What happens if you throw sand into a jet engine?

Derek Muller’s deep dive unpacks everything from how jet engines generate thrust and why they’re so massive, to the microscopic magic inside your turbine. You’ll learn about edge dislocations, the birth of the first jet engine, and how Rolls-Royce uses single-crystal nickel superalloys (chant “gamma prime!”) and precision casting to make blades that won’t melt at 1,500 °C.

In the grand finale, they feed sand into a running engine—sand grains erode and pit those ultra-expensive blades, the silica can fuse into glass, clog cooling channels, and wreck your compressor stages. Along the way you get insider tours, cutting-edge animations, and expertise from Cambridge, Ruhr University Bochum, NASA-adjacent engineers, and more.

Watch on YouTube