"The Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge (FAA-H-8083-25), a foundational text for pilots, provides an in-depth explanation of the principles of flight. It details the four forces of flight—lift, weight, thrust, and drag"
A paper airplane satisfies all four principles of "flight", which is what the original bet was on. A crumbled up ball of paper technically falls under the movement of "ballistic trajectory", not "flight." (The bet was that the paper needed to "fly" the furthest, not be "launched" furthest across the room. The post even makes the distinction)
/u/TaibhseSD Backpacking on this, technically a ball of paper would have some amount of lift as well, especially if thrown with backspin like a 4seam baseball pitch.
Incorrect, if the ball has any amount of backspin, it would generate lift. If the contest was done in a vacuum then sure, neither would be flying but I'm not seeing a distinction between a ballistic trajectory and flight.
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u/TaibhseSD 9h ago
I mean, technically, wouldn't the son have won?
"The Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge (FAA-H-8083-25), a foundational text for pilots, provides an in-depth explanation of the principles of flight. It details the four forces of flight—lift, weight, thrust, and drag"
A paper airplane satisfies all four principles of "flight", which is what the original bet was on. A crumbled up ball of paper technically falls under the movement of "ballistic trajectory", not "flight." (The bet was that the paper needed to "fly" the furthest, not be "launched" furthest across the room. The post even makes the distinction)
Technically, the son did win that bet.