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Surface area of a kite??

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alex267
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Surface area of a kite??

Postby alex267 » Tue Dec 29, 2009 8:38 pm

Surface area is the measure of how much exposed area a solid object has.
How can you find the surface area of a kitesurfing kite?? Is the same with area of the kite or not??

tungsten222
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Re: Surface area of a kite??

Postby tungsten222 » Tue Dec 29, 2009 9:37 pm

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Last edited by tungsten222 on Sun Jan 31, 2010 6:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

windmaker
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Re: Surface area of a kite??

Postby windmaker » Wed Dec 30, 2009 7:13 am

Very good question and worth investigating. In this day and age when buying a 12m for example there can be a huge difference in power from brand to brand( or even within a brand). Would be interesting to have a nice simple way of measuring a kite's surface precisely.

Although surface is not everything when it comes to power I suspect some kite manufacturers under estimate the size of there products because they know most riders like using "smaller sizes" . Everybody likes to get going on a "small kite" when there is very little wind...

Perhaps the real solution if there was a proper way of measuring it, would be to have a figure revealing a kites real power and speed, which is really what counts after all not the size.

Comparason between models would then be clear and simple even for the most novice.

zerogee_ca
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Re: Surface area of a kite??

Postby zerogee_ca » Wed Dec 30, 2009 8:05 am

Paragliders size their wings XXS, XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL. I recall one kite company back in the day that sized their kites that way too.

On a side note, when we report wind conditions on our local forum we report it as small kite, medium kite, big kite, medium to small, etc. Most everyone has these sizes in their quiver no matter how big they are, or what kite sizes in meters they have, or model of kite. They quickly understand how windy it is.

voodoospirit
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Re: Surface area of a kite??

Postby voodoospirit » Wed Dec 30, 2009 9:07 am

the projected area is the closest universal comparative measure...
the flat area serves nothing at all.

when i look at a new kite (of a different brand), i check the projected area if they have it on the web. for all the tests i ve done on different kites (foils, arcs, bows, SLE, C), the projected area gave me a good information. now it wont tell me if the kite is a fast turner and so, but it will tell me which kite i have to get to use it in the same/close wind range as my old one.


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