Things You Thought You Knew About X-Rays, Rocket Science and Airplanes 

What did you learn on this Things You Thought You Knew? ✈

Neil is great at explaining science to lay person without going over our heads, without talking down to us, and while still being entertaining and not dry. He's talented!

Good stuff, but as a Naval Aviator I have to comment on the aircraft carrier part. The angled deck has nothing to do with wind considerations, you always turn the ship into the wind for launch and recovery, or just go fast and make your own wind over the deck. The angled deck is mainly so you can land and not run into the aircraft on the bow if you miss the arresting gear. You can also launch 4 aircraft at a time, 2 on the main catapults and 2 off the waist catapults. Can't do that with a straight deck.

Just remember airplanes thrive on the worst headwinds, too bad you are not a aplane, I’m dying 🤣😂🤣. Chuck is the best.

Let's all write in Niel for president, he's been drafted for the good of the nation.

Man i love the Neil and Chuck compilation episodes you should do more of these!

If you know enough about the physics of flight, you realize that all Air Shows are Drag Shows

2:00 'back in MY day', EVERY seat in the plane got a good meal during the flight!!!

Taking it one step further, the net pressure upward you have acting over the surface area of the wing becomes a force. When that force exceeds that of gravity, you lift off.

I once drove a 59 Chevy Impala, the one with the wings on the back. The back end had a takeoff velocity of a little over 60MPH.

Anyone else bummed that Neil deGrasse Tyson missed the opportunity to make a paper airplane?

Neil and Chuck for 2024!

Best podcast on YT, Period. The knowledge, the insight, and the comedy are extremely well-balanced. Exceptional program, indeed.

There are constant inaccuracies: 1. pS + pD = constant. Bernoulli effect on wing profile relates to the difference of pS's only. 2. Stall occurs at a specific angle of attack (AOA), and can happen at any indicated airspeed. 3. Headwind increases indicated airspeed, reducing distance to reach the V speeds (V1, VR, V2). 4. Aircraft carriers use only one runway for landing. The other runway is used for takeoff. WW2 carriers only had one runway.

Don't know if this is still standard practice, but the last time I flew (about half a lifetime ago now) I was in the wing seat next to the emergency exit and I got an additional one-on-one emergency briefing from a flight attendant. Not exactly the most carefree flight of my life, but also not the primary reason why I haven't flown since.

Me and my cousin talk alot. He graduated top of class at MIT in 2018 and is working at JPL for the last couple years. I love this type of conversation/ content. Yall make it sound way simpler than it actually is .

Neil, an abrupt change in the angle of attack can cause the wing to stall even at high airspeed Love your show!

Neil, I have to correct you on the solid rocket boosters. They have their own oxidizer and do not use oxygen from the air. Just look up Ammonium Perchlorate which is the major component in solid rocket fuel.

Love NDT and the show, but the whole ‘the air wants to stay as one parcel’ thing he explains with the airplanes is called the Equal Transit Theory, and has been debunked many times. Look at wind tunnel videos and you are able to see the smoke from over the wing reach beyond the trailing edge well before the smoke from under the wing does. It’s still up to much debate on why the air on top of the wing moves faster than the air on the bottom.- coming from a commercial pilot.

Aircraft carriers have the ability to change course and direction, so wind direction is not the purpose of the carrier’s angle deck.

You’re wrong about the solid rocket boosters tho. They also bring their own oxidizer mixed into the solid fuel. Those same solid rocket motors can work in space too. In fact there have been and still are several variants that do…

I love the way Neal and Chuck interact and seem to truly have fun while making science understandable no matter what your educational level.

In My training in the Navy as Jet mechanic, Bernoulli's theorem of convergent and divergent ducts, was drilled into us as it pertains to many things in aircraft, Engines, etc..

The wing is pitched upward slightly, even when the plane is level. That provides most of the lift; the Bernoulli Effect is a minor part of the lift force. But the airfoil shape also reduces turbulence. The importance of the upward tilt is demonstrated by the fact that a plane can fly with wings that are flat; many toy planes work that way.

Thanks guys, this was an informative and entertaining podcast. NdGT, thinking about you today as I looked at the new Visconti Galileo Galilei fountain pen. They should have sent you one just to check the accuracy of the depictions of the constellations on the presentation box.

