BACK to PLATO's CAVE: A HERMES/URANIA JOINT - Part One
PLANES, TRAINS and AUTOMOBILES
MOMUS APPROVED/ALETHEIA BLESSED
by Richard DePersio and Aphrodite/Citizen Journalist Janus Calliope
(the first DePersio with the late 'Wolfman'* Collaboration;
let's hope that it is a Harbinger of Things to Come**)
(Part Two follows...Part One will continue in Part Three).
In part two, RD inadvertently offends Zeus; here, in part one, he
further apologies. Is time in reverse!?! There's a FOX NEWS ALERT
RD: I got it! Saturn's (in Greek Mythology: Kronos --- BOO!!!; that should
please Zeus) Shepard's: Type One - moons outside of the ring system
whose perturbations cause gaps in the rings - Daphnis is responsible for
claims credit for the Encke Gap, both in the 'A' Ring; Type two - moons
near edge of a ring causes them to enjoy sharp, crisp/more definition
edges -- Promethesus' post is the inner while Ponderous (the first
human female created by Zeus) handles the outer 'F' Ring and it was
thought that Atlas*** was given boss duties regarding 'A' ring but it turns
out the that our buddy Janus and Epimetheus have that honor and power.
(Atlas disgraced. HOORAY! That should please the King of the Gods
(capital 'G').
(RD: "When in high school, I was in college-level program at a planetarium
and was assigned a project regarding the Gaps (not jeans). This section
afforded me the opportunity to brag! Never a slave to fashion: never wore
jeans or dungarees. Boasting again!).
What does it have to do with Al's Relativity!?!
Wind Drift: What happens if there is wind blowing against your airplane?
"Nothing works out as it ought to work out. In crosswind flight---does
the air press harder against the airplane's windward side than against its
leeward side?" When it comes to flight --- leave common sense on the
ground! A pilot would say: It is futile to try to counteract drift!!!
"It helplessly participates in the motion of that air mass, it 'drifts'
with the wind." When force isn't force. The plane is moving because the
wind is pushing it. "The wind can't blow against the airplane because
the airplane doesn't present itself to be blown at; it yields without any
resistance: it moves with the air. A pure example of this kind of motion,
drift, is the travel of the free balloon. Here is one kind of aircraft that has
no motion at all through the air (other than perhaps climb or descent)
but moves only with the air. The free balloon has no 'air speed,' no
relative wind'. To its pilots, it always seems to be flying in a complete
dead calm. Even though it may be flying in a gale and drifting across the
country at 50 m.p.h., there still won't be even the gentlest breeze in the
basket. This is because it yields so completely to the motion of the air,
and it participates in it: the balloon does not push against the air, and
neither does the air push against the balloon; hence no forces arise."
WHAT!!! The wind can't exert a force on the balloon by virtue of the
fact that the balloon is drifting; drifting nullifies all wind forces on it. If
you blow against a ball, the ball moves as you placed a force in it. On the
other hand, if the air around the ball moves and the ball moves with it -
no force has been exerted on the balloon. No force; total surrender (or
yield. Still not convinced?
You're no longer in an airplane or a balloon. Now, you're safely on
the ground, well, in a railroad car. You walking in the railroad car is
just like an airplane flying in a wind. Think in terms of steady motion:
you are moving at the same speed and in the same direction. You
wouldn't be able to tell if you were moving or standing still (for our
thought experiment (Al loved to think and explain by TE; we will ignore
jolting and bouncing due to roughness of track).
You find that you can walk forward or backwards or sideways with
ease; if you don't look outside you couldn't tell in which direction that
the train is moving. Draw the blinds. If the track were smooth, you
would wonder if you are moving or standing still. You don't even have
to struggle to balance if you move "cross-train," left to right in the car.
The motion of the train doesn't concern you.
"When a pilot flies in a wind, the wind is his railroad coach, but we
shall see about that later."
There is your motion relative to the train and the motion of the train
to the rest of the USA outside --- of course, you being carried by train
at say 75 m.p.h. You walk to the dining car, eat and return to your seat
and say, "I'm back where I started from" (we apologize, dear readers for
ending a sentence with a preposition. as regards, female readers,
no apology, consider it a strange proposition!). In one sense, you would
be right and in another wrong. The seat to which you have returned has
in the meantime moved something like 50 miles. It's a paradox. Whether
or not you are truly back to where you started from "depends, in highbrow
words" on your "frame of reference," that is which side of the facts {you}
choose to regard, and which side {you} choose to disregard; whether
{you} judge your position by reference to the train, or by reference to the
United States outside.
