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Q.Why do racer cars and birds have typical shape?

Maharashtra MsbshseTextbookSubjectiveImportance★★★★★
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✓ Free question

Streamlining kills drag; aerofoil profiles manage lift (birds) and downforce (racers).

Both shapes manage the surrounding airflow using this chapter's physics. Streamlining — the teardrop taper of a racing car's body and a bird's body — lets the oncoming air close smoothly behind, avoiding the turbulent, low-pressure wake that drags blunt shapes backwards. On top of that, the profiles exploit Bernoulli's principle: a bird's wing is the original aerofoil, faster flow above giving lift; a racing car's wings are aerofoils mounted UPSIDE-DOWN, making the pressure larger on top — downforce that squeezes the tyres onto the road through corners.

✓Final answer

Racing cars and birds are streamlined so air flows past them smoothly in near-laminar fashion, minimising the drag of turbulence; racing cars are additionally shaped as inverted aerofoils so the pressure difference presses them DOWN onto the track for grip, while a bird's wing is a natural aerofoil generating the lift it flies on.

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