I hope I convey my point probably, but why do planes go so many thousands of feet in the air? Is it faster that way, or could they achieve similar flight times at a lower altitude?
Does it have something to do with the curvature of the earth?
In: Engineering
Air molecules passing an airplane are like tennis balls thrown at you.
You can overcome 100 tennis balls thrown at you at 50mph, or chose to overcome 1 tennis ball thrown at you at 500mph, the energy you have to fight is the same.
So by going higher, there is less air (less tennis balls) so you can sustain a higher speed.
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