Backspin Basketball Flies Off Dam

I'm not an expert on it really. They rotate the giant cylinder and the wind is blowing by. The rotation forms a low pressure zone one side of the cylinder which acts as a lift force perpendicular both to the rotational axis of the cylinder and the wind. It's the same effect which "turns" a soccer ball if you kick it with a spin. There is a really nice demonstration of the effect in this video: ▶ this video This wikipedia page has a way better summary than my attempt above: [link]

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There's a great Veritasium video explaining the Magnus effect and the Flettner rotor here: ▶ this video The Norsepower company (which installs Flettner rotors on ships) also has a short video explaining the effect here [link]

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There's a decent video by Veritasium about the Magnus Effect, where the bomb is essentially given lift by its backspin: ▶ this video

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This is the video they reference at the end that elaborates and shows off the use in ships, as well as some planes that have spinning cylinders instead of wings: ▶ this video

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My favorite is the Flettner aeroplane since it uses the Magnus effect [1][2] as it generates lift without a wing. Screenshot linked in the original post [3]. [1] [link] [2] ▶ this video [3] [link]

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