Technical Terms
This part of an airfoil first meets the incoming wind.
Leading Edge
This model of wing lift states that due to the wing applying a force on the air to push it downward, the air applies a force on the wing to push it upwards.
Newtonian Model
An object on Earth has a weight of 343.35 N. What is its mass?
35 Kg
An object is moving at 1,000,000 kilometers per year. What is its speed in meters per second? (Round your answer to one decimal place)
31.7 m/s
The ratio of an object speed to the speed of sound
Mach Number
This effect, which arises around a wing due to the different speeds at which air moves across the upper and lower camber of the wing, causes an imbalance of pressure which ultimately lifts the wing.
Bernoulli Effect
What is the lift generated by a wing with an area of 15 m^2, moving at 35 m/s, through an atmosphere with a density of 0.3109 kg/m^3, if the wing has a lift coefficient of 1.75? (Round to the nearest whole number)
4999 N
What is the drag generated by an object with a cross sectional area of 1000 m^2, moving at 0.1 m/s, through an atmosphere with a density of 0.2, and a drag coefficient of 0.1?
0.1 N
The angle formed by the chord of a wing and the relative wind speed, which is related to both drag and lift.
Angle of Attack
This property of fluids is defined as its resistance to flowing, and is generally ignored when calculating the movements of air involved in flight.
Viscosity.
What is the minimum speed a plane needs in order to take off if it has a mass of 12,500 kg, a wing area of 40m^2, a lift coefficient of 1.35, and is taking off from sea level (air density 1.225 kg/m^3). (Round your answer to one decimal place)
v > 60.9 m/s
What is the maximum speed an aircraft can reach, if its engines generate 40,000 N of thrust, it has a cross sectional area of 90m^2, a drag coefficient of 0.09, and is moving through air with a density of 1.1 kg/m^3? (Round your answer to one decimal place)
v = 94.8 m/s
The science discussing the movement of objects through the atmosphere
Aeronautics
This field of science is used to understand the energy of gasses in motion.
Aerodynamics
A plane has rectangular wings which measure 15 m long by 2 m wide, have a lift coefficient of 1.9. A second plane has triangular wings which have a base of 7 meters and a lift coefficient of 1.4. What is the height of the triangular wing such that both planes will always generate the same lift, regardless of speed or air density? (Round to one decimal place)
h=11.6 m
A plane has wings with a total area of 25m^2, and a lift coefficient of 1.45. Its mass is 7,500 kg. The air has a density of 1.2 kg/m^3. The plane is traveling at 65 m/s, when the wind starts to blow from behind the plane, moving in the same direction. If the wind is moving at 10 m/s, how much lift is the plane generating? (Round to 2 decimal places)
65,793.75 N
The smooth flow of a fluid around an object, occuring when all of the molecules which compose that fluid are moving in uniform layers.
Laminar Flow
This churning air near a wing forms irregularities in the streamlines, and causes the lift generated by that wing to be less than an ideal model would predict.
Turbulence
A plane has wing area of 25 m^2, a cross sectional area of 10 m^2, a lift coefficient of 2, a drag coefficient of 0.1, and a mass of 11,500 kg. The plane is attempting to take off from the runway. The air has a density of 1.15 kg/m^3. How much thrust does the engine need to produce in order to achieve takeoff? (Round to 1 decimal place)
T > 2256.3 N
An airplane has engines which produce 2000 N of thrust. It has wings with a total area of 7.5 m^2, and a cross sectional area of 5 m^2. The air density is 1.225 kg/m^3. The lift coefficient is 1.5, and the drag coefficient is 0.4. What is the maximum mass the aircraft can have and still achieve takeoff? (Round to one decimal place)
m < 1,146.8 kg
A plane has a total wing area of 51m^2. At cruising altitude, the air density is approximately 0.2 kg/m^3, moving at a speed of 470 km/h. The wing has a maximum lift coefficient of 1.85. What is the lift generated by the plane? (Round to 2 decimal places)
L = 160,817.25 N