6 upvotes, 2 direct replies (showing 2)
View submission: Ask Anything Wednesday - Physics, Astronomy, Earth and Planetary Science
People like to exemplify human tech evolution by saying that there was less than a century between our first airplane flight and landing on the Moon. But those are two different technologies with little overlap.
Could rocket science be developed before flight with airplanes? Are there examples of tech that precedes other, seemingly related tech?
Comment by loki130 at 27/04/2023 at 07:55 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Rockets and plane engines may work on different principles, I think there’s a lot more overlap than you’re imagining in the metallurgy, chemistry, engineering, and industrial infrastructure required to build high-performance vehicles with strong but light materials. I doubt everything had to happen in the exact order it did, but I find it hard to imagine that one technology could arise totally independent of the other.
Comment by cosmicosmo4 at 27/04/2023 at 04:46 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Here's a fun one: 3d glasses for movies were invented before 2d glasses[1] for the very same movies!