460
It's crazy that a 60 ton metal airplane can just fly
(lemmy.world)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 09 Nov 2024
460 points (100.0% liked)
Showerthoughts
36255 readers
1624 users here now
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. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
Rules
- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- No politics
- If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
- Posts must be original/unique
- Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS
If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.
Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
boy do I agree.
I fly a lot, and I think about this a lot. it's absolutely nuts.
I saw a diagram once explaining how planes fly, this is a good explanation of that:
"Airplane wings are shaped to make air move faster over the top of the wing. When air moves faster, the pressure of the air decreases. So the pressure on the top of the wing is less than the pressure on the bottom of the wing. The difference in pressure creates a force on the wing that lifts the wing up into the air."
so that's floating around the back of my mind while I sit in my air chair and think:
"and there we are.
We are climbing into the air again in the big flexible metal tube.
The wings have flex and they almost look like they are flapping in the wind right there.
well, this is crazy again"
approximates my thought process each time I fly.
If flying is crazy, then by the logic explained here today, controlled landings are even crazier.
I personally think rising is more impressive and spectacular than falling.
See, I think a controlled descent is more impressive. If you're on the ground, and you want to be 5 feet in the air, but you fuck up and go 150 feet in the air instead, well.....no big deal. Everybody on your plane is now screaming in fear, because it's very noticable that their pilot is incompetant, but they ARE screaming. Because they're alive.
But if you're coming down, and the ground is 5 feet below you, and you fuck up and drive it 150 feet into the ground......the only people screaming are onlookers.
"OOOOH MY GODDDDDD!!!!! THAT PLANE JUST CRASHED AND BURST INTO A FIREBALL!!!! EVERYBODYS DEAD!!!!! MEN! WOMEN! CHILDREN! EVEN BABIES!!!! EVERYBODIES DEAD!!!!"
And then the news does a report on how drunk the pilot was.
"THAT PLANE JUST CRASHED AND BURST INTO A FIREBALL!!!!"
not the controlled landing that I was referring to, but I understand your comparison of the consequences.
"and the ground is 5 feet below you, and you fuck up and drive it 150 feet"
this is my favorite part of your scenario. a pilot literally less than a second from touching the ground glances out the window and thinks " well, just to make sure" and lunges forward, arms outstretched, pushing the joystick completely flat against the console hahaha.