Whether high-rise buildings, cars or airplanes – they are all decisively influenced by a special branch of physics: aerodynamics. It determines to what extent and in what way the objects interact with the air. Whether and how much interaction is desired depends on the area of application.
Cars try to affect the air as little as possible and wind turbines want to exchange as much energy as possible. Airplanes use wind energy to defy gravity and skyscrapers must withstand the pressure. The air can be friend and foe.
The physical interaction with the wind poses great challenges, especially for engineers, but there are enough creative solutions. Cars have already been built with virtually no air resistance, and skyscrapers have been designed that rotate on their own axis to generate wind energy. All of these inventions are first tested in wind tunnels, but even then there are key differences.
