Float Your Boat!: The Evolution and Science of Sailing

Erscheinungsjahr 2008
ISBN: 978-0-8018-9009-3
Verlag: Johns Hopkins University Press

Buch, Englisch, 280 Seiten, Format (B × H): 162 mm x 238 mm, Gewicht: 593 g

An estimated 4.1 million people in the United States participate in recreational sailing. Yet the large library of sailing literature leaves many of them high and dry. On one side are technical guides for America’s Cup boat-builders; on the other, simplistic books for weekend sailors with little interest in science. In Float Your Boat! professional and amateur boaters alike will find intelligent and understandable answers to such questions as: What were the key innovations that made sailboats more efficient? How do you increase the speed of a boat? How do sailboats travel into the wind? Why are so many explanations of sailing so wrong?

Sailing enthusiast and physicist Mark Denny first traces the evolution of the sailing craft, from prehistoric coracles made of animal skins and antlers to the sailboat’s reinvention as a pleasure craft during the Industrial Revolution. He then identifies specific sailing phenomena—how wind drives modern Bermuda sloops, how torque determines stability, why hull speed exists—and provides the key physics principles behind them.

Whether you are an inquisitive landlubber who has never set foot in a boat, a casual weekend sailor, or an old salt who lives for the sea, Float Your Boat! is an accessible guide to the physics of sailing.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Denny, Mark

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Sport | Tourismus | Freizeit Sport Wassersport Segeln
• Sozialwissenschaften Sport | Tourismus | Freizeit Sport Geschichte des Sports
• Naturwissenschaften Physik Physik Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Evolution: From Prehistory to the Age of Sail
2. Analysis: Square-Rigged Ship Motion
3. Evolution: From the Age of Sail to the Modern Yacht
4. Analysis: Fore-and-Aft Boat Motion—Introducing Lift and Drag
5. A Lot of Torque
6. Flying through Water
7. Windsurfing
Appendix: Lifting the Veil
Notes
Glossary
Additional Readings
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Denny, Mark
Mark Denny is a theoretical physicist who has worked in academia and industry. He is the author of numerous books, including Lights On! The Science of Power Generation, Making Sense of Weather and Climate: The Science behind the Forecasts, and Making the Most of the Anthropocene: Facing the Future.

After earning a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Edinburgh University, Mark Denny pursued research at Oxford University from 1981 to 1984, then moved into a career in industry. He is the author of Ingenium: Five Machines That Changed the World and Blip, Ping, and Buzz: Making Sense of Radar and Sonar, both published by Johns Hopkins. Denny is now semi-retired and lives on Vancouver Island.