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Underwater Vehicle Uses a Balloon To Dart Like an Octopus

Posted by timothy on from the in-like-a-lion-out-like-an-octopus dept.

Zothecula writes When you inflate a balloon and then release it without tying the valve shut, it certainly shoots away quickly. Octopi utilize the same basic principle, although they suck in and then rapidly expel water. An international team of scientists have now replicated that system in a soft-bodied miniature underwater vehicle, which could pave the way for very quickly-accelerating full-size submersibles.

5 of 73 comments (clear)

  1. octopi? by Hognoxious · · Score: 5, Funny

    Octopi? Pull the other one. Or the other other one. Or the other other one. Or the alternate other one. Or the other one. Or the other one. Or the other one.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    1. Re: octopi? by ClickOnThis · · Score: 3, Informative

      This. Octopus is Greek, not Latin. Despite what Merriam-Webster might say, the plural is octopuses or octopodes, not octopi.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    2. Re: octopi? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Octopus is English, derived from Greek. All three plurals are in current use, and it is usage, not etymology, that defines what is "correct".

    3. Re: octopi? by TheMathemagician · · Score: 3, Informative

      Octopi is based on the mistaken assumption that octopus is a second declension Latin noun. It is simply wrong. Octopuses is the correct English plural.

  2. One-shot motor by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So it's super-efficient and all... if you intend to move no farther than 10 ft forward.

    For greater distances, you could, say, keep the balloon constantly inflated with some kind of pump. And then, to save unnecessary weight and complication, you could do away with the balloon and let the pump shoot out the back of the vehicle directly.

    I shall call my invention a hydrojet. Genius!

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash