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Lesson 1: A Basic Physics Lesson    Lesson 2: An Explanation of Air    

Lesson 3: How do birds and planes stay in the air?     Lesson 4: Types of Forces in Flight

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Flight - Lesson 2

An Explanation of Air

  • It has MASS.  Because it has MASS, FORCES can act on it.  It can also exert FORCE on other things.

    • Air Pressure - the weight of a body of air

    • Drag - the resistance on any object that moves through air.  This is a type of FORCE.

      Ex. A person with a parachute

      • The person and the parachute have the same MASS whether the parachute is open or not.

      • When the parachute is open, the person falls slower.

      • DRAG from the air is what slows the person down when the parachute is open.

      • If there were no air, the person would fall at the same rate whether the parachute was open or not.

      • In this case, the FORCE of DRAG works against the FORCE of GRAVITY.

  • Air's density changes depending on temperature and how far above sea level.

 

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