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Old 27th Jul 2012, 09:06
  #64 (permalink)  
fizz57
 
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I think people should give some thought as to what use the various theories should be put to.

At the "why do wings fly" level, Newton clearly rules,to use the terminology of this forum. A wing is a machine for producing downwash, period. The fact that an unstalled wing deflects more of the air passing over its upper surface than that over its lower is only a detail, however important.

Unfortunately to get numerically correct results Newton's Laws should be applied to every air molecule passing over the wing, which is impractical even with today's computers. So there are the macroscopic theories, concepts of pressure and energy, Navier-Stokes equations, circulation, etc. But these theories are intended for calculation, not for explaining why a wing flies.

Finally, Bernoulli (and Bernoulli's equations are ultimately derived from Newton's Laws) is probably the best way of explaining the vital need of keeping the airflow attached to the upper surface, without going into the detail of either the atomic or the calculation-oriented approaches. For those whose day-to-day business it is to ensure that the airflow does stay attached, it's an approach that has worked for over a century - although how well it actually works may be questionable.
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