Louise Bremner wrote:
> necoandjeff <spam@schrepfer.com> wrote:
> 
>>I completely disagree that "Newtonian physics" is the best way to teach
>>someone the principle of how an airfoil works. And the author of the
>>textbook I read when studying for my pilot's license apparently disagreed
>>with you as well. Newton is only needed to understand how pressure
>>differentials cause a push in one direction or the other, a concept most
>>people generally don't have trouble with. It is understanding how the
>>pressure differential arises in the first place, and consequently how to
>>create it using a sail (or a wing) and the flow of the air/wind around it,
>>that is the most important (and not entirely intuitive) concept to learn
>>for a would be aviator or sailor.
> 
> You know, I never really understood all that pressure differential
> stuff, all the time I was studying Aeronautical Engineering--I just
> learnt it off by heart and regurgitated it in exams. It was only when I
> started flying kites and learnt to see the various forces as vectors,
> that I began to see what's happening.

Pressure differentials, aeronautical engineering, vectors, "newtonian 
physics", airfoils, kinetic energy, molecules, bernoulli-sensei, 
strewth. I use to think sailing was a simple, stress relieving 
recreation. Never ended up upside down (hint for Ryan - never leave the 
bay for open sea), always got to where I want to go, always had an 
engine so that I could get back to shore quickly when the beer supply 
ran out.

-- 
Non gratum anus rodentum