My name is Hikaru, and I want to fly on a broom.
Like many people, growing up I watched Harry Potter and Kiki's Delivery service, and dreamt of actually flying on a broom.
So I decided to ask a university professor whether it was really possible to fly on a broom. This is Professor Shinichiro Ito, from the Mechanical Engineering Department of Kogakuin University.
"Hello," I said. "I would like to fly in the sky on a broom." "That's impossible," he said.
Well that was quick. So why exactly is it was impossible. I asked him to explain
To start, he said making a broom float *is* possible.
So if you fasten a broom in a car with a string and pull it, it floats. Kind of.
So then wouldn't a person riding a broom kind of be possible?
"For a person to ride and fly with it, the shape and area of the wings are very important," he said. "Let’s look at a parachute”
"The area of the wing is wide, right? The angle is also calculated in a way that it captures the wind better."
"In contrast, the rear part of a broom, its wing portion, has a small area, and cannot hold wind" he said. "With this, it's impossible for a person to ride it and float."
Okay, well since we're here, lets pretend the broom could fly, how would it work?
"If you were to ride it, the balance would be very important. First, unless you ride in the rear part, you would definitely flip down."