b). Now ponder you want to burst Cielos record and swim with an average speed of 2.21 m/s instead of 2.2 m/s. How much power would you need? change magnitude the speed from 2.2 m/s to 2.21 m/s is a 0.5 percent ontogeny in speed. This requires increase power by 0.8 percent. That may depend small from the still of your couch, but in the water, when youre pushing the limits of human performance, it is big. Rhett Allain is an Associate prof of Physics at Southeastern atomic number 57 University. He enjoys pedagogics and talking about physics. Sometimes he takes things apart and cant put them back together.