4 ms·

I would like to see what happens to a swimmer with a suit coated with this thing. Would it go faster or slower?

• eisbaw 15y ago
  Faster: Friction is reduced.
  • kokoloko 15y ago
    Or slower, since you cannot "push" so much water with hands and feet as it "slips" through. Who wins: lower friction or lower viscosity?
    • kemiller 15y ago
      Typical swimsuit doesn't cover the arms or legs, does it?
      • deleted 15y ago
        [deleted]
      • phoobahr 15y ago
        They used to, or rather there used to be the option. In the 2000's swim suit manufacturers played with all kinds of things including extremely high tech fabrics, even plastics, and suit lengths. In 2010 though the world governing body of swimming (FINA) rather controversially banned anything above the waist or below the knee for men, beyond the shoulder or below the knee for women and anything other than textile fabrics for either gender. A relevant article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/swimming/5900497/Fina-bans-hi-tech-swimsuits-with-only-textile-suits-allowed-from-2010.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/swimming/5900497/F... You can also find plenty of video of Ian Thorpe racing in suits wrist to ankle as early as 2000.
    • dalke 15y ago
      These people tested the question experimentally: http://gemini.cems.umn.edu/research/cussler/pool/ http://gemini.cems.umn.edu/research/cussler/pool/ . At twice the viscosity there was no noticeable speed difference.