Naked Science Forum

Non Life Sciences => Technology => Topic started by: thedoc on 20/02/2012 11:41:09

Title: How do jet engines work?
Post by: thedoc on 20/02/2012 11:41:09

How do jet engines actually work?  One simple way to think about it is Suck, Squeeze, Bang, Blow.  The engine sucks air in the front, compresses it, adds fuel which burns, expands and is blown out of the back, producing thrust and pushing the plane along...
Read a transcript of the interview by clicking here (http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/content/interviews/interview/1759/)

or [chapter podcast=3465 track=11.08.21/Naked_Scientists_Show_11.08.21_8881.mp3](https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thenakedscientists.com%2FHTML%2Ftypo3conf%2Fext%2Fnaksci_podcast%2Fgnome-settings-sound.gif&hash=f2b0d108dc173aeaa367f8db2e2171bd) Listen to it now[/chapter] or [download as MP3] (http://nakeddiscovery.com/downloads/split_individual/11.08.21/Naked_Scientists_Show_11.08.21_8881.mp3)

Title: How do jet engines work?
Post by: Geezer on 24/08/2011 18:24:10

"Dave -  So this is essentially very, very basic physics, Newton’s second law.

Jim -  There is more to it than that but Newton is a very good start."


Er, well, with regard to the fundamental science, Dave is dead right! All the "more to it" stuff is about how best to extract the energy from the fuel so that mass can be accelerated to produce a force on the plane. Not to say that is in any way trivial and it does involve lots of other science, but I'd hate to think anyone gets the impression that Newton only got it half right  [:D]

(I'm sure Jim didn't wish to convey that impression either.)