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Figure 1.
Schematic representation of the forces at play in different conditions. Panel on the left: free swimming; central panel: full tethered swimming; panel on the right: semi-tethered swimming. In all cases, a fraction of the force generated by the muscles (FTOT) is wasted to give water kinetic energy (e.g. is not useful for propulsion). The fraction of useful force (FP) to total force is termed propelling efficiency (FP / FTOT) and is assumed to be the same in all conditions. The useful force is then used to overcome drag in free swimming (FD) and/or the external load in full tethered swimming (FT) and semi-tethered swimming (FST).
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