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Doug McLean | Common Misconceptions in Aerodynamics

Michigan Engineering · talk · Watch on YouTube

Aviation & aerospace engineeringEveryday physics & science demosFundamental physics

What it is

Retired Boeing Technical Fellow Doug McLean walks through common misconceptions in aerodynamics, drawing on his book Understanding Aerodynamics. He critiques popular explanations of wing lift and rocket thrust and argues for arguing from the real physics.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN commenters point to it as a credible debunking of the popular but wrong explanations of how wings generate lift.

  • 4 people recommended it
  • 3 different months
  • 1 strong recommendations
  • first 2019, last 2021

What HN commenters said

  1. “do yourself a favor and skip it. Instead, check out”

    Debunks common theories of lift against observed phenomena.

    theothermkn, 2019-06 · Strong recommendation · in “To Build a Better Teapot, Researchers Create Liquid Helix”

  2. “has a quite decent talk about the question of intuitive explanations for aerodynamic lift”

    Boeing fellow on intuitive explanations of aerodynamic lift.

    zkms, 2020-02 · Recommendation · in “The mysteries of aerodynamic lift”

  3. “A video about the subject”

    Explains why the common lift explanation is wrong.

    raverbashing, 2021-06 · Recommendation · in “Why we don’t understand heavier-than-air flight”

  4. “You might get something out of this 2013 talk by former Boeing engineer Doug McLean on misconceptions about lift.”

    Talk by former Boeing engineer on lift misconceptions.

    MaxBarraclough, 2021-06 · Recommendation · in “Why we don’t understand heavier-than-air flight”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: aerodynamics, lift, physics misconceptions, boeing, fluid dynamics

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