amanzing

Here's how to master the "amanzing" physics of flight - Don't sit in a quiet classroom. Just before you win the gold medal, your science project zooms over the school roof and threatens disaster.

What was this experiment? We flew a plane over the whole school and almost crashed it, but we got 1st place and we got into a photo in the school.

Barry's response - Wow! Must have been exciting. How big was the plane? How fast? How high? Were spectators and adjudicators excited by the near-miss, or the...

Lesson in physics involved?

What, overall, was the premise of the experiment? Are you still involved in aviation? I've never flown a plane - real or model. I can't even get a kite off the ground.

Pulling such an unusual stunt, I hope all went well and there wasn't any trouble with the law. I hope you had a good time.

Bernoulli's Principle says air gains velocity as it flows through a reduced pressure area. As it moves faster, it exerts less pressure (sideways).

How do you speed it up? Make it travel farther without taking more time.

Conservation of mass, streamlining and deformation cause this to happen. Now, what if the top side of the wing has a longer distance for its air to travel? By changing the wing's shape or incident angle, you can do this.

It travels farther in the same amount of time (i.e., faster) as the slower air at the bottom. As a result, it exerts less sideways (in this case, downwards) pressure on the wing and the air pushing upwards is stronger.

When the plane is going fast enough, this pressure offset contributes to lift. That, combined with other physical forces generate enough upward force to lift the plane off the ground and high into the atmosphere.

Search this site for more physics information now.

Bernoulli is your best friend

Have you even lived if you haven't almost crashed a model plane into your principal's office? You can't do science by sitting still; you have to push molecules until they do something amazing.

1. Getting Away With It in Physics - I talked about Bernoulli's Principle. It's like a crowded hallway. By sprinting, everyone won't bump into the walls (less sideways pressure). We force the air on top of an airplane wing to sprint. It stops pushing down because it's moving fast. The chill air underneath keeps pushing up.
   
   Yeah, that's lift. It's a literal manifestation of "move fast and break stuff."
2. Are We the Pilots or the Passengers in the Climate Debate? - Mainstream talk usually talks about the atmosphere like it's a fragile balloon about to burst. Look at the math. Every day, the Earth deals with geomagnetic storms, volcanic eruptions, and shifting pressure belts.
   • Human impact is just a near-miss in the grand cycle of the solar system, say skeptics. When the sun throws a tantrum (a solar flare), our carbon footprint looks like a grain of sand.
   • We should protect our air quality because breathing soot stinks, not because we're scared of a 1-degree shift. Fear is a choice; clean air is a right. Instead of chasing ghosts in computer models that can't even predict next Tuesday's rain, we use air quality consulting to fix real problems.
3. Static-Lift Theory: A New Revolution - Traditional planes need to move to stay aloft. What if we used the ionosphere? Geomagnetic storms move a lot of energy. Imagine a craft that doesn't need a runway because it rides the electrical potential of the atmosphere. Sounds like science fiction, but so did flying over a school 100 years ago.
4. Inventor's heart - Job talks about these wonderful works regarding the clouds in the Bible. The atmosphere is a playground, whether you see it as divine engineering or a mathematical masterpiece. You can be a little sassy with your data. You can look at a textbook and say, "I bet I can do it faster."

It's your turn to crash (virtually)

It's time for more "amanzing" moments. The world needs more kids willing to take a chance on a wing-and-a-prayer experiment.

How's your stunt? Have you built a barometer that predicts storms? Have you ever managed to keep a kite up in a dead calm? Or do you think Bernoulli is overrated and it's all about Newton's Third Law?

Comment below and tell me about your most chaotic science win.

You're my kind of person if it involves a near-miss with a tree or trophy!

Would you like me to show you how to build a Bernoulli-Blower with just a hair dryer and a ping-pong ball?