In a recent Veritasium video, they discuss that a sailboat can travel further downwind than the wind speed. Steve Mould, in a reaction video, explained how a boat can travel faster than the wind at an angle, but not really how it can end up further down wind than the actual wind speed. I’m having trouble connecting these explanations…Links below for both videos.
https://youtu.be/u5InZ6iknUM
In: Physics
The problem is that as you speed up, the wind slows down relative to you. If there is a 10mph wind and you move at 10mph, there is no wind from your point of view.
However, there is no reason why you can’t go faster than the wind. After all, if you imagined a large sail attached to a pulley connected via a gearbox, you could easily go faster than wind. Energy conservation is not a problem.
In this very particular case, if you take into consideration the angle and speed of the fan blades, they are moving slower than the vehicle as a whole, which means the wind can actually push at them.
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