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[return to "Ask HN: What scientific phenomenon do you wish someone would explain better?"]
1. tomp+fl[view] [source] 2020-04-26 21:51:54
>>qqqqqu+(OP)
Flight. Apparently "air flows faster on the top side of the wing, lowering the pressure" is an incomplete explanation; I even heard we don't completely understand why it works (?!?).
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2. geocra+Ql[view] [source] 2020-04-26 21:58:13
>>tomp+fl
I've been informed that I'm part of the problem. Comment removed, sorry for the trouble, folks!
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3. na85+Et[view] [source] 2020-04-26 23:04:27
>>geocra+Ql
>The top of a wing is curved, making it longer than the bottom of the wing. This means that air takes longer to go over it, meaning it has to spread out further to go the same distance as the air under the wing. As a result, the air going over the top of the wing is less dense, (aka lower pressure). The wing tries to equalize the pressure by moving in the direction of the low pressure, which is Up. We call this Lift.

100% completely false.

Imagine you have two particles of air, and they are immediately adjacent to each other. Suppose now that one goes above the wing, and one goes underneath. In your example, the particle going upward goes further in the same amount of time.

But ask yourself this: Why do the particles of air have to arrive at the same time? What mechanism from physics requires that they meet up again at the far end of the wing?

Then ask yourself this: If what you described is true, then how do aircraft fly upside down?

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