[Paddlewise] paddle sizing etc

Nick Schade wrote:

>More apparent slippage is inefficient. 

Why? Say you had 100% "slippage". You have no propulsion, but at the
same time, almost no effort. 

We've been playing fast and loose with this idea of "slippage". Now
there *is* such a thing as a zero-slip canoe paddle; it's called a canoe
pole, and my friend Jeff Potter could tell us all about it. But a pole
is used in a very different way from a paddle specifically because of
the much higher resistance. You couldn't paddle the way we're used to
with a "zero-slippage" paddle. The effort would be way too high.

So human biomechanics dictate that our paddles can't produce too much
resistance. 

>...You must accelerate
> water to propel the boat, but the more you accelerate the
>water, the less efficient your paddling will be.

This I don't follow. *Any* energy you impart into moving water backwards
will result in moving your kayak forwards. 

>.. Any 
>acceleration of the water is energy imparted to the 
>water which would more efficiently be spent moving your 
>kayak. 

Same thing, isn't it? Newton's second law.

>...Your goal therefore is to maximize the mass.

You can trade off mass vs acceleration. What makes for efficiency in the
long haul is biomechanics- how to extract the maximum useful work out of
the paddler.

-- mike
---------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Edelman   mje_at_spamcop.net
http://www.foldingkayaks.org (nomadics)
http://www.findascope.com (choosing a telescope)

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