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Old 21st Dec 2006, 15:10
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NickLappos
 
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Daniel is precise, and correct.

The problem with explaining lift as a Bernuilli effect is that it is completely un-intuitive. Regardless of how you slice it, lift is produced when the wing makes a bunch of air go down, which makes the force to fly up.

I tell folks to imagine that they were at the bottom of a 15 foot swimming pool, and a 10 lb weight is tied to their feet. If they scoop water with their hands and work hard enough, they can scoop enough water and throw it downward to make them rise. Scoop fast enough and hard enough, and they get to the surface, stop and they sink back down. That is exactly how a helicopter does it. Push enough air down and your aircraft rises.

They call it an air "plane" because it planes on the air, for pete's sake, and delta pressures really don't say a thing.

deeper, you can say that because something is labeled a "theory", it is not really known, but that really quite incorrect. It is also the argument made by lunkheads in the US who think that evolution is "only a theory" and that the earth was created 4000 years ago by magic!
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