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ufo's...

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dannyday5821 | 08:38 Tue 13th Nov 2007 | Science
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i didnt really know where to put this question...

why are ufo's generally thought to be those wierd looking flying saucers? i mean, if ufo's dont exist...then why do we think they look like flying saucers? why not triangles? or something equally as wierd? when did it become generally recognised that they look like flying saucers? and why? - actually...i suppose this post might be better in history...im not sure...
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1) Imagine the shape of cars and planes. They're pretty smooth when looking from the front, so the air can travel nicely round them. They travel in the same direction (the back is always the back, the front always the front), which is why the back of a plane or car doesn't have to be as aerodynamic as the front.

Imagine a UFO though, capable of travelling through space in any general direction at all (since they have some gravity-defying system so they can travel in any direction they want). Now, all directions become important with air resistance. Hence, the best shape is thus smooth all round -- a sphere! I guess that most UFOs travel fairly horizonally mostly though, but in any horizontal direction. Thus, it's more of a flying saucer shape.

2) This idea has been propagated through time, so it's caught on a fair bit.

3) If they were only ever in parts of space with no atmosphere, then they could basically be any shape they wanted.
I believe that the first "flying saucer" was spotted by an American aircraft pilot in the 1950s. Since then, everybody has jumped on the bandwagon and believed they also see them.

The aircraft man said that if he saw something as strange as a skyscraper flying now, he wouldn't say anything for fear that others would also want their 15 minutes of fame.
Question Author
oh yeah, i see your point! that actually made sense. i always wondered why they were "apparently" shaped so. but it makes sense from what you said, been able to travel through space and so forth. although...

i dont understand point 3 at all...seriously, that part made no sense to me...could you explain a little more?
fo3nix
in terms of aerodynamics, the shape of the back of a moving object is far more important than the shape of the front
By point 3, fo3nix means that as there is no air resistance in space, a spaceship could be any shape or size and would still travel as well.

An aeroplane on Earth is only shape like a kind of arrow so it can cut through the air. As space is a vacuum, the spaceship wouldn't have to be aerodynamic.
Question Author
oh yeah i see what you mean now on point 3. that makes sense. thanks guys!
But do you know the freakiest point of all?
I was just coming on answerbank to ask the same thing!
...see what gets me is that people assume that aliens will be roughly the same size/in proportion to humans....what if they are the size of ants....their space ships could be the size of a tennis ball?....they could already be among us and we would be none the wiser.....
I can not find any link to this but I am sure I've seen a program some years ago that showed previously secret USA footage of a craft similar in shape to the traditional flying saucer that was used in the 1950s. Sightings at that time were dismissed by the officials as UFOs but were in fact secret prototypes of flying crafts made by the US. Apparently the shape is not ideal for traveling through the air and the project had been abandoned but the technology had been applied to the vertical takeoff jet. It was kept hushhush for a long time so as not to admit that the US was designing secret crafts to maximise their air domination.
nightmare: yes I agree, I was just trying to keep it simple. Let's not start talking about Reynolds numbers!
What people see, or say they see, does vary according to their cultural/ethnic background - for example, a number of Mexican 'saucers' are remarkably sombrero-like.

Reported Ufos down the ages have also tended to take forms akin to known objects familiar at the time: flying crosses and other religious symbols, sailing ships (complete with trailing anchors and rope ladders), airships and dirigibles, mystery aircraft, missiles and so on.

More modern accounts are by no means confined to 'saucers' - they include cigar-shaped 'craft', spheres, flying triangles (actually very commonly reported, to go back to the original question), lights in the sky and amorphous or shape-shifting objects.

There is no doubt that, in the literal sense, unidentified flying objects exist. The term means exactly what it says and there's no requirement to believe in an extraterrestrial or supernatural explanation.

Many sightings are based on a misinterpretation of common objects (aircraft etc). Some are of natural phenonema which are rare or fall outside the observer's experience and knowledge (ball lightning, meteors, odd clouds etc). Some are hoaxes or delusions.

Personally, I'm inclined to be ultra-rational. I believe that the truth is not only out there, but also close to home and easy to find. Unfortunately what I saw from an aircraft window over Burton-on-Trent (of all places) some years ago challenged and continues to challenge that belief.
Question Author
intriguing...so...what did you see through that window on the plane?

i know what your saying about interpretation and truth. i thought i saw a UFO once, actually a couple of times...

1st time was when i was walking home, and i saw something in the sky, at first it didnt appear to be a plane, as it was as if it was been launched into the sky, like a rocket - after watching it for a while, i realised it was actually just a plane, but the perspective made it appear it was travelling straight upwards!

2nd time was in the middle of the night. i live opposite a school field. in the distance i saw three lights - (like a triange!) flashing, red yellow and green. i was bored, so thought id investigate. went across the field, and it was strange, as i got closer, it seemed to stay the same distance away from me, but keep moving away from me...if that makes sense...i kept trying to keep up with it, but in the end, i gave up. that i cant explain. ive seen lights across the field before flickering, but realised it was because trees in the foreground are moving, and when the leaves of the trees sway, they cover the light, making it appear to flicker. this i couldnt explain...although im skeptical it was a ufo...who know! i havent seen it since to be honest. i saw it a good two or three nights.

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