Living out in west Texas, we have hundreds of wind turbines on the horizon in any given direction. Some days (like today) you could drop a feather straight down without it moving, however all the turbines are spinning. Isn’t that counterproductive?
In: Engineering
Well I would say comparing a feather drop to the turbine is not the same thing.
Let’s first start with there is always wind. Because the earth is spinning you automatically have wind because the air is moving at a different rate than the ground.
But that does not mean the air is moving uniformly at different altitudes. Turbines from the ground to the tip of the highest blade can be close to 400 ft tall. The higher up you are the more wind there is. It’s also one of the reasons why on a not windy day, if you look at a tall building with a flag on top, you will see it sway from wind even though you don’t feel it.
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