Facts that shocked you
Discussion
98elise said:
* Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 11.2 gallons of nitro methane per second;
I'm just trying to get my head around how you get 11.2 gallons (roughly 3 jerrycans) of liquid from the fuel reservoir, through the induction system and into the cylinders in 1 second. The physics of that seems quite mad.Edited by Strangely Brown on Thursday 13th March 12:55
WrekinCrew said:
Austin Prefect said:
Da Vinci is believed to have painted 2 Mona Lisas. The lesser known one appears to be of her prettier younger sister and is currently in Isleworth.
I'm just reading Matt Parker's maths book Love Triangle". Hope it's OK to quote a bit:With parallax we get to some real triangles. This is the effect where, if you move your point of view around, objects seem to change their alignment. Which can be very insightful. For example, many copies of the Mona Lisa exist, some of which were produced in Leonardo da Vinci’s own studio by his fellow painters. But when one ‘copy’ of the Mona Lisa was cleaned in 2012 the conservators noticed that her hands, face, and clothes all lined up slightly differently. This parallax effect meant they could tell that this was not a mere duplication of the original as previously thought, but rather was painted by someone else at the same time as the original.
Unfortunately, hasn't been in Isleworth for quite some time, but interesting story nonetheless.
Strangely Brown said:
98elise said:
* Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 11.2 gallons of nitro methane per second;
I'm just trying to get my head around how you get 11.2 gallons (roughly 3 jerrycans) of liquid from the fuel reservoir, through the induction system and into the cylinders in 1 second. The physics of that seems quite mad.Edited by Strangely Brown on Thursday 13th March 12:55
Tango13 said:
Strangely Brown said:
98elise said:
* Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 11.2 gallons of nitro methane per second;
I'm just trying to get my head around how you get 11.2 gallons (roughly 3 jerrycans) of liquid from the fuel reservoir, through the induction system and into the cylinders in 1 second. The physics of that seems quite mad.Edited by Strangely Brown on Thursday 13th March 12:55
Strangely Brown said:
98elise said:
* Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 11.2 gallons of nitro methane per second;
I'm just trying to get my head around how you get 11.2 gallons (roughly 3 jerrycans) of liquid from the fuel reservoir, through the induction system and into the cylinders in 1 second. The physics of that seems quite mad.Edited by Strangely Brown on Thursday 13th March 12:55
But even more scary was the dragster motor cycle that was parked next to it.
RizzoTheRat said:
Another silly one on engines and power...
A question our propulsion lecturer set many years ago to calculate the power of a fuel pump on the space shuttle. Most people assumed they'd got it wrong when they came out with an answer of around 60MW (around 80,000 horse power).
A 37000 rpm turbopump shifting about 12 tonnes per minute of liquid hydrogen at 450 Bar
I find the re-entry and landing of the shuttle orbiter more astounding in terms of facts and figures it really was a remarkable process. A question our propulsion lecturer set many years ago to calculate the power of a fuel pump on the space shuttle. Most people assumed they'd got it wrong when they came out with an answer of around 60MW (around 80,000 horse power).
A 37000 rpm turbopump shifting about 12 tonnes per minute of liquid hydrogen at 450 Bar
The shuttle orbiter is somewhere between 115 and 386 miles above the earth, travelling at over 17,200 mph. At that speed it covers the distance of the runway at Kennedy Space Centre (15000 feet - one of the worlds longest runways) in 6/10ths of a second.
It only needs to slow down by approximately 225mph in order for its orbit to intersect with the earth's atmosphere. Over approximately 3 minutes it executes some burns of the Orbital Manoevering System engines when it is half way around the orbit from where it needs to re-enter the "cone of re-entry". Slow down too much and the orbiter undershoots the cone crashes in to the atmosphere and is destroyed. Don't slow down enough and the orbiter bounces off the atmosphere and with possibly not enough OMS fuel left to rescue the trajectory and try again.
The orbiter is committed to land at the point the de-orbit burns have completed, There is only one chance to get it right as it will be a glider for the remainder of the descent, with no engine power.
The orbiter starts entering the atmosphere approximately 75 miles up and 5000 miles from the runway threshold. As it does so the wings start generating lift, which is a bad thing, so the orbiter executes some roll maneuvers to control the amount of lift being generated as the orbiter descends through the increasingly thicker atmosphere. The orbiter banks to roll in one direction then banks to roll in the other direction so that the S turns keep the vehicle headed in the correct direction.
In the earliest flights the first roll manoever was performed at mach 24 - the fastest speed at which manual control has ever been exercised in winged aerodynamic flight.
The descent rate in the main part of the descent profile is 10,000 feet per minute - or about terminal velocity for a sky diver in freefall.
It's on a 20 degree glide slope, at 345mph. (Your typical commercial airliner flies a 3 degree glide slope at about 750 feet per minute). To train commanders to land the orbiter in such an unusually steep profile, Nasa used Gulfstream 2 jets which were modified to be able to fly with their main landing gear down, thrust reversers deployed and had the flaperons altered to change the pitch pivot point from the midpoint to the front of aircraft to mimic the pitch behaviour of the orbiter.
Due to its speed and steep angle of descent, the orbiter begins its pre-flare when it is over 2 miles from the runway threshold. If they flared like an airliner it would overshoot the runway completely.
