Spread fingers like a fork to swim faster, scientists find "The spacing between fingers must be twice the thickness of the boundary layer around one finger," it adds. Competitive swimmers are already trained to swim with their fingers spread slightly apart to improve their speed, with the new finding confirming how this works in relation to force. Researcher Adrian Bejan, a professor of mechanical engineering at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, told LiveScience: ""It is a counter-intuitive idea, the fact that you should paddle with a fork, not with an oar." The study said: "The explanation is that the greater force lifts the body higher above the water line, and this leads to greater swimming speed, which is in line with the rest of the constructal-law design for animal swimming. One consequence of this explanation is that the webbed palms and feet of swimming animals owe their evolutionary design to the same constructal design of greater speed from greater lifting force.