What happens if you throw sand into a jet engine?

Derek Muller and the Veritasium crew take us on a whirlwind tour of jet engines—from the basics of how they work and why they’re so massive to the secret sauce inside Rolls-Royce’s casting facility. You’ll learn about nickel superalloys (hello, gamma prime!), single-crystal turbine blades and crystal structure, then see what really happens when sand gets sucked into that roaring turbine.

Packed with expert insights from Rolls-Royce engineers, Cambridge professors and cutting-edge animations, this video blends jet-engine history, materials science and a live sand-ingestion test. Sponsored by KiwiCo, it even includes fun extras like sweepstakes news, tabletop-game updates and a hefty shout-out to the production team and Patreon backers.

Watch on YouTube