Posted by whycome 6 days ago
I watched it when it came out and i still am mind-blown with how Physics and Manufacturing Technology come together via "Materials Science" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Materials_science) to create unimaginable things. This is what enables and sustains our modern world.
PS: Anybody studying/working in Materials Science please recommend some books/papers for study.
Long ago, i had read an interview with an Indian Scientist where he stated that all of civilization's progress were only enabled by progressions in Materials Science ! (which is basically an inter-disciplinary field involving all hard sciences and engineering). The "Scientific Revolution" was merely identifying the underlying principles and systematizing them into Theories and Models. He also mentioned that the future belongs to those countries who master Materials Science since it also implies the mastery of the underlying principles.
When you think about it; Mankind was playing with different materials, inventing new ones using various combinations etc. before having any scientific idea of the elements constituting them (eg. the periodic table) or the molecular structure of the gross object which was responsible for its characteristic properties etc. Successes were passed down via tradition from master to apprentice and when a single generation failed (due to disinterest/death/etc.) the whole accumulated knowledge corpus was lost. With the scientific revolution we commoditized the principles and with the industrial revolution we commoditized the technology thus accelerating everything and leading us to where we are today.
Gas Turbine Blades and their Heat-Defying Single-Crystal Superalloys (video)
Boom, the YC backed supersonic plane lot are trying to make their own blades/engines to cash in on the AI rush which should be interesting.
They are a bit vague on how they are doing it:
>Q: What engine parts are you printing for Symphony?...High-Pressure Turbine (HPT) Blades: These blades spin at extremely high speeds, extracting energy from the hot gases
>While these additively-manufactured components won’t fly on the final Symphony engine, they are fully operational and critical to validating the core architecture. On Symphony, these parts will be replaced by ones made from more traditional manufacturing methods.
So I guess 3D printing the prototype? Dunno if they are going to make their own wax casting plant like in the Veritasium video? https://boomsupersonic.com/flyby/turning-powder-into-power-h...
Thermodynamic efficiency (which is what turbine blades enable) has increased from ~30 to 55% over the last 50-60 years. The book estimates that the practical limit of for thermodynamic efficiency is in the 65-70% range.
All other things equal, range varies proportionately with efficiency. Ie, if you have 500km range at 50% overall efficiency, then at 65% overall efficiency, you have 650km range.
"With recent decreases in the price of natural gas..."
"An important feature of tight oil is that both oil and natural gas are present in the same formations and are produced from the same wells."
https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/attach/2016/05/The-T...
I hope you're right though.
This is very different that AWS fed-gov bedrock thingie - where AWS promises that the models are running on hardware dedicated to you, with no external logging, etc.
A lot of aerospace engineering is touch and feel. Someone has a "sense" for when to do the next step, and how to finagle the part so it comes out a particular way. They can train someone, if they apply themselves intently. But they probably couldn't explain it in words if they tried.
Employes are required to have background check.
https://suppliers.rolls-royce.com/GSPWeb/ShowProperty?nodePa...
Patents are difficult to enforce internationally
Where would coke be if the recipe was patented instead of trade secret ?