6 ms·
How does this work? The article assumes I should already know the mechanics of it, but googling only seems to turn up a bunch of the same sorts of articles.
by naravara 5y ago
How does this work? The article assumes I should already know the mechanics of it, but googling only seems to turn up a bunch of the same sorts of articles.
- krisoft 5y agoI'm not an expert on it really. They rotate the giant cylinder and the wind is blowing by. The rotation forms a low pressure zone one side of the cylinder which acts as a lift force perpendicular both to the rotational axis of the cylinder and the wind. It's the same effect which "turns" a soccer ball if you kick it with a spin. There is a really nice demonstration of the effect in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OSrvzNW9FE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OSrvzNW9FE This wikipedia page has a way better summary than my attempt above: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotor_ship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotor_ship