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How do you go about designing an aircraft that has no engine? What forces enable a glider to become airborne and quickly reach high altitudes quickly? The tracks in this album look at the aerodynamics of gliders, ask questions relating to the 'Speed to Fly', and explores the consequences of kinetic and potential energy change, providing a useful way of modelling the behaviour of a glider in the air. This material makes up part of the course MST209, Mathematical methods and models.
Track 8: The Final Glide
The changes in the Total Energy of a glider when it comes in to the finish of a competition are examined.
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Tracks in this podcast:
| Track | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Soaring by Design | A short introduction to this album. Play now Soaring by Design |
| 2 | Modeling Flight | Introducing the forces a glider is exposed to during flight. Play now Modeling Flight |
| 3 | Avoiding Collisions | Demonstrating the change of energy when a pilot dives to avoid a collision. Play now Avoiding Collisions |
| 4 | The Mechanics of Launching | Examining the process of winching as a launch mechanism. Play now The Mechanics of Launching |
| 5 | Wing Design: Predictions | The transfer of the huge forces between the wings and the glider body, and how the forces are resisted. Play now Wing Design: Predictions |
| 6 | Wing Design: Testing and Building | The predictions of air flow on the wings, generated by mathematical modeling are compared with the real thing. Play now Wing Design: Testing and Building |
| 7 | Measuring Experimentally | The ways in which prototype gliders are tested, producing accurate polar curves. Play now Measuring Experimentally |
| 8 | The Final Glide | The changes in the Total Energy of a glider when it comes in to the finish of a competition are examined. Play now The Final Glide |
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