FLIGHT, AERODYNAMICS, BIOMIMICRY

That’s what F.A.B stands for: Flight, Aerodynamics, and Biomimicry. I learnt all about F.A.B in one of the Calgary Zoo’s classrooms. These are the notes I took while I was there:

FLIGHT:

There are four forces of flight:

LIFT:

Lift. Lift is one of the 4 forces. It is an invisible force that lifts something upwards. It’s, as you can tell, the opposite of gravity. Everything that flies must have lift. In order for an aircraft to move upward, it must have more lift than gravity.

GRAVITY:

Gravity is another invisible force. This time though, it pulls things downward. There really isn’t much to say about gravity except that like how in order for an aircraft to fly downwards, it must have more gravity than lift.

DRAG:

Drag is another invisible force. This time though, it move things backward.

Has it ever been a windy day and you’re trying to move forward but the wind is pushing you backward? The wind is the drag force. While you’re trying to walk forward, the drag force is dragging you back.

In the picture above, as the man is trying to walk forward, the harsh winds are pushing him back, acting as a drag force.

Did you know, the shape fo an object affects the amount of drag. That’s why, we have formed the plane’s wing in such a shape, that its curved on top, and flatter on the bottom. The shape of the planes wing is what makes a plane possible to fly.

THRUST:

Thrust is a force opposite of drag. It’s the push that moves something forward. In order for a plane to move forward, it must have more thrust than drag.