How Does a Sailboat Move Against the Wind? | Science in One Minute

Описание: A sailboat can sail toward the wind, which sounds impossible, like pushing a car uphill with the brakes on. How does it do it? Think of a sail like a vertical aeroplane wing standing on its side. The parts here are the sail, the wind, and the keel, the fin under the boat. It cannot sail straight into the wind, but it can zigzag, a move called tacking. When wind flows around the curved sail, it creates lift, a sideways force, just as air over a wing creates upward lift. The keel stops the boat from sliding sideways, so the sideways lift gets turned into forward motion. Without the keel, the boat would just drift sideways and go nowhere. By zigzagging at about 45 degrees to the wind, first one way, then the other, the boat works its way forward against the wind. A sailboat beats the wind not by fighting it, but by borrowing its force and steering it.

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