Comment by turtledragonfly
2 years ago
I think what they were saying is that from a pure "Newton's 3rd law" standpoint, if the plane has an upwards force, then the air has a corresponding downward force, which must go somewhere. Yes, it is spread out and complicated and turbulent, etc, but ultimately must balance out.
If we could somehow "draw a box around" the entire plane+air system, then the plane's upward lift will create a corresponding downward force on the box, one way or another.
So, in the broad sense that you push the earth away from you when you jump, the plane also pushes the earth away from it when it flies (mediated by a bunch of fluid dynamics).
Or, classic example: if a (sealed) truck full of birds is jostled so that they start flying, does the truck weigh less? [1]
It's wrong though. A large, hypothetical scale under the plane would not register the weight of the plane as it flies over. And not just because diffusion but that being one of many reasons.
I'm curious to know your reasoning more.
Certainly if we flew the plane very low over the ground, the air pretty directly pushes down on it, and the hypothetical scale would register something. Just look at the grass when a helicopter hovers over it.
As the aircraft flies further up, we'd need a bigger scale to capture the full area affected, and if it's moving there would be increasing lag between the location of the plane and the (large) area where the downward force hits the ground.
Or do you disagree with that? At what point does the scale stop working?
Obviously there would be practical limitations — that force is so spread out that it would be hard to measure. But let's not have practice get in the way of theory (:
The "stone skip" or "deflection" theory of lift is not accurate; https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/VirtualAero/BottleRocket/a...
Planes fly through gas, not solid particulate. Gas has intrinsic kinetic energy when energized. Diffusion plays a huge role in all this of course.
The airflow is split at the leading edge. The area of positive pressure is not entirely below or focused under the wing. The top and bottom of the airfoil are both involved in turning the air flow.
The pressure under the airfoil increases a bit, but the pressure above decreases by as much to much more depending(2-3x or more). This hypothetical scale is under the aircraft but much of the lift occurs by decreasing forces on the top surface.
Scales measure weight/mass. Barometers measure changes in atmospheric pressure. So it's not even the tool for the job even if the stone skip theory of lift was accurate.
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