Dolphin speed sorted

In 1936, British zoologist Sir James Gray discovered that dolphins could swim at more than 20 miles per hour.

However, he also concluded that the muscles of the dolphins simply weren’t strong enough to support those kinds of speeds. The conundrum came to be known as Gray’s Paradox.

For decades, the puzzle prompted much speculation and conjecture in the scientific community. But now, armed with flow measurement technology, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have tackled the problem and conclusively solved Gray’s Paradox.

‘Sir Gray was certainly on to something, and it took nearly 75 years for technology to bring us to the point where we could get at the heart of his paradox,’ said Timothy Wei, professor and acting dean of Rensselaer’s School of Engineering.

‘For the first time, I think we can safely say the puzzle is solved. The short answer is that dolphins are simply much stronger than Gray or many other people ever imagined.’