CHAPTER 1
STEM + Cause & Effect
As mentioned in the Preface, my Grandmother was 15 when the Wright brothers first flew, and 81 when man walked on the Moon. Not only was that rate of progress simply amazing, it was vastly faster than in the millennium before. The Industrial Age was less than 100 years old at the time of her birth, and progress in her lifetime was not just technological. Society, governments, borders, and ways of life also changed. When she was born in Ireland in 1888, Ireland was still part of the United Kingdom, Victoria was Queen, and the Sun never set on the British Empire.
Six other empires existed at the time. One was ruled by Victoria's grandson, the German Kaiser. In another, the Russian Tsar was married to her granddaughter. Four other emperors were the AustroHungarian Emperor, the Ottoman Sultan, and the Emperors of China and Japan. During my Grandmother's life all seven empires were relegated to garbage bins of history and more than a hundred new countries emerged. Just as much change is ahead of us.
When I showed my grandchildren my Father's stamp album and my own childhood album, it was as though we were looking at stamps from different planets. Countries like Aden, Indochina, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Southern Rhodesia, USSR, UAR, Gold Coast, and many more all came and went during the periods covered by the albums.
Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math
In contrast to the rate of progress experienced in my Grandmother's lifetime, Marco Polo saw rockets in 1265 AD. Yet, hundreds of years were to pass before men used them to fly. Why so long? The answer is that STEM was fragmented. They had scientists and mathematicians, but not enough engineers, and that meant that technology was slow in coming. This is a little surprising, as the Roman Empire clearly had engineers. You just have to look at the Coliseum to appreciate this. Why were there so few engineers in the Dark Ages that followed the fall of the Roman Empire. Don't be too quick to conclude that the Dark Ages were caused solely by the decline of the Roman Empire. Weather, or more specifically, climate, also played a role. That will be discussed later.
Progress in the last 250 years was catalyzed by knowing how to use laws of chemistry and physics in what I call the STEM continuum, and having the resources to do so. If you blow up a balloon and release it, it will fly around the room in a perfect demonstration of science, specifically Newton's 3rd Law:
Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
Air coming out of the balloon is action, and the balloon flitting around the room is the reaction.
Science is the development or discovery of such laws. Science tells you that if you blow enough air back, an airplane will go forward. If its wings push enough air down, an airplane will go up. However, that is just enough information to get you killed if you do not have control. That is where engineering comes into play.
Engineering includes design and fabrication based on established rules of science. Engineering is the application of science and is what makes science useful. An example is the design and manufacture of an airplane's wings and ailerons to provide lift and control, all based on the science of the Principle of the Lever combined with Newton's 3rd Law.
Technology is the output when you combine science and engineering, e.g. an airplane, a bridge.
Math is the language whereby science, technology, and engineering communicate with each other. Math includes equations that are centuries old and computer programs that are still being developed. Examples include π r2 which is the area of a circle, Arm x Force = Moment the equation for the Principle of the Lever, and PV = nRT which reflects the Ideal Gas Law. This brings me to Cause & Effect.
Cause & Effect
While politicians harangue about the off-shoring of jobs, the truth is that far more jobs are lost due to technological obsolescence. The next time you see an ATM ask it how the summer is going. Do not be offended when it doesn't answer. It is a machine, and the jobs of the bank tellers it replaced are not coming back. Similarly, getting a job as a travel agent or manual labor in a car factory would not be good career choices, although being a programmer of the machines that build cars would be. Take politicians with a grain of salt.
Why did the Wright brothers put the elevator (Fig. 1) in front and their propellers and rudder at the back of the 1903 Wright Flyer, and what was the effect of doing so? Why was the elevator of their 1911 Wright Flyer aft with the rudder, where elevators have been for most airplanes ever since?
Analyzing such Cause & Effect issues provides an opportunity to create better designs and overcome paradigm paralysis. To illustrate this point, the Wright brothers had never seen a propeller or rudder anywhere but at the back of a boat, so their paradigm (i.e. a thought pattern or rule that one follows without knowing it) was to put the rudder and propellers where they were in the 1903 Wright Flyer. But they had never seen an elevator, and called theirs a "horizontal rudder". It was logical (per the Lever Principle) to put the elevator in front to balance the "vertical rudder" at the back, or perhaps they wanted a shock absorber in front. Either explanation could have been the "cause". What was the "effect"?
