Wait until you find out about electricity! 🤯
Computers is teachibg rocks to think
We grow flawless crystals, slice them into perfect disks, engrave billions of arcane runes onto them with magical potions and rays of light, animate them with lightning, and make them do our bidding.
And then we give them an "intelligence" that can't even count the Rs in strawberry...
I think we're doing pretty fucking well, all things considered.
By filling them with lightning
I hate that everybody's like, it's not that big a deal.
We only started doing it 124 years ago! Prior to that it was a very big deal indeed.
Everyone's so fucking smart these days, there's no room for a sense of wonder. It's like being blasé and knowledgeable is cool. It's really not.
You keep flying with your beautiful sense of wonder, Buttflapper!
I used to think so until I realised that air and water are both fluids, except air is thinner.
To be clear to anyone with minds being blown: air is gas and gas is a type of fluid. Water is liquid and liquid is also a type of fluid.
... gas is a type of fluid.
that goes a long way in explaining some of those farts.
Exactly. Ever skip a stone on the surface of a lake? It's like that, except it's a continuous skip, with air instead of water, and you're inside the stone.
it works because we believe in it. if everyone would lose faith in airplanes, they'd drop out of the sky.
Can I just lose faith in the private jets?
Don't forget how high you get.
Last time I flew I didn't get high at all. I must be doing something wrong.
It's simple. You just need 60 tons of lift and thrust. Aerodynamics help but you can make a brick fly.
"It's just always exciting! That amazing moment when twelve tonnes of metal leaves the earth... and no-one knows why!"
"Yes, we do."
"Yeah, but, you know, not really. I mean, we know you need wings, and engines, and a sticky-up bit on the end for some reason, but it's not like we actually know why a plane stays in the air."
"No. No, Arthur, we really do! We- we do, we do know that!"
You think that's crazy? The ship that blocked the Suez Canal, the Ever Given, has a ship displacement (how much water is displaced when it sits in the ocean) of 265,000 Tons.
That's 240 million kilograms.
And that shit just floats on fucking water maaaaan...
I find it equally neat how displacement allows a 100,000 ton ship to float.
As I'm sure most know, planes fly because of the angle of their wings and airframe shape (also known as an airfoil). As moving air flows over the wing it creates downward pressure, which, as a result of Newton's 3rd law (reaction to a force), allows moving air below to create lift. And upsy daisy she goes.
Science.
That lift explanation is innacurate/incomplete. While there may be some equal and opposite forces depending on the angle of attack, the primary reason for lift is due to Bernoulli's Principle. Airfoils have a rounded upper surface with a longer path for air to take, relative to the underside. This requires air to move at a higher velocity over the top, and since A1 x V1 x P1 = A2 x V2 x P2, pressure over the airfoil decreases. It is this pressure differential that creates lift.
In regards to aircraft, Newton's third law of motion applies to thrust from a propeller or jet engine.
An a380 is so big when it takes off it looks like it's moving slow, just kind of hanging in the air
"I flew for my first time on a plane"
Now I just feel old.
I didn't fly on a plane until i was nearly 30. Dont know if you are in the US, but outside of the US, it's less common to fly anywhere. high speed rail between countries in europe, UK is small enough to drive anywhere, boats and eurostar train to get from UK to Europe. Euro tunnel if you want to take your car to europe.
The 777 is 375-ish tons, and the A380 is 630-ish tons.
I'm even more impressed by aircraft carriers. Just one of those things weigh as much as 250 fully loaded Boeing 747s. And it just floats. :)
Consider the amount of air its wings must displace in order to stay aloft. An equal quantity of mass at least. It's passing through that air and, partly pushing it down, but also partially scraping it thin over the bowed top surface of the wing (the Bernoulli principle) which creates a pressure differential that lifts the wing, pulling it upward through suction, and thus the plane. That's why the plane must go fast to fly, and why it "stalls" and falls if it isn't moving through enough air. It's also how turbulence affects a plane. Differences in air pressure mean that in pockets of low pressure there isn't as much mass being displaced by the wings, not enough lift so it falls.
Now, it's quite likely that my layman's comprehension of this is flawed. But I'm sure it's entirely possible that someone will correct me soon :3
Crazier still when you consider it's pushed into the sky by its own farts.
I'm a mechanical engineer and have a general understanding of how wings work. I've flown many times. That shit still feels like magic to me.
Airplane engines have deceptively high thrust, imagine each one as a rocket and it'll start to make sense. The a380 (the big double decker) each engine produces around 350KN. When that thrust is applied to an 80kg human they'll experience almost 450Gs of force
In an extreme sense, imagine putting a little rocket engine on a paper airplane which will represent a high thrust to weight ratio
it's crazy that you can just jump, and you go up for a bit.
I still look up whenever u hear a plane fly over. Heavier than air travel is treated way to casually
Crazier to think 60tons of air being pushed down 10m/s^2 (or whatever equivalent mass/acc you want to think with) to keep it up there.
It’s magical, right? It’s what got me interested in aviation - the physics, the science, the engineering to make it work. And we’ve gotten so good at it, air travel is now available to most people, it’s safe and convenient.
I’ve flown exactly three times in my life: a hot air balloon, a helicopter and a DC3. Each was magical in its own way. I’ve also done a fair bit of plane spotting. Seeing an Airbus A380 landing right in front of you is amazing. It really is the size of a large apartment block with wings. Truly awe inspiring.
Aviation is fucking awesome!
It doesn't just fly, it rages against gravity, using every possible trick in the book
A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.
