What Happens if You Throw Sand into a Jet Engine?

Derek and the Veritasium crew take you on a whirlwind tour of jet engines—from the basics of how they work and why they’re so massive to a deep dive inside Rolls-Royce’s precision casting facility. You’ll learn about nickel superalloys, gamma prime phases, crystal structures, single-crystal turbine blades and how all of that high-tech wizardry keeps those spinning parts from melting in the scorching exhaust.

After geeking out on microstructure animations and material science insights from top professors, they cap it all off by literally tossing sand into a running jet engine. Spoiler: the results are messy, fascinating and a little terrifying. Along the way, there are fun sponsor plugs, team credits and links if you want to dive even deeper.

Watch on YouTube