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Old 01-21-2013, 03:08 AM   #388 (permalink)
freebeard
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As are we all. Since my last post I found aerohead thread on Cinderella and the 4° past midnight analogy. The F-117 example is related to golf ball dimples. The Tiger Woods part.

I think this method would incrementally approach the theoretical ideal contour (it is a B-spline curve, lathed; nothing more) with a mathematically rigorous foundation. But I personally don't care; I'm more interested in eyeball engineering. The hot rodder maxim: "If it looks right it is right."

The thing I've been thinking about is this—people talk about air moving or being moved. What actually happens is the air occupies the space and sound waves, i.e., alternating highs and lows, move. At our levels of sensation and Reynolds numbers it's silent, but once you get to the sound barrier—boom. But people talk about air 'relaxing' back into the low pressure area.
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