Why Don’t Jet Engines Melt?
This Veritasium video unpacks how jet engines survive scorching 1,400 °C combustion without turning into puddles of metal. Derek Muller and Henry Van Dyck walk you through the birth of the jet engine, its gargantuan size, and the intricate inner workings—from edge dislocations in crystals to nickel-based superalloys (Gamma Prime) and single-crystal turbine blades designed to shrug off heat and stress.
Along the way you get a behind-the-scenes tour of Rolls-Royce’s precision casting facility, animations of microstructures and grain selection, and expert insights on cooling channels, protective coatings, and material science wizardry that keeps those blades spinning—and solid—100% of the time.
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