Richard Culpeper wrote: > Doesn't work that way. For example, if people paddle out of sync in a > dragon boat, the boat does not move anywhere nearly as quickly as if they > are paddling in sync. > > Canoes, kayaks and rowing shells work more like cross-country skis and ice > skates, where the glide is very important. Kick and glide . . . stoke and > glide . . . You don't get the glide if you don't get the kick, and you don't > get the kick unless you are in sync. Perhaps there would be a market for cars with their cylinder in sync? Anyway: You've got me started on rowing. You shouldn't have. Usually, we measure efficiency by calculating the power needed to propel a vehicle _forwards_. Since rowing boats are going _backwards_, they have a negative efficiency. The exercise is less than pointless. Rowers could dramatically increase their efficiency by dropping an anchor: The efficiency would jump from minus-whatever to zero. Until and unless rowers adapt such simple, cheap and obvious measures to increase their efficiency, there's little point in discussing the finer details. Niels *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Mon May 02 2011 - 07:22:56 PDT
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:31:45 PDT