A UCLA Physics Professor bet me $10,000 that my video about going downwind faster than the wind was wrong. This video is sponsored by Brilliant. The first 200 people to sign up via https://brilliant.org/veritasium get 20% off a yearly subscription.

For more information about the Veritasium Science Communication Contest check out — https://ve42.co/contest

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The wager agreement: https://ve42.co/wager

Prof. Kusenko’s slides: https://ve42.co/Kusenko

My rebuttal: https://ve42.co/rebuttal
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Huge thanks to Xyla Foxlin for building the model cart, and making the instructions so accessible to the public. Check out Xyla’s video — https://youtu.be/VUgajGv4Aok

A massive thanks to Bill Nye, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, and Sean Carroll for witnessing the signing of the wager.

A huge thanks to Prof. Alexander Kusenko for being a man of honour — it’s a difficult thing to change your mind, especially in a public forum.

A huge thanks to Prof. Mark Drela for the interview and help making sure we got the physics right.

A massive thanks to Rick Cavallaro for making Blackbird, all your insights, analysis, data, and general help with these videos — it was so fun to work with you on this crazy project — check out Rick’s channel https://ve42.co/Rick

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References
M. Drela. Dead-Downwind Faster Than The Wind (DDWFTTW)
Analysis (Jan 2009) — https://ve42.co/Drela

2013 AAPT United States Physics Olympiad Semifinal Exam — https://ve42.co/AAPT2013

Rick’s treadmill footage — https://ve42.co/Treadmill

Rick’s multiple explanations of how Blackbird works — https://ve42.co/DDWFTTW

Blackford, B. L. (1978). The physics of a push‐me pull‐you boat. American Journal of Physics, 46(10), 1004-1006. — https://ve42.co/Blackford1979

Ruina corrects errors in the above paper: http://ruina.tam.cornell.edu/research…

Forum discussions — https://ve42.co/forum Blog — https://ve42.co/blog1 and retraction https://ve42.co/BlogRetraction

Bauer, A. B. (1969, April). Faster than the Wind. In First AIAA Symposium on Sailing. — https://ve42.co/Bauer1969

Bauer’s Obituary — https://ve42.co/BauerObituary

Gaunaa, M., Øye, S., & Mikkelsen, R. F. (2009). Theory and design of flow driven vehicles using rotors for energy conversion. In EWEC 2009 Proceedings online EWEC

Md. Sadak Ali Khan, Syed Ali Sufiyan, Jibu Thomas George, Md. Nizamuddin Ahmed. Analysis of Down-Wind Propeller Vehicle. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 3, 4. (April 2013) ISSN 2250-3153.