Hey there! Have you ever wondered why airplanes can’t fly all the way to space? It’s a really interesting question, and to understand it, we need to learn a bit about how airplanes work.
Airplanes are super heavy, so how do they stay up in the sky without falling? It’s all about the wings and the air! Imagine you’re in a car with the windows down. If you stick your hand out and tilt it a little, you’ll feel it lift up. That’s because the air is pushing against your hand. This is similar to how a kite flies when the wind lifts it up.
Airplane wings are tilted too, and they need wind to fly. When a plane’s engines push it forward, the air hits the tilted wings, and this helps the plane lift off the ground. Even a huge airplane like a Boeing 747, which weighs as much as 50 elephants, can fly if the engines create enough wind!
Now, here’s the tricky part. As airplanes fly higher, the air gets thinner. By the time you reach space, there’s no air at all! Airplanes need air to push against, so without it, they can’t fly. That’s why we use rockets to go to space instead. Rockets don’t need air to work; they have powerful engines that can push them up even where there’s no air.
Want to try something fun? You can make your own paper airplane and see how long it can stay in the air! It’s a great way to learn more about how flying works. You can find a step-by-step guide to making a paper airplane at the end of this article.
There are so many cool things to learn about the world around us. For our next adventure, you can help choose what we explore! Would you like to know how marshmallows got their name, why cats purr, or how cotton balls are made? Let us know what you’re curious about, and keep exploring the mysteries all around us. See you next time!
Experiment with Air Pressure: Try this simple experiment to understand how air pressure helps airplanes fly. Take a piece of paper and hold it by the short edge. Blow across the top of the paper and watch what happens. Can you see how the paper lifts up? This is similar to how airplane wings work. Discuss with a friend or family member why you think the paper lifts when you blow across it.
Design and Test Your Own Paper Airplane: Use the step-by-step guide from the article to make your own paper airplane. Once you’ve made it, try flying it in different places. Does it fly better indoors or outdoors? What happens if you change the shape of the wings? Keep track of how far your airplane flies each time and see if you can improve your design to make it fly farther.
Observe the Sky: Spend some time outside watching the sky. Can you spot any airplanes? Notice how high they are flying and how fast they seem to be going. Think about why they can’t go higher into space. Discuss with a friend or family member what you learned from the article about why airplanes can’t fly to space.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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(phone ringing) – Hi, it’s Doug. Back in December 2018, Virgin Galactic made history by successfully flying the VSS Unity to the edge of space. It wasn’t exactly an airplane, though. Another plane carried it up high, then released it, allowing its rocket engine to fire until it reached space. The VSS Unity is considered one of the first space planes.
Now, someone named Jared has a question about airplanes. Let’s give him a call. (phone ringing) – Hi Doug. – Hi Jared. – I have a question for you. Why can’t planes fly to space? – That’s a great question. All astronauts get to space using rockets, yet airplanes can fly really high. So why can’t we use planes to reach space? To understand this, we need to learn more about how airplanes fly.
Once you grasp how an airplane operates, it will be easier to see why they can’t fly to space. Let’s first discuss how airplanes fly, which is actually quite amazing. Think about how heavy an airplane is. Why doesn’t it just fall? There’s a clue, and you can try this yourself. Next time you’re in a car on the highway with the windows down, hold your hand out, but tilt it slightly. Just make sure your parents are supervising.
If you’ve tried this, you’ll notice that tilting your hand causes it to lift. What’s happening here? When your hand is straight, air flows around it. But when you tilt it, some air bounces off, pushing your hand up. This is similar to how a kite flies. On a windy day, air hits the bottom of the kite, lifting it off the ground.
Next time you see an airplane, notice that its wings are tilted. However, just being tilted isn’t enough; there needs to be wind. Check out a video of an airplane on a runway during a windstorm. Even without anyone on board, the gusts of wind can lift the plane because of the tilt of its wings.
When you want to fly in an airplane, you don’t just wait for a windy day. Think of flying a kite on a calm day; you can run to create wind that lifts it. Similarly, a plane’s engines push it forward through the air, creating wind that hits the tilted wings, allowing the plane to lift.
Now, what about the weight of planes? For example, a Boeing 747 weighs as much as 50 elephants. The remarkable thing is that there’s no limit to how much weight can be lifted as long as the engines create enough wind.
However, airplanes can’t fly to space because, as you ascend in Earth’s atmosphere, the air becomes thinner. By the time you reach space, there’s no air at all. Even the most powerful engines can’t function without air to push against. That’s why the term “airplane” is fitting; they rely on pushing air downwards to stay aloft.
Just so you know, the tilted wings of most large airplanes aren’t the only way to achieve lift; there are other wing designs that work on the same principle.
That’s all for this week’s question. Thanks, Jared, for asking! We have something special for this episode: my friends and I at Mystery Science have created a step-by-step activity for making your own paper airplane and seeing how long it can stay in the air. You can find a link to the activity at the end of this video.
For the next episode, I’ve pulled three questions from my question jar that I’m considering answering. After this video, you’ll get to vote on one. You can choose from: how did marshmallows get their name? Why do cats purr? Or how are cotton balls made? I want to hear from all of you watching. There are mysteries all around us. Stay curious, and see you next week!
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Let me know if you need any further modifications!
