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It's not unsolved per se, just a complex topic that resists simple explanations. (see also: what causes lift in an airfoil)
by rcxdude 2y ago
It's not unsolved per se, just a complex topic that resists simple explanations. (see also: what causes lift in an airfoil)
- adastra22 2y agoSibling comment to yours points to a relatively recent (this century) article with a mostly complete theoretical model for bike self-stability. There are other theories though, some more or less developed than others. It turns out to be a fiendishly hard control-theory problem, and at least one aspect is chaotic. Which theory is correct has not, to my knowledge, been definitively determined by experiment. Until it is, I think it is fair to say that it is unsolved. Unlike lift, which is very well understood but often poorly explained.
- Syonyk 2y ago> (see also: what causes lift in an airfoil) That's easy! It pushes air down, and the reaction force is what we call lift! ... now, why it pushes air down... there be many computational fluid dynamics PhDs... though "angle of attack" covers a lot, and the rest is just efficiency tweaks. Good question for teachers who insist it's the Bernoulli Principle: "But my paper airplane has flat wings and flies just fine!" toss across classroom