At any given point in time, there are more than five thousand airplanes flying over the United States. How do these machines, weighing thousands of pounds, ever leave the ground?According to Yale geophysicist, Professor Ron Smith, airplanes stay in the air by shifting to maintain various states of equilibrium. It is all a matter of thrust and lift: the amount of thrust from the engines must overcome the drag force resisting motion, while the lifting force must counteract the effects of gravity.Thrust from the engines is simple enough, but “lift” deserves some special treatment. Lift occurs when the special curvature of an aircraft’s wing parts the air into portions above and below it. The wing is designed so that the air above the wing must cover a longer distance in the same time that the air below moves a shorter distance. More distance over a given time means the “top air” has a faster velocity. Thanks to Bernoulli’s Principle we know that faster air particles have lower pressures. It is this imbalance of pressure above and below the wings that causes the plane to rise in altitude - See more at: http://www.lightnepalvideo.com/videos/7-year-old-in-737-simulator/#sthash.g9RY5DFc.dpuf
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