Word: convexities
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...source of the trouble was the upper surface of the conventional wing, which has a convex curve to provide lift.* When the plane reaches about 80% of the speed of sound, however, the velocity of the air flowing over the upper side of the wing reaches the sonic barrier. A shock wave forms about half way back from the wing's leading edge, disturbing the airflow and increasing drag-the resistance of air to the plane's passage...
...NICOLAS SCHÖFFER, 53, a Hungarian-born Parisian, builds Erector set-like perforated grids, convex mirrors and metal latticework. He views these not as art works but rather as the medium to express his vision of "spatiodynamics." His largest work to date is his 170-ft.-tall computerized Cybernetic Tower in Belgium, which emits sounds of street noises mixed with electronic music. Other works blink, twinkle, and swathe the space around them with elusive illuminations, sometimes changing 300 times a second like whirling dervishes of light...
Touch & Go. Things were not too bad until the early 18th century, when "the drag," otherwise known in France as "the oyster guillotine," was invented. That instrument, a convex iron blade 5 ft. or 6 ft. long, denuded the coasts of Europe and the U.S. by ripping up the oyster beds. It was touch and go whether the oyster would survive at all, until an inspired French marine biologist, Victor Coste, discovered in the mid-1800s the secret of collecting larvae and raising seed, making it possible to grow oysters in waters where for various reasons they are unable...
...breed. But the market for an inexpensive sports car is potentially so enormous-particularly since nearly one in every five households now shops for a second car -that Ford's competitors have no intention of leaving it to Lee Iacocca. Chrysler has already introduced a Valiant with a convex rear roofline-called a fastback in Detroit-and named it the Barracuda. American Motors is making a fastback version of its Rambler Classic, will bring it out next spring. When word of the Mustang first leaked out, General Motors began to work on a fastback Corvair for introduction this month...
...fast back, a roofline that continues down an auto's back in one un broken convex curve, was abandoned by Detroit in the late 1940s in favor of the greenhouse roof, the sloping L-shape that was later refined by Ford into the much-copied T-Bird roof, a trim, knife-edged affair with angular lines. But for two years auto stylists have slowly been reviving the fastback on some sports models, and this year and next the curve will continue its comeback in at least three Detroit offerings. Last week Chrysler introduced the first of the new fastbacks...