What is air pressure and how does it help an airplane fly?
Right now, all around you, billions of tiny air molecules are bouncing in every direction. You can't see them, but they're there — zipping, knocking, jostling. And every time one of them bumps into something, it gives the tiniest push. That's the secret we're chasing today: how a gentle, invisible push can lift a metal machine into the sky.
Add up all those tiny pushes and you get something we can actually feel: air pressure. It's just the total weight of all those bouncing molecules pressing on everything from every side. Air feels like nothing, but a column of it stretching all the way up to space is surprisingly heavy. Right now it's pressing on your shoulders, your hands, even the top of your head — and you don't notice, because it's pressing equally everywhere.
