Physics + Engineering = Flight
How does a plane fly? I thought I knew, so it was very embarrassing when this TechStuff podcast on that very question started by saying they’d first describe the wrong answer to the question: The shape of the wing causes the wind above the wing to have to travel a longer distance than the wind flowing below the wing. Ergo, the wind above has to flow faster than the wind below. By Bernoulli’s principle, if the wind velocity is higher above the wing, the pressure must be lower above the wing. In turn, the higher pressure below the wing would produce a lift force, thereby offsetting the downward pull of good old gravity. All very logical, right? Which is why it is taught world-over. It is also what I believed. Unfortunately, it’s the wrong answer! The podcast deconstructs why it is the wrong answer, not by physics but by simple logical thinking: If the shape of the wing is the key, why does a paper plane fly? If the shape of the wing is the key, how ...