Having the elevator in front was like trying to push a rope. The faster the plane went, the more distortion would occur. Making the elevator stronger would have added weight. Bottom line, one effect of having the elevator in front was a severe limitation to airspeed. Understanding this limitation and its cause offered its own solution. Since pushing up on one arm of a lever is the same as pushing down on the other arm, why not put the elevator at the back?
In the 1911 Wright Flyer Model B the elevator was positioned aft of the rudder. While a good solution for the time, it also brought in a cost (to be covered later in the chapter on airplane physics) that was not seriously challenged for over 70 years because of paradigm paralysis. When it was, the result was lighter, faster, and more fuel-efficient airplanes. This is a good example of why Cause & Effect analysis is so valuable.
Contrary to popular belief, the Wright brothers were not even close to being the first to fly. Two other brothers had invented the first aircraft more than a century earlier, and hundreds of people flew before the Wright brothers.
Knowingly and unknowingly, applications of science impact many aspects of our daily lives. For example, what is the connection between an open-top freezer in a grocery store and a hot air balloon? What is the connection between the Goodyear Blimp and a building code that requires a step up from the garage into a house?
In the case of the tub freezer and hot air balloon, the connection is Charles' Law, which states:
At constant pressure an ideal gas expands in direct proportion to its absolute temperature
Just as the tub freezer is open at the top, a hot air balloon is open at the bottom, so the air in both is at the pressure of the surrounding atmosphere. The hot air in the balloon expands leaving fewer molecules of hot air trapped inside the air bag, so the balloon is lighter than the surrounding air. The opposite is true with the tub freezer. The cold air in it contracts, resulting in more molecules per unit volume, so the cold air is heavier. Thus a lid is not needed to keep the cold air inside the freezer.
In the case of the Goodyear Blimp and the building code, the connection is another of the Ideal Gas Laws. Avogadro's Law states:
Equal volumes of different gases contain the same number of molecules, as long as the temperature and pressure are the same
The Goodyear Blimp is filled with Helium which has a molecular weight of 4. This is vastly lighter than air, which has an average molecular weight of 28.6. So the blimp can fly. On the other hand, gasoline vapors are much heavier than air, e.g. octane has a molecular weight of 114. Garages are essentially gasoline storage facilities and should be treated as such. Does the gasoline in the car, the lawn mower, or the can on the shelf ever drip out? If it does, you do not want those explosive (heavy) vapors entering the house. That is the role of the step up from the garage.
Are these examples useless scientific trivia? Knowing the second one might cause you to hesitate before storing gasoline in a basement, particularly one with a sump pump. Sooner or later, the heavier vapors from a spill would make their way to the lowest point in the basement, where they would wait for a spark the next time the sump pump activates. More importantly, knowing the laws of science and how to apply them provides solutions to many problems.
CHAPTER 2
The First Aviators
21 November, 1783
"Condemned criminals?" shrieked the foppish Frenchman at Etienne Montgolfier, as he flung his perfumed handkerchief at the ceiling. Pilatre de Rozier was incensed when he heard that King Louis XV1 had agreed to the "loan" of two condemned criminals for the first flight of the Montgolfier hot air balloon with people on board.
"Criminals don't deserve the honor of being the first aeronauts!" asserted de Rozier. "I'll do it!"
Meanwhile, Etienne's brother, Joseph Montgolfier, watched as the handkerchief spread out and floated down.
"What if we attached cords to the four corners of a bed sheet. Could we use it to escape from the balloon if it catches fire?" he wondered. Ever the dreamer, Joseph had heard stories about a Turk named Celebi, who floated safely down "on the wings of eagles" after blasting himself into the air with rockets. Celebi survived that flight in 1633. Joseph did not believe the `wings of eagles' bit, but we will get to that story later.
Pilatre de Rozier, a teacher of chemistry and physics, had a right to be angry, as he had already gone up in the balloon while it was still tied to the ground. However, being aloft in a tethered balloon was no more `aeronautical' than climbing a ladder. He was fairly confident that flight itself would not be fatal, as long as they did not go up too high, although coming down safely might be a problem. Two months earlier, in the courtyard of the Palace of Versailles with the King in attendance, he had assisted in an untethered flight in which the passengers were a duck, a cock, and a sheep. The reason for selecting those particular animals as test pilots was simple.
