eli5: Why is a ship’s steering at the back and not at the front like cars?
In: 5
Airplanes and ships move in a fluid, air and water respectively.
To move in a fluid, you need a large nose and a very thin tail. That’s how you can have the least resistance in the fluid.
Because the tail is so narrow, the fluid moves more parallel to the ship/plane. It’s a lot more effective to steer using the a rudder on the tail for that reason. The nose has much more turbulence and the fluid is displaced laterally. Ok you can make a pointy nose but you lose efficiency. Then for a plane, I guess the pilot would not be happy to have a rudder between him and the runway he wants to spot.
For a ship, the nose is connected to the keel and is very strong, as it is expected to slam on sandbanks and rocks, sooner or later. A rudder in the nose would be quite vulnerable.
For cars, they steer with wheels, not fluid, so it works totally different. Rear steering vehicles are too unstable.
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