The plane is heavy and there’s gravity on earth. How does it just fly without falling down?
In: Physics
Bernoulli’s principal states that as the velocity of a fluid (air) increases, the internal pressure decreases. So, an “airfoil” is designed so that the air on top has to go farther, in the same amount of time as the air on bottom, therefore, it goes faster and has a lower pressure. The difference in pressure creates an upward force, or “lift” on the wing. There is also a component of force caused by the angle the flat bottom of the wing is directed into the air compared to the path of the plane. Neither of these forces would be enough to allow controlled flight alone. It takes both components, and selectively changing one or the other to produce what we know as controlled flight.
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