Nobody knew if going up in the air would be survivable for a creature – like man – which was not designed to fly. They knew that the duck could fly, so it should survive the flight, whatever about the landing. The cock, like any chicken, was designed to be able to fly, but rarely did so. So his chances were good. The sheep, on the other hand was clearly not designed for flight. If the sheep survived, then man's prospects were good. All three test pilots survived, although stories about flying sheep that spread among peasant farmers may have been the cause of problems for later balloonists.
Pilatre de Rozier prevailed. The decision was communicated to King Louis XVI that de Rozier would be accompanied by Marquis d'Arlandes on the first untethered, manned flight. The flight (Fig.1) took place from a garden in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris. The King was in attendance, as were many nobles, scientists, and commoners, half the population of Paris in fact. Ben Franklin watched the proceedings from his hotel room window. He was in Paris in 1783 for a reason that was very important for America. He was negotiating the Treaty of Paris, which ended the American War of Independence. Incidentally, many of the people there that day would also be cheering when they saw the King's head being chopped off less than 10 years later.
The 25 minute flight attained an altitude of 3,000 feet and traveled over 5 miles to the outskirts of Paris. For the first time in history, man had flown, landed safely, and could do it again in the same aircraft. Its ability to fly was explained by Charles' Law, which was then emerging as a law of chemistry, and by Archimedes' Law, a 2,000 year old law of physics.
Another thing that might surprise you, was that the French scientist, Jacques Charles who wrote the law, was really upset by the success of the Montgolfier balloon. You might think he would be pleased. The reason for his displeasure was that he was leading another team in the competition to be the first aviators in history.
Jacques Charles and his team were already filling a hydrogen balloon (Fig. 2), which would have much higher performance, but did not make its first manned flight until December 1, 1783, less than two weeks after the Montgolfier balloon. The lift of Charles' balloon was explained by Avogadro's Law, another one of chemistry's Ideal Gas Laws. The sciences that allowed balloons to fly will be covered again in Chapter 3.
Charles' balloon was much smaller than the Montgolfier balloon, and its first flight flew 30 miles over two hours with Jacques Charles and Nicholas Robert on board. After descending by releasing some of the gas, Nicholas Robert stepped out of the basket. The reduced weight in the basket caused the balloon to rise again. Charles flew solo and the lighter aircraft ascended to 9,000 feet.
The Golden Age of Balloons had begun, and many hobbyists in France began experimenting with both hot-air and gas balloons. Needless to say, they tended to be wealthier people. One balloonist – the French called them aeronauts – landed among a group of peasant farmers working in a field. These peasants had heard stories about flying sheep, and naturally assumed that witchcraft was involved. They tore the balloon apart and nearly killed the aeronauts on board.
Word went out in the flying community to have a `Plan B' in the event of a descent among terrified farmers. In case you ever wondered why a glass of Champagne is always served after a balloon lands, now you know. It was Plan B. When you scare the daylights out of a groups of peasants armed with hay pikes and scythes, immediately offer them a glass of Champagne. It is still done to this day, although the origin of the practice is lost in the mists of history. Of course today it is more "Thanks for letting us land unexpectedly in your field" rather than "Really, we are not witches".
The Golden Age of Balloons
Pilatre de Rozier was a scientist and a test pilot for both the first tethered flight and first free flight of the Mongolfier balloon. His experiments with balloons continued, but he was killed in 1785 in an attempt to fly from France to England across the English Channel. This balloon combined a hydrogen bag with a hot air bag fueled by burning straw and wool. That is a deadly combination, because any leaked hydrogen coming into contact with the combustion source would go boom. This combination of a lighter-than-air gas and hot air balloon is known as a `Roziere'. Of course, it would be much safer if the gas in question was non-flammable helium rather than hydrogen. The discovery of helium would not occur for about a century.
Surprisingly, more than 200 years later balloonists striving to be the first to circumnavigate Earth used Rozieres. However, rather than flammable hydrogen, they all used the inert gas helium in a sealed bag inside a larger bag of heated air. The helium would heat up and expand during the day and cool off and contract at night, so the gas bags were never filled to bursting point. Understanding the relationships between pressure, volume, and temperature was key for them. We will get back to that in the chapter titled "The M in STEM".
The first balloon to fly all the way around the Earth non-stop was the Breitling Orbiter 3 in March 1999, 216 years after the first manned balloon flight. Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones took 19 days, 1 hour and 49 minutes for the flight. Three years later, Steve Fossett did it solo.
