Bernoulli

’s Principle Essay, Research Paper

Bernoulli’s Principle

Daniel Bernoulli, a Swiss scientist, stated that fast moving air results in lower pressure than slow moving air. Which means high pressure air always moves towards a lower pressure area. The force of the moving air is called lift. If this principle had not been discovered, airplanes may not even be here.

Lift, pushing up on an airplane’s wing, is the way airplanes stay in the air. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. The bottom of the wing is flat, so the air can travel across there without having to speed up to get past the wing. The top of the wing is curved causing the air to speed up to pass because high pressure always moves toward low pressure.

Small things can affect the lift. The surface area of the wing: the larger the wing, the more lift is created. Speed can, too: the faster the air is moving, the more time vacuums have to form, causing them to have more powerful lift.

Lift can be demonstrated by taking a thin piece of paper, and blowing lightly over the top of it. The blowing creates the low pressure, and makes the paper appear to float in the air.

The uses that have come out of this are huge. One day Wilbur Wright was looking at this principle, and he said to his brother, “I can make something fly!” Then he and Orville Wright went out and built a plane, and they were the first to fly. If they had not known of Bernoulli’s principle to build a plane, we might not have any planes now.

In conclusion, Bernoulli’s principle summarizes the findings of the eighteenth century scientist, Daniel Bernoulli, who investigated and described aspects of the behavior of moving fluids. We know how gliders and airplanes fly because of his principle.

Bibliography

“Bernoulli’s Principle.” http://www.hock.salkeiz.k12.or.us/Hock.Website/Student Pages/Science.Web.Pages/seth.jesse.Science/Index.html Online. World Wide Web. 27 April 1999.

Germaine and Arthur Beise. Physics For Everybody. New York: E.P. Dutton and Co., 1960.

Hewitt, Paul G. Conceptual Physics. USA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1987.