Posted on 01/27/2011 6:24:17 AM PST by decimon
Everybody who has been aboard a ship has heard the advice: if you feel unsteady, look at the horizon. For a study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, researchers measured how much people sway on land and at sea and found there’s truth in that advice; people aboard a ship are steadier if they fix their eyes on the horizon.
Thomas A. Stoffregen of the University of Minnesota has been studying “body sway” for decades—how much people rock back and forth in different situations, and what this has to do with motion sickness. In just a normal situation, standing still, people move back and forth by about four centimeters every 12 to 15 seconds. Stoffregen and his coauthors, Anthony M. Mayo and Michael G. Wade, wanted to know how this changes when you’re standing on a ship.
To study posture at sea, Stoffregen made contact with the U.S. consortium that runs scientific research ships. “I’m really an oddball for these folks, because they’re studying oceanography, like hydrothermal vents. Here’s this behavioral scientist, calling them up,” he says. He boards a ship when it is travelling between different projects—for example, in this study, he rode on the research vessel Atlantis as it went between two points in the Gulf of California. “It had nothing to do with the fact that I like cruising near the tropics,” he jokes. Since the ships are between scientific expeditions, he can sleep in one of the empty bunks normally reserved for ocean scientists, and crew members volunteer to take part in his study.
(Excerpt) Read more at psychologicalscience.org ...
If one can look at the horizon, the brain can tell the body how to maintain vertical stability. DUH! Any ocean sport fisher can relate to this.
Of course, this doesn’t explain why Mrs. BCC gets sick when we point the car towards the coast. And, no, she won’t go out fishing with our club.
Any college-age kid who has too much to drink knows this.
Yep and swaying when drunk aboard ship is natural. Horizon be damned
Centuries of Sailors Weren’t Wrong: Looking at the Hore eyes on Stabilizes Posture
Now I am going to have it in my head all day...
now to figute out how to use this info on my golf swing
Next study: Putting your foot on the floor stops the room from spinning
It has a calming affect on your buddies knowing you will not throw up in the raft all over them. Besides, the sharks rubbing against your legs takes away from your worrying about throwing up.
Eat ripe bannas - they taste the same the second time around - more old salt advise.
Being outside on deck is also a good way to overcome queasy feelings - focus on the sea state: watch the wind playing with the waves.
Well, look at the horizon and you'll probably just break your foot. ;-)
Funny you should say that. When I went through the water survival part of the training, I went to Homestead AFB, FL (early 90s). The area we used was Biscayne Bay. They told us prior to going out into the water that Biscayne Bay was the hammerhead shark capital of the world... That set this landlubber Idaho boy on edge. It didn't matter what swam underneath me, it was going to bite.
You do know there was ever only one of those?
LOL - sounds like one likable guy...
Nope.
Look up the Wind Spirit, one of the largest 6 masted sail boats that cruise the Caribbean and Meditation.
If you need more info, I just happen to have a bag full of poker chips in a bag from the ship in my office.
http://www.windstarcruises.com/windspirit-yacht.aspx
Been on it at least a few times.
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