Abstract
THE system contemplated in my letter assumes the existence of an external source of energy, and perhaps it might have saved misunderstanding if this fact had been stated at the expense of brevity. If we imagine an aéroplane performing purely lateral oscillations, and suppose it furnished with a pendulum so arranged as to operate on a pair of ailerons, we have a system the action of which might be represented to a first approximation by the model assumed by me. In this case the necessary energy is being supplied by the wind, which, by its action on the ailerons, causes the aéroplane to rotate like a windmill during the interval that the pendulum rotates with the aéroplane, while the inclinations of the ailerons remain constant. The work done in a small displacement is of the form k(θ – φ)dθ, but this doesnot integrate into an expression representing potential energy.
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BRYAN, G. [Letters to Editor]. Nature 91, 661 (1913). https://doi.org/10.1038/091661c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/091661c0
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