# Downwind faster than the wind -- theoretical limits?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downwind-faster-than-the-wind-theoretical-limits/559889>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 8, 2010, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downwind-faster-than-the-wind-theoretical-limits/559889 "2010-11-08T08:58:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downwind-faster-than-the-wind-theoretical-limits/559889/9 "2010-11-08T22:58:52Z")

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Oddly, it got a lot easier, conceptually, for me to understand the concept when I stopped thinking of it as moving relative to the ground in the same direction as the air, and started instead thinking of it as moving relative to the air in the opposite direction as the ground.

And **ThinAirDesigns** , you guys really need a better acronym. “DDWFTTW” (I presume that’s “Driving DownWind Faster Than The Wind”?) doesn’t exactly trip off the tongue.

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