I saw a video of a windmill a few minutes ago and they are quite fast.
But then i thought “Is the tip of the rotorblade as fast as the the point furthest in the middle?”
Let me explain the best i can:
So if you move 10km/h, after 1h you are 10km farther than before. Thats logical.
But with regards to the rotor blade, the point furthest in the middle moves less far than the one all the way outside.
Does that mean that the points move at different speeds even though they’re part of the same body?
Where is my mistake in thinking?
In: Engineering
You are correct. The tip of the fan blade must move faster than the midpoint (I assume that’s what your phrase “the point furthest in the middle” means), which moves faster than the part of the blade closest to the hub.
This is the difference between *linear* speed and *angular* speed. One is total change in location, the other is total change in *angle.*
All parts of the windmill blade except the absolute center point have the same *angular* speed, because “angular speed” is measured in degrees changed per second (or, more commonly, “radians” per second, which makes the math simpler). But because one radian means more *distance* the longer the circle’s radius is, yes, something very very long will be moving *linearly* faster at the outer edge of its rotation than something very short.
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