$10,000 bet for downwind faster than the wind - video

[jimfols]

I watched it until 1:07 when the brought in that wacko Bill Nye guy.

[FEM2008]

I watched it until 1:07 when the brought in that wacko Bill Nye guy.

Wacky but Brilliant!!

[Floradawg]

I got ya. Bill Nye wants everyone to think he is a scientist. He is not. He has a degree in mechanical engineering. That doesn't qualify him to scold us about cataclysmic climate change. It was really painful to see him but I soldiered through it because I was interested in the experiment and the wager. I also thought about a sail as an airfoil which propels the boat faster than the wind speed. The treadmill sort of looks convincing but it seems like something for nothing. In other words if you give it a head start with a push in a calm, on a smooth surface, according to the treadmill experiment it should accelerate on is own. It kind of looks like a perpetual motion machine. I know I'm opening myself up for some criticism. I really am not a math genius and I didn't really understand the problem from that angle. For sure it is solvable with math if the problem is set up right. Was it? I don't know.