"Bud Sparhawk - Primrose and Thorn" - читать интересную книгу автора (Sparhawk Bud)

As they sped down toward the seas of Jupiter, Pascal sat as far from the port of the tiny cab of the
elevator as he could and tried to ignore the pit of blackness, a hole in the sky at the center of an
enormous emptiness. The thought of all the distance they had to fall terrified him.

"I still don't understand how you guys do it," the pink-faced elevator pilot said from his perch at the bow.
"I mean, I can see how a sailboat can go with the wind. The hot air balloons on Earth just go with the
wind, right? Why wouldn't they do the same here?"

"It's the keel," John said. He and Al were their competitors from GeoGlobal. They'd arrived a few days
before, along with the third crew that would participate in the race. "A sailboat would be just like a
balloon if it didn't have a keel."

"Oh, I see. That's why the Jupiter ships have that long ribbon under them," the pilot remarked. "But how
does that help them move against the wind? And isn't it impossible to go
faster than the wind?"

"Good question," Pascal said, glad of the distraction. "A sailboat goes faster into the wind, not slower.
The slowest speed of all is when you run with the wind directly behind you."

Pascal let the kid think about that for a moment before he continued. "A sail is an airfoil. One side forms
a pocket of relatively dead air. The opposite side is bent out so that the wind has a longer distance to
travel. The pressure differential pulls the sailboat along."

"A foresail funnels the air across the main and accentuates the effect," Al injected. "The closer you haul to
the direction of the wind the faster you go."

John spoke up, "It's just a matter of physics: the angle of force on the sail and the keel produces a vector
of force that moves the boat forward. The steeper the angle the greater the forward thrust. The trick is to
balance the force of the wind and the sails, adjusting your angle of attack to obtain the greatest forward
momentum possible, maximizing the transfer of static air pressure to dynamic motive force."

"Oh, I understand," the operator said, screwing his face up in concentration. "It's like continuously solving
a set of differential equations. " He smiled at them as if he were proud of learning the lesson so well.

"Don't bust a gut trying to do that if you're ever in a sailboat, kid," Louella said. "It's all scientific bullshit."

Louella glared at the three of them; a fierce set to her eyes and mouth that brooked no interruption.
"These guys want you to think that sailing's a scienceтАФthat it's all application of mathematical rules and
physics. Listening to them, you'd think that you're constantly thinking, calculating, and plotting. Well,
that's all a pile of crapтАФsailing isn't some branch of engineering."

She leaned forward to look straight into the operator's eyes, her expression softening as she did so.
"Sailing's a love affair between you, the boat, the water, and the wind. Every one of them has to be
balanced, held in check; let any one of them dominate and you've lost it. A good sailor has to be
conscious of wind and water and responsive to the boat's needs. You have to understand the language of
wind and sea and shipтАФyou have to feel that edge that means you're running a tight line with every nerve
of your body. The boat'll tell you how she wants to behave; she'll fight you when you're wrong, and
support you when you're right."

She brushed at her cheek, as if something had gotten in her eye, before she continued. "The point I'm