Today's video is a very brief look at the incredibly complex phenomena that is Lift. In short, it's complicated and unpredictable but I hope you enjoy the video anyway.

There are a few concepts I didn't cover in the video that I will mention here:

Angle of attack: Tilting the airfoil has a massive effect on the amount of lift, much more than the shape on its own.

Drag: Lift always comes with drag, the best airfoils maximize the ratio of lift to drag rather than simply maximizing raw lift.

Flow separation and Stalling: With steep angles of attack, or sharp changes in geometry (like the triangle airfoil) flow can separate from the airfoil which greatly reduces the lift and increases the drag.

Cut Wind Tunnel Tests: I had two more wind tunnel tests that weren't included in the final video. The first was a flat airfoil that was supposed to act as a control. Unfortunately, because of the updraft seen in the triangle test, the flat plate experienced some lift. This also caused issues with another airfoil shape which was a rectangle with a semicircle cut out of it. This was going to act as a counter to the longer path explanation because it is supposed to experience negative lift, but the updraft caused it to move up instead. Essentially, the wind tunnel is terrible and is only for demonstration, not actually proving anything.

Intro Music: Himalayan Atmosphere
by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty...
Artist: http://incompetech.com/

(0:00) Introduction
(0:15) Basic Explanations
(1:01) Terminology
(1:26) The Explanation is Wrong
(2:33) Nozzle Explanation
(3:03) Wind Tunnel Demos
(4:17) Limitations of Explanations
(4:49) Outro