Risking My Life To Settle A Physics Debate

Derek from the YouTube channel Veritasium made two interesting videos about this vehicle. ▶ this video link They go into some nice detail about why the physics works out the way it does.

If you believe that sailboats can beat a drifting balloon downwind by zigzagging, then there is a very good explanation in the original Veritasium video that shows that this is essentially the same thing. Here's a link to the section of the video with that explanation [1]. Watch about 2 or 3 minutes starting there and it becomes clear. [1] ▶ this video

I thought the video below provided a good explanation for why this works. The physics are similar to those of a single sailboat going faster than the wind. Imagine two sailboats on a cylindrical ocean on diagonal tacks, on opposite poles, and rotating around the core with rods connecting them to the core. Now you have a propeller. :) ▶ this video

The visual that made it click for me was at 18:54 in the original video[0]. It shows the air hitting the propeller losing kinetic energy which becomes the energy ultimately making the vehicle go. I also don't know how you can watch the treadmill video and doubt it after seeing it go up the treadmill unless you believed it was a complete hoax. [0] ▶ this video

Original video triggering the bet for context: ▶ this video Video discussing the bet and going over criticism: link Veritasium is a great YouTube channel.

I doubt this is how sailboats are doing it (if they're doing it) but one way is (I think) to make the airfoil itself cut across the wind while the "boat" goes straight downwind. See these videos: ▶ this video link

Wind powered cars are possible and pretty cool. Turbines could use the apparent wind to generate just the same way it’s used by sailboats to go faster than the wind. ▶ this video

Reminds me of this Veritasium video were a wind powered car accelerates into the direction of the wind ▶ this video

In the veratasium video [1] you can see it starting just from the wind (first attempt is around 5:20). It works just fine because as you scale up the vehicle you scale up the propeller, so there's plenty of surface for the wind to push against. 1: ▶ this video

The original Veritasium video ▶ this video The video of the bet and the further explanations - link -- at 13:28 is an example without aerodynamics.

You can sail faster than the wind when you push against a medium though. Veritasium has a very relevant interesting episode on this: ▶ this video Although I agree it would be challenging to get any significant speed from it.