eli5 what happens if we swim in space?

Question

Can we swim forward in space with wide enough arms or wings attached in vacuum?

In: 0

Answer 1

Well, actually….

Think of swimming as a pushing liquid wall. the lighter and more fluid the wall is, you’ll need bigger hand to push better. Thus, bigger wing on birds proportionally compare to fishes.

Now, the space is not entirely vacuum. There is some hydrogen molecules floating around although they are arguably negligible amount.

So, technically, if you have very very big wing, you will be able to push forward in very slow and inefficient rate.

But at that point, solar wind (which is radiation from the sun which contains some hydrogen atoms too) will going to push the wing better than your flapping of it.

I suggest you to snip off this humongous wing and use it as a wall to push against.