this post was submitted on 09 Nov 2024
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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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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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[–] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (18 children)

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.

[–] HappycamperNZ@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago (8 children)

Wait until you find out that probably wrong.

Its what we assumed for the last 100 odd years, but apparently in the last few we discovered they don't actually work like that.

[–] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago (7 children)

oh, go on.

i haven't heard of the updated dynamics of flight.

[–] Telcontar@lemmy.today 5 points 1 week ago (3 children)

This article does a pretty nice job of describing all the different theories

[–] feedum_sneedson@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

I just want to tell the void that I arrived at a similar conclusion about induced high and low pressure zones based on the wing "slicing" the air in half as if it was a continuous material causing cavitation above the wing, and was mocked for it.

[–] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago

thanks, that's a good article.

[–] frank@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 week ago

That's a great article, thanks for the read.

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