Chuck's counselling comment made my day. I've had an extremely tough day today but this genious comedy rips through the programming of "reality". Science can explain what the universe is after the event of its own creation but humour cuts through the inherent linguistic element of our dna script and cracks us open to something deeper in real and immediate time. Chuck is a sacred magic mushroom sharing the cosmic giggle. Thanks man. 🙏😂🍄

I dont think thats the reason for aircraft carriers landing strips. Its for safety of not crashing on parked aircrafts and for having simultaneous landing and launchings. But just a note.

in movie Flight, Denzel inverts the plan to get some lift and be able to fly further as the controls were stuck and pushing plane downwards when flying straight.

Neil is wrong about aircraft carriers. The canted runway on an aircraft carrier allows recovery (landings) simultaneous with launches using the catapults on the foredeck. The angle is about 9 degrees. Not enough to matter for wind. A carrier turns into the wind to control wind on the runway. He is right about two runways at any airport big enough to have more than one, though.

Chuck had me rolling with this one

... and the winglets reduce vortexes that can cause flip/ crash trailing aircraft. (Wake turbulence)

Farnborough is one of the best air shows in the world indeed...

I absolutely love the content on this channel 👍👏

Neil, your talk about airplanes, how they take off into the wind and ground speed vs air speed makes me think about how discs fly in disc golf. I've played disc golf off and on for about 12 years, and one of my favorite things about it is watching the discs fly over hundreds of feet. One thing you learn about fairly early is called disc "stability." The discs for disc golf are designed to where the edge of the disc acts like the wing of a plane. When you throw a disc, you're also putting spin on the disc. Because of this spin, discs want to naturally fade one way or another. This is also the reason as to why every good disc golfer utilizes 2 different main shots. The first shot is the backhand, which, for a right-handed person, induces a clockwise spin on the disc, which makes the disc want to naturally fade to the left. The second shot is the forehand or "sidearm". This shot induces a counter-clockwise spin on the disc, which makes it want to naturally fade to the right. Now, back to stability. I'm not entirely sure why this occurs, but, if you throw a disc hard/fast enough, it will actually fade the opposite way it naturally wants to. We call this "high-speed turn" (the natural fade we call "low-speed fade"). The stability of a disc determines how "strong" or "stable" it is at resisting this high-speed turn. When youre going to throw a disc and you have a headwind (let's say it's 10mph). If you were to throw the disc 55mph, even though the disc will be traveling at 55mph relative to the ground, the disc itself will feel like its traveling 65mph through the air. Likewise, if you have a tailwind of 10mph and you throw the disc 55mph, the disc will feel like it's traveling 45mph. Because of this, we will have discs of varying stability. If you're throwing I to a headwind, and you don't want your disc to turn a bunch, you'll throw a more overstable disc. If you have a tailwind, not only will your disc want to turn less, but it will ALSO not want to glide as well. Imagine throwing a disc 30mph into a 30mph tailwind. It wouldn't "fly" at all. It would just flop to the ground (which is something you have to take into consideration while putting too). We have many different discs that fly very differently from each other. If you took that overstable disc and threw it with no headwind, it would now begin fading al.ost immediately after throwing it, not getting you much distance. If you throw that understable disc with no wind or even a headwind, now your disc is going to turn really hard and turn into a "roller". For max distance we'll usually try and throw a "flex" shot. You throw a slightly understable disc on a hyzer angle. Thr

You are one of three persons i want to meet in my life before they die. I will meet you one day' Professor Neil deGrasse Tyson. Big respect big Love! ❤❤

Planes are nuts! Such a cool explainer

and how do you fuel the refuel stations?

Neil: I don't understand why the air that goes over the top of the wing must rejoin with the same air it separated from on the bottom of the wing. What force pushes the air on top to speed up, but doesn't push the air on the bottom? Or maybe there's some force slowing down the air on the bottom of the wing..? What forces the different paths to be traveled in the same amount of time? Is it always the exact same amount of time, no matter the path or the wing's wind speed? Is this always true, regardless of the angle of the wing to the air?

Thanks!

Bernoulli effect is in play but only minimally. It, by itself, is not enough to lift a plane. The Coanda effect is the main cause of lift. It all comes down to Newton’s 3rd law. Enough air must be forced down.

6:39 I lived in a city near SFO. Planes taking off from SFO would track over our city. As the rumble roared overhead, everyone would all stop talking and wait till the houses stopped shaking and the sound faded to just start talking again. We were all used to it. Luckily things changed with advancements, and different flight paths. 😂

Great Scott

Aeronautical engineer here: Unfortunately the air parcel needing to stay together, aka equal transit theory is an incorrect explanation of lift. The actual theory of lift involves viscosity, boundary layer, trailing edge, starting vortex, and some fundamental aerodynamic theorems- combination of all gives rise to a vortex that is bound to the wing (circulation). This circulation adds velocity to the air on the topside of the wing, while decreases velocity of air on the bottom of the wing. This speed differential leads to pressure differential, aka lift.

