American Knifefish
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American Knifefish
The Gymnotiformes are an order of teleost bony fishes commonly known as Neotropical knifefish or South American knifefish. They have long bodies and swim using undulations of their elongated anal fin. Found almost exclusively in fresh water (the only exceptions are species that occasionally may visit brackish water to feed), these mostly nocturnal fish are capable of producing electric fields to detect prey, for navigation, communication, and, in the case of the electric eel (''Electrophorus electricus''), attack and defense. A few species are familiar to the aquarium trade, such as the black ghost knifefish (''Apteronotus albifrons''), the glass knifefish (''Eigenmannia virescens''), and the banded knifefish (''Gymnotus carapo''). Description Anatomy and locomotion Aside from the electric eel (''Electrophorus electricus''), Gymnotiformes are slender fish with narrow bodies and tapering tails, hence the common name of "knifefishes". They have neither pelvic fins nor do ...
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Black Ghost Knifefish
The black ghost knifefish (''Apteronotus albifrons'') is a tropical fish belonging to the ghost knifefish Family (biology), family (Apteronotidae). They originate in freshwater habitats in South America where they range from Venezuela to the Paraguay River, Paraguay–Paraná River, including the Amazon Basin. They are popular in aquarium, aquaria. The fish is all black except for two white rings on its tail, and a white blaze on its nose, which can occasionally extend into a stripe down its back. It moves mainly by undulating a long fin on its underside. It will grow to a maximum length of . and can grow bigger depending on the type of food. Black ghost knifefish are Nocturnality, nocturnal. They are a weakly electric fish which use an Electric organ (biology), electric organ and receptors distributed over the length of their body in order to locate insect larvae.Nelson M. E. & MacIver M. A. (1999). "Prey capture in the weakly electric fish ''Apteronotus albifrons'': sensory ac ...
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Banded Knifefish
The banded knifefish (''Gymnotus carapo'') is a species of gymniform knifefish native to a wide range of freshwater habitats in South America. It is the most widespread species of ''Gymnotus'', but it has frequently been confused with several relatives, including some found outside its range like the Central America '' G. maculosus''. The English name "banded knifefish" is sometimes used for the entire genus ''Gymnotus'' instead of only the species ''G. carapo''. Range and habitat This South American fish is found in the Amazon, Orinoco and Río de la Plata basins, as well as rivers in the Guianas, northeastern Brazil (only those exiting along the country's northern coast, such as Parnaíba) and northern Argentina (south to the 36th parallel south), and in Trinidad. This makes it the most widespread species of ''Gymnotus''. ''G. carapo'' occurs in virtually any freshwater habitat in its range, such as rivers and streams (both slow- and fast-flowing), floodplains, estuaries, swa ...
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Electric Organ (biology)
An electric ray (Torpediniformes) showing location of paired electric organs in the head, and electrocytes stacked within it">Torpediniformes.html" ;"title="electric ray (Torpediniformes">electric ray (Torpediniformes) showing location of paired electric organs in the head, and electrocytes stacked within it In biology, the electric organ is an organ that an electric fish uses to create an electric field. Electric organs are derived from modified muscle or in some cases nerve tissue, and have evolved at least six times among the elasmobranchs and teleosts. These fish use their electric discharges for navigation, communication, mating, defence, and in strongly electric fish also for the incapacitation of prey. The electric organs of two strongly electric fish, the torpedo ray and the electric eel were first studied in the 1770s by John Walsh, Hugh Williamson, and John Hunter. Charles Darwin used them as an instance of convergent evolution in his 1859 ''On the Origin of Species ...
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Center Of Mass
In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the balance point) is the unique point where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. This is the point to which a force may be applied to cause a linear acceleration without an angular acceleration. Calculations in mechanics are often simplified when formulated with respect to the center of mass. It is a hypothetical point where the entire mass of an object may be assumed to be concentrated to visualise its motion. In other words, the center of mass is the particle equivalent of a given object for application of Newton's laws of motion. In the case of a single rigid body, the center of mass is fixed in relation to the body, and if the body has uniform density, it will be located at the centroid. The center of mass may be located outside the physical body, as is sometimes the case for hollow or open-shaped objects, such as a horseshoe. In the case of a dist ...
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Angle Of Attack
In fluid dynamics, angle of attack (AOA, α, or \alpha) is the angle between a reference line on a body (often the chord line of an airfoil) and the vector representing the relative motion between the body and the fluid through which it is moving. Angle of attack is the angle between the body's reference line and the oncoming flow. This article focuses on the most common application, the angle of attack of a wing or airfoil moving through air. In aerodynamics, angle of attack specifies the angle between the chord line of the wing of a fixed-wing aircraft and the vector representing the relative motion between the aircraft and the atmosphere. Since a wing can have twist, a chord line of the whole wing may not be definable, so an alternate reference line is simply defined. Often, the chord line of the root of the wing is chosen as the reference line. Another choice is to use a horizontal line on the fuselage as the reference line (and also as the longitudinal axis). Some aut ...
