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As with an airplane, four main forces affect the flight of a bird: lift, drag, thrust, and the downward pull
of gravity. To overcome gravity, birds must generate lift, the force that takes them upward. Air flowing
over and under their specially-formed wing creates lift, but the airflow also pushes the wing back with a
force called drag. When lift and drag are combined, an upward and backward force results. To overcome
this, birds creates thrust by flapping their wings to move themselves forward.
HOW DOES A WING WORK?
A bird wing is very stream-lined, tapering from a thick, rounded leading edge to a thin point at the
trailing edge. Because the wing is concavely curved, air traveling over the upper surface has to cover a
greater distance and moves faster to catch up with air taking the shorter bottom route from the front to
the back of the wing. This fast-moving air creates a low pressure zone along the upper surface of the
wing. With low pressure above and higher pressure below, the wing is "sucked" up.
http://www.nhm.org/birds/guide/pg018.html
07/03/2007
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07/03/2007