Why do we still expect “successful failures” on rocket launches and not just scale up or scale down the same design on successful rocket ships and launch pads to make bigger or smaller ships with more stable structural material?
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If this is related to the SpaceX crash, I think the more pertinent question is – is this the effect of privatizing something that should not be looked at as a means of profit, thus cutting corners etc? Because let’s be real that’s what it is for him.
**I just built and flew a 1/4th sized jumbo jet airplane!**
And then I flew it for a whole year, every day. It never had a failure, it never had any problems.
Because of this, I decided to quadruple the size, and build a full-size jumbo jet airplane.
In theory, it should work fine. It’s just scaled up, right?
Would YOU like to take a trip on its inaugural flight??
**I just built and flew a 1/4th sized jumbo jet airplane!**
And then I flew it for a whole year, every day. It never had a failure, it never had any problems.
Because of this, I decided to quadruple the size, and build a full-size jumbo jet airplane.
In theory, it should work fine. It’s just scaled up, right?
Would YOU like to take a trip on its inaugural flight??
Most things in engineering can’t just be scaled like that. Square cube law, material properties, etc. as others have said. You can ask why we don’t just dye cast cars from zinc like scaled Matchbox cars? Those little toy cars can survive crashes at scaled speeds of hundreds of miles an hour without a dent. Or why don’t we make airliners out of paper if paper planes work so well and are so cheap? But in those cases you understand that it doesn’t work like that.
In the physical world there are billions of forces acting you at all times. The majority of them can be ignored because the effect is so minimal. For instance, you don’t really worry about the gravity difference from being in the third floor of a building versus the first floor of the same building, but there is a difference.
As you make things bigger or smaller different forces become important. For instance, water skippers can use surface tension to stay a afloat but we cannot.
When building the rockets bigger they don’t know for certain which forces will be the most important and how they will affect it. They have models that show them to get close but we don’t understand the laws of physics well enough to make 100% accurate models yet, so testing is necessary.
In the physical world there are billions of forces acting you at all times. The majority of them can be ignored because the effect is so minimal. For instance, you don’t really worry about the gravity difference from being in the third floor of a building versus the first floor of the same building, but there is a difference.
As you make things bigger or smaller different forces become important. For instance, water skippers can use surface tension to stay a afloat but we cannot.
When building the rockets bigger they don’t know for certain which forces will be the most important and how they will affect it. They have models that show them to get close but we don’t understand the laws of physics well enough to make 100% accurate models yet, so testing is necessary.
Can somebody explain this question like I’m five?
Can somebody explain this question like I’m five?
Short answer why are bikes shaped different than semi-trucks? because as you increase size things change significantly, materials and designs that work at lower power come apart at higher power.
So if you took a huge rocket and called it down then you’re going to end up with something very over engineered and expensive and heavy and if you scale up a small design they’ll just explode.
Also there’s always room for improvement so new ideas are always tested.
Short answer why are bikes shaped different than semi-trucks? because as you increase size things change significantly, materials and designs that work at lower power come apart at higher power.
So if you took a huge rocket and called it down then you’re going to end up with something very over engineered and expensive and heavy and if you scale up a small design they’ll just explode.
Also there’s always room for improvement so new ideas are always tested.
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