In 1998, French long-distance swimmer Ben Lecomte became the first person to swim across the Atlantic ocean. Free-styling across 3,700 miles, it took Ben 73 days to make the journey. His first words on reaching land: “Never again.†The swim was monumentally arduous, and the effort is surely pretty close to the best a humanoid like you or I could do. But if you were, say, AquamanOpens in a new tab, you could swim Ben’s route in just 30 minutes. So how does Aquaman swim so dang fast?[brightcove video_id=”5990239545001″ brightcove_account_id=”3653334524001″ brightcove_player_id=”rJs2ZD8x”]
Arthur Curry, a.k.a. Aquaman, is probably most famous for being the superhero that talks to fishOpens in a new tab, but his swimming—as depicted in comics and films—should be right up there with his most impressive powers. Traveling through the water as fast as he does, I will argue, is even more astounding than flying really fast like SupermanOpens in a new tab because of the unique challenges underwater motion presentsOpens in a new tab. So how does Aquaman move so quickly through the water? How much power does it take to push through the waves? Let’s grab our five-pointed pentadents, and figure it out.
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