If you run a gasoline engine indefinitely with unlimited fuel, what will be the first cause of failure?
I ran numerous stationary engines for a water company years ago. We had a number 455 CI Oldsmobile engines sitting out in an open field running irrigation water…
If Earth orbited a blue supergiant star at the habitable zone, would going to the beach be a bad idea no matter what? Would people get sunburned within seconds?
No. Sunburn would not be a risk. Ozone layers don’t just shield against ultraviolet radiation, they are also created by ultraviolet. Specifically, ozone layers are created by higher…
Latest Updates on Comet 3I/ATLAS: Is It an Alien Spacecraft?
This year, we welcome a rare visitor to our skies—the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS! As the third interstellar object ever discovered by humanity, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime encounter. Yet some…
Why do semi-truck drivers leave their trucks running for long periods of time without turning them off?
This is my truck. I basically live in it. Behind the driver’s seat is what appears on the outside to be some sort of fairing. Well, it’s shaped…
If a 40 kiloton nuke appeared on a Nimitz carrier deck and exploded, would it sink?
Forty kilotons on the deck? The fireball of the nuke of that size is 350 meters. A Nimitz-class carrier is about as long. Nimitz-class carrier It depends a bit…
What makes the Boeing B-52 so hard to shoot down? Why doesn’t it just get smacked out of the air?
The B-52 is a big ol’ lumbering plane with 8 engines putting out a lot of hot exhaust. The North Vietnamese found out in the 1960s how easy…
Why don’t we use the Tesla turbine?
It was elegant. Simple—Just smooth disks stacked together—spinning from the force of steam or air flowing between them. Not one fancy blade to break. Not one complicated component—The…
If I shine a flashlight at Mars, does a small amount of the light actually reach it?
Let’s say you had a very nice flashlight with a 5 degree beamspread and a 1 watt visible beam. At 60 million km to Mars at close approach,…
Why is it that a 747 starts off slowly then halfway down the runway, it’s full throttle? An A380 is full throttle from the start.
Apparently, a lot of pilots are not aware of the origin of this practice. This was not done until the 747 was introduced. Prior to the 747, when…
Why is the Martian soil considered toxic, and how does that affect growing food on Mars?
Sadly, if Mark Watney really had to try and survive by growing potatoes in his own shit, he would still be on Mars – and very dead. What Andy Weir…