A.T. said:
The key word here being "roughly". Depending on how the sail is shaped the boat can go forward, but it's not as efficient, as just using the propeller.
I'm not sure I understand how the shape of the sail could manage to generate more forward force than the backward force created by sucking the air behind the propeller forward, could you explain?
DaveC426913 said:
It can be done in theory, using a principle known as entrainment.
Even though the fan is attached to the boat, and pushes back with equal force, the air is viscous, and carries some air next to it along for the ride. You can get a little forward motion (if you angle the sail right), but its very inefficient.
It does not violate conservation of energy, since, after all, you are adding energy into the system, by whatever powers the fan. And it doesn't violate Newton;s Laws of motion because it's not a closed system.
This has been demonstrated.
When I think about this: is the affected air is carrying air next to it along for the ride, I would assume that this transfer of force to adjacent air molecules comes in response to slowing down the directly affected molecules. Basically slowed down by friction with other air molecules, and then that friction imparts momentum to its neighbors...
So I guess I don't understand how that would actually add energy...
Plus wouldn't the exact same thing happen in regard to the air flow on the opposite side of the propeller too to balance things out?
A.T. said:
Replace the sail with a board, and let the passenger collect balls from the ground and throw them at the board, so they bounce off and leave with backwards momentum.
The boat gets the opposite forward momentum.
What is the end effect you're saying will happen here? Forward movement, zero movement or no movement?
When you fire a cannon forward from a boat, that should move the boat backward, so I imagine if you threw a ball forward there would also be backward movement. Albeit very hard to perceive since it would be so minor.
A cannonball or baseball hitting the sail, I could see moving it forward slightly, counteracting that subtle backward movement which happened half-second earlier, and creating zero net movement...
Cutter Ketch said:
I think you may be missing the point. It is supposed to be instantly recognizable as impossible. That’s why it’s funny when it works. It’s exactly like a cartoon character picking themselves up by their bootstraps.
I'm not sure though, as this TV series is aimed at children, and I'm not sure they would actually recognize how impossible this would be in real life, sort of like they probably don't grasp the difficulty of hanging 1-handed from a rope while a pair of friends dangle from your legs, as characters not stereotyped as super-strong still manage to pull off.
It could be humor aimed at parents, but only if they're paying close attention.
Dale said:
This is pretty interesting... but they only got 3mph and the one guy's theory seems to be that they got an effect like a weak fan aimed backward because the sail "bounces" a small amount of the forward-facing air backward...
I can't seem to get my head around that though. Is that a thing? What would you call that?