Subduction Zone
Veteran Member
DDWFTTW.
Directly Downwind Faster Than The Wind.
For a while this debate sparked as much CD as creationism does (a subject that I want not to discuss on this thread)
Years ago it raged across a few forums . The protagonists started this as a thought experiment, then found a video of a person that made such a vehicle himself. Then they made and tested on themselves in a way that should have settled it (in my opinion). Then they made a better Directly Downwind Faster Than The Wind that was even more efficient and more obvious that it did what some thought was impossible. At this point this site (that was resurrected from the dead starts):
Wind powered vehicle that goes downwind faster than the wind? - TalkRational Archive
Please note that on this site at first new threads were started after a thread got roughly 100 pages long. That thread is 111 pages long. Though as the poor server got full threads were half as long towards the end (the site eventually crashed and died, though someone managed to bring it back to life as a zombie site, no new posts.
Here is the last, the 61st thread, on this one topic before the site died:
Wind powered vehicle that goes downwind faster than the wind - Part 60 - TalkRational Archive
Threads on this can still can be seen at International Skeptics Forum and Physics Forums, if one is willing to dig them up. Physics Forums, a site that is at least halfway respected by real physicists eventually accepted this as did various other sources. The site died eventually but not until after a man sized vehicle was made which was measured going over twice the speed of the wind directly downwind and was accepted by not only THE governing body for land sailing vehicles,, but also by Guinness.
Meanwhile what drew me to this is that Talk Rational underwent a rebirth and the topic arose again (though without Humber) It went over one hundred pages, before it went back into hibernation:
Direct Down Wind Faster Than The Wind
At any rate, back to cognitive dissonance and this thread. If you bother to go through that endless list of posts you will see some championship Cog Dis. People who otherwise have little trouble with Newton's Laws of Physics all of a sudden seem to have difficulty with them when they support an idea that goes against their instincts.
If you need some background without looking through those threads I will gladly give it.
Directly Downwind Faster Than The Wind.
For a while this debate sparked as much CD as creationism does (a subject that I want not to discuss on this thread)
Years ago it raged across a few forums . The protagonists started this as a thought experiment, then found a video of a person that made such a vehicle himself. Then they made and tested on themselves in a way that should have settled it (in my opinion). Then they made a better Directly Downwind Faster Than The Wind that was even more efficient and more obvious that it did what some thought was impossible. At this point this site (that was resurrected from the dead starts):
Wind powered vehicle that goes downwind faster than the wind? - TalkRational Archive
Please note that on this site at first new threads were started after a thread got roughly 100 pages long. That thread is 111 pages long. Though as the poor server got full threads were half as long towards the end (the site eventually crashed and died, though someone managed to bring it back to life as a zombie site, no new posts.
Here is the last, the 61st thread, on this one topic before the site died:
Wind powered vehicle that goes downwind faster than the wind - Part 60 - TalkRational Archive
Threads on this can still can be seen at International Skeptics Forum and Physics Forums, if one is willing to dig them up. Physics Forums, a site that is at least halfway respected by real physicists eventually accepted this as did various other sources. The site died eventually but not until after a man sized vehicle was made which was measured going over twice the speed of the wind directly downwind and was accepted by not only THE governing body for land sailing vehicles,, but also by Guinness.
Meanwhile what drew me to this is that Talk Rational underwent a rebirth and the topic arose again (though without Humber) It went over one hundred pages, before it went back into hibernation:
Direct Down Wind Faster Than The Wind
At any rate, back to cognitive dissonance and this thread. If you bother to go through that endless list of posts you will see some championship Cog Dis. People who otherwise have little trouble with Newton's Laws of Physics all of a sudden seem to have difficulty with them when they support an idea that goes against their instincts.
If you need some background without looking through those threads I will gladly give it.
