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![]() "PIM" wrote in message ... By the way, how do you explain that a flatter sail sails better "pointing" close hauled as a deep(=curved) sail? The more curve the more force according your theory, so what is the use of flattening the sail? (my answer: www.sailtheory.com/sail.html#ch) You forget an important concept that of drag. A foil is a compromise between lift and drag. NACA did extensive studies on differently shaped foils and it was all about lift vs.drag. One can make a foil with maximum lift but if it also has maximum drag it will not function very well. If a foil is to full in higher winds it creates more drag. a flatter foil creates less lift but proportionately less drag so overall it is more efficient. A sail is no venturi. Yes it is. Take a venturi. Cut it and unroll it so it is spread out. It is still a venturi but just not a cylindrical venturi. Air molecules don't know if they are passing over a curve in a closed cylinder or a curve in a spread out cylinder. View the sail as a spread out cylinder. Fact: Lower pressure is cause by the lower density of the gas molecules in the area. density difference is not of importance. A keel works just as a sail prducing sideways lift, but density of water stays the same. Density is all important because things happen on a molecular level. It is a fact of physics that lower density equals lower pressure. The measure of pressure of a gas tells you its density. Fact: An object with low pressure on one side and higher pressure on the other side if free to move will move in the direction of the low pressure. Yes. THAT is how a sail works. There is no venturi. There is a sail. That is the error. Incorrect as explained above with respect to the opened and spread out cylinder and how molecules of air see no difference. |
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