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Sorry, I don’t really understand what you’re saying here. Birds and airplanes work on the same principles. Airflow over the wings produces lift. That airflow a
by mikeash 9y ago
Sorry, I don’t really understand what you’re saying here.
Birds and airplanes work on the same principles. Airflow over the wings produces lift. That airflow also produces drag, which must be counteracted with thrust to maintain altitude. The only difference is that birds produce thrust by flapping, and airplanes produce thrust with engines. A non-flapping bird is equivalent to an airplane with the engines shut off.
- 21 9y agoI was referring to this theory, which NASA calls wrong: https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/airplane/wrong2.html https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/airplane/wrong2.html Most interestingly, NASA also calls wrong what you seem to defend, or maybe there are some subtleties that I'm missing: https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/airplane/wrong1.html https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/airplane/wrong1.html
- mikeash 9y agoNo, that second link describes the equal time fallacy, which I called out as wrong in my original comment.