h/t to Kate at SDA. Gotta hand it to her. Being a fan of WKRP in Cincinnati, her headline made me laugh out loud.
As God Is My Witness, I Thought Polar Bears Could Fly
This video however, isn’t so funny.
Don’t know what I’m talking about with WKRP in Cincinnati? Read on.
Being in radio and TV requires knowledge of the groundbreaking broadcast comedy: WKRP in Cincinnati
There’s a famous scene in a 1978 episode where Mr. Carlson, “the Big Guy” (the general Manager) sets up a helicopter promotion to give away live turkeys at a Cincinnati shopping mall parking lot. He launches them from the helicopter into the crowd below. The event is reported by newsman Les Nessman ala the Hindenburg disaster. It is one of the funniest moments in television ever. Here’s the ending.
You can watch the entire episode on Hulu.com, 24 minutes. Well worth your time to see broadcast comedy history.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/322/wkrp-in-cincinnati-turkeys-away
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I would agree that planestupid lived up to it’s name.
Kate (02:27:13) :
Polar Bear Population
1950s 5,000
1965-1970 8,000-10,000
1984 25,000
2005 20,000-25,000
I fear that we will soon be up to our armpits in polar bears. I offer that Hansen and the rest should head north to pet these cute and cuddly animals.
300 kg of fuel allow a typical plane to fly for about 10 minutes. Supposing the flight lasts 3h, that’s 5400kg plus some extra for the take off, let’s say 6 tons.
6 tons for, say, 60 passengers (let’s suppose that the plane is not full) mean 100kg of fuel per passenger. But the fuel are hydrocarbons, i.e. molecules formed by carbon and hydrogen, most of their weight comming from the carbon atoms. After combustion they will mix with O2 from the exterior so that each carbon atom will go with two oxygens, which are even heavier. The CO2 molecule is a heavy one, and most of its weight was already in the atmosphere, in the form of O2, not carried by the plane. What I mean is that, after combustion, the total CO2 weight you have out there is quite greater than the weight of the fuel that produced it.
I don’t know the exact relation, but it doesn’t sound extrange to me that 100kg of fuel can produce 400kg of CO2. And that being the case, the assumption that each passenger is responsible for the addition of 400kg of CO2 to the atmosphere may well be correct (for a 3h flight with 60 passengers).
It might be just me, but I was actually LAUGHING at the polar bears falling from the sky. Oh I have a sick twisted sense of humor. So Airplanes emit co2… AND POLAR BEARS?! Uh boy, I have to catch my breath, I am just laughing too hard.
[sorry – not posting ginned up versions of this video here]
I don’t know the exact relation, but it doesn’t sound extrange to me that 100kg of fuel can produce 400kg of CO2
That’s a little high. C has an atomic weight of ~12 (in g/mole), O has an atomic weight of ~16. The atomic weight of CO2 is 12+16+16 = 44, compared to the aw of 12 for a Carbon atom. The increase in weight is 44/12, which is a little less than 4:1. There is some Hydrogen mass in the fuel, which reduces the CO2 / fuel ratio. Assuming jet fuel is kerosene (not a bad approximation) the molecular composition is C12H26, with an aw of ~170, of which ~144 is Carbon, or ~75%. On complete combustion, 170 kg of kerosene would develop 12 * 44 kg or 528 kg of CO2 and 26/2 * 18 = 234 kg of water – that’s equivalent to 310 kg of CO2 per 100 kg of fuel.
http://www.boeing.com/commercial/747family/pf/pf_facts.html
A 747-400 that flies 3,500 statute miles (5,630 km) and carries 126,000 pounds (56,700 kg) of fuel will consume an average of five gallons (19 L) per mile.
I so remember that WKRP episode. Good times. TV just isn’t the same, especially what passes for ‘comedy’ these days.