Sharing Time

Yes, it's sharing time once again, boys and girls. It's time to share what we have learned in school today. Let me go first:

As you all know, when an airplane flies, air pressure outside the plane is so low. As the plane keeps making trips--flying, landing, flying landing, etc, etc, the on-and-off force applied on the plane when its cabin is pressurized eventually causes little cracks and imperfections in the plane's fuselage grow little-by-little. Eventually the fuselage becomes fatigued and these little cracks get too big and a fracture occurs.

It's kind of like a balloon. There are always tiny holes on its surface that a balloon manufacturer cannot avoid. These holes are more likely to make the balloon pop when there is more air in the ballon, i.e. there is more pressure being applied on it.

The surprising thing is that the ratio of pressure on a balloon to the thickness of its surface at full inflation is greater than the ratio of cabin pressure to the thickness of the plane's walls.

I hope I haven't scared you from flying. Airlines have people to inspect things like this.

That's what I learned today. What have you learned?