# Stupid (?) question: How do planes really fly?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-how-do-planes-really-fly/1029890>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 7, 2026, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-how-do-planes-really-fly/1029890 "2026-05-07T14:37:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 15

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**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2026, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-how-do-planes-really-fly/1029890/15 "2026-05-07T21:18:12Z")

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> [@DesertDog](#):
>
> > [@Raza](#):
> >
> > However, more recent discussions focused on the idea that the too-side air “doesn’t care” and has no incentive to flow faster.
> 
> When I was arguing with someone deeply wedded to the Bernoulli explanation I asked what motive the top-side air had to accelerate so it wound up even with the bottom-side, shorter path air again. “Was it having an interrupted conversation?”

I’m not wedded to the Bernoulli principle as an explanation, but as I noted in my response to you in the other linked thread:

> [@how airplanes fly.](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-airplanes-fly/847658/24):
>
> I always took this to be a manifestation of the [continuity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuity_equation) [principle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuity_equation#Fluid_dynamics). See [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euler_equations_(fluid_dynamics)) for more detail. If the molecules that take the longer path didn’t catch up to those that took the shorter path, you’d end up with a mass imbalance.

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