How Heavy Planes Stay Up
Like Duolingo, but for How Heavy Planes Stay Up. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.
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Key ideas in How Heavy Planes Stay Up
- Lift is generated by moving air over and under the wings
- Faster air movement allows the wings to push more air down per second
- Without forward speed, there is no air being deflected downward to create an upward force
- Increased speed results in a stronger upward force (lift)
- Why forward motion is required for vertical lift
- The relationship between speed and weight capacity
- Thrust must create forward motion before lift can occur
- Lift is the physical reaction to air being pushed down
- The sequence of energy transfer that results in flight
- Air moves faster over the curved top surface than the bottom
- Faster moving air creates a zone of lower pressure
- Curvature (airfoil) is specifically designed to maximize the pressure difference
- Flat surfaces create significantly more drag and less 'suction' than curved wings
- How air speed differences on a curved wing create lift
- The efficiency of a curved wing versus a flat surface for heavy lifting
- The shape of the wing forces air to accelerate
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives How Heavy Planes Stay Up the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
What happens to the air handled by the wings as an airplane increases its speed?
Get it right to open this lesson and 25 more in the app.
Where How Heavy Planes Stay Up takes you
Ever wondered how a massive metal tube carrying hundreds of people stays in the sky? Discover the simple tricks pilots use to turn air into a solid support system.
- 1
Take Control of the Air
- Using Speed to Create Lift
- How Wing Shape Does the Heavy Lifting
- Steering Up, Down, and Sideways
- The Secret of Flaps and Slats
- 2
Master the Four Forces
- The Tug-of-War Between Weight and Lift
- Pushing Through the Sticky Air
- Why Engines are Just Giant Fans
- Staying Balanced in the Clouds
- What Happens During Turbulence
- How Planes Land Without Falling
- 3
The Science Under the Hood
- High Pressure vs. Low Pressure
- Why Air Acts Like a Liquid
- The Magic of Bernoulli's Principle
3 sections · 13 units · 26 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
How Heavy Planes Stay Up is taught in the The Professor style: clear, structured, thorough. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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