Gliders are airplanes without engines, and they have been commonplace in the aviation industry for more than 120 years. Indeed, gliders predated the 1903 Wright Flyer. They are also nice, relatively simple planes that freshmen aerospace engineering students can investigate. My Introduction to Aerospace Engineering class had its own glider project last semester, and I … [Read more...] about Gliding Flight
Editor Blogs
The History of: Folgers Coffee
We know that Folgers has been one of the leaders in the Instant Coffee market for decades now, but what we don’t know is the history of the brand itself. The Folgers Coffee story starts all the way back in 1850 in San Francisco. After a major fire destroyed the Folgers’ family livelihood, James and his brothers moved to San Francisco during the Gold Rush. His brothers headed to … [Read more...] about The History of: Folgers Coffee
VR in Pain Therapy: Qualifying the Argument
There are two qualifications I would like to make to the argument for use of virtual reality in pain therapy. First, research has shown that VR on its own is not as effective, nor as immersive as it could potentially be. To have the best results for patients, it has been shown that pairing VR therapy with binaural audio is the most effective. A study by the name of … [Read more...] about VR in Pain Therapy: Qualifying the Argument
Lift and Drag: A Deeper Dive Part 2
Last week, we saw how we can approximate an airplane’s lift coefficient at any small angle of attack. Now, we can zoom in on drag, looking at how the drag coefficient depends on the lift coefficient and how this information can further inform aerospace engineers on how to design planes. It turns out that an airplane's drag coefficient, CD, has a quadratic relationship … [Read more...] about Lift and Drag: A Deeper Dive Part 2
VR in Pain Therapy: A Deep Dive
The certain sense of awareness we have about the way our bodies look, feel, and function is defined by many psychologists as “embodiment”. We are able to tell that our hand is a part of our body, and innately understand how to use it as a tool. However, we are also able to distinguish this from a pencil that we may hold between our fingers, which we recognize as being an entity … [Read more...] about VR in Pain Therapy: A Deep Dive