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Down wind faster than the wind

BowlOfRed said:
While the previous video was more of a demonstration with a little bit of explanation, Derek released another with much more explanation.

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Dammit, you just beat me to it. I literally just finished watching.... your youtube recommendations appear to align with mine

ETA: I should also say that in this video he works with another youtuber, Xyla Foxlin....an engineer who loves to tinker and build stuff, in a similar vein to Shane Wighton of Stuff Made Here. They are both on my subscribe list,
 
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smartcooky said:
ETA: I should also say that in this video he works with another youtuber, Xyla Foxlin
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Not only that, I think Xyla hits (what I think is) a great point in her video that I hadn't seen mentioned elsewhere. I was trying to explain something similar in a post earlier in this thread and had some of the info floating around in my head, but I really couldn't quite get it straight.

As she mentions explicitly, this craft works because the ratio of the propeller pitch to the wheel circumference is in a certain range. If the wheels are too small (and you don't have some sort of gear ratio in the transmission), then the force from the ground makes too small torque on the prop, and it can't accelerate.
 
Thread title is false. These machines are not going "downwind faster than the wind", as they are not moving in the same direction as the wind. The wind wins the race.
 
smartcooky said:
Err... what?
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Well, if one had never read the thread, or any of the previous threads, and just tried to guess what it was about from the title, one might surmise that it's talking about a vessel or machine that tacks downwind, moving faster than the magnitude of the wind velocity on each tack but not beating the wind in the directly downwind direction... but all that's wrong, of course.
 
Myriad said:
Well, if one had never read the thread, or any of the previous threads, and just tried to guess what it was about from the title, one might surmise that it's talking about a vessel or machine that tacks downwind, moving faster than the magnitude of the wind velocity on each tack but not beating the wind in the directly downwind direction... but all that's wrong, of course.
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As you said, it could be anything. So why guess ?
 
Solitaire said:
Uh, oh. Looks someone doubts the bet.

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So, let me see now... it wasn't a real bet, except money did change hands so it was a real bet, but money changing hands is irrelevant to whether or not it was a real bet?

shatnerWTF.gif


That is where I gave up trying to make any sense of what this guy was waffling on about.

It might be worth noting that these two guys, Derek Muller and Alex Kuchenko, are both millionaires... so dropping $10,000 on a wager is about on a par with two of us having an avatar bet. Besides, so what if it was a publicity stunt?

This all looks to me like a whole lotta nothin'burger
 
smartcooky said:
So, let me see now...
It might be worth noting that these two guys, Derek Muller and Alex Kuchenko, are both millionaires... so dropping $10,000 on a wager is about on a par with two of us having an avatar bet.
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hard to believe a physics professor can be a millionaire.

I know physics professors in Brazil. All of them would have finances quite harmed by a 10k bet in R$, just imagine in dollars.
 
AcesHigh said:
hard to believe a physics professor can be a millionaire.

I know physics professors in Brazil. All of them would have finances quite harmed by a 10k bet in R$, just imagine in dollars.
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Dr. Derek Muller (Vertasium)
Net worth $5m
https://www.thewealthyniche.com/net-worth/dr-derek-muller/

Prof Alexander Kusenko
I couldn't find his net worth figure, but as an employee of UCLA, his salary, remuneration and benefits are a matter of public record
2019... $259,387
2018... $244,766
2017... $228,057
2016... $224,404

The most recent records are 2019, but reasonable estimates for 2020 and 2021 would be $270,000 to $285,000.

Based on those salaries, and the fact that UCLA is not the only place he holds a chair (he has been the Senior Scientist at the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (IPMU) since February 2008 and served as a general member of the board of Aspen Center for Physics from 2004 to 2019) and the fact that he is also a published author, I would absolutely astonished if he was not a millionaire.
 
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smartcooky said:
Dr. Derek Muller (Vertasium)
Net worth $5m
https://www.thewealthyniche.com/net-worth/dr-derek-muller/

Prof Alexander Kusenko
I couldn't find his net worth figure, but as an employee of UCLA, his salary, remuneration and benefits are a matter of public record
2019... $259,387
2018... $244,766
2017... $228,057
2016... $224,404

The most recent records are 2019, but reasonable estimates for 2020 and 2021 would be $270,000 to $285,000.

Based on those salaries, and the fact that UCLA is not the only place he holds a chair (he has been the Senior Scientist at the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (IPMU) since February 2008 and served as a general member of the board of Aspen Center for Physics from 2004 to 2019) and the fact that he is also a published author, I would absolutely astonished if he was not a millionaire.
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Living in LA on that salary, he may be a millionaire, but he isn’t rich. That $10k still hurts, maybe not as much as it would hurt others, but it isn’t like “an extra fancy coffee while at the park” minor expenditure.
 
Dr. Keith said:
Living in LA on that salary, he may be a millionaire, but he isn’t rich. That $10k still hurts, maybe not as much as it would hurt others, but it isn’t like “an extra fancy coffee while at the park” minor expenditure.
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Its about two weeks salary for him. I'd spend more than two weeks of my salary on a new set of tyres for my Nissan X-trail.

Besides, he gave the money to an educational charity (Kudu, actually one that he founded) which means its very likely tax deductible - and my BF Goodriches are not :mad:
 
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smartcooky said:
Its about two weeks salary for him. I'd spend more than two weeks of my salary on a new set of tyres for my Nissan X-trail.

Besides, he gave the money to an educational charity (Kudu, actually one that he founded) which means its very likely tax deductible - and my BF Goodriches are not :mad:
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He didn't give the money to Kudu, he gave it to Derek Muller. Derek then used it as prize money for a science video contest.

I'm sure it hurt to pay out that sum, but I think the damage done to his reputation probably hurt more. He didn't think he could possibly lose that bet: he thought he was going to get some great publicity.

I wonder how he reacts now when a student asks him about this phenomenon.
 
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