Monday, February 11, 2008

Calculation of Drag Force on a Wintry Boston Day

Presented here is a calculation of drag force caused by the wind on a cold and windy Boston day. The equations were taken from the Wikipedia page on drag coefficient, which has further explanations of each term. Pressure and wind velocity information was taken from Weather.com

Drag Force: Dry Air Density: Ideal Gas Law Constant for Dry Air: Wind Velocity: Drag Coefficient of an Upright Person: Cd=1.3
Frontal Area of a Person: A=0.75 m2
Air Pressure: P=101,500 Pa
Temperature: T=276.15 K

The force (Fd) comes out to about 76 N or the weight of a cat on top of you while lying down.

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