The Physical Aspects of Fish Locomotion

Abstract

The resistance of an inert fish moving in water is approximately the same as that of a wooden model similar in form and moving at the same velocity. When a lamina is made to vibrate in a current of air, it exerts a thrust in the direction in which the vibrations are travelling over the lamina; as long as the velocity of movement of the vibrations exceeds that of the external current of air, the resistance of the lamina is negative. Attention is drawn to the significance of the Katzmayr effect in respect to the locomotion of fish.