¹⁴A helpful analogy for this effect is to imagine a sailboat traveling directly downwind, its motive force provided by a sail oriented perpendicular to the direction of travel. It should be obvious that in this configuration the sailboat cannot travel faster than the wind. What is less obvious is the fact that the sailboat can’t even travel as fast as the wind, its top speed in this configuration being slightly less than the wind speed. If the sailboat somehow did manage to travel exactly at the wind’s speed, the sail would go slack because there would be no relative motion between the sail and the wind, and therefore the sail would cease to provide any motive force. Thus, the sailboat must “slip” or “lag” behind the wind speed just enough to fill the sails with enough force to overcome water friction and maintain speed.