Aerodynamics

From Wikiversity

What is aerodynamics? The word comes from two Greek words: aerios, concerning the air, and dynamis, which means force. Aerodynamics is the study of forces and the resulting motion of objects through the air. Judging from the story of Daedalus and Icarus, humans have been interested in aerodynamics and flying for thousands of years, although flying in a heavier-than-air machine has been been achieved only in the last hundred years. Aerodynamics affects the motion of a large airliner, a model rocket, a beach ball thrown near the shore, the wafting of kited leaves on a tree, the gliding of dispersed falling seeds, the kiting of ballooning spiderlings, or a kite flying high overhead. The curveball thrown by big league baseball pitchers gets its curve from aerodynamics.