Swimming is a sport that involves a lot of physics. From the technique right off the starting blocks, to the technique of the strokes, it’s everywhere. To move through the water at a fast pace is the swimmers key to getting a fast time. A swimmer must push or pull the water to be propelled through it. The water is, of course, fluid and thus the push or pull is not as effective as it would be against a solid object. Suppose we added something to the water to make it more viscous or a high resistance to flow, so that it was less fluid. Could someone swim faster through such water?
To find the answer, an experiment was done where they added guar to the swimming pool to make a viscosity twice that of the water. The swimmers were timed swimming 25 yards. The result from the test showed that increased viscosity did give the swimmer a better push or pull, but it also in turn increased the drag against the swimmer. They cancelled each other out.
How exactly was the experiment planned out you ask? Swimmers of different levels entered a swimming pool were guar was added to the pool water and mixed for 36 hours. This made the water twice that of regular swimming pool water. Ten competitive swimmers and 6 recreational swimmers swam 25 yards in the guar filled pool, and then 25 yards in a regular swimming pool. Both sets of swimmers would rest three minutes between swims. The lap time, glide off the wall, and number of strokes were recorded. The final result was that swimmers swimming in the guar swam the same times the swimmers swam in the regular pool water. Swimmers even swam the four different strokes, backstroke, breastroke, butterfly, and freestyle, and swam the same times in both pools.
So if you’re a swimmer and you think that you might swim faster if only the water was thicker so you would get a better pull think again. The drag of the guar solution would slow you down so the pull would cancel out. It’s better to stick with your regular swimming pool water than to try and swim faster in guar.
Here is a picture of the olympic swimming pool in Beijing:
References:
Gettelfinger, B., & Cussler, E. (2004). Will Humans Swim Faster or Slower in Syrup? AIChE Journal , 2646-2647: This article had all the information about the process they authors went through to see if you really do swim faster or slower in syrup. This is relevant to the question, because this isthe question to my application labor. This information is reliable because this is pertaining to my labor exactly. It is from the author of the books website. This article is useful to my answer because it tell me more in depth things about how they came across to my answer.
Davidson, R. L. (1980). Handbook of water-soluble gums and resins . New York: McGraw-Hill.This book was very useful for informing me of what guar is, and where it is found, and all the other little facts about guar gum, as well as other types of gum. I had never heard of guar, so this explained what it is and really made me get a good understanding of it. The book was very useful. This source is very credible, I found it in the library and right in the title it says it’s a book about gums and resins, and the fact it was published by McGraw Hill lead me to believe it’s a solid reference.
Antigone , A. (2009, October 5). Swimming in syrup. Retrieved from http://www.mythbustersfanclub.com/mb2/content/view/286/27/:This was a written description from a fan of the show myth busters who is part of the fan club, they wrote what happened on the day of the show they tried swimming in syrup to prove the myth. The source was very useful; they did similar trials to what the people from flying circus did, and even got close results. The credibility of this source is probably not the best means a fan of the show wrote it. The information was very similar to mine though. The only difference is that the guys on the show experimented with different thicknesses of the guar.