Comments by "Kevin Street" (@Kevin_Street) on "Real Engineering" channel.

  1. This is exactly us. It seems to be a trait of our species.
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  2. It seem counterintuitive to send fuel into orbit one little payload at a time, but if the math works out like Spinlaunch is saying it would be way cheaper than using a Falcon 9.
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  3.  @Fluugan  This doesn't affect your main point much at all, but in the spirit of nitpicking... The projectile wouldn't have to endure 10 000 Gs for the entire hour. I've no idea how increase in G forces mathematically relates to increase in RPMs here, but the graph of G force vs. time would start with 1 and end with 10 000. If it was a linear relation the total force endured by the projectile would be about half of what it would endure at a full 10 000 Gs for an hour. No doubt the actual line would be a bit more curvy and the area a little harder to determine. Having said all that, it's still a lot of force for an electric toothbrush or a DVD set to endure. Deliveries would definitely tend to arrive broken, even without considering the impact at landing.
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  4. Thank you for another great video! I love your videos on our current day technological challenges and opportunities. You've made it very clear that lithium ion battery recycling is a critical step towards achieving a decarbonized economy.
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  5. Nuclear power is certainly an important consideration in the effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and nuclear solutions like modular reactors may be part of the mix in the future, but there are reasons the shipping industry hasn't explored the technology before this. Mostly it's just too complicated and expensive. Cargo ships are like plant eating dinosaurs of old: enormous, reliant upon economies of scale to function, and as simply designed as possible.
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  6. Thanks for another great video! This subject really makes me mad, because I remember participating in debates on Internet message boards where we went over all the same points about biofuels, seventeen years ago. We knew all of this two decades back and it made no difference, they still built the ethanol industry into the giant it is today. The only thing that's changed is (as you said in your video) that the price of animal feed and many foodstocks has increased dramatically because of competition from ethanol. We're literally paying more for nothing. And it isn't limited to the United States, my country of Canada has the same enthusiasm for biofuels. We mostly use wheat for ethanol, but it's just as energy intensive and wasteful. This is actually a political solution masquerading as an environmental one. The real problem they're solving is "how do I get farmers to vote for me," and the solution is to find new markets for the crops the farmers were already growing so they can make more money.
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  7. I love the documentary. Congrats on a great new video, Real Engineering. And I'm really intrigued by the Brilliant course. I'm going to dust off my old Brilliant login and check it out.
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  8. Thanks for another fascinating video! I hope this does become a series.
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  9. This is a wonderful video! Thank you for making it.
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  10. Thank you for this fascinating video! The conclusion is a bit surprising, because I thought afforestation would always be a net benefit. Btw, have you heard of "Night Sky Cooling?" If used on an industrial scale it could be a significant way to remove heat from our atmosphere. Here's a link to TED talk by physicist Aaswath Raman where he talks about using new materials science to recreate a kind of refrigeration that used to be common in the ancient (and near modern) Middle East: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7a5NyUITbyk
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  11. It's still very early days, but I think this area of technology - creating an interface between the brain and machines - will be every bit as transformational to human society as the creation of transistors on silicon chips. This, more than AI, is where the greatest change will come from, both the greatest benefits and dangers. It will challenge our very definition of what humanity is.
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  12. Thank you for the amazing video! Your videos have always been great, but it looks like they've made another jump to a higher level of quality. This one is just about perfect.
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  13. Going to go against the grain here and say this isn't necessarily a bad idea. Nuclear powered planes could really be something amazing. But it was an idea that was far beyond the technological capability of 1950's science. It's beyond ours today as well, but maybe someday they'll get nuclear reactors cheap and simple and safe enough to use in a plane.
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  14. Thanks for another great video! Liquid metal batteries do sound very interesting. Maybe they're the missing piece that will make fully renewable systems work.
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  15. The ISS will eventually be de-orbited, but Axiom Space is the next generation. If NASA can keep the ISS in space past the two-year deadline currently set by the Russians (meaning some kind of emergency replacement of the propulsion module, most likely) Axiom will grow a new station literally out of the side of the ISS, like a new plant budding from an older one. So thanks to the legacy began by the ISS, humans will continue to live in orbit for many years to come.
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  16. The problem is that it's so much easier to stop something than start it. Anyone who sets out to inject sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere is going to encounter significant resistance and vilification. That inertia you talk about is powerful, and many people would rather fry than change.
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  17. Tony Wilson, you said a space elevator on the Moon wouldn't work because the rotation of the Moon is too slow. (About 27 days, I think?) But what about Mars? It's smaller than Earth and has a day equal to about 24.6 hours. Seems like a leading candidate. The biggest problem is probably moving the materials and components out of Earth's gravity and all the way there.
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  18. Ohhhh, now I get it!
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  19.  @TS-jm7jm  Just about everything you said there is factually wrong, except the bit about nuclear power and "...plastic however and toxic chemical dumps really are a legitimate problem..."
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  20. This is a REALLY impressive video! Thank you for making it! Back in university I did a presentation on the band theory of semiconductors. Your explanation here blows mine right out of the water. It's simple, concise and clear. Beautiful.
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  21. Love your videos, man. They're all great.
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