Art Meets Science

This column is about the science and art of rejuvenating propellers, but before we go there, let’s take a few minutes to think about Sir Isaac Newton. We all know the story of Newton and the falling apple, and how it prompted him to quantify not only the law of universal gravitation but also his three laws of motion. (Okay, there’s no evidence that a plummeting pomme had anything to do with Newton’s inspiration, but do we care? No. It’s a good story, and few of us would know about Newton’s work without it, so we’ll go with it, right?)

Newton published his work in his Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (1687), “one of the most important single works in the history of modern science,” according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. Pretty impressive, and that’s only the start of Newton’s accomplishments.

What does this have to do with propellers? Newton’s third law, the law of action and reaction, describes the phenomenon that makes your propeller work. It states: “When two bodies interact, they apply forces to one another that are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction.” A vessel’s propeller (and a waterjet, which