Comment on Aerodynamic Center and Center of Pressure

Alexander,

You are using what looks like to be a good computer tool for these calculations and visualizations. But you don’t explain your tools and give links to let others know what to use, or what you recommend. I watched your hysteresis video. It is really shaky and hard to watch. You could use computer tools. You hand writing is clear and your mathematics good, but you can get more out of the computer tools. You can share that ability and insights with others. Your aerodynamics would be more powerful and helpful and help you grow, if you also do experiments to demonstrate. I recommend trying sound card oscilloscopes, usb oscilloscopes, cameras and microphones as basic tools that anyone might have. Find ways to use them and much that is done with traditional dumb instruments (the human does all the work) can be done with smarter computerized methods. You have the skills to build and use that sort of thing. Please decide what you want to create in your life. Your writing on paper and your work on the computer are clean and orderly. But your camera work, and your wiring messy. Put more effort into clean and organized layouts, it will help you get to where you want to go faster. Keep up the great work! If you want an interesting problem try making a nice clean and quantitative version of the Franck-Hertz experiment. Then apply what you learn to ionizing air around vehicles. And look at what is called “electron affinity”. It is easier to add charge to things, than to ionize. Many electrostatic methods are too costly if you have to pay ionization energy costs, but tiny electron affinity bond energies can be enough to move things.

You “have” seen lidar systems that can scan the air far ahead of a vehicle, and you have seen tools for scanning boundary layers. You should also know how the lasers are used to ionize the air in particular patterns, and how multiple acoustic sources are used in phased arrays to move air in 3D haptic (“holodeck”) systems. And you should know how to 3D scan real object (including models and planes and things you and others make yourself) to then have the raw detailed data to test things and measure. Reality is far more complex than any computer model. I can tell you how much more. But it means that good engineering is a balance between making things, precise measurement, modeling for control and planning, and counting the cost of memory and computers to do enough to make it work, without getting so heavy and expensive it will not fly. Richard Collins, Director, The Internet Foundation
Richard K Collins

About: Richard K Collins

Director, The Internet Foundation Studying formation and optimized collaboration of global communities. Applying the Internet to solve global problems and build sustainable communities. Internet policies, standards and best practices.


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