Originally Posted by
Cubdriver
Well, not quite. ... Form, parasite, and induced drag are all there in the mix, a big part of it in this experiment is form drag.
Form drag is a type of parasite drag.
Originally Posted by cubdriver
It is true that if you vary the angle of your hand while driving, you can discern a big difference in the pull backwards, which is coming from the induced drag.
Since all types of parasite drag are a function of speed and the idea of an experiment is to isolate the variables as long as speed doesn't change all parasite drag will remain relatively constant. That being said, this experiment will directly show a link between AOA and induced drag, as you admit, and that is its purpose. A slight increase in parasite drag wouldn't matter, the point would be to realize that tilting your hand back increases AOA and induced drag, a pretty obvious recognition from this simple experiment.