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KIDS: Our World!
Globey, allow me introduce you to my alter ego... MEGA EVAN!
That's right... I'm MEGA EVAN! Exploring the
universe...defending the Globey!
OK. Actually, I'm wearing this super suit because it
kind of reminded me of the super suit NASA helped to
develop for the Olympic swimmers.
That's right! NASA worked with Speedo in the development
of an amazing suit for Olympic swimmers. But this isn't just a bathing suit;
it uses advanced technology to help swimmers move through the water faster.
And the swimmers wearing these suits set all kinds of Olympic records.
So how did NASA, who specializes in Air and Space technology,
get involved in testing a swimsuit for Olympians?
Let's ask engineer Steve Wilkinson, who worked on the project at NASA Langley.
STEVE WILKINSON: NASA has a lot of experience with
trying to reduce the drag force on airplanes.
The engineer who approached us, the other aerospace engineer
who approached us, is working for the Speedo corporation,
asked for our help in designing a swimsuit
that has some of the same features that we use in our airplane research.
How can you test a material that's designed to be used in
a swimming pool, how can you test that in air? Well, it's
a little game we play with the speed. A swimmer, a good
swimmer in an Olympic event will swim at about 2 meters per second.
It turns out, if we run our wind tunnel at about 15 times
faster or 30 meters per second,
we can simulate the conditions in the swimming pool.
This is a sample of one of the fabrics that we
received from Speedo to test in this study. What we do is
we take fabric such as this and we stretch them over a
metal frame and this is the model that we place in the wind tunnel.
So we set this in the tunnel like this. The flow moves
across the surface, tries to push it along and measure that force.
Everything has to be referenced to the optimal surface,
a very smooth surface and what we use for that is this
aluminum plate that is polished so it has no roughness on it at all.
And that's what we compare our fabric measurements to.
This is the best case right here. What we tried to do
with the fabric is create a fabric that has a drag as
close to this flat plate as possible.
And what Speedo found out was that this particular coated
fabric is actually very close to the smooth flat plate.
EVAN: So Mr. Wilkinson, how does testing fabrics in a
wind tunnel help make a person swim faster?
STEVE: The whole idea of this research was to develop a
fabric with the lowest possible drag.
Drag is the force on any moving body that restrains
its motion as it moves. Think about driving down the
road and sticking your hand out the window- if you put
your palm facing the wind, you'll feel a very strong force on your hand.
This is called a pressure drag, or pressure drag force.
And it tries to push your hand back.
If you turned your hand parallel to the wind you
feel a much lower drag force. This is what we call a friction drag.
And this is what Speedo was trying to reduce when they came to us.
EVAN: So drag happens when an object moves through air or water,
slowing the object down. The less drag, the easier
something can move through the air or water. For example,
air planes and cars experience drag as they move through the air.
Boats experience drag as they move through the water.
Swimmers are no different. As they move through the water,
drag slows them down. Get it?
I know NASA has developed space suits for decades,
but who would have thought they could apply their know-
how to help reduce drag on Olympic swimsuits. Amazing!
Hey Mr. Wilkinson, did you get to meet any Olympians?
STEVE: I got to meet Michael Phelps and Katie Hoff,
and Natalie Coughlin while I was there.
They were very nice people and they love the suit.
EVAN: Nasa windtunnels have been used to test all kinds of things.
Airplanes, rockets, even Nascar racecars. And now swimming suit materials.
So the next time you go swimming think about how
drag effects your speed as you move through the water.
What do you think Globey, you think NASA could help me with MY super suit.
Yeah, I think so too. For now, this is MEGA EVAN signing off!
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KIDS: Our World!