the.com/aerodynamics
the reason a chunk of metal heavier than a house casually shrugs off gravity
means The branch of physics concerned with how air moves around solid objects and the forces — lift, drag, thrust — that result.
from Built from Greek pieces: 'aēr' (air) bolted to 'dynamis' (power, force), the same root behind 'dynamic' and 'dynamite.' The 'dynamics' half was already a fixture in physics for the study of bodies in motion; the 'aero-' prefix saw a surge of use in the 19th century as people grew obsessed with flight and ballooning, and the compound settled into its modern sense as the science of flying machines took off — quite literally.
- bumblebee myth
- old math said they can't fly; they ignored it
- golf dimples
- those dents cut drag, doubling a drive's distance
- drag scales
- double your speed, quadruple the air's resistance
- cheetah tails
- act as aerodynamic rudders during high-speed turns
- F1 downforce
- could let cars drive upside-down on tunnel ceilings
bugatti bolide — hypercar with 0.61 drag coefficient, designed for 330+ mph speeds
x-43a scramjet — nasa experimental aircraft reaching mach 9.6 in 2004
formula 1 drs flap — movable rear wing that reduces drag by 25% on straights since 2011