• acosmichippo@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    i think the mythbusters result goes against the spirit of the myth. yes you “can” blow your own sail, but it’s never going to be as effective as shown in cartoons and such, or just turning the fan around like a normal air boat.

    • Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 months ago

      I wonder how much more effective it would be if you had a duct behind the fan pulling in air from the sides, or maybe angled more towards the front?

      Apologies if they covered this in the video, but I can’t watch it at the moment.

      • NotNotMike@programming.dev
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        4 months ago

        That’s what I was thinking.

        The fan in the thumbnail (and the one he tries in the video) fails because the fan’s intake is pulling the fan away from the sail (like an airplane propeller). However, I wonder if you redirected that intake to the front of the boat while directing the output to the sail, could you get more thrust? The fan’s intake and output would then be working together.

        Also the leaf blower could work in theory but I think there’s too much friction for the leaf blower to overcome. If it did have enough to push you, then you’d also be pushed sideways by the blower’s output as well