Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Air Resistance - why/how?

We watched more videos to give examples and depth to our study of air resistance and had some notes on what influences air resistance.  To sum it up:
Factors influencing air resistance:
-Size of object: greater size encounters more air - specifically the size of the object perpendicular to the direction of motion.
-Shape of the object:  how air must move around the object and action-reaction forces involved in making air move  
- Air density - more dense air --> more matter encountered by object per second
-velocity of object relative to air - more difference in velocities --> more matter encountered by object per second. 

We analyzed air resistance of a falling object until velocity increases to equal gravity's pull: terminal velocity, when acceleration = 0 and the object falls at its maximum, constant velocity.

Much discussion was involved in different classes:
Skydiving to break the sound barrier and a world record  (apparently hasn't been broken yet)

Aptera - awesome aero, so why not in production yet?  (some interesting conspiracy theories out there as to what the heck happened)

other fun aero cars

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