The Aquaglider is an underwater gliding toy that flies underwater without battery power or other visible means of propulsion. Unlike most gliding objects, however, the Aquaglider glides up rather than down. This makes the toy a particularly useful item for helping young children learn to swim, as it both encourages them to put their head underwater and comes to the surface automatically. It has the capability to spin in circles or go out and return like an underwater boomerang, in addition to traveling in a straight line. The motive force for the toy is buoyancy. When the Aquaglider is pushed underwater, energy is put into it, in the downward push, generally without the pusher noticing that he or she is expending energy in sinking the water toy. Then, when released, the Aquaglider rises; it does so in a lateral direction, because of its shape. This is what produces the atypical reaction of the buoyant object—and causes many viewers to consider the action “magical.” The glide ratio is about 10 to 1, meaning that for every foot underwater, the Aquaglider will travel around ten feet horizontally. If the motion is in a straight line, an Aquaglider will travel across a 40 foot pool when it is released from 4 feet down. This is the first known “alteration” of Archimedes’ principle in 25 centuries. The Aquaglider was developed over the course of 1995 and 1996 by Daniel Geery, a third grade teacher. He is also the developer of the Hyperblimp
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