black/white

[nickso]

Before Lewis Hamilton you never really saw any black racing car drivers, mainly because black people are shyte at driving. Lewis however is a genius.

He is more mulatto than black though.

 

[Space cat]

What does buoyancy have to do with swimming? It's lung capacity that governs buoyancy anyway

Buoyancy is determined by your average density relative to the surrounding fluid. If it's lower you float but if its higher you sink - unless you expend energy to generate downward thrust but then you'll have less available for forward propulsion.

Your average density is obtained by dividing your total mass by your total volume. Large lungs provide extra volume with minimal extra mass so that's good. Denser muscles and bigger bones pack more mass into the same volume, which is bad. Although I'm white, nature gave me heavy bones anyway so I was never any good in the school swimming baths. (I can still remember trying to paddle along with a polystyrene float held out in front. The thing always went slowly downwards until my arms were vertical - then I followed it! ) Things have got a little easier now that I've gained three stone of surplus fat but I'm still not much good.

The need to swim appears to have influenced the evolution of life as we know it. I think it's the case that all land animals can swim (though few can do so underwater). Heavier, stronger bones would be an advantage on land. We could have evolved with bones build around calcium carbonate (which is effectively what shellfish did) but it just didn't happen.

 

[poshman]

We were told over 70% of Jamaicans can't swim.

A few hundred years ago, most people in the UK couldn't swim either; not even Royal Navy sailors! You couldn't make it up if you tried.

my dad was a non swimmer in the royal navy, when his ship went down during the last war he stayed in the damaged raft as it was sinking. others swam away but drowned , needless to say he survived days later clinging onto the raft

 

[EddieM]

What does buoyancy have to do with swimming? It's lung capacity that governs buoyancy anyway, that's why dogs float.

maybe you should ask some fish, they have a swim bladder and no lungs.

 

[UriBentMySpoon]

Unless we embark on a worldwide mix of all our genetic material and clone the best genetic mix we can there will be always genetic differences. To ask why black people run faster, why whites swim faster is the same as saying why are the Chinese for example shorter than Westerners, why people have ginger hair and why some people have big noses.

 

[Space cat]

Unless we embark on a worldwide mix of all our genetic material --

What we need is a great big melting pot --

-- and forty three years on, the jury is still out as to whether it will ever happen.

But would it be a good thing anyway? I might just start a poll on that one.

 

[Brigadier]

Don't know what this has to do with anything, but....

I joined a swimming club almost a year ago. Long story short, my front crawl "flutter kick" was / is pitiful. After the glide from the wall, my vigorous efforts could offer no forward momentum; I just gently drifted sideways, into a lane rope. So I started trawling the 'net for tips and lessons on kicking technique.

Now, this might not be the be all and end all but, a runner's ankle is not suited to good propulsion with a swimming kick. An elite swimmer has very flexible ankles, which commonly enable their toes to point beyond "downwards" (their knees can also "hyperextend - bend the other way a bit). Very good for flipper-like propulsion, but pretty unstable and injury-prone, if you try to run around a bit.

I know even an elite swimmer doesn't get much propulsion from their leg kick, but at the very top of their sports, even that tiny amount might be enough to reinforce the belief that "black people can't swim as well as white people".