Humans live on the bottom of an ocean of air.

Air is comprised of several invisible gases that

have mass and exert a force, called air pressure. At sea level, air pressure is approximately 15 psi
or pounds per square inch. Humans have adapted to this environment. They do not notice this
force because pressure is pushing on them simultaneously from all directions.
For example, for every 15 psi pushing on the left side of your body there is an equal and opposite
force, 15 psi pushing on the right side of your body equalizing the forces and making it seem like
we do not live in a pressurized environment. However if we could reduce the air pressure to 10
psi on the left side of our body we would be pushed to the left by the greater pressure, 15 psi on
our right side.

Birds fly by using air pressure’s pushing force to create wing lift. This is achieved by the physical
law known as the Bernoulli Principle. Daniel Bernoulli, an 18th century mathematician,
discovered that as air speed increases, air pressure lowers. Bird wings are specially designed air
foils. The upper curvature of the wings makes air travel faster over its top surface. Following the
Bernoulli Principle, this reduces air pressure on top of the wing allowing the greater air pressure
from below to help push the bird up into flight.
To understand how lift is produced by a wing we must first come to grips with Bernoulli’s
principle. Bernoulli’s principle states, in essence, that fast moving air exerts less pressure than slow
moving air. Now a birds wing, when outstretched into the air, is held at a slight downward angle to
the onflowing air. This means that air passes over the wing faster than it passes under the wing so
there will be less pressure above the wing and more pressure below. This change in pressure causes
the wing to move toward the lower pressure with a helping push from the higher presssure below it,
thus causes lift.
The faster air moves across the wing the more lift the wing will produce, so moving it through the
air by flapping increases this airflow and thus increases lift. The bird doesn’t paddle air underneath
its wing, instead it cuts into the air with the leading edge to obtain the flow over the surface that it
requires.
There are three important motions in addition to the bird's forward motion:

1. Flapping 2. Twisting 3. Folding

By flapping its wings down, together with the forward motion of the body, a bird can tilt the lift of
its wings forward for propulsion. Why don't birds simply move their wings up and down, without
twisting and folding? Notice that the outer part of the wing moves down much farther than the inner
part close to the body. Twisting allows each part of the wing to keep the necessary angle relative to
the airflow. If part of the wing is angled lower than the airflow, there might not be enough lift. If
part of the wing is pointed too high, there could be a lot of drag. The wings are flexible, so they
twist automatically.
Wing folding isn't essential - ornithopters fly without it - but it helps birds fly with less effort. To
see why it is helpful, think about what happens during the upstroke. Because the wing is going up,
the lift vector points backward, especially in the outer portion of the wing. The upstroke actually
slows the bird down! By folding its wings (decreasing the wingspan) a bird can reduce drag during
the upstroke.
In addition to the three basic movements described here, birds can do a lot of other things with their
wings to allow them to maneuver in the air. Instead of using their tails for flight control, they move
their wings forward and backward for balance. To make a turn, they can twist the wings or apply
more power on one side. For slow flight, birds can flap their wings almost forward and backward
instead of vertically; the upstroke and downstroke produce lift without