2025-06-17

[public] 306K views, 21.5K likes, dislikes audio only

AlphaPhoenix

Theoretically, it should be possible to measure the weight of a flying object from far below that object - by measuring the air that object displaced when it pushes on the ground. I HAD to know if this was realistically possible, so I set about building a very large scale to measure paper airplanes and flying playing cards. After getting successful measurements, I decided to go full scale with real airplanes.

bonus points to @noquarter7 for the relevant nerd snipe in last video's comments...

Massive thanks to my top Patreon supporters!

birdiesnbritts

John Sosa Trustham

Vladimir Shklovsky

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Chapters:

0:00 Intro - Don't let your memes be memes

1:30 A "large scale" experiment

6:34 Load cells

8:39 Poor man's orthogrid

12:31 Wait... Something's wrong

14:40 Pressure shadow

20:28 Curved flights and playing cards

26:03 Let's go to an airport

28:33 Day 2

32:02 Making excuses

34:11 Your regularly scheduled outro

Media Credits:

I Dunno by grapes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) http://ccmixter.org/files/grapes/16626

Arcadia - Wonders by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Run by Ethan Meixsell

Not Without the Rest by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Acid Jazz by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/