Can You Take the Pressure?
Hot air balloons utilize pressure concepts in order to stay in flight.Copyright 2008 Jane82, Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ballooning_trip_Morocco.JPG
Students are introduced to the concept of air pressure and use the associated activity to see how it is affected by different variables. They explore how air pressure creates force on an object. They study the relationship between air pressure and the velocity of moving air.
In designing airplanes, trains, cars, rockets and bicycles — nearly everything that moves through the air — engineers must understand Bernoulli's principle. The forces caused by moving air enable an airplane to fly or a train to slow. Understanding how Bernoulli's principle works enables engineers to take advantage of the nature of air pressure so their designs of these and many other applications function correctly, efficiently and safely.
After this lesson, students should be able to:
- Describe basic facts about the history of flight.
- Explain Bernoulli's principle.
- Describe the concept of air pressure and how the movement of air influences its pressure.
- Explain why engineers need to know about air pressure.