"...an airplane that flies in moving air is like {you} who walks within a
moving train. Just as {you are} "contained" by the railroad coach {car}
and cut off from the scenery outside, so is the airplane, once in flight,
entirely "contained" by the surrounding air and cut off with all connection
with the ground. Its propeller {or engine} propels it, not by acting on the
ground, but by acting on the surrounding air. Its wings hold it up, not by
acting on the ground, but by acting on the surrounding air. Thus the
cubic mile or so of air in which the airplane {or jet} flies is to it exactly
what the railroad coach is to the train passenger {you}. The only
difference is that the railroad coach surrounds {you} visibly, while the
air surrounds the airplane invisibly."
Hence, whatever is true of you when you walk within a moving train
"is equally true of an airplane that flies within a mass of air which is
itself in motion. The airplane, too, has two motions, both at the same
time. It has a motion though the air, which corresponds to {you} walking
through the train. It has a motion with the air, called drift, which corresponds
to the travel of the train." A pilot can focus his attention on one motion
or the other and, with time, can hold both in mind simultaneously and not
experience confusion.
"Look first at his motion through the air: in a sense this is the all-
important motion, since it is what makes the air strike his wing and
produce lift; what makes the air strike the tail surfaces and gives him
stability and control. And incidentally, it is the motion that registers on the
air-speed indicator."
"This motion of the airplane through the air is in no way affected by the
fact that the air itself is in motion---any more than {you} walking within the
train is affected by the travel of the train." You walk in train in all directions
and experience no need for special balancing and no sensations. "In the
same way, the airplane can not 'feel' any difference between down-wind
and up-wind flight and cross-wind flight. It feels the same; the engine has
to pull no harder; the air-speed indicator indicates the same; the lift is
the same."
You can draw the blinds and not know which way train is moving. Pilot
can draw the blinds --- not look at ground or get above a solid overcast.
The pilot would not know if he were flying in a gale or a calm. "In short,
the wind does not have any effect on air speed, lift, stability, and control:
an airplane, once in flight, can not 'feel' the wind.
No matter what you do within train - you helplessly participate in its
motion; regardless of pilots maneuvers, he helplessly participates in the
motion of the air mass; it 'drifts' with the wind. It is helpless like the
free balloon discussed way back a the beginning; there is no force on
plane by wind because plane is completely yielding.
Flying a Heading: direction on compass; Flying a Track: direction that
you are moving over the ground; Flying a Course: It is the intended path.
Student pilot looks at ground and sees plane veering eastward and
wants to take action to 'counteract drift' by use of rudder. This is
a waste of time and could change your heading. Is the situation
hopeless; are we victims of DRIFT! Nay! A trick can save the day.
"Nothing in the world will keep an airplane sliding eastward as long as
it is flowing in westward flowing air {crosswind)" Does it mean that a
plane can never reach its destination!?! "...you can outfox this effect,
and the experienced pilot does so automatically. Upon noticing the
eastward drift, he points his airplane slightly west of north...when the
eastward motion with the air adds itself to this northwesterly motion
through the air, the resulting motion over the ground will be exactly
north."
Let's take it further...You're in a spacecraft with no windows. Is it
moving at a constant speed or accelerating at the same rate and
moving in the same direction --- or is craft sitting on the earth?
CJ enters cars, sits and says, "I'm out of here - for now. To be
continued at Part Four...Part Two follows."
(*We so enjoyed working with the late Wolfman and enthusiastically
welcome him to CJCS staff. We review his "Stick and Rudder" in our
first ever book review in "To Hermes with Love Urania" at
Without explicitly saying so, the Wolf taught some Albert Relativity.
**Things to Come" was a book by H.G. Wells which was made into a
motion picture. Who knows, we made collaborate with H.G. in the
future --- he does have a "Time Machine." Enjoy our collaboration with
Sir Canon Doyle: "Citizen Journalist is Missing" (start with 'Gone Fishin'
and work you way backwards; "The Return of Citizen Journalist" here
and "Prequel: Citizen Journalist in the Diogenes Club" a quasarpolitical.
***Please don't tell Zeus but we have been sympathetic toward Atlas at
"Urania Moons You" - comsat and "Hermes Final Message" and
"Hermes BIG Challenge at quasarp. SHH!
{ } ours)
