NATURAL AND

HUMAN BUILT
FLOATERS AND
FLYERS
What make
things fly?
• Aerodynamics, the
study of flight, is
founded on four basic
forces lift, weight, thrust
and drag.
• The first force, lift,
pushes up on things
that fly - airplanes,
birds, helicopters and
• The shape of the wings
on an airplane and the
whirling blades of a
helicopter create lift as
they move through the air.
 What make
things float?
• Things float when they
are positively buoyant, or
less dense than the fluid
in which they are sitting.
• This does not mean that an
object has to be lighter than the
fluid, as in the case of a boat;
objects just need to have a
greater ratio of empty space to
mass than the fluid.