Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/03/06
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]> Big jet airliners do not fly by creating a vacuum above their wings. Wings > are giant air pumps forcing enormous quantities of air downward. There was > an interesting article in Discover magazine on this very issue. ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! As in the operation of sails there is no trivial answer to the mechanism in which wings produce lift. The concept of a vaccuum above the wing is sorta scary. But talking about them in terms of air pumps is just as scary although, in its way, it's not too bad. I can remember all those classes in fluid flow and all those non-linear differential equations...shuddering. I'm glad we can work with light which, at least, we all know is made of particles and leave the messiness of the rest to the engineers. Adam Bridge - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html