Tell me something I don't know --
Oct. 25th, 2023 10:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
resoluteSo, yeah, tell me something you know that is not common knowledge!
I'll start with two things.
First, commercial airliners frequently take off too heavy to land safely. The plane is full of fuel for the flight, obviously, and fuel weighs a lot. Jet fuel weighs about 7 pounds per gallon. A Boeing 800 class has a fuel capacity of around 6800 gallons, which will weigh roughly 45,000 pounds. A fully loaded airliner often has so much fuel on board that, if an emergency were to occur that requires the plane to land within the first 30-120 minutes, the weight of the aircraft will crush the landing gear and underside of the plane. Also, the fuel tanks are located inside the wings, and the weight of the fuel will tear the wings off. Jet fuel will violently eject and might engulf the aircraft in flames. HOWEVER. Airliners in this emergency situation engage in "fuel dumping," which is exactly what you think it is. They open the tanks and pour liquid jet fuel out of the plane and onto ... whatever is underneath. Jet fuel rains from the sky. This is obviously a problem, yes, but if it makes the aircraft light enough to land without an inferno? It's considered a win.
Second, wood products today really do suck compared to wood from 50 or more years ago, it's not your imagination, they just suck. SORT OF. Here's the thing -- old growth wood is denser than younger trees. Older furniture, crown moldings, floors, built-ins, kitchen spoons, anything that was made from older trees, the wood is denser. It resists water more easily, it is better able to resist mold, it doesn't crack and split as much. It is heavier, it has that solid feel we associate with quality. Newer wood products are made from trees that are more easily farmed, so you have your pines, aspens, and other trees that grow fast and relatively straight up. These trees are softer, lighter, and the wood is less able to resist water. They feel cheaper and they degrade faster. HOWEVER. there are a number of wood-products made from these trees that are great. Pressed- and particle- based wood products have vastly improved in the last ten years. This ain't your father's plywood anymore. These take advantage of the fast, cheap, wood farms and manufacture real wood products that are imbued with glues and adherents that recreate the density of old growth trees. Now, you don't get the gorgeous grain that older wood has, obviously. These products need to be painted, or they need a veneer. But keep an eye out for them when you are considering re-flooring a room or replacing a window treatment.
I'll start with two things.
First, commercial airliners frequently take off too heavy to land safely. The plane is full of fuel for the flight, obviously, and fuel weighs a lot. Jet fuel weighs about 7 pounds per gallon. A Boeing 800 class has a fuel capacity of around 6800 gallons, which will weigh roughly 45,000 pounds. A fully loaded airliner often has so much fuel on board that, if an emergency were to occur that requires the plane to land within the first 30-120 minutes, the weight of the aircraft will crush the landing gear and underside of the plane. Also, the fuel tanks are located inside the wings, and the weight of the fuel will tear the wings off. Jet fuel will violently eject and might engulf the aircraft in flames. HOWEVER. Airliners in this emergency situation engage in "fuel dumping," which is exactly what you think it is. They open the tanks and pour liquid jet fuel out of the plane and onto ... whatever is underneath. Jet fuel rains from the sky. This is obviously a problem, yes, but if it makes the aircraft light enough to land without an inferno? It's considered a win.
Second, wood products today really do suck compared to wood from 50 or more years ago, it's not your imagination, they just suck. SORT OF. Here's the thing -- old growth wood is denser than younger trees. Older furniture, crown moldings, floors, built-ins, kitchen spoons, anything that was made from older trees, the wood is denser. It resists water more easily, it is better able to resist mold, it doesn't crack and split as much. It is heavier, it has that solid feel we associate with quality. Newer wood products are made from trees that are more easily farmed, so you have your pines, aspens, and other trees that grow fast and relatively straight up. These trees are softer, lighter, and the wood is less able to resist water. They feel cheaper and they degrade faster. HOWEVER. there are a number of wood-products made from these trees that are great. Pressed- and particle- based wood products have vastly improved in the last ten years. This ain't your father's plywood anymore. These take advantage of the fast, cheap, wood farms and manufacture real wood products that are imbued with glues and adherents that recreate the density of old growth trees. Now, you don't get the gorgeous grain that older wood has, obviously. These products need to be painted, or they need a veneer. But keep an eye out for them when you are considering re-flooring a room or replacing a window treatment.
no subject
Date: 2023-10-26 02:17 am (UTC)Here's how it works. We all know that plates subduct under other plates. Most of us got that in school. The oceans on both sides trick requires the continental collision to happen in the ocean, but with craton (above ocean bits) nearby. The beginning of the collision has one plate subducting under the other. The melted oceanic crust bubbles up (for geological time versions of 'bubbled') and starts forming a volcanic arc well behind the oceanic trench that marks the surface version of the collision.
When the craton hits the trench, it doesn't subduct nearly as well and the continents begin to ruck up like a rug (again, on geological timescales.) Subduction is still happening, but slower perhaps. Energy is going into folding and cracking continental crust. Like pushing your fingers together causes them to steeple, parts of your hand also depress. Sometimes that continental depression is below sea-level and you get a shallow sea. On both sides.
That shallow sea is ephemeral, since the rucking-up eventually raises everything above mean sea level. But it means your fantasy world with a mountain rage in the middle of an ocean isn't as unbelievable as it could seem.
no subject
Date: 2023-10-27 04:57 pm (UTC)