WEBVTT

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🎵 [music] 🎵

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KIDS: Our World!

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Globey, allow me introduce you
to my alter ego... MEGA EVAN!

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That's right... I'm MEGA EVAN!
Exploring the

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universe...defending the
Globey!

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OK. Actually, I'm wearing this
super suit because it

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kind of reminded me of the
super suit NASA helped to

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develop for the Olympic
swimmers.

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That's right! NASA worked with
Speedo in the development

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of an amazing suit for Olympic
swimmers. But this isn't just a
bathing suit;

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it uses advanced technology to
help swimmers move through the
water faster.

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And the swimmers wearing these
suits set all kinds of  Olympic
records.

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So how did NASA, who
specializes in Air and Space
technology,

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get involved in testing a
swimsuit for Olympians?

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Let's ask engineer Steve
Wilkinson, who worked on the
project at NASA Langley.

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STEVE WILKINSON: NASA has a lot
of  experience with

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trying to reduce the drag force
on airplanes.

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The engineer who approached us,
the other aerospace engineer

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who approached us, is working
for the Speedo corporation,

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asked for our help in designing
a swimsuit

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that has some of the same
features that we use in our
airplane research.

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How can you test a material
that's designed to be used in

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a swimming pool, how can you
test that in air?  Well, it's

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a little game we play with the
speed.  A swimmer, a good

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swimmer in an Olympic event
will swim at about 2 meters per
second.

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It turns out, if we run our
wind tunnel at about 15 times

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faster or 30 meters per second,

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we can simulate the conditions
in the swimming pool.

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This is a sample of one of the
fabrics that we

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received from Speedo to test in
this study.  What we do is

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we take fabric such as this and
we stretch them over a

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metal frame and this is the
model that we place in the wind
tunnel.

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So we set this in the tunnel
like this.  The flow moves

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across the surface, tries to
push it along and measure that
force.

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Everything has to be referenced
to the optimal surface,

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a very smooth surface and what
we use for that is this

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aluminum plate that is polished
so it has no roughness on it at
all.

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And that's what we compare our
fabric measurements to.

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This is the best case right
here.  What we tried to do

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with the fabric is create a
fabric that has a drag as

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close to this flat plate as
possible.

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And what Speedo found out was
that this particular coated

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fabric is actually very close
to the smooth flat plate.

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EVAN: So Mr. Wilkinson, how
does testing fabrics in a

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wind tunnel help make a person
swim faster?

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STEVE: The whole idea of this
research was to develop a

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fabric with the lowest possible
drag.

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Drag is the force on any moving
body that restrains

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its motion as it moves.  Think
about driving down the

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road and sticking your hand out
the window- if you put

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your palm facing the wind,
you'll feel a very strong force
on your hand.

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This is called a pressure drag,
or pressure drag force.

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And it tries to push your hand
back.

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If you turned your hand
parallel to the wind you

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feel a much lower drag force.
This is what we call a friction
drag.

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And this is what Speedo was
trying to reduce when they came
to us.

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EVAN: So drag happens when an
object moves through air or
water,

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slowing the object down. The
less drag, the easier

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something can move through the
air or water. For example,

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air planes and cars experience
drag as they move through the
air.

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Boats experience drag as they
move through the water.

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Swimmers are no different.  As
they move through the water,

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drag slows them down.  Get it?

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I know NASA has developed space
suits for decades,

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but who would have thought they
could apply their know-

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how to help reduce drag on
Olympic swimsuits. Amazing!

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Hey Mr. Wilkinson, did you get
to meet any Olympians?

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STEVE: I got to meet Michael
Phelps and Katie Hoff,

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and Natalie Coughlin while I
was there.

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They were very nice people and
they love the suit.

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EVAN: Nasa windtunnels have
been used to test all kinds of
things.

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Airplanes, rockets, even Nascar
racecars.  And now swimming
suit materials.

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So the next time you go
swimming think about how

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drag effects your speed as you
move through the water.

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What do you think Globey, you
think  NASA could help me with
MY super suit.

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Yeah, I think so too. For now,
this is MEGA EVAN signing off!

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? [music] ?

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KIDS: Our World!