Intro to Physics.

[Apache123]

I studied theoretical physics in college, and the biggest impact it has had on my flying is that I cringe whenever I read or hear "centrifugal force."

 

[Bob Noel]

I studied theoretical physics in college, and the biggest impact it has had on my flying is that I cringe whenever I read or hear "centrifugal force."

My attitude is more along the lines of if it helps you to predict what will happen it doesn't really matter what you call it.

 

[p1l0t]

My attitude is more along the lines of if it helps you to predict what will happen it doesn't really matter what you call it.

Good attitude. Centrifugal, acceleration, gravity... whatever same thing.

<---<^>--->

 

[jasc15]

 

[mantakos]

My attitude is more along the lines of if it helps you to predict what will happen it doesn't really matter what you call it.

Which is why I found physics mostly useless in learning to fly, as the flight training world has already constructed a universe of pre-digested physics and mnemonics and short-cut explanations that provide you with the right answer. The advantage of being a physics nerd is mostly that you can understand the underlying derivation of that universe of short-cuts, which is appealing to those of us afflicted with "until I know why it works, it doesn't" disease, but those derivations just confirm the advice being handed to you.

Sometimes an understanding of physics helps to dispel some corny old wive's tale, like downwind turns, but these are usually pretty well dispelled by what passes for "the literature" in our community.

The only real practical advantage I can see is that as one who habitually forgets mnemonics, I sometimes find it easier to remember/derive a "why".
-harry

 

[Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe]

Which is why I found physics mostly useless in learning to fly, as the flight training world has already constructed a universe of pre-digested Fairy tales, mnemonics and short-cut explanations

FTFY...