Bernoulli or not?

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From: MC elover (mcelover@yahoo.com)
Date: Wed Nov 22 2000 - 08:19:21 PST 

Message-ID: <20001122161921.12513.qmail@web903.mail.yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2000 08:19:21 -0800 (PST)
From: MC elover <mcelover@yahoo.com>
Subject: Bernoulli or not?

hello

a student here has been in a fuss lately about
airplane wing lift. he discovered many web articles
disclaiming the old Bernoulli explanation of how a
wing gets its lift. the story goes that becuase the
top side of the wing has a longer path than the
bottom, the air must be passing more quickly over the
top and hence exert less pressure. both the student
and i agree that this explanation is unfounded because
there is no proof that an air molecule passing over
the top of the wing must meet up with an air molecule
passing under the wing (the "equal transit time"
explanation).
     BUT ... he found an article referring to a
scientist named M. W. Kutta who "proved" that the
airflow over a wing must be "smooth" and therefore
Bernoulli works.
     has anyone ever heard of this?

--eric

p.s. i personally like the Newton's 3rd law
explanation of lift: the wing causes the air to go
down, therefore the air cuases the wing to go up!

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