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Ship Motions
Ship motions are defined by the six degrees of freedom that a ship, boat or any other craft can experience. Reference axes The '' vertical/Z axis'', or ''yaw axis'', is an imaginary line running vertically through the ship and through its centre of mass . A yaw motion is a side-to side movement of the bow and stern of the ship. The '' transverse/Y axis'', ''lateral axis'', or ''pitch axis'' is an imaginary line running horizontally across the ship and through the centre of mass. A pitch motion is an up-or-down movement of the bow and stern of the ship. The '' longitudinal/X axis'', or ''roll axis'', is an imaginary line running horizontally through the length of the ship, through its centre of mass, and parallel to the ''waterline''. A roll motion is a side-to-side or port-starboard tilting motion of the superstructure around this axis. Rotational There are three special axes in any ship, called longitudinal, transverse and vertical axes. The movements around them ar ...
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Neutral Buoyancy
Neutral buoyancy occurs when an object's average density is equal to the density of the fluid in which it is immersed, resulting in the buoyant force balancing the force of gravity that would otherwise cause the object to sink (if the body's density is greater than the density of the fluid in which it is immersed) or rise (if it is less). An object that has neutral buoyancy will neither sink nor rise. In scuba diving, the ability to maintain neutral buoyancy through controlled breathing, accurate weighting, and management of the buoyancy compensator is an important skill. A scuba diver maintains neutral buoyancy by continuous correction, usually by controlled breathing, as neutral buoyancy is an unstable condition for a compressible object in a liquid. History The mathematician Archimedes discovered much of how buoyancy works more than 2000 years ago. In his research, Archimedes discovered that an object is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the water displaced by the ...
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Fish Fin
Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as seen in sharks. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the spine and are supported only by muscles. Their principal function is to help the fish swim. Fins located in different places on the fish serve different purposes such as moving forward, turning, keeping an upright position or stopping. Most fish use fins when swimming, flying fish use pectoral fins for gliding, and frogfish use them for crawling. Fins can also be used for other purposes; male sharks and mosquitofish use a modified fin to deliver sperm, thresher sharks use their caudal fin to stun prey, reef stonefish have spines in their dorsal fins that inject venom, anglerfish use the first spine of their dorsal fin like a fishing rod to ...
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Trout
Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salmonid fish such as ''Cynoscion nebulosus'', the spotted seatrout or speckled trout. Trout are closely related to salmon and char (or charr): species termed salmon and char occur in the same genera as do fish called trout (''Oncorhynchus'' – Pacific salmon and trout, ''Salmo'' – Atlantic salmon and various trout, ''Salvelinus'' – char and trout). Lake trout and most other trout live in freshwater lakes and rivers exclusively, while there are others, such as the steelhead, a form of the coastal rainbow trout, that can spend two or three years at sea before returning to fresh water to spawn (a habit more typical of salmon). Arctic char and brook trout are part of the char genus. Trout are an important food source for humans and wildlife, ...
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Kármán Vortex Street
In fluid dynamics, a Kármán vortex street (or a von Kármán vortex street) is a repeating pattern of swirling vortices, caused by a process known as vortex shedding, which is responsible for the unsteady separation of flow of a fluid around blunt bodies. It is named after the engineer and fluid dynamicist Theodore von Kármán, and is responsible for such phenomena as the "singing" of suspended telephone or power lines and the vibration of a car antenna at certain speeds. Mathematical modeling of von Kármán vortex street can be performed using different techniques including but not limited to solving the full Navier-Stokes equations with k-epsilon, SST, k-omega and Reynolds stress, and large eddy simulation (LES) turbulence models, by numerically solving some dynamic equations such as the Ginzburg-Landau equation, or by use of a bicomplex variable. Analysis A vortex street will form only at a certain range of flow velocities, specified by a range of Reynolds numbers ...
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Wake Turbulence
Wake turbulence is a disturbance in the atmosphere that forms behind an aircraft as it passes through the air. It includes a variety of elements, the most significant of which are wingtip vortices and jetwash. Jetwash refers to the rapidly moving gases expelled from a jet engine; it is extremely turbulent but of short duration. Wingtip vortices, however, are much more stable and can remain in the air for up to three minutes after the passage of an aircraft. It is therefore not true turbulence in the aerodynamic sense, as true turbulence would be chaotic. Instead, it refers to the similarity to atmospheric turbulence as experienced by an aircraft flying through this region of disturbed air. Wingtip vortices occur when a wing is generating lift. Air from below the wing is drawn around the wingtip into the region above the wing by the lesser amount of pressure above the wing, causing a vortex to trail from each wingtip. The strength of wingtip vortices is determined primarily by the ...
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Fish Locomotion
Fish locomotion is the various types of animal locomotion used by fish, principally by swimming. This is achieved in different groups of fish by a variety of mechanisms of propulsion, most often by wave-like lateral flexions of the fish's body and tail in water, and in various specialised fish by motions of the fins. The major forms of locomotion in fish are: * Anguilliform, in which a wave passes evenly along a long slender body; * Sub-carangiform, in which the wave increases quickly in amplitude towards the tail; * Carangiform, in which the wave is concentrated near the tail, which oscillates rapidly; * Thunniform, rapid swimming with a large powerful crescent-shaped tail; and * Ostraciiform, with almost no oscillation except of the tail fin. More specialized fish include movement by pectoral fins with a mainly stiff body, opposed sculling with dorsal and anal fins, as in the sunfish; and movement by propagating a wave along the long fins with a motionless body, as in the knif ...
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