The x36 one of my favorite concept planes doesn’t have a tail and it is now showing up likely in next gen fighters… just thought it was cool to think about

Neil, you are dead wrong about lift. Particularly, the equal transit theory. But I'm happy you mentioned angle of attack. That's much more important than a pressure differential created by faster moving air over the top of the wing. Read up, and you'll learn more, as you often put it.

Aircraft Carrier Angle for landing is due to the island. They still generally take off straight ish into the wind. Not all airports have different angle runways, Atlanta, LA, Phoenix, ect….

One question keeps running in my head and this is the only place I can think of to ask, but..... .Does the energy from any light that's crossed the horizon add to the mass of the black-hole? (Not at all but similar to explanations of flying-gluons being most of proton-mass)? ..If there's lots of light/x/gamma photons in the early universe could they be helping in making the "excessively massive" black ancient black holes? Always an honour to see theses, but I keep saying "LOOK AT THAT", Chuck is altering my linguistics.! 😀 Best show on the tube! 🙂 NEAL

That's what I discovered in college (1968). There was much I didn't know about what I thought I knew.

Chuck's sense of humour is better than any anti-depressant!

Great programs. I dont want to cast shadows but id like to point out a couple inacuracies. The solid rocket motors on the shuttle dont use air in their combustion process. All of the oxygen is from ammonium perchlorate. The air over the wing doesnt "want to stay together". The air over the top reaches the trailing edge of the wing before the air over the bottom In most wing designs! The fuel necessary to get to space for a 2 lb payload is twice what it takes for a 1 lb payload. Here is a thought experiment: two 1 lb payload rockets can each get to space. If we strap them together do we need any additional fuel?

That airplane section was painful, Neil 😆😆😆. Might want to talk to one of us pilots on how to make that sound better, Dr Tyson. 😆 Love your work. Chuck, you the man! ✊🏽✊🏽✊🏽 You too, Dr. T. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

4:44 Lol...Nice, Doc! You made me think of that YT channel... The one with the planes and countries talking..? Habitual Linecrosser, I think? Either way, though, it's Definitely Not safe for kids...lol 🙂

I used to be able to fly my radio controlled planes backwards in relation to the ground with a full value headwind, you can glide in reverse.

Question: Can the plane take off when going reverse?? By the love your videos man keep it going 😊

Always a pleasure 😊

The majority of the lift is produced by the downwash of the wings, not lower pressure on top of the wings.

When Niel asked about airplanes, it reminded me of Airplane, the movie. When the pilot asked the little boy sketchy questions about men in gladiator suits. I thought that was very funny. 😂🤣

If the need for fuel increases weight exponentially, but then the fuel supply is being used up in the flight and it weight of the shuttle goes down so at some point it should break even, no?

The Bernoulli effect is only half the picture. Many early bi-planes did not have a flat bottom to their wings, the wing was simply curved. You still get the Bernoulli effect at a certain pitch, but most of the lift (especially initially) is the result of the curved wing pushing the air gasses downward, which in turn pushes the aircraft upward (for every action...). The wings essentially convert the forward momentum of the engine into upward momentum by giving the air under the wings a downward momentum. This is a big reason why jets can fly inverted. Yes, you do create a Bernoulli effect at a certain pitch while inverted, but a great deal of that lift is air from very powerful jet engines being deflected downward.

Rocket science, it's not brain surgery

11:22 "... which I believe is 88 MPH..." Awesome Chuck! That is the speed the DeLorean must hit to travel back in time in Back to the Future!

Oldie but goodie

Have you guys ever had Nate Hagens on Star Talk? I think that would be a very interesting show.

Legends!

aircraft carriers have angled landing decks so operations can continue on both end of the vessel simultaneously. In WWII they quickly learned that if a plane had a problems, and tried to land and soemthing failed, it would careen into aircraft on the foredeck. By angling the landing desk, this allows the planes at the front to be safer and if a landing aircraft "bolters" (misses the hook" they can do a go-around and try again without any real issue (other than seriously puckering the pilot)

How does antenna work How do we get channels on TV? And why do we lose channels\ signal when it rains or windy

Another technology that's used at airports is Ion Mobility Spectrometers. Aka "Explosive Trace Detectors" or ETD machines.

@startalk have you ever thought about using centrifugal force to make gravity by changing the centrifugal force on two sides? one side you add mass and the other side you take away mass making a gravitational pull in one direction as it spins the math works one wheel can make over 500 pounds of force.

