They tow a passive subject to lead, and then make various measures on an active subject trying to draft the leader.
But in a real swimming situation, the leader is not passive: he is pulling and kicking. And this makes a huge differencve: the leader has to push water behind him, which means he has to create a stream in the opposite direction of his move. This obviously is a strong disadvantage for the drafting subject: reminder: a swimmer of mass M moving forward with velocity V must push backward a mass m of water with medium velocity v, and MV + mv = 0.
By ignoring the opposite stream created by the leading swimmer in a real swimming situation, this study could grossly exagerate the advantage of drafting.
They tow a passive subject to lead, and then make various measures on an active subject trying to draft the leader.
But in a real swimming situation, the leader is not passive: he is pulling and kicking. And this makes a huge differencve: the leader has to push water behind him, which means he has to create a stream in the opposite direction of his move. This obviously is a strong disadvantage for the drafting subject: reminder: a swimmer of mass M moving forward with velocity V must push backward a mass m of water with medium velocity v, and MV + mv = 0.
By ignoring the opposite stream created by the leading swimmer in a real swimming situation, this study could grossly exagerate the advantage of drafting.
Yes, it's impossible to know all the complexities of the currents produced by Phelps's arms, feet and body, the influence of the lane rope, the reflections near the wall etc. on Lenton in the lane next door. The idea that you can get a video of the race and figure it all out even approximately is ridiculous.
