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I am a fifth grade student in New York and I am doing an independent inquiry on how gliders fly for my gifted class. My project's essential question is "How do things fly and how does this effect gliders?"
In order for something to fly, it must create enough lift to overcome an airplane’s weight and enough thrust to overcome its drag. Gliders fly using the same aerodynamic principles as other aircraft. Glider wings create lift as they move through the air. High pressure beneath the glider’s wings and low pressure above the wing, which can be explained by the Bernoulli principle, create an upward force on the glider –lift. A glider uses gravity to produce thrust. As the glider descends along a flight path that is angled downward, it sometimes speeds up, i.e. the forward thrust provided by gravity can be higher than the drag. In still air, a glider is always sinking and this is why glider pilots concentrate on finding pockets of rising air called updrafts. Updrafts occur when a wind moving towards a hill or mountain has to rise to climb over it, or when warmer air rises. Updrafts counteract the effects of gravity and help the glider stay airborne for as long as possible. The glider can gain altitude if it can find an updraft.
