Ships Are Turning Back To Wind Powered Sailing, But No Sails This Time!

What makes these strange-looking boats run is actually the giant cylinders sticking out of them. These boats run on the same principle that you see when you throw a basketball with backspin off of a high dam. Those giant cylinders create a low pressure zone on the leading edge of the ship and a high pressure zone on the stern. This pressure Imbalance pulls the ship forward, thus creating a fast energy-efficient way to transport cargo.

This feat of engineering was created by a German man named Anton Flettner. The physics principle required to make these amazing ships work is called the Magnus effect. This effect has also ben used to make a plane! Although the original plane crashed on its first flight the idea was planted and today more experimental aircraft are being designed using the Flettner effect. This just shows how in engineering you can take something off of something like a boat and stick it onto a plane and it will still work which, I find pretty cool.

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https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a22887463/cargo-ships-maersk-rotors-magnus-effect/