If you look at WW2 military air bases, they were mostly made with 3 runways in a triangle, to insure the the planes took off into the wind.

For a very short period of time in my childhood. ('50s) shoe stores had x-ray machines.

It took me almost 18 minutes to realize this was a rerun.

Chuck keeps failing the Matrix references... 😅

Neil you might want to read up in wings and aerodynamics. The equal travel time and air particles linking up at the trailing edge of the wing isn't correct.

Haha, I went to a school named after W. C. Röntgen, at the town he was born, Lennep, which is now a suburb of Remscheid (40km away from Colgne, Germany). There is also a museum which is all about Röntgen.

I love when Chuck gets that "yeah, right" look. He's with you in spirit, but clearly lost haha. Then he cracks a joke. Great video as always ST, idk how this has 84k views and only 3.3k likes though....

Chuck is savage 🤣

At this point it feels like Mr Nice is Dr. Niel's personal comedian🤔

I am now an honorary rocket scientist. 😅

A question I've always had: How much of the physics of aerodynamics was understood in the Wright Brothers' time?

Aircraft carriers have three factors concerning the speed of the air over the wings of it's aircraft. There is the speed generated by the airplane itself plus the assist from the catapult. Then there is the speed of the wind when it turns into the wind. Lastly, there is the speed of carrier itself as it cuts through the water. Small mistake though, Neil. WW2 aircraft carriers only had one runway, with two launch paths. It was not until 1952 that the USS Antietam (CV-36) was outfitted with a sponson attached to the main flight deck to test the angled deck theory. A modern U.S. carrier has 4 catapults and in a pinch they can launch 4 aircraft within seconds of each other. The British were the first to experiment with it. The USS Forrestal (CV-59) was the first U.S. carrier built from the keel up as an angled deck carrier. All of the WW2 carriers that remained in service into the '60's and early '90's were converted into angled deck carriers. Here in San Diego we have one berthed in the bay as a museum ship. It is the USS Midway (CV-41), which was commissioned in September, 1945 and was decommissioned in April, 1992. She served for 46 1/2 years and was the last WW2 era carrier to see service.

This entire episode needs visuals and animation to help explain everything

Keep on talking 🎉

Neil the King 👑 Thank you for Years of entertaining science 🫡

In the vacuum of space, if you mix liquid gases of H and O to generate heat and water, which one of those pushes the spacecraft forward, water vapor/steam or heat? It can not be the heat since in the vacuum there is nothing to vibrate or expand and the volume of Oxygen + Hydrogen is smaller than H2O. It also can not be plasma since it is not.

Besides very few inaccuracies, absolutely loved it .

I have always marveled at one thing: why are airways companies fixated on peanuts as snack or even sometimes the only food you get?

That is not how an airplane gets lift. The curve of the top of the wing compresses the air and causes it to move faster lowering the pressure on top and the higher pressure on the bottom causes the lift. Bernoulli theorem

My phone started buffering at 26:18. Thanks Chuck

You also have airplane engines thrusting substantially downward giving an upward reaction force. Hydrogen liquifies at 20 K. Oxygen liquifies at 90 K.

Is there a relationship between the wings on a plan and the fins on a submarine? How do rockets stabilize without wings?

Omg please no adverts i pay for youtube premium specifically cause i listen to these before bed abd didbt want to have to pick up my phone abd look at a bright screen to skip! 🙏

Neil is describing an area of “high nerd value” of real estate. Often, we can see an arliner cross the face of the Moon, offering a cosmic perspective here on Earth, when an Airplane flies in front of the Moon.

What marvels me is that they reposted a part in which Neil was actually wrong (and that s a rarity) Air on top doesn't want to meet air on the bottom. It doesn t want anything It's just air. It travells faster so...lower pressure. And I think there was a subsequent video in which Neil actually acknowledged this, but the team putting this together forgot. Anyway life without Startalk is like life without music. Play it on guys!

9:54 they figured out or looked at certain bird wings????

The “HUGE HUGE!” Part 😅

How do you burn air ?

The sail on a sailboat is a wing that is vertical, albeit slower. But an average 9 ton sailboat, moving towards the wind with only fabric shaped like a wing. And toward the wind also creates more "apparent wind" on the boat. The newest hi tech Americas cup boats sail way faster than the wind as much as 65mph. Not bad for using zero external power whatsoever.

With that wingless design we don't have to launch vertical we can take off and fly out like a regular plane

Damn it Chuck!!!... You killed my Comment 11:31

I love Neil for breaking down in layman's terms, my vote would be for next president, but idk if he's interested or comfortable with where he's at! Lots of pun intended behind this full video