Spoilers and Rear Wings: Understanding the Difference

Hello everyone and welcome to this video. I'm going to be explaining spoilers and rear wings now, two devices that are often used interchangeably, but in all reality, they are different. Now, I mix them up myself all the time, but uh, the point is they are actually different devices.

A spoiler, as a device, you use for reducing lift and also improving aerodynamics. If you've ever rode on an airplane, been looking out the window while you were landing, you've actually watched a spoiler in action. When that plane is landing, it lifts up this flap on the back of the wing that's actually a spoiler. So, what that's doing is disrupting the air flow that's flowing over the wing. Normally, there's a high pressure area underneath the wing and a low pressure area on top of the wing. Now, this spoiler flaps up and it disturbs that pressure differential we've got going on. And now, we have a high pressure on top, but we're spoiling that air flow and so what's going to happen is the plane is going to go down instead of having lift and going up. So, you're going to be reducing the lift, and that's basically what a spoiler is for.

On a car, when you've got that rear spoiler on the back, basically all that's doing is just trying to reduce lift. A rear wing, on the other hand, is a device intentionally used for creating downforce. So, you're intentionally creating a larger force pressing down on the vehicle so they can go around a corner faster. Now, I'll have a video eventually, talking about downforce and how much faster it'll allow cars to go around corners, but for now, basically we're just going to say that this rear wing's purpose is for creating downforce.

Now, let's talk about how does it do this? As the vehicle is traveling through here, we've got the back of a car and on this back of this car we've got this rear wing. So, the air is passing along and it gets built up on top of it and it flows very freely below it. What that does is creates a high pressure on top and low pressure on the bottom and you have a net force down. Now, taking a closer look at it, so it kind of makes a little bit more sense.

Basically, what this spoiler is doing is forcing the air on top to move upward and by doing that, you're creating a net downward force on the wing itself. So, you can kind of think of it like a slanted plate and you've got air hitting that slanted plate and as that air hits the slanted plate, it has a downward force and a horizontal force pushing it back. So, the net force pushing down has those two components now. The force pushing it back is drag, the force pushing it down is downforce, and this is ultimately the one that you want and this is the one that you don't want so you want to maximize your downforce minimize your drag and that's basically the intention of rear wings.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Thanks for watching.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello everyone and welcome in this video I'm going to be explaining spoilers and rear wings now the two are often used interchangeably to say the same thing but in all reality they are different now I mix them up myself all the time but uh the point is they are actually different devices uh I'm going to be explaining basically what these two are two devices are used for now uh just a heads up if you haven't already watched all of my other videos you may want to do that first as this video does contain spoilers okay terrible joke anyways uh a spoiler is a device you used for reducing lift uh and also improving the aerodynamics so if you've ever rode on an airplane been looking out the window while you were Landing um you've actually watched a spoiler uh in action so when that plane is landing it lifts up this flap on the back of the wing that's actually a spoiler and so what that's doing is disrupting the air flow that's flowing over the wing so normally there's a high pressure area underneath the wing and a low pressure area uh on top of the wing now this spoiler flaps up and it disturbs that uh pressure differential we've got going on and now we have a high pressure up on the top um but and we're spoiling that air flow and so what's going to happen is the plane is going to go down uh instead of having lift and going up so you're going to be reducing the lift uh and that's basically what a spoiler is for so on a car when you've got uh that rear uh spoiler on the back um basically all that's doing is just trying to reduce lift now a rear wing on the other hand is a device intentionally used for creating down Force so you're intentionally creating a larger Force pressing down on the vehicle so they can go around a corner faster now I'll have a video eventually uh talking about downforce uh and how much faster it'll allow uh cars to go around corners but for now basically we're just going to say that this rear wing the purpose of it is for creating downforce now how does it do this well as the vehicle is traveling through here we've got the back of a car and on this back of this car we've got this rear wing so the air is passing along and it gets of built up on top of it and it flows very freely below it so what that does is creates a high pressure on top and low pressure on the bottom and you have a net force down now taking a closer look at it so it kind of makes a little bit more sense basically what this spoiler is doing is forcing the air on top to move upward and by doing that you're creating a net downward force on the wing itself so you can kind of think of it like a slanted plate and you've got air hitting that slanted plate and as that air hits the slanted plate it has a downward force uh and a horizontal Force pushing it back so the net force pushing down has those two components now the force pushing it back is drag the force pushing it down is down force and this is ultimately the one that you want and this is the one that you don't want so you want to maximize your down Force minimize your drag and that's basically the intention of rear wings so if you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them below thanks for watchinghello everyone and welcome in this video I'm going to be explaining spoilers and rear wings now the two are often used interchangeably to say the same thing but in all reality they are different now I mix them up myself all the time but uh the point is they are actually different devices uh I'm going to be explaining basically what these two are two devices are used for now uh just a heads up if you haven't already watched all of my other videos you may want to do that first as this video does contain spoilers okay terrible joke anyways uh a spoiler is a device you used for reducing lift uh and also improving the aerodynamics so if you've ever rode on an airplane been looking out the window while you were Landing um you've actually watched a spoiler uh in action so when that plane is landing it lifts up this flap on the back of the wing that's actually a spoiler and so what that's doing is disrupting the air flow that's flowing over the wing so normally there's a high pressure area underneath the wing and a low pressure area uh on top of the wing now this spoiler flaps up and it disturbs that uh pressure differential we've got going on and now we have a high pressure up on the top um but and we're spoiling that air flow and so what's going to happen is the plane is going to go down uh instead of having lift and going up so you're going to be reducing the lift uh and that's basically what a spoiler is for so on a car when you've got uh that rear uh spoiler on the back um basically all that's doing is just trying to reduce lift now a rear wing on the other hand is a device intentionally used for creating down Force so you're intentionally creating a larger Force pressing down on the vehicle so they can go around a corner faster now I'll have a video eventually uh talking about downforce uh and how much faster it'll allow uh cars to go around corners but for now basically we're just going to say that this rear wing the purpose of it is for creating downforce now how does it do this well as the vehicle is traveling through here we've got the back of a car and on this back of this car we've got this rear wing so the air is passing along and it gets of built up on top of it and it flows very freely below it so what that does is creates a high pressure on top and low pressure on the bottom and you have a net force down now taking a closer look at it so it kind of makes a little bit more sense basically what this spoiler is doing is forcing the air on top to move upward and by doing that you're creating a net downward force on the wing itself so you can kind of think of it like a slanted plate and you've got air hitting that slanted plate and as that air hits the slanted plate it has a downward force uh and a horizontal Force pushing it back so the net force pushing down has those two components now the force pushing it back is drag the force pushing it down is down force and this is ultimately the one that you want and this is the one that you don't want so you want to maximize your down Force minimize your drag and that's basically the intention of rear wings so if you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them below thanks for watching\n"