2008-05-18

Understanding Bernoulli's Principle

Have you ever thought why birds can fly so efficiently in the air?
or likewise the plane?

that movement or phenomenon can be explained by Bernoulli's Principle.

Bernoulli's Principle states that as the speed of a moving fluid increases, the pressure within the fluid decreases.

Therefore, the pressure in a moving fluids depends on its flow velocity (remember fluids =  water, air)

A full definition of Bernoulli's Principle is:

IN a steady flow of a fluid, the pressure of the fluid decreases when the velocity of the fluid increases.

Bernoulli's principle is very important as it is used in the design of airplanes, boat hulls, fan blades and cars.

Example of situations that involves Bernoulli' s Principle:

Ping Pong Balls and Funnels

An inverted filter funnel can hold a ping pong ball if you blow air through the funnel, it does not drop down. Thats because the air flows around the ping pong ball at high speed and creating  a low-pressured area, the higher atmospheric pressure supports the ball from falling.



Curve Balls in Baseball

Now lets move on from ping pong to baseball. A pitcher occasionally tries to fool the batter into a strike by throwing a curve ball. It seems to be heading straight into the strike zone but veers off at the last minute. STRIKE! How do they do that?

OK, you can try this at home.

Try blowing through two pieces of paper. Separate the papers slightly so you can blow air through it. Instead of the paper being separated it will get nearer to each other. That's because the faster air flow in the middle of the papers creating a lower-pressure region and the higher atmospheric pressure pushes the paper so it gets nearer to each other.

There are more situations of Bernoulli's principle in daily life if you dare to think and spend a little time observing.

Here are a few websites worth quoting:

http://home.earthlink.net/~mmc1919/venturi.html
http://www.allstar.fiu.edu/aerojava/pic3-2.htm

5 comments:

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Anonymous said...

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