The landing gear is deployed 14 seconds from touchdown, at an an altitude of 90 feet and just under 270mph. The gear cannot be retracted once it is deployed in flight (not that they have the ability to go around anyway).
The orbiter crosses the runway threshold barely 30 feet up, at 225mph. Touchdown is at approximately 215mph.
It takes just under 1 hour 5 minutes from de-orbit burn in space on the other side of the planet to touchdown.
Edit: spulling
Edited by 48k on Thursday 13th March 13:58
Roofless Toothless said:
Strangely Brown said:
98elise said:
* Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 11.2 gallons of nitro methane per second;
I'm just trying to get my head around how you get 11.2 gallons (roughly 3 jerrycans) of liquid from the fuel reservoir, through the induction system and into the cylinders in 1 second. The physics of that seems quite mad.Edited by Strangely Brown on Thursday 13th March 12:55
But even more scary was the dragster motor cycle that was parked next to it.
The fuel pump was/is powered by a 542bhp. Originally they looked using a 2.4-litre Cosworth F1 engine.
98elise said:
These facts were doing the rounds a few years ago....
One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic-inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower (8,000 HP) than the first 4 rows at the Daytona 500.
- The exhaust gas flow is so great that the exhaust itself generates downforce (something list 400kg I think).One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic-inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower (8,000 HP) than the first 4 rows at the Daytona 500.
- Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 11.2 gallons of nitro methane per second; a fully loaded 747 consumes jet fuel at the same rate with 25% less energy being produced.
- A stock Dodge Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to merely drive the dragster's supercharger.
- With 3000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into a near-solid form before ignition. Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock at full throttle.
- At the stoichiometric 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitro methane the flame front temperature measures 7050 degrees F.
- Nitromethane burns yellow. The spectacular white flame seen above the stacks at night is raw burning hydrogen, dissociated from atmospheric water vapor by the searing exhaust gases.
- Dual magnetos supply 44 amps to each spark plug.
- Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass. After 1/2 way, the engine is dieseling from compression plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1400 degrees F. The engine can only be shut down by cutting the fuel flow.
- If spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro builds up in the affected cylinders and then explodes with sufficient force to blow cylinder heads off the block in pieces or split the block in half.
- Dragsters reach over 300 MPH before you have completed reading this sentence.
- In order to exceed 300 MPH in 4.5 seconds, dragsters must accelerate an average of over 4 G's. In order to reach 200 MPH well before half-track, the launch acce leration approaches 8 G's.
- Top Fuel engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light!
- Including the burnout, the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under load.
- The redline is actually quite high at 9500 RPM.
- THE BOTTOM LINE: Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, & for once, NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimated $1,000 per second.
In America there is no special license for skydiving pilots, and no one actually investigates any related deaths.
One skydiving centre, lost 28 people before being shut down.
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/california-...
One skydiving centre, lost 28 people before being shut down.
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/california-...
Just read that 1 in 5 brand new cars on the road in the UK is a Motability car!
1 IN 5!! That now explains why I see all these news cars and wonder how everyone seems to afford them.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/03/13/st...
1 IN 5!! That now explains why I see all these news cars and wonder how everyone seems to afford them.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/03/13/st...
RizzoTheRat said:
Tango13 said:
Steam driven too iirc?
Technically I suppose yes. Which means the shuttle was presumably the most powerful steam engine ever built until the SLS?Edited by Huff on Thursday 13th March 16:50
Four Litre said:
Just read that 1 in 5 brand new cars on the road in the UK is a Motability car!
1 IN 5!! That now explains why I see all these news cars and wonder how everyone seems to afford them.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/03/13/st...
I'm not convinced by that: motobility have provided 5.5 million cars since 1978, ie 45 years worth, yet around 2.2 million new cars are sold a year. Something doesn't add up.1 IN 5!! That now explains why I see all these news cars and wonder how everyone seems to afford them.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/03/13/st...
https://www.motabilityfoundation.org.uk/about-us/h...
https://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/news/2020/janua...
https://www.statista.com/statistics/265959/vehicle...
Truckosaurus said:
Roofless Toothless said:
...
But even more scary was the dragster motor cycle that was parked next to it.
I've seen the French nutter who runs a rocket bike at Santa Pod. Once it is 'fired' then there is no way to stop it until the fuel runs out, he just has to cling on until then.But even more scary was the dragster motor cycle that was parked next to it.
Edited by Roofless Toothless on Thursday 13th March 17:21
Huff said:
RizzoTheRat said:
Tango13 said:
Steam driven too iirc?
Technically I suppose yes. Which means the shuttle was presumably the most powerful steam engine ever built until the SLS?Edited by Huff on Thursday 13th March 16:50
The three shuttle engines combined generate something like 37 million horspower or 27,590MW
The fuel pump iirc uses high test peroxide to generate vast amounts of high pressure steam to power the fuel pumps which force liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen into the engine where the end result is an awful lot of thrust as well as water vapour/steam
So Rizzo you could argue that the Space Shuttle was an immensely powerful steam engine...
Chauffard said:
hidetheelephants said:
Expecting patients to turn up at 7 am seems like a good way to not have them turn up unless they live locally, in most places public transport won't get you there.
Yep, the NHS should be flexible to the patients' needs not the other way around. Crazy.
Gassing Station | The Lounge | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff