This
is What’s Trending today…
Millions of people tuned in to watch
an epic race
on Sunday night: America’s top Olympic athlete Michael Phelps versus a great
white shark, one of the most predatory animals in
the ocean.
The race aimed to see which creature
could swim 100 meters faster.
The
race was broadcast on a U.S. television series called Shark Week, which is
shown on the Discovery Channel. The channel had been promoting the race for
weeks.
It acknowledged that the shark would
probably win. Great white sharks can swim about 40 kilometers per hour. Phelps’
best times are closer to 9.5 kilometers per hour.
But the program promised to help
Phelps. #SharkWeek said: “In order for @MichaelPhelps to beat a shark, he must become a shark.”
The
Discovery Channel called the race “the battle for ocean supremacy.”
The promotions worked. Swimming fans, shark fans, Phelps fans, and
viewers who just wanted to see what would happen made a date to watch the
event.
A
Twitter user, @carrie_liz_26, wrote: “If you think I'm going to spend my Sunday
night watching Michael Phelps race a shark then you're right that's exactly
what I'm doing. But
most viewers were happy about the pairing. They expected that Phelps and the
great white would be swimming next to each other, like competitors in an
Olympic swimming event. But none of that happened. Instead,
viewers watched 57 minutes of the Shark Week episode. Viewer @Maddie_Jones515 was not
happy. She tweeted a picture of Phelps with his angry “game face” before the
Brazil Olympics: “Realizing we gotta get through an hour of science for this
actual race.” The episode also included Phelps
doing shorter, practice races against simulations of two
other kinds of sharks. Amazingly, the swimmer won against the reef shark. But
when it was time for Phelps to compete against the great white shark, it did
not happen. First, Phelps swam 100 meters in the
ocean alone. He wore a suit that made his body move through the water more
easily. And, he wore a fin on his feet to allow him to swim more like a shark.
Phelps went pretty fast: 38.1 seconds. Then, a video showed Phelps racing
against a computer-generated image of a shark. The video drew on footage that
producers had already taken. Sharks normally do not swim in a
straight line. So the Discovery Channel created some incentive.
They put a man on a floating device, dragging a fake seal behind him as bait. The
shark followed the seal, and researchers measured the speed. Then they used the
data to create a computer image of a shark swimming. The animal completed the
course in 36.1 seconds – exactly two seconds faster than Phelps.completed
the course in 36.1 seconds – exactly two seconds faster than Phelps. For the “race,” the
Discovery channel combined the footage of Phelps swimming and animation of the
shark swimming. In other words, man and shark did not really swim side-by-side.
Instead, Phelps pretended to compete against a digital shark, with
an announcer providing sports-like commentary. In general, social media users did not approve of the technique. They
posted short videos of people rolling their eyes, stamping their feet, and
turning away in disgust. @KyleCasmier wrote: “we
just wasted a hour waiting to see micheal phelps swim against a computer
generated shark, and lose”
Words in This Story: epic - adj. very great or large and usually difficult
or impressive
predatory - adj. living by killing and eating other animals
simulation - n. something that is made to look, feel, or behave like something else
incentive - n. something that encourages a person to do something or to work harder
bait - n. something (such as a piece of food) that is used to attract fish or animals so they can be caught
digital - adj. using or characterized by computer technology
simulation - n. something that is made to look, feel, or behave like something else
incentive - n. something that encourages a person to do something or to work harder
bait - n. something (such as a piece of food) that is used to attract fish or animals so they can be caught
digital - adj. using or characterized by computer technology