Semester:
Offered:
Jeremy Bloxham (Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences)
First-Year Seminar 22I 4 Credits (fall term) Enrollment: Limited to 12
Prerequisites: Participants in this seminar should have a good high school physics background and have some knowledge of sailing.
In this seminar we explore how to use simple physics to understand a range of natural phenomena associated with sailing. Beginning with a discussion of hydrostatics and stability, the seminar moves on to explore in depth the generation of lift and drag by the flow of air over sails and the flow of water over keels and rudders, examining critically the numerous incorrect explanations in the popular literature. We also examine the environment in which a sailboat operates, discussing atmospheric circulation on a range of length scales, waves in deep and shallow water, and tides and currents. Scaling laws and dimensional analysis are introduced and used throughout the seminar.