Air resistance
Air is made of tiny particles, and anything moving through it has to push them aside. The air pushes back, against the motion: that force is air resistance. It grows with speed, and with how wide the thing is: a flat sheet of paper drifts down slowly, while the same sheet crumpled into a ball falls fast. So fast cars, trains and planes are built long and narrow at the front, and racing cyclists bend low, while a parachute is made wide to catch as much air as it can and slow the fall.
Depth 1 · Foundation
You know that air pushes back on anything moving through it, against its motion, and that a faster or wider thing meets more air resistance than a slower or narrower one.
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- 1
Foundation
You know that air pushes back on anything moving through it, against its motion, and that a faster or wider thing meets more air resistance than a slower or narrower one.
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