On Oct 3, 7:29 pm, Tina wrote:
In fact, if there is a downward component of the air's velocity that
had come from its passage over the upper surface of the airfoil, then
there had been an acceleration provided to that air -- acceleration in
this case being conventionally defined as the second time derivative
of position.

The acceleration is indeed downward. If God declared that all air
molecules in the universe must remain still for the sake of USENET
explication, and the wing move forward, and you took a snapshot of
that picture, there would be a vacuum created above the wing. It would
be quite large (not laminar). The floor of this vacuum would be the
wing itself. The ceiling would be the underside of an air mass above
the entire wing, ready to move downward to fill the void. Now if God
said, "Let molecules move!", the air mass above would, indeed, push
downward. But they would not be allow to go completely downward.
Molecules accelerated from the leading edge of the wing would fly
backward, colliding with those coming from above, and the net-effect
would be a stream.

Now, if the air is accelerated downward, and it has mass, it means
there had been a force applied. The local prime mover is of course the
wing, so it must experience an upward force. Maybe you have a
different idea as to on what that equal and opposite force is
operating on -- I'd be interested in hearing about that.

The force is coming from the air mass above the wing, the air mass
that would be right above the vacuum created if no molecules were
allowed to move. That airmass pushes downward, toward the void. This
has nothing to do with the wing, except that the wing created the
void, and also created high-pressure area at tip of wing causing
acceleration of air backwards.

There are a number of basic principles in operation here, be careful
not to paint yourself into too tight a corner unless you are quite
expert.

I am not claiming skill in this area -- physics was a minor a long
time ago -- but I remember some of the basics.

I am not an expert either, but I know enough to know that the
explanations I am reading in books are, at best, misleading. Some of
them are plain wrong. Note: going to start a new thread so we can get
to the bottom of this.

And yes, I am certain.

-Le Chaud Lapin-