Hi Lucy,
Glad that you wrote. I like your magazine. I'm afraid that your question is outside my area of expertise. I would try contacting someone at the aquarium.
Vancouver Aquarium Address (http://www.vanaqua.org/mmrr/contact/)
P.O. Box 3232
Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada V6B 3X8
Phone: 604-659-FISH (3474)
Fax: 604-659-3515
Good luck,
Cathy
----- Original Message -----
From: Lucy.Middleton@rbi.co.uk
To: schaeff@american.edu ; pita@whale.wheelock.edu
Cc: whalemaster1@whale.wheelock.edu
Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2003 9:52 AM
Subject: Q from new Scientist magazine in london
Dear Cathy
- I hope you don't mind me contacting you - I need to find out the answer to rather a random question. I work for the New Scientist magazine in London. You may be familiar with New Scientist - in which case you will be aware of our Last Word section at the back of the magazine, in which we invite readers to submit a question, regarding everyday scientific phenomena that they would like to know the answer to. One such question submitted
is:
Recently while observing baluga whales at Vancouver's aquarium I
notice one of them blowing 'air rings'. They were annular bubbles
which exhibited no obvious bouyancy and could be propelled down to
the bottom of the pool. Much of the time the whale would blow one
horizontally then swim up to it and suck it back. Presumably the
dynamics of the ring is similar to that for smoke rings, but have
there been any studies of these intriguing air rings? How fast can
they be projected, how deep and what is the key to producing such
shapes rather than a normal air bubble.
and what we need to know is whether the question is a sensible/authentic one - that whales do indeed blow such bubbes (and that the photo is not a whale in an aquarium doing tricks with a ring!)
Regards
Lucy
=================
Lucy Middleton
PA to Alun Anderson,
Editor-in-Chief/Publishing Director
New Scientist
tel: 020-7331-2795
fax: 020-7331-2777
lucy.middleton@rbi.co.uk
www.newscientist.com
=================
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