Great results. Taking a swimsuit and achieving a 5% reduction in drag is huge considering that some races are decided by only tenths or hundredths of a second. Amazing breakthrough.
While I agree, this is an amazing breakthrough - call me old-fashioned. I think everyone should just wear the same thing to equalize swimwear in the competition. Is it about the advances in technology or is it about the human physical endeavor? I bet there are some great applications for this technology, just not so sure that swimming competitions should be so caught up in external advantages that not everyone has access to...just my opinion though.
It's a shame that the record-breaking swimsuit was banned. It would have been better to make it a standard so swimmers could still compete on an equal basis.
Just as improved running shoes have made it easier for everyone to run better, it would have made it easier for everyone to swim better.
It is not difficult to imagine people enjoying the water environment better and even swimming across oceans in faster and faster times.
I don't know, Nancy. Look at all the posts Design News runs on all the different tweaks and slight modifications to race cars, all at the same time when the industry is heavily policed to ensure there is a level playing "track." I think there are parallels to this example. The governing body that presides over swimming competitions sets the rules and then the swimsuit manufacturers and athletes all have to comply, but can still innovate to draw some sort of advantage.
I see what you are saying Beth, but I think the analogy breaks down a little bit because it is the human body providing the energy to propel forward in swimming while in automotive racing it is the engine - so while it takes a skilled driver to win, it is the car that must be capable of achieving winning speeds. So to me, car racing is a combination of the car and the driver to succeed. A swimmer depends on their own physical ability. Slight nuance here but I think it exists...but then I always liked it when they added weights to saddles in horse racing so that every horse was carrying the same weight.
I'm sure there are people who would say that only full body swim suits with trunks should be used.
I suspect it is like the racing cars that used to be sponsored by the auto companies. If you can show you support high speed vehicles, the customer may feel that you may be incorporating some of the features into your own cars...and what better than speed suits for Speedo?
Rob, it sounds like you are an innovator yourself.
That makes perfect sense, Musashi. If Speedo is seen designing bleeding edge swimwear for elite swimmers, they raise their status with the mass market.
And I would hope they would produce the full body, squeeze down suit for the rest of us because the skimpy brief-type Speedo suit is denfinitely not suited for my older body shape.
Nor my body shape, Musashi. Is this something that would appeal to recreational swimmers? Or even workout swimmers? I do a ton of recreational swimming with my kids, and my swimsuit view is the simpler the better.
A new battery design, which replaces lithium with abundant and low-cost elemental sulfur, is still in its nascent stages but shows real promise for giving batteries more energy potential.
PTC will offer a virtual desktop environment for its Creo product design applications, potentially freeing engineers to run them from remote desktops on a variety of operating systems and mobile devices.
The push to achieving more intelligent, integrated manufacturing is putting a strong focus on networking and connectivity as key enabling technologies.
Now that solar and wind harvesting technologies are a thriving market, researchers are seeking other environmentally related energy sources for which they can create harvesting devices.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
To save this item to your list of favorite Design News content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
Tweet This
7 
