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How do wings work?

Holger Babinsky 2003 Phys. Educ. 38 497-503   doi: 10.1088/0031-9120/38/6/001  Help

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Holger Babinsky
Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1PZ, UK
E-mail: hb@eng.cam.ac.uk

Abstract. The popular explanation of lift is common, quick, sounds logical and gives the correct answer, yet also introduces misconceptions, uses a nonsensical physical argument and misleadingly invokes Bernoulli's equation. A simple analysis of pressure gradients and the curvature of streamlines is presented here to give a more correct explanation of lift.

Keywords: Middle, High school, Advanced, Mechanics, Physics update

Print publication: Issue 6 (November 2003)
Received 9 September 2003

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