Montshire Minute: Boats and Water Sports

Originally aired during the week of August 4, 2003

Monday

"There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter." So says Ratty to Mole in Wind and the Willows. But traveling anywhere in boats requires that you do something more than merely mess about. Boats move because Newton's third law applies: every action has an equal and opposite reaction. The rower pushes on the water in one direction, and so moves the boat in the other. To magnify their effort and increase their force on the water, rowers use long oars, which work like levers. Don't think of a rowing stroke as simply pushing water backwards. Rather, imagine each stroke as a rower's effort to pry her boat forward past the water and you are beginning to get the lever idea. With our new sports exhibit Team Up now on display, we'll be looking at the science behind boats and water sports this week.

Tuesday

Gaze out from the tower of the Montshire Museum on a hot summer day and you're likely to see the Connecticut River foaming with activity. Rowers, canoeists and swimmers all slice, dart and cavort through the water. Of course, not all these athletes are moving at the same speed. Speed is affected by the force being applied through effort. It is also affected by resistance, which can be a real drag! Frictional drag (sometimes called "skin drag" by athletes) is caused by the body's surface moving through the water. To combat this resistance, swimmers wear caps and smooth, snug suits; some even shave their body hair. Form drag is resistance due to an object's shape and profile in the water. A tight, narrow shape like a racing crew shell experiences less form drag than the broad, blunter shape of a swimmer.

Wednesday

"Boys, prepare for a power ten to make this boat MOVE in two: ONE, TWO - STROKE" Did you ever hear the call of the coxswain to her oarsmen on the Connecticut River? For thousands of years, humans have been harnessing their own energy to propel boats through the water. A rower's fitness is a good indicator of a boat's potential horsepower. One way to determine how fit you are - and the size of your engine - is to measure your V02 max, or how much oxygen your body can consume each minute. If you or I measured our oxygen consumption it would be about 40 milliliters per minute per kilogram. The VO2 max of athletes in endurance sports like rowing, cross-country skiing and biking is often twice that. Legendary biker Lance Armstrong can be confident as he heads into the mountains in the Tour de France this summer because his V02Max of 84 is very high!

Thursday

Only a brave few jump into the Connecticut River for a swim with nothing but goggles and a suit between them and the cold waters. One, who has done so for more days and more miles than almost anyone else, is Christopher Swain. In 1996, Swain swam 210 miles of the lower Connecticut, from Vermont to the Atlantic Ocean. Just two weeks ago, he became the first person to swim the Columbia River. During his 13-month journey through blizzards and freezing water his body adapted by adding 10 pounds of muscle and 12 pounds of fat as an insulating layer. Though Swain's altered physique shows the human body's ability to adjust to its environment, it does not support the myth that fatter equals faster in swimming. Researchers have found that while additional fat can make swimmers more buoyant, the larger body size also increases drag.

Friday

Competitive swimmers are using science to slice precious milliseconds of time off their personal records. Before the 1970s swimmers were taught to pull their hand straight backward through the water like a canoe paddle. Today they are taught an S-shaped motion, where the edge of their hand splits the water and generates lift, which propels them forward in the water in the same way that to the way a propeller's wing-shaped blades push a boat forward. In the Sydney Olympics, swimmers traded body shaving for bodysuits made of fabric that imitates the V-shaped ridges found on a shark's skin. These FastskinTM swimsuits led to a reduction in friction drag and the shattering of numerous world records. Come visit the Montshire Museum's Team Up exhibit to learn more about the wonders of water sports, and perhaps your favorite land sport.