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Comment by newaccount74

4 years ago

You are both wrong. Air resistance increases quadratically with speed, not cubically. And you mixed up polynomial with exponential.

Quadratic: x^2

Cubic: x^3

Polynomial (eg. 3rd degree): a + b x + c x^2 + d x^3

Exponential: e^x

Drag force rises quadratically with speed. Power is force dot velocity; in this case force and velocity are in the same direction, so dot product becomes simple mulitiplication making drag power (exertion, formally: work per unit time) cubic with speed.

I'm not wrong, because I wasn't commenting on the power of the exponent.

But thanks for being a typical HN.