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Showing posts from December, 2023

Can a brick 'fly' (glide)?

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Yes, it can (but not in an optimal way)*. That is why aerodynamics has very little to do with curvatures, rounded leading edges, smooth surfaces, sharp trailing edges, and other embellishments; these are all just makeup! In fact, the word "aerodynamics" etymologically means "air in motion," so a turbulent fluid is more aerodynamic than a laminar one from a kinematic point of view. So, strictly speaking, a car or plane designed in the 50's or 60's is more aerodynamic than a newer one. This is not just a word game, a philosophical question, or to sound woke . In order to try to understand or explain a thing, it should be named as precisely as possible, avoiding the use of veiled terms, most of which focus on oversimplifying a complex phenomenon by trying to give only quick answers, leaving aside formal justifications. Fig. 1 An artistic description made in Paintbrush (now simply Paint). In this order of ideas, anything can fly/glide with sufficient velocity!