like a physicist

About Me

Luciano Infanti, 18 years old. Brazil.

Blogs I follow:

1. How wings really work

   It’s one of the most tenacious myths in physics and it frustrates aerodynamicists the world over. Now, University of Cambridge’s Professor Holger Babinsky has created a 1-minute video that he hopes will finally lay to rest a commonly used yet misleading explanation of how wings lift.

   “A wing lifts when the air pressure above it is lowered. It’s often said that this happens because the airflow moving over the top, curved surface has a longer distance to travel and needs to go faster to have the same transit time as the air travelling along the lower, flat surface. But this is wrong,” he explained. “I don’t know when the explanation first surfaced but it’s been around for decades. You find it taught in textbooks, explained on television and even described in aircraft manuals for pilots. In the worst case, it can lead to a fundamental misunderstanding of some of the most important principles of aerodynamics.”

   To show that this common explanation is wrong, Babinsky filmed pulses of smoke flowing around an aerofoil (the shape of a wing in cross-section). When the video is paused, it’s clear that the transit times above and below the wing are not equal: the air moves faster over the top surface and has already gone past the end of the wing by the time the flow below the aerofoil reaches the end of the lower surface.

   Read more.

98 Notes
1. itsthiscoldnostalgia liked this
2. vaginalsalsa reblogged this from fyeahchemistry
3. uknowwheretostickthosjinglebells reblogged this from fyeahchemistry
4. instinctbluestoo reblogged this from fyeahchemistry
5. moxie-redux reblogged this from fyeahchemistry
6. supercuddlypuppies reblogged this from likeaphysicist
7. bonitoboy reblogged this from fyeahchemistry
8. sufferingisacatalystforgreatness liked this
9. ultr4mundane liked this
10. dnasplice reblogged this from fyeahchemistry
11. bartholomew784 liked this
12. abcstarstuff reblogged this from fyeahchemistry
13. sleeptard liked this
14. chumgubbin liked this
15. dxtxxii reblogged this from fyeahchemistry
16. rapturehelmet liked this
17. itsimpossibletolickyourelbow reblogged this from fyeahchemistry
18. spindlr liked this
19. stripped-down liked this
20. whyfrolic reblogged this from eatgeekstudy
21. zaberfangzodd liked this
22. physicianclinician liked this
23. noaa131 reblogged this from fyeahchemistry
24. bonitoboy liked this
25. valenzuelaki09 liked this
26. gatoseoutrosbichos liked this
27. super-croquette liked this
28. animalloversforum reblogged this from avianawareness
29. 2112engineer liked this
30. makedustinecstatic liked this
31. asieslavidamia liked this
32. kayteens liked this
33. mynameispuba reblogged this from fyeahchemistry
34. uknowwheretostickthosjinglebells liked this
35. shychemist liked this
36. marcism liked this
37. eatgeekstudy reblogged this from fyeahchemistry
38. birdeyed liked this
39. nervousheartbeat liked this
40. nick-altobelli liked this
41. aquila-sicarius liked this
42. escapeoutdoors liked this
43. avianawareness reblogged this from fyeahchemistry
44. ooookaythennnn liked this
45. a-purple-llama reblogged this from fyeahchemistry
46. funkasarusrex reblogged this from fyeahchemistry
47. hashesashes reblogged this from fyeahchemistry
48. kutiekatj9 liked this
49. a-teles liked this
50. theemptybrain liked this
51. Show more notesLoading...