They recovered four, three of them AT the crash sites! How. The black boxes didn't even survive. cat-confused

  • aaro [they/them, she/her]
    ·
    edit-2
    8 months ago

    Jet fuel doesn't melt steel beams. But metal loses it's strength while retaining its solid phase as it is heated. https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/metal-temperature-strength-d_1353.html

    This is the issue with laypeople speculating on complex engineering failures. The mechanisms of action that one might intuit from looking at a complex systems failure and the ones that actually cause it are oftentimes not related to or even opposite.

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      8 months ago

      My favorite comment on this was a blacksmith heating a steel bar to a few hundred degrees and then pushing it around with his pinky. Also, the sheer number of people who don't have any conception of what a blast furnace is or how it works, how oxygen and fire interact. Idk, I always thought the "jet fuel can't melt steel beams" thing was absurd on it's face. It's such a silly premise. I've forged metal on backyard wood fires, you just need to set the airflow up to get incredibly hot fires.

      • DamarcusArt@lemmygrad.ml
        ·
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        My favorite comment on this was a blacksmith heating a steel bar to a few hundred degrees and then pushing it around with his pinky.

        Ouch. 🔥