Ahh, yes I did know I would kick myself for getting in to a debate on a tech matter. But since I am here Might as well jump in…
At the risk of pissing you off even more (I seem to have that effect on people, alas) note that nowhere in my posts do I state a propeller can not be an air foil and I even hinted that a wing is not necesarily one. I simply pointed out that a propeller and a wing were not the same thing.]
To clarify this point I will post an exerpt from A Brief History of Aerodynamics, Chapter 2: Why propellers are not wings.
Ok, it’s not from a book, I wrote it, half to irk you half to amuse you. While it is satirical and historicly inaccurate, technicly it is near mark… well close enough to make my point I hope.
Warning Long stupid post to follow:
Ok Sherman, set the way back machine for “times of yore”. Here we see our friend Thag trying to get his sheep up a steep incline to a lush field of grass. Helicoptors not having been invented yet, Thag is forced to come up with another way to lift them, “Hmmm,” thinks Thag. “I’ll bet that if I Increase the horizontal distance to the top, it will rerduce the amount of power required to a point where the sheep can simply walk up themselves.” “I shall call this new invention The Ramp.” Little did Thag know, he had just laid the foundation for the machine that would eventually allow men to soar as the birds do. Meanwhile, off in the distance, Thag’s frieng Og the wood splitter was pounding on a log with his rock. He looked upon Thags new invention and a wave of insight washed over him as well. “If I reduce the surface area of the leading edge of my rock, there will me less friction as it enters the log.” “Also, if I taper the horizontal plane by a few degrees it will spred the log apart gradually over its surface thereby reducing the amount of force reqired to split this here log.” Eventually the tribal shaman looked upon these two new wonderful innovations, declared them to be “travesties against nature” and ordered the two men stoned.
Fast foward a few zillion years, but still in the time of yore. We find a robe clad Archemedies faced with a quandry. It seemed all the rivers were down hill from his house and water flowed down hill. Having since re-discovered the ramp and wedge designs by studies of cave paintings near the city, Archemedies had already implemented the carry the bucket up the ramp method. Being the sort who was not satisfied with “good enough” he set out to improve his ramp. “If a ramp can carry sheep uphill, why not water?” thought he. I’ll bet if I wrap a ramp around a vertical axis and rotate it, water will flow uphill." His idea was met with ridicule but he was undaunted. After years of experimentation and endless modifications he finally produced a machine that would make water flow uphill. " Eureka!" he exclaimed, “I shall name it The Screw.” However all the years of endless failure had left him quite mad and he was unable to explain how his device worked. The clerics of the era eyed it suspiciously as a product of the underworld and all the other townspeople were just too plain freaked out by it to use it. Archemedies died a blithering, and very damp madman.
Once more hit the fast foward. This time a little past the time of yore but still a while back. Here we see some Italian dude named Bournelli. He too had a quandry. All the other scientists had cool experiments that threw sparks and and made noise and were really fun to watch. They also got all the chicks. So he hatched a plan, digging out his old dusty book on water screws he set out to finish where archemedies left of. That is explain how these infernal things worked and forever end the stoning of scientists. That surly would make him a babe magnet. So he set out. He got some cool water tanks and put colored water in them. His theory was the reason they worked so well was because they were longer on one side than on the other. After fiddling with a wedge and a few other shapes he settled on a shape sorta like an elongated capitol D. Sinking it into the cool tanks then setting the colored water in motion, he took out all his fancy scientific looking stuff and measured. He measured the speed of the water and the pressures on each side of his shape. “Oila,” he exclaimed, "the pressure on the curved side is lower than the pressure on the flat side. Writing all the findings down in huge equations, he concluded, "these buggers work by swirling around a pool of math. Unfortunately all his scientist buddies thought this was just silly furthermore, the colored water had stained his hands a grusome shade of blue. So he got neither the acclaim of his peers nor did he get the chicks. He died alone and pennieless in a bizzare stoning mishap.
Fast forward to the present era. Mankind is in a race to make something that will fly. Various things are tried, archemedies style screws are attached to carrige bodies and various flapping things attempted. A couple of guys named the Wrights figure, “that Bournelli guy was just plain nuts, a propeller works just like a boat propeller, it pushes the air behind it and thats how it goes.” So they attached a boat propeller to a giant kite and got aloft. Thus sparking the debate among flight theroists that continues to this day. The story goes on to say how the church proclaimed the flier “the work of the devil” and later when the brothers died in a crash, they said “See? told ya.”
The moral is, well there is no moral eccept maybe scientists still get stoned, rock stars still get all the chicks and if you think to hard about one thing you will go nuts.
: Are you serious!? 