Cambridge scientist 'debunks' flying myth

A scientist at Cambridge University has debunked the long-held myth about how aircraft stay aloft.

Aeroplanes can fly as their wings cause the air pressure underneath to be greater than that above, lifting them into the air. But, engineers have for years been frustrated by a theory, which wrongly explains what causes the pressure change, a myth commonly found in school textbooks and flight manuals.

But, Prof Holger Babinsky of Cambridge University's engineering department has now created a minute-long video, posted on 'YouTube' website, to lay to rest the myth once and for all, 'The Daily Telegraph' reported.

According to conventional wisdom, the pressure change happens as the air on the curved upper surface of the wing has further to travel than that below the flat underneath surface, meaning it must travel faster to arrive at the other side of the wing at the same time.

Prof Babinsky says the myth goes against the laws of physics and the real explanation has nothing to do with the distance the air has to travel.

According to him, the curvature of the wing causes the change in air pressure because it pulls some of the air upwards, which reduces pressure, and forces the rest beneath

it, creating higher pressure.

A law known as the Bernoulli equation means that when pressure is lower, air moves faster -- so the air stream above the wing does move more quickly than the one below, but this is not what causes the difference in pressure.

World's first magnetic soap 'produced'

In a pioneering research, scientists claim to have produced the world's first magnetic soap that is composed of iron-rich salts dissolved in water.

A team at Bristol University says that its soap, which responds to a magnetic field when placed in solution, would calm all concerns over the use of surfactants in oil-spill clean-ups and revolutionise industrial cleaning products.

For long, researchers have been searching for a way to control soaps (or surfactants as they are known in industry) once they are in solution to increase the ability to dissolve oils in water and then remove them from a system.

The Bristol University team produced the magnetic soap by dissolving iron in a range of inert surfactant materials composed of chloride and bromide ions, very similar to those found in everyday mouthwash or fabric conditioner.

The addition of the iron creates metallic centres within the soap particles, say the scientists led by Julian Eastoe.

To test its properties, the team introduced a magnet to a test tube containing their new soap lying beneath a less dense organic solution, the 'Angewandte Chemie' journal reported.

When the magnet was introduced the iron-rich soap overcame both gravity and surface tension between the water and oil, to levitate through the organic solvent and reach the source of magnetic energy, proving its magnetic properties.