Research Rack: Did You Know?

• The fastest bird is the spine-tailed swift, which can fly at a top speed of 170 kilometers an hour (106.25 miles per hour)!

• The fastest passenger travel is on the Concorde, an airplane that travels at 2,170 km an hour (1,350 miles an hour), which is faster than the speed of sound.

• NASA scientists have researched the use of a suction system with airplane wings that would siphon off turbulent air through millions of tiny laser-drilled holes. Theoretically, this system would reduce drag on the airplane and thus lower fuel costs.

• A Mach number is used to describe an airplane's speed in terms of the speed of sound. An airplane traveling at Mach 1 is traveling at the speed of sound; Mach 2 is twice that speed, and so on.

• The speed of aircraft and boats is measured in knots; 1 knot = 1 nautical mile per hour, 6,076 feet per hour.

• Bernoulli's Principle is at work when... shower curtains blow inward when you take a shower.

• Bernoulli's Principle is at work when... lightweight things in your car blow out the window when the car is going fast.