Veritasium: What happens if you throw sand into a jet engine?

In this Veritasium deep-dive, Derek Muller and the Rolls-Royce team walk you through every twist and turn of a jet engine: from air intake and compression to combustion, turbine blades and exhaust. You get a backstage pass to a precision casting facility, the science of nickel superalloys (hello, gamma prime!), single-crystal blade growth and why these parts don’t melt even as they spin in 1,500°C gas.

All that theory builds up to a wild finale—literally chucking sand into a running jet engine. Spoiler: the particles shred the leading edges but the engine keeps humming, thanks to clever materials and design that handle both heat and abuse.

Watch on YouTube