• Messages sorted by: [ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ]
• [ Next ][ Previous ]

TINY FLAPS THAT CONTROL LARGE FORCES

"Where the leading edge of a plane's wing or nose meets the air flowing past it, a thin boundary layer is created. Eddies and whorls in the boundary layer produce drag-inducing friction. Scientists [Dr. John Kim at U. C. L. A.] have developed tiny microelectromechanical systems, or MEMS, to control the drag by canceling the vortices with countervortices. The microflaps have sensors that record temperature and pressure; they are raised or lowered by miniature mechanisms controled by a computer."

[Long article not included]

Looks like very primitive nanotech to me...

-Dave

-- 
dkliman@panix.com      |" By the time they had diminished from 50 to 8,
Dave Kliman            |the other dwarves began to suspect 'Hungry'...
                       |         -Gary Larson, "The Far Side"

• [ Next ][ Previous ]