If you're looking for more info on the planes thing, check out a book called:
What Einstein Told His Barber: More Scientific Answers to Everyday Questions
The short and skinny of it all is that there are two theories devised to explain how "lift" in an airplane works.
One is the Bernoulli effect, which more or less states that in order for air molecules on top of a wing to meet air molecules below the wing at the same time, it must move faster, which in a roundabout way creates lift (this would take way too long to explain in great detail). In any case, this is flawed because there is absolutely no logical reason why it should have to do this, which is a pretty big flaw.
The other theory is the Newtonian theory, which couples with the "Every reaction has an equal and opposite reaction". The theory goes that air molecules are like shotgun pellets, and when a wing is tilted, all these repeated "shotgun pellets" hitting the bottom of the wing "nudge" the plane upward. The big flaw with this theory is that it entirely ignores the top surface of the wing, which would mean the top of a wing could be any shape, not mattering, which we know is definately not true.
So basically, we know of lift, we know of drag, we just don't really know how either of them work. We just use what we know of both paradoxes to make better wings and props, all the time not having any clue as to why lift works. In a sense, our entire aerodynamics industry is based on "testimonials", repeated progressive outbreaks with different-shaped wings, and various professors and scientists raving about why "theirs is the best".
From this we can conclude one thing:
NASA is an infomercial.
My general feeling on all things is, "If it works, it works."
-Ramon http://razor.ramon.com
[This message has been edited by razordu30 (edited August 30, 2002).]
