motorgliders as towplanes

I'd like to turn this around since I'm not a physicist or an engineer.
What force causes a ball to roll down an inclined plane?


At 00:00 18 March 2009, Bob Cook wrote:
At 18:16 17 March 2009, The Real Doctor wrote:

Ian,

YOU did use the term "power" correctly.

What I didn't like about it was that the question I posed referred to
force. (OK, so you gave us some additional information)

I agree that a sailplane, in gliding flight, in still air, has no
"power" at all. (Although, as you said, some wrongly believe that
gliders are "gravity powered")

By some of the responses, I think I am correct in assuming that some
confuse power, energy, and force.

So I again ask, (not to Ian, but to some of the others who answered my
question with "gravity",) how can gravity alone, a force which acts
vertically downward, impart forward motion to a glider or anything for
that matter?


Cookie



I don't. I used "power" because I meant "power"!

Ian