[waterman]

Originally Posted by gtfoxy

Regarding the rear wing comment; that is correct, but keep in mind the other sides shape plays a role as well. It is basically a aircraft wing up side down. As a plane’s wing creates lift, a car’s wing creates downforce. It’s lift in the opposite direction.

It’s complicated, but at the same time not. Think of it in terms of a pressure differential: ie, pushing open a door. On one side you have a higher force of pressure than the other.

This is accomplished by a differential of air velocity across the top & bottom of the “wing”. One side travels faster than the other due to the shape (& angle of attack, but we don’t need to get into that). The differential of velocity, due to air having viscosity, creates a physical phenomenon that forces the object in the direction from lower velocity to higher velocity.

This phenomenon creates a circular motion that is called a lift vertices. It is a rotating air mass, like a tornado, that centers on the wings center of disproportionate velocity. This vertices actually encompasses the wing (in open air) & extends in a radius & from the tip of the wing a proportionate distance to its relative velocity & its differential of pressure.

The uprights on the end of the wing (also seen on many types of aircraft, most of which are just a turn-up of the wing tip) are what’s known as vertices generators. They serve to trap the air moving in a longitudinal direction along the wing surface & promote the circular air pattern that creates lift by forcing the air to travel over the surface rather than “slide” off to the sides. This increases the differential of pressure seen across the opposing surfaces of the wing & creates more lift (or down force).

Aside from that we further get into the discussion of energy transfer of various materials used to transmit this downforce (think of a Newton’s Cradle) as kinetic energy “flows” through an object where force is exerted upon it. So the energy transfer rate of a material, such as say steel or aluminum, have a very different transfer rate. So the material itself plays a part in how quickly, ie; rate of differential pressure change, as well as static force, it is transferred.

Hope this helps.

Thanks, it does. Good info.

Technical, but not overly so.