Saturday, January 29, 2022

Applied Physics: Coanda Effect

Some things just seem intuitively "impossible." Consider a surfer on a longboard, standing on the nose of the board. To be clear, stand there when the board is not moving and you will fall off. After you fall, the board will shoot up in the air tail first. 

Try this on a slow, small, mushy wave and the board's nose will dive into the water--it will "pearl"--and your ride will end, immediately. 














On a wave moving fast enough, you can ride this way, even if it seems to somehow defy the laws of physics. It is possible because of the Coanda Effect. It is related to the way an airplane's wing provides lift. 


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