3 ms·
This is silly. We know why: the wing pushes air down and as Newton taught us, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. To push air down the wing must be
by jeffreyrogers 5y ago
This is silly. We know why: the wing pushes air down and as Newton taught us, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. To push air down the wing must be feeling a force up on it, which causes lift.
You can also see the same thing with a helicopter flying over water: the water is affected in a circular region fairly close to the rotor itself, indicating that there is a large downward force being exerted on the air and a corresponding upward force being exerted on the rotor.
- AnotherGoodName 5y agoOne thing to add is that you can push air down in numerous ways but some ways are less efficient. So an 45degree angled blade absolutely will give you lift but a tapered aerofoil will do the same with less energy spent pushing the air in unwanted directions (specifically fewer swirling vortexes immediately behind the wing causing drag). So yes push air down to stay up. Don't push air sideways or in circles. The aerofoil shape and the equations that simplify the 'don't push air the wrong way' into a simple term of drag are all about doing this.
- benhurmarcel 5y agoObviously lift is produced by pushing air down. The question is why/how is the air pushed down.
- jeffreyrogers 5y agoThe wing directs the flow of air downwards. The flow doesn't separate except at high angles of attack (stalling). You can go into arbitrary levels of detail (why doesn't the flow separate?, how thick is the affected layer?, etc.) but it doesn't change the fact that mostly we know the answers to all those questions.