Aerodynamic drag

Hey kiddo, have you ever stuck your hand out of the window of a moving car and felt the wind pushing against it? That push of wind is what we call aerodynamic drag.

Just like how you feel the wind pushing against your hand, objects like cars and airplanes also feel the wind pushing against them when they move through the air. This push of wind is called drag.

This happens because when an object moves through the air, it creates a disturbance in the air around it. This disturbance causes the air to push back against the object, making it harder to move.

To understand this better, imagine swimming in a pool. If you swim slowly, you can easily move forward without much resistance from the water. But if you try to swim really fast, the water pushes back against you and makes it harder to move forward. The same thing happens with aerodynamic drag.

For cars, aerodynamic drag is the force that resists the car's motion through the air. This force reduces the car's speed and makes it less efficient. This is why car manufacturers design cars to be as aerodynamic as possible, so the car can move through the air with less resistance.

For airplanes, aerodynamic drag is the force that resists the plane's motion through the air. This force reduces the plane's speed and makes it less efficient. This is why airplanes are designed with smooth, curved surfaces that allow them to slice through the air with as little resistance as possible.

So, aerodynamic drag is basically the push of wind that objects like cars and airplanes feel when they move through the air. By designing objects to be more aerodynamic, we can reduce the amount of drag they experience so they can move through the air with more speed and efficiency.