NASA have got a Beginner's Guide to
Aeronautics<http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/index.html>that's
worth looking at. It's includes a section on compressible
aerodynamics <http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/bgc.html>, which -
as Peter points out - is not the regime that these turbines are operating in
(as object speeds are much lower than speed of sound).

-- R

P.S. Nick - meteorologists are saying just what you think they are: a cubic
meter of air down here has a higher mass than a cubic meter of air up there.
That NASA site has an interactive demo called Gaslab (at bottom
here<http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/InteractProgs/index.htm>)
that enables you to explore the ideal gas law.



On Fri, Nov 27, 2009 at 11:30 PM, Nicholas Thompson <
[email protected]> wrote:

> Yes.  And while we are at it, what does it mean when meteorologists say
> that air is more dense near the surface than higher up, or that cold air is
> denser than warm?
>
> N
>
> Nicholas S. Thompson
> Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology,
> Clark University ([email protected])
> http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/<http://home.earthlink.net/%7Enickthompson/naturaldesigns/>
> http://www.cusf.org [City University of Santa Fe]
>
>
>
>
> > [Original Message]
> > From: Marcus G. Daniels <[email protected]>
> > To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <
> [email protected]>
> > Date: 11/27/2009 11:21:15 PM
> > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Hot Air, and Compressibilty
> >
> > [email protected] wrote:
> > >
> > > You have to sweep your hand at a speed comparable to that of sound
> > > (about 330 m/s here on earth) in order stop the air from getting away
> > > and to achieve any compression.
> > >
> > Ok, so in one of the articles mentioned,
> >
> >    http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/40993
> >
> > ..it said..
> >
> > "What they found was that a staggered column of alternately clockwise-
> > and anticlockwise-rotating turbines significantly enhances the speed of
> > turbine rotation. The reason, they say, is that the presence of
> > neighbouring turbines concentrates and accelerates the wind."
> >
> > The term `concentrate', to me, sounds like a synonym of `compress' but
> > in any case `accelerate' could be true in any case.
> >
> > The authors of the work are Caltech aerodynamics guys, so if all you'll
> > give us is, "Shut up and trust the experts", well...
> >
> > Is their claim impossible?
> >
> > Marcus
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ============================================================
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> > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
>
>
>
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