We don’t often take into account the complexity and the beauty of our world. Everything is interconnected, after all, and in a way that is both complicated and aesthetically amazing. You could take any invention of the past half century, crack it open and marvel at the ingenuity it took to come up with it. Let’s take a closer look at the plane, for instance, a standard enough instrument of transportation that we don’t often tend to think too much about. For most of us, the plane is simply another instrument in the world, one that is a bit more advanced than others but still. It is resolutely there. It is what it is and we let it do its job but we never really think about it does its job or how it got to where it could do its job so marvelously and efficiently. But the story, the continuing story, of modern day big passenger jet planes is fascinating all on its own. The modern day jet plane has seen so many advancements in the past decade that it’s almost like a whole other machine altogether. It has so many defaults and fail safes and connectivity conduits now that it is virtually impossible for a plane to crash or get lost. A plane is made of a few shells of metal wrapped together, each pressurized to avoid potential loss of cabin pressure. This shell is laced with all sorts of fire retardants and other fail safes as well wiring and atmospheric control for the passengers. The metal of the shell itself is made of several different alloys mixed together, all of them flexible and strong. The wings are made of the exact same stuff which is good because it is, again, very flexible and resilient. This allows the wings to bend and stretch in a way they couldn’t even a decade ago. This prevents crashes and holds the plane together in a tough, glossy exterior. It also protects the plane’s inner components from all sorts of damage, from water damage to atmospheric elements that might warp the delicate electrical systems inside. All in all, the plane has always been a bit of a technical marvel but as an invention it really has come into its own only in the latter decade of this century. But what about other inventions that are just as progressive and just as complex as the plane?
The Intricacies of the Automobile
Most of us use cars on a daily basis and yet we know surprisingly little about how they work or what goes on inside of them. Most of us have never heard of a ranger motorcycle lift, a wrench organizer, a fan clutch holding tool, a barrel fan, a tie rod puller or many other things that help maintain a car or actually work inside of the car to help it run. But the barrel fan, along with everything else and all those other inventions as well, are all necessary to help the car function in the way that it should. Let’s start at the gas tank and work our way inside so we can see how a car in motion actually works. Gasoline is a volatile fluid made from oil which itself is the by product of organic material decaying over millions of years. So, as you may have guessed, not exactly the easiest substance to keep or maintain. But maintain it we do and oil is pumped out of the ground and eventually finds its way into our planes and cars where it powers everything that needs power. Once it is put into our gas tanks an ignition lights the fluid, thereby creating a controlled and contained explosion. These small explosions then have their kinetic motion captured by the pistons in the car’s engine which move rapidly in response to the generated energy. This moves the actual car itself by turning the wheels very quickly and giving forward momentum. The rest of the energy is converted in various electrical formats to power the barrel fan, the things around the barrel fan and all of the air systems, lights, brakes, radio and everything else that goes into the construction of the modern day car.