"Casey Wilson" wrote in message ...
(James L. Freeman) wrote in message
. com...
Can someone offer a non-mathematical EXPLANATION (as opposed to
DESCRIPTION) of why the speed of headwind and crosswind components of
a wind add up to more than the speed of the wind?

Thanks.

"Andrew Sarangan" wrote in message
om...
Because wind has speed and direction. You cannot just add the numbers
to get the total. You have to do a vector sum (considering direction
and speed).

I don't think that's the answer. When I run a wind problem on my
Whiz-Wheel, the resultant IS a vector solution and the crosswind is only a
fraction of the wind velocity. Something makes me want to say it is the
cosine of the angle off the wing.


Where you do think the cosine comes from? It is a consequence of
adding two vectors.

A 10 knot wind from the northwest has a westerly component of
10cos(45) = 7knots and a northerly component of 10cos(45) = 7knots.
Alternatively, if you have 7 knots from the west and 7 knots from the
north, you wind up with a total of 10 knots from the northwest, not 14
knots.