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

In this deep-dive, Derek Muller walks you through every stage of a jet engine—how air is sucked in, compressed, ignited and expelled—and why those massive turbine blades are made from exotic nickel superalloys grown as single crystals. You’ll get a peek inside Rolls-Royce’s precision casting process, learn about edge dislocations, the gamma-prime phase that gives blades heat resistance, and how clever cooling channels keep them from melting at thousands of degrees.

Then comes the sand test: what happens when you hurl grit into those spinning blades? It doesn’t instantly turn your engine into molten slag, thanks to the superalloys and cooling system, but silica erosion and impact pitting can quickly degrade blade life and tinker with clearances—so it’s definitely not something you want happening at 30,000 feet.

Watch on YouTube