When catapults would hurl stones and projectiles at castles there weren’t thinking of how the stones flew or what could make them fly better, often they went with the “Tim Taylor method” of MORE POWER. It wasn’t until thousands of years later that mathematicians started to talk about gases and liquids and how they react to different scenarios. Things like how does air react to a stone being launched through it. Johann Bernoulli played a significant role and calculated a lot of this out throughout his life and discovered what is now called the Bernoulli Principle.
Bernoulli discovered that when there is an increase in the speed of a fluid, a simultaneous decrease in fluid pressure occurs at the same time. This is what explains how a plane’s wing shape matters. It also can showcase how a curveball coming into the strike zone can fall out and cause an outlandish “STTTeeerriike Three” from the umpire. It is also sometimes confused with the Coandă effect. While both effects have a tremendous impact on our modern lives, the best way I have learned these effects is through videos such as the one below.
As mentioned within the video, there are numerous effects that can closely relate to the Bernoulli effect, the best example I see is the curveball which when implemented correctly can cause a very upset batter, while the pitcher has the game of his or her career.
If you would like to talk about some scientific discoveries that have you puzzled, or if you want to figure out how we can use one of these effects to help your application, contact us.
Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF
Video Source: Fizzics Organization – 10/8/2014 – retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c_oCKm5FLU&list=PLLKB_7Zd6leNJmORn6HHcF78o2ucquf0U
