xkcd

8883 readers

63 users here now

A community for a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

koraro@lemmy.world

257

xkcd #3013: Kedging Cannon (xkcd.com)

submitted 1 week ago by schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de to c/xkcd@lemmy.world

30 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The real key was inventing the windmill-powered winch.

https://explainxkcd.com/3013/

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] waz@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago (2 children)

A fun next lesson is the benefit of apparent wind. In addition to the wind relative to the water, you have added wind generated by the movement of the boat. Since the lift generated is related to the speed of the wind relative to the boat, the faster the boat goes, the more lift you get. As a result, it is possible to actually sail faster than the wind speed of the wind relative to the water.

I'm pretty sure I did a bad job explaining that. Google can explain it better for sure.

[–] HappycamperNZ@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

Similar thing - aparent wind shifts the wind direction forward. As such, how close a boat can sail to the wind decreases as the boat speeds up.

[–] Backlog3231@reddthat.com 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

That's too complicated. I'm just going to keep using the kedging cannon.