For a long time, people thought baseball aerodynamics were simply a competition between gravity and the Magnus effect caused when a ball is spinning. But the seams of a baseball Keep reading
Tag: boundary layer separation
The Telstar 18
Every four years, Adidas creates a newly designed ball for the World Cup. This year’s version is the Telstar 18, which features six glued panels (no stitching!) with a slightly Keep reading
Withstanding Windstorms
Saguaro cacti can grow 15 meters tall, and despite their shallow root systems can withstand storm winds up to 38 meters per second without being blown over. Grooves in the Keep reading
Perching Physics
Compared to birds, manmade aircraft tend to be quite limited and inelegant. Fixed-wing aircraft, for example, require long, flat areas for take-off and landing, whereas birds of all sizes are Keep reading
The Challenges of Micro Air Vehicles
Interest in micro-aerial vehicles (MAVs) has proliferated in the last decade. But making these aircraft fly is more complicated than simply shrinking airplane designs. At smaller sizes and lower speeds, Keep reading
Laser-Induced Fluorescence
One of the challenges of experimental fluid dynamics is capturing information about a flow that varies in three spatial dimensions and time. Experimentalists have developed many techniques over the years–some Keep reading
American Football Aerodynamics
Like many sports balls, the American football’s shape and construction make a big difference in its aerodynamics. Unlike the international football (soccer ball), which undergoes significant redesigns every few years Keep reading
Turbine Blade Separation
[original media no longer available] Maintaining consistent air flow along the contours of an object is key to aerodynamic efficiency. When air flow separates or forms a recirculation zone, the Keep reading
Transonic Flow
In the transonic speed regime the overall speed of an airplane is less than Mach 1 but some parts of the flow around the aircraft break the speed of sound. Keep reading
Frisbee Physics, Part 2
Yesterday we discussed some of the basic mechanics of a frisbee in flight. Although frisbees do generate lift similarly to a wing, they do have some unique features. You’ve probably Keep reading