Another conundrum.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Can you sail dead downwind faster than the wind itself ?

Or sail dead upwind?

[Andrew Mawson]

Someone bored and have too much time on their hands ?

Andrew

[Andy Burns]

Didn't we do that one a few years ago?

[Fredxx]

Yes, I recall, and some couldn't fathom out there was even a land competition in how much faster you could travel than the wind speed!

[The Natural Philosopher]

Today yes. fasting for a blood test...

[alan_m]

I don't know the answer but I suspect that a modern sail can be configured to a shape much the same as a aircraft wing and positioned such that instead of providing lift it provides forward motion to a boat.

[Clive Arthur]

I don't think you can 'sail' faster directly downwind or directly against, but you probably could by using the wind to operate an impeller connected to a propeller in the water. Certainly upwind, and downwind faster is doable on land.

Cheers

[AnthonyL]

Someone doesn't understand aerodymics and struggles with windbags.

[GB]

Does that require posting questions on usenet? Well, I never ... :)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

But do you think they'll find any blood in a Turnip? ;-)

[harry]

Yes,you can sail f aster than the wind. (Called reaching)

A conventional sail can sail no closer than 45deg towards the wind

[Cursitor Doom]

What is the wavelength of a bullet (mass 7.0 g) moving with a velocity of

1.1 x 103m s-1?

[T i m]

I'm guessing the Turnip has never sailed. I wonder how long the list of things he's never done is (and so has no RW idea about)?

Cheers, T i m

[The Natural Philosopher]

who would that be then?

[The Natural Philosopher]

Nope, but due to a cockup (I thought it was an 8 hour fast but they sent me away for 4 hours as they wanted a 12 hour fast)I had time off other things booked that suddenly became available

[Tim Watts]

Does that question have any meaning?

The Planck-Einstein relation applies to EM radiation, not random objects.

And if you persist in trying you should probably base it on E=mc2 in which case your tiny bit of kinetic energy pales into insignificance.

[Robin]

Search for "de Broglie wavelength".

Or the experiment where cats fired at 2 slits give an interference pattern. I've only ever seen it discussed as a "gedanken experiment" but if John Rumm turns his mind to it I expect it'll be in the Wiki i.d.c.

[Chris Hogg]

That would be Schrödinger's cat, presumably. I didn't know he had more than one.

[Cursitor Doom]

He means electrons. :-)

[Michael Chare]

Sailing is normally done on water which itself may be moving and helping or in my case often hindering.