My memory may be playing tricks on me, but I think that there is an exhibit on this in the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto (if, of course, anyone is interested).
As a previous poster mentioned, there is a wing sitting in the path of an air current, and you can rotate it so as to change its angle of attack. When it reaches a certain angle it just takes off all of a sudden. Quite neat really.
I think a lot of people misunderstand the nature of scientific enquiry. It isn't possible to prove a theory by experiment. All you can do is continue to amass experimental evidence. If that evidence remains consistent with the theory, then we consider it a good theory. If it doesn't, we might still consider it a good theory, but work on it some more.
Scientists are often more interested in discrepancies with currently accepted theory than confirmation, as this is where greater insight arises. Consider the amount of money being spent on particle accelerators that will hopefully see effects inconsistent with the Standard Model of particle physics.
Science isn't about bracing up an old stone temple.
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My memory may be playing tricks on me, but I think that there is an exhibit on this in the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto (if, of course, anyone is interested).
As a previous poster mentioned, there is a wing sitting in the path of an air current, and you can rotate it so as to change its angle of attack. When it reaches a certain angle it just takes off all of a sudden. Quite neat really.
I think a lot of people misunderstand the nature of scientific enquiry. It isn't possible to prove a theory by experiment. All you can do is continue to amass experimental evidence. If that evidence remains consistent with the theory, then we consider it a good theory. If it doesn't, we might still consider it a good theory, but work on it some more.
Scientists are often more interested in discrepancies with currently accepted theory than confirmation, as this is where greater insight arises. Consider the amount of money being spent on particle accelerators that will hopefully see effects inconsistent with the Standard Model of particle physics.
Science isn't about bracing up an old stone temple.