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The airspeed of an aircraft can be measured by finding the dynamic pressure, which is proportional to the square of the aircraft's velocity. There are three types of pressure: static, dynamic, and total (ram). Static + dynamic pressure = total pressure. Once we've measured total pressure and static pressure around an airplane, we can calculate dynamic pressure by finding the difference between the two. Once we have the dynamic pressure, it's just a matter of plugging numbers into an equation to find airspeed.