So here is the physics challenge: How does the energy from the wind get transferred to the car, if the car is going faster than the wind?
I just discovered Derek a few months back and subscribed to his YouTube channel. This guy is one to keep an eye on. He's really good, but if I understand the video it's a combination of cancelling the tailwind, gear ratios, and the forces are based on the math of levers. Something like that. Did I pin the tail anywhere on the same wall as the donkey?
Firstly, I agree 100%. I think Veritasium (Derek) is great! And notably so did everyone else in the second video. Yes, if you watch the very end of the second video, he does a wonderful demonstration of a pure gear analog, So that clearly demonstrates the gear ratio aspect. But understanding how the energy transfers from the wind to the car is still not so clear. That is why the professor from UCLA was willing to bet $10K that it couldn't go faster than the wind. The math is still disputed. Personally, I think they still have it wrong. They don't account for the delta of the wind moving through the blades. And the divide by zero is a problem as it always will pop up at some speed as the math stands.
It is certainly counter intuitive and possibly the stunt car in the next Mad Max movie! . Unfortunately I don’t see many other applications for this
On the blackbird, the wheels turn the turbine. I would have to think about how you would implement the same concept on a sailboat but I an imagine a few options.. And someone actually filed a patent for some kind of boat/propeller configuration using the same concept. An interesting fact regarding the Blackbird, the upper speed is only limited by the drag. In a frictionless world, in principle there would be no limit on the top speed regardless of the wind speed. Of course that claim may depend on the accepted physics solution for this that I think is still wrong.
The reason it can't move faster than the wind is the same reason it can't move when the is no wind. If you jump start the vehicle by towing it to the point the movement is enough to turn the air foil then it would just get faster and faster until it reaches light speed. If this is true they have discovered perpetual motion.
There seems to be a transition at the point when the vehicle is moving as fast as the wind the windmill that started the wheels turning becomes a fan powered by the wheels. You could only ever go a little faster than the wind until the vehicle loses momentum.
It all reminds me very strongly about David Brins “Practice Effect” https://www.davidbrin.com/books.html
But it does. And not just a little. And no its not perpetual motion. But the physics at work is very tricky. Watch the very end of second video where he uses the board and wheels to demonstrate the concept.
I loved that book - The only thing I don’t like about.Brins work is he leaves you with the feeling there should be more to the story
We have people who here who think they know better than the world's expert immunologists. We have people who think they know better than the world's vast majority of climate scientists, And we have people who believe they know better than our best quantum physicists. But no one here can explain a 17th century physics problem. Remember that.
