NOVA: Lift and Drag

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published by the Public Broadcasting Service and the WGBH Educational Foundation

This interactive tutorial examines the aerodynamic forces of lift and drag. Students explore the two principles that combine to produce lift: the Bernoulli Effect and Newton's Third Law. The tutorial discusses why wing shape alone cannot create lift. Airplanes stay aloft because the wing pushes air down; the corresponding reaction occurs as air pushes the wing up. This paired action/reaction, along with wing shape and airspeed, interact to produce flight.

This resource is part of the NOVA digital collection on space and flight.

Please note that this resource requires Flash.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/lift-drag.html

Subjects	Levels	Resource Types
Classical Mechanics - Applications of Newton's Laws = Pressure - Motion in Two Dimensions = 2D Acceleration - Newton's Second Law = Force, Acceleration - Newton's Third Law = Action/Reaction Fluid Mechanics - Dynamics of Fluids = Bernoulli's Principle	- High School - Middle School - Informal Education	- Instructional Material = Activity = Interactive Simulation = Tutorial

Intended Users	Formats	Ratings
- Learners - Educators	- application/flash - image/jpeg - text/html	Currently 0.0/5 Want to rate this material? Login here!

Access Rights:: Free access
Restriction:: © 2008 WGBH Educational Foundation
Keywords:: Bernoulli, aerodynamics, airfoil, drag force, flight, force pairs, lift force, thrust
Record Cloner:: Metadata instance created October 3, 2011 by Caroline Hall
Record Updated:: December 22, 2011 by Ed Lee
Last Update when Cataloged:: January 15, 2011
Other Collections:: The Physics Front

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AAAS Benchmark Alignments (2008 Version)

4. The Physical Setting

4F. Motion

9-12: 4F/H4. Whenever one thing exerts a force on another, an equal amount of force is exerted back on it.

10. Historical Perspectives

10B. Uniting the Heavens and Earth

9-12: 10B/H1. Isaac Newton, building on earlier descriptions of motion by Galileo, Kepler, and others, created a unified view of force and motion in which motion everywhere in the universe can be explained by the same few rules. Newton's system was based on the concepts of mass, force, and acceleration; his three laws of motion relating them; and a physical law stating that the force of gravity between any two objects in the universe depends only upon their masses and the distance between them.
9-12: 10B/H5. Although overtaken in the 1900s by Einstein's relativity theory, Newton's ideas persist and are widely used. Moreover, his influence has extended far beyond physics and astronomy, serving as a model for other sciences and even raising philosophical questions about free will and the organization of social systems.

11. Common Themes

11B. Models

6-8: 11B/M1. Models are often used to think about processes that happen too slowly, too quickly, or on too small a scale to observe directly. They are also used for processes that are too vast, too complex, or too dangerous to study.

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Record Link

<a href="https://www.compadre.org/portal/items/detail.cfm?ID=11495">Public Broadcasting Service. NOVA: Lift and Drag. Arlington: Public Broadcasting Service, January 15, 2011.</a>

AIP Format

(Public Broadcasting Service, Arlington, 2008), WWW Document, (https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/lift-drag.html).

AJP/PRST-PER

NOVA: Lift and Drag (Public Broadcasting Service, Arlington, 2008), <https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/lift-drag.html>.

APA Format

NOVA: Lift and Drag. (2011, January 15). Retrieved May 1, 2025, from Public Broadcasting Service: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/lift-drag.html

Chicago Format

Public Broadcasting Service. NOVA: Lift and Drag. Arlington: Public Broadcasting Service, January 15, 2011. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/lift-drag.html (accessed 1 May 2025).

MLA Format

NOVA: Lift and Drag. Arlington: Public Broadcasting Service, 2008. 15 Jan. 2011. 1 May 2025 <https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/lift-drag.html>.

BibTeX Export Format

@misc{ Title = {NOVA: Lift and Drag}, Publisher = {Public Broadcasting Service}, Volume = {2025}, Number = {1 May 2025}, Month = {January 15, 2011}, Year = {2008} }

Refer Export Format

%T NOVA: Lift and Drag %D January 15, 2011 %I Public Broadcasting Service %C Arlington %U https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/lift-drag.html %O application/flash

EndNote Export Format

%0 Electronic Source %D January 15, 2011 %T NOVA: Lift and Drag %I Public Broadcasting Service %V 2025 %N 1 May 2025 %8 January 15, 2011 %9 application/flash %U https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/lift-drag.html

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Citation Source Information

The AIP Style presented is based on information from the AIP Style Manual.

The APA Style presented is based on information from APA Style.org: Electronic References.

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