Does a crosswind affect the distance a golf ball travels down the fairway? Does it affect the fuel burnt by a plane? Yes, and yes. I was in an aircraft dynamics class a year ago and developed a simulation to prove the first question was true, however, almost half of my classmates got the problem wrong despite writing their own simulations. How could so many 3rdyear aerospace engineering students disagree on a simple simulation problem?
Video Music: "Lone Wolf" by Dan Lebowitz
Outro Music: "Blast" from Bensound.com
(0:00) The crosswind question
(1:01) Basic equation
(1:38) Two ways to calculate Drag
(2:29) The source of the error
(3:10) What the students did wrong
(4:40) How to fix the simulation
(5:27) But HOW does it affect distance?
(5:43) Flying in a crosswind
(7:15) Outro