Which concept is associated with lift on airplane wings and is described by changes in air velocity and pressure around the wing?

• A. Archimedes Principle
• B. Pascal's Principle
• C. Boyle's Law
• D. Bernoulli's Principle

Answer: (D)

Lift on airplane wings comes from the relationship between air speed and pressure described by Bernoulli's principle. When air flows over a wing, the curved upper surface and its angle cause the air to speed up over the top, and faster air means lower pressure. Under the wing, air moves more slowly and stays at relatively higher pressure, creating a pressure difference that pushes the wing upward. The wing’s shape and angle help maximize this speed difference by guiding the airflow along the wing’s surface. Other principles describe different ideas—Archimedes’ principle is about buoyancy in fluids, Pascal’s principle about pressure transmission in fluids, and Boyle’s law about how gas pressure changes with volume—so they don’t explain lift in the same way as Bernoulli’s principle does.