help me with a term paper?

[zin]

If the water flows around them smoothly then wouldnt that mean they are more hydrodynamic, thus being able to propel themselfs faster/easier?

Yeah the number was right, some of the stuff i read was pretty cool

couldnt air be concidered a fluid? Part of the equation is for fluid density

for some reason i remember seeing stuff in wind tunnels where they flow smoke over them, and sometimes you can see the spirals.

 

[happychem]

Yes, air is a fluid, it's just much less dense than water.

I think that if flow is laminar around them then they could move more easily, but I suspect that their size makes it such that they strattle the border between turbulent and laminar flows. So at high burst speeds they would experience laminar conditions but at slower speeds turbulent. Hence the speed is the key to their situation.

 

[LGooley]

Hi,
I have actually found myself thinking about this question all day. (Not good when you are supposed to be working) My question is how do you get them to swim at their full potential without them getting hurt. What if you put them in a long tank. Kept the segregated by some kind of gate and then put food at the other end of the tank. Somehow set up some kind of radar gun and or video equipment. Release the gate and I would think that they will bee line right for the food (straight line). I would think if you did several trials of this experiment you could then average out the speeds to get a relatively accurate answer. Just a thought.

Regarding my earlier post. I was not mad in anyway. I just find your questions very intriguing. They make me think. You seem to have a view on things that varys from the norm. Good luck with your experiment. I am really interested in hearing your results.
Thanks,
Letty

 

[JesseJ]

guh...science terms......grunt.........

Me no know how fast little fishie swims.....

Seriously though, I think that the easiest way to do this would be to get a picture tank (long thin tank that makes it easy to take pix of fish) and only put about 1 inch of water in it to force the fish into as straight a line as possible. Put a measuring tape along the frame of the tank and then take a good video camera and tape the fish swimming (use bait, bang the glass, whatever to get it moving) and upload the video into a good software program and watch it frame by frame to accuratly measure speed and time.

I don't know accurate this will be due to the differences between seperate individuals of the same species. Some fry will be faster then others. If you test a random sampling of a few dozen fry you should get a general idea of how fast they are.