I recently taught my 11-year-old nephew “how planes fly.” A bit oversimplified, of course, but words like camber and lift and circulation were tossed around along with Bernoulli’s principle.
Yep, it's me
Submitted 6 months ago by Stomata@buddyverse.one to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://buddyverse.one/pictrs/image/f94c88fc-e7d6-4514-9c65-dff68c2afbc5.jpeg
Comments
CuriousRefugee@lemmy.ml 6 months ago
Samvega@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 months ago
I’ve heard the Bernoulli’s principle is not that important for how planes fly.
CuriousRefugee@lemmy.ml 6 months ago
Yes, there’s a bit of a myth around Bernoulli’s principle (faster moving fluids have lower pressure) and how much it matters for lift in plane wings. It came up in the conversation because I was trying to describe what air pressure is in general, and made an analogy to a pan flute (he plays flute in band).
Disclaimer: I’m an aerospace engineer, but I do not claim to be an expert on topic.
But for plane wings, the myth is really that the air above the wing moves faster because the curved surface is longer. That’s pretty much dead wrong, but is still in tons of textbooks. The air above the wing does move faster, but it’s because of a bunch of complicated physics that to be honest, I don’t really understand any more. I may have even been taught wrongly in college. But the result is that there is a velocity difference on a cambered wing even when it’s flat, and thus Bernoulli’s principle does apply, and there is a pressure difference giving you lift.
But that speed difference is mostly important at cruising altitude, when the wings aren’t angled, and it’s positively correlated with airspeed, so the thrust matters way more. When you’re climbing, the angle matters more. The camber (curvature) of the wing, the airspeed, and the angle of attack all lead to that pressure difference, along with a few other things like circulation, which is also caused by a sharp edge at the back of the wing. But everything kind of works together to generate that pressure difference and hence the lift that can combat gravity. It’s actually pretty hard to try and dumb it down without saying things that aren’t wrong.
sir_pronoun@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Ooh don’t fight THAT battle in front of your children
Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Discussing it properly is fine as long as they are interested. If they don’t seem interested, then you can boil it down to a simpler analogy. Some kids very much appreciate having the full picture right away, and some need a framework first before details can be added. Most schools use method 2, because it will eventually reach all kids, and the only downside is kids that need/want method 1 will be bored the whole time.
dragonfucker@lemmy.nz 6 months ago
the only downside
Nah, there’s one more: the kids who didn’t elect to study biology will, some of the time, claim that trans people aren’t valid because basic biology (learned in year 2) doesn’t account for us.
thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org 6 months ago
I love and cherish that moment when I can trap my youngest family members with simple answers that turn into this after they ask follow-up questions
iii@mander.xyz 6 months ago
Feynman answering “Why is ice slippery”: www.youtube.com/watch?v=36GT2zI8lVA
ornery_chemist@mander.xyz 6 months ago
I so badly want to be as smart and articulate as Feynman when ever I grow up.
EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 months ago
It’s just Minecraft, bro. I won’t teach them about logic gates again, I swear!
sir_pronoun@lemmy.world 6 months ago
…Warmth make wiggle house built from tiny building blocks of water?
Come on, who can make it simpler?
DScratch@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
So you know your bucket of Lego? It’s a bunch of blocks that can move around each other. (Swish some around to demonstrate)
Water is made up of little tiny block that can swish around too. When you make them cold, they start to stick together. (Start connecting Lego blocks)
The colder it is, the more they connect, until all the water blocks have joined up together and made a bigger block of ice.
Then, when you heat the ice up, they start to come apart and move freely again.
So, heat is movement and cold is connected. This is the same for almost everything!
Lava from volcanos is just rocks that have been heated up enough to move. When the lava flows out and cools down, it hardens back into rocks.
MarcomachtKuchen@feddit.org 6 months ago
That’s a really solid demonstration
tate@lemmy.sdf.org 6 months ago
The disorder can only increase, just like your toys on the living room floor.
Stomata@buddyverse.one 6 months ago
When you add heat to ice, it makes the tiny ice skaters wiggle and break free from their frozen circle, turning into water!
JackbyDev@programming.dev 6 months ago
Latent heat, my beloved 💕
I_am_10_squirrels@beehaw.org 6 months ago
Sensible heat is where it’s at!
TherapyGary@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 months ago
The metamorphosis of H₂O from a crystalline solid is instigated by an endothermic enthalpic absorption, destabilizing its tetrahedrally coordinated lattice architecture. This thermodynamic perturbation amplifies molecular Brownian motion, surmounting intermolecular hydrogen bonding and effectuating a phase transition into a disordered liquid state.
I_am_10_squirrels@beehaw.org 6 months ago
And I barely passed thermo
TherapyGary@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 months ago
I cheated my way through precalc and still failed lol
Aceticon@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Little kid: “Why is there a bright ball of light in the sky?” Me (thinking): “Oh, shit…”
ech@lemm.ee 6 months ago
More interesting question - why is ice slippery?
Our best answer (so far): www.youtube.com/watch?v=20zyW0qoSTE
iii@mander.xyz 6 months ago
I expected this video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=36GT2zI8lVA
jqubed@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Eh, sometimes getting kids started like this can spark their interest.
EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 months ago
Add in a magic trick (experiment) that they can do themselves, and you’ve created a little baby physicist.
avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 6 months ago
I see myself in this picture.
zlatiah@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Reminds me of this post of the same community: lemmy.world/post/4492190
_____@lemm.ee 6 months ago
pepe entropy pepe entropy I got BOXES full of pepe
dwindling7373@feddit.it 6 months ago
It’s sweating.
CommissarVulpin@lemmy.world 6 months ago
BILL BILL BILL BILL BILL
DragonsInARoom@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Because ice is colder than the air around it
Bilbo_Haggins@lemm.ee 6 months ago
Kids love this shit as long as you keep it at the ELI5 level and stop when they are done and lose interest. My kid will throw around words like “microorganism” and “bioaccumulation” because I actually explain biology concepts when he asks. The other day he had a question about atmospheric composition and he was absorbed for about 5-10 minutes, complete with looking at molecular diagrams, and then he was done and went off to make his Lego people fight each other with flamethrowers.
If you have knowledge, share it with kids and let them see you enjoying science. They absorb more than you might think.
Kongpiler@lemm.ee 6 months ago
Whenever I try this my kid will go “dad, please stop talking” and go back to his Legos immediately. Guess I need to work on my teaching skills.
Dave@lemmy.nz 6 months ago
Haha I have one of these.
Them: how come most trees are green?
Me: Oh, well the leaves have s…
Them: OK goodbye
I also have another one that likes to hear all the details, and as a young kid they would ask me to explain stuff while they fell asleep.
Me: OK, sleeping time
Them: Can you tell me why we don’t two suns while I lie down?
Me: oh, boy, well… [then I talk until they fall asleep]
I think they were about 3 or 4 when we did this.