Showerthoughts

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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.

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It's crazy that a 60 ton metal airplane can just fly (lemmy.world)

submitted 6 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

191 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I flew for the first time on a plane last week and I've seen planes take off at the airport. It looks crazy. But being on one is totally different like holy shit. The thing just FLIES. It just.... Soars... Through the sky! Like whoa man. Wtf... It's crazy. With how much these things weigh, it's insane to me the thing can just go up and bam, there we are, we're flying now. Like wow... Dude crazy.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Your last description is essentially the idea behind the F-117a. That thing ~~isn't~~ wasn't flying, ~~it's~~ it was achieving escape velocity.