| Comments |
"Mechanical work done by swimming Paramecium can be estimated on the basis of Stokes’ law. For a sphere with a diameter of 50µm moving with a speed of 1mm/sec, which is one of the
simplest models for P. caudatum, the power of swimming (the mechanical work done per unit time) has been calculated to be 3.4X10^–9J/hour. This power calculated on the basis of Stokes’ law, which is called Stokes power in this paper (StP), is only 0.004–0.09% of the total energy expenditure. This very small percentage, however, does not correctly represent the efficiency of swimming of Paramecium. In order to estimate the efficiency, mechanical work should be compared with the energy
used only for swimming." |