Tacking—a maneuver used to sail a boat against the wind, changing direction in a zig-zag fashion—is one of the most difficult but necessary sailing maneuvers. While tacking is common, the movement of ...
Sailing directly into the wind sounds impossible, yet sailors have done it for centuries. This breaks down the physics of sails, lift, keels, and tacking that allows ships to move forward even when ...
The Courant Institute's Christiana Mavroyiakoumou, above at Central Park's Conservatory Water, and the University of Michigan's Silas Alben studied how sails behave during a wide range of tacking ...