Swimming Of A Dead Fish: An Informational Article For The Curious And Informed
The swimming of a dead fish is a phenomenon that may be seen when some types of fish die.
Author:Suleman ShahReviewer:Han JuApr 26, 20220 Shares117 Views
Opisthotonus, or "opisthotonic posturing," is another name for this phenomenon.
It happens when the fish's muscles tighten after death, creating rigor mortis and stiffening of the fish's body.
The fins and tail are often extended, and the mouth is open.
Anger or fear is not the right emotion to feel when dying.
This is just a normal reaction.
Of course, evolution being what it is, genuine marine species have evolved to benefit from the energy boost provided by flowing water, not only while they're dead.
The majority of fish have a "lateral line."
Why Does Dead Fish Swim?
The obstruction creates a wake of alternating vortices in the flow.
When the fish is appropriately positioned in that wake, the eddies bend its body, causing its head and tail to point in opposite directions.
Under the right circumstances, a resonance between the vortices and the fish's body provides enough thrust to overcome the fish's drag.
This implies the fish can travel upstream without wasting any of its energy!
The researchers found this by accident, and one of the mysteries is how the trout can sense its surroundings so well that it can take advantage of the impact.
This study was conducted and reported on by D. N. Beal and M. S. Triantafyllou of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, and Harvard University, Cambridge, in the United States.
The findings were published in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics.
According to the author, when he was a kid, his father would take him trout fishing, and he'd spend hours on the riverbank marveling at the trout's seemingly effortless ability to hold their position in the fast-moving water.
As it turns out, those trout were swimming effortlessly in the manner shown above.
The fish you see swimming behind the obstacle is no longer alive.
For it to move, its body has to be able to get the energy from the flow around it.
Is It True That Only Dead Fish Swim With The Stream?
To prevent being washed downstream, a fish must expend energy and swim against the river in nature.
The fish in the aquarium travel in the same direction as the moving card, which may be considered a stationary item in the stream.
Swimming with a dead fish, on the other hand, is incredible!
To extend this conclusion from the dead fish experiments to mechanical devices and to demonstrate the applicability of these results in an engineering context, a flexibly mounted two-dimensional rigid foil is capable of producing net thrust using only fluid-induced motion and negative mechanical power input, i.e., all of the required mechanical power is extracted from the flow.
Placing a light object in this forward-flowing, stagnant fluid would cause it to move forward toward the object, just like the dead fish did in the stream.
The mirrored permanent eddies right behind the object and the trail of mirrored wake vortices would push the object forward.
For those who dispute the force of this stagnant forward flow, the Magnus effect explains what happens when this flow is directed preferentially beneath one surface of a revolving cylinder, creating lift on the cylinder.
This is how some ships with rotors use wind power. It works the same way that an angled wing lifts by diverting sluggish flow to one side.
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Conclusion
A dead fish is driven upstream as its flexible body resonates with impending vortices created in the wake of a bluff cylinder, despite being far beyond the cylinder's suction area. In this technique of passive propulsion, the fish's body takes enough energy from the approaching vortices to generate enough push to overcome its drag.
A passively attached high-aspect-ratio foil is demonstrated to push itself upstream in a comparable turbulent wake and at nearly the same distance behind a bluff cylinder, using a similar flow energy extraction process.
In this situation, mechanical energy is removed from the flow simultaneously as thrusts are created.
These findings demonstrate experimentally that, given the right circumstances, a body may trail or even catch up to another upstream body without using its ene
This is very important for developing low-drag energy collecting systems and fish energetics that live in moving water and swim through wake-forming barriers.
Suleman Shah
Author
Suleman Shah is a researcher and freelance writer. As a researcher, he has worked with MNS University of Agriculture, Multan (Pakistan) and Texas A & M University (USA). He regularly writes science articles and blogs for science news website immersse.com and open access publishers OA Publishing London and Scientific Times. He loves to keep himself updated on scientific developments and convert these developments into everyday language to update the readers about the developments in the scientific era. His primary research focus is Plant sciences, and he contributed to this field by publishing his research in scientific journals and presenting his work at many Conferences.
Shah graduated from the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (Pakistan) and started his professional carrier with Jaffer Agro Services and later with the Agriculture Department of the Government of Pakistan. His research interest compelled and attracted him to proceed with his carrier in Plant sciences research. So, he started his Ph.D. in Soil Science at MNS University of Agriculture Multan (Pakistan). Later, he started working as a visiting scholar with Texas A&M University (USA).
Shah’s experience with big Open Excess publishers like Springers, Frontiers, MDPI, etc., testified to his belief in Open Access as a barrier-removing mechanism between researchers and the readers of their research. Shah believes that Open Access is revolutionizing the publication process and benefitting research in all fields.
Han Ju
Reviewer
Hello! I'm Han Ju, the heart behind World Wide Journals. My life is a unique tapestry woven from the threads of news, spirituality, and science, enriched by melodies from my guitar. Raised amidst tales of the ancient and the arcane, I developed a keen eye for the stories that truly matter. Through my work, I seek to bridge the seen with the unseen, marrying the rigor of science with the depth of spirituality.
Each article at World Wide Journals is a piece of this ongoing quest, blending analysis with personal reflection. Whether exploring quantum frontiers or strumming chords under the stars, my aim is to inspire and provoke thought, inviting you into a world where every discovery is a note in the grand symphony of existence.
Welcome aboard this journey of insight and exploration, where curiosity leads and music guides.
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