Page 1 of 1
Does drag factor have units?
Posted: March 27th, 2025, 7:39 am
by Annisotropic
I've been playing around with DF; I lowered it right down to concentrate on my technique, but find a slower stroke rate more comfortable so I have increased it to 100, to get better times for less perceived effort.
It has just made me curious, does the DF have "dimensions" or is it purely a ratio of some arbitrary measurement? If so, the reference measurement must have dimensions?
Re: Does drag factor have units?
Posted: March 27th, 2025, 8:01 am
by Citroen
The ancient paper The physics or rowing ergometers lists the drag factor as having units 10^-6 N m s^2.
Re: Does drag factor have units?
Posted: March 27th, 2025, 8:21 am
by Annisotropic
Citroen wrote: ↑March 27th, 2025, 8:01 am
The ancient paper
The physics or rowing ergometers lists the drag factor as having units 10^-6 N m s^2.
I thought it might be something impenetrable like that
.
Thank you for the answer, I can file it away and stop wondering
Re: Does drag factor have units?
Posted: March 27th, 2025, 5:05 pm
by Carl Watts
A DF of 100 is pretty low.
Most people run between 100 and 130. I started out on 168 but managed to get it down over time as my performance improved to 136.
Re: Does drag factor have units?
Posted: March 27th, 2025, 6:46 pm
by Annisotropic
I always used to set it to 130, but then heard that that is pretty high (62yo F, although heavyweight. I'm stronger than I'm fit!) I'm experimenting now to see what works best for me and feels every-day-doable.
.