1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,200 Can you believe we are actually flying on a plane to a ship? 2 00:00:03,200 --> 00:00:08,200 It's hard to believe the USS Theodore Roosevelt is 80 miles off the coast of Virginia. 3 00:00:08,200 --> 00:00:11,200 Can't wait. It's going to be some landing. 4 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:38,000 That was just an awesome landing. 5 00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:42,000 Can you believe that we landed on an aircraft carrier while it was moving? 6 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:46,000 I'm not sure it was so awesome. My legs still won't stop shaking. 7 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:49,000 Just look at the size of this ship. 8 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:51,000 I know. It's huge. 9 00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:53,000 Yeah, but the runway is so short. 10 00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:54,000 I know. 11 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:56,000 Hi. Welcome aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt. 12 00:00:56,000 --> 00:00:59,000 I'm Lieutenant John Oliveira, your escort officer. 13 00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:02,000 You guys must be the treehouse detectives that I've heard so much about. 14 00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:04,000 Yes, sir. We are the treehouse detectives. 15 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:06,000 We've never seen such a big ship before. 16 00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:08,000 Well, Theodore Roosevelt is a big ship. 17 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:12,000 It's home to 5,000 sailors. It weighs 97,000 tons. 18 00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:15,000 And if you put it on its end, it would be as tall as the Empire State Building. 19 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:17,000 In fact, it has everything we need on board. 20 00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:18,000 Everything? 21 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:23,000 Everything. Gyms, hospital. We even have a dentist. 22 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:24,000 And Gidon. 23 00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:25,000 What is Gidon? 24 00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:27,000 Gidon's snack food. 25 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:29,000 All right. I could live here. 26 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:30,000 What is this area called? 27 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:33,000 This is the flight deck, and it's 4 1⁄2 acres. 28 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:36,000 This is where we launch the 71 airplanes we carry. 29 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:39,000 You can launch airplanes off this small runway? 30 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:42,000 He means we're going to be launched off this runway. 31 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:45,000 We can launch them pretty quick, and we use that to help with some catapults. 32 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:46,000 That's how we do it. 33 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:48,000 What are catapults? 34 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:51,000 Well, catapults are what we use to help launch our airplanes. 35 00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:54,000 But let's go down to V-2 Division and talk to CNG Spinner, 36 00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:57,000 and he can explain that to us in a little bit more detail. 37 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:04,000 Hello, Senior Chief Spinner. 38 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:06,000 We need to learn more about the force of thrust. 39 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:09,000 Can you tell us about your catapults and how they create thrust? 40 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:10,000 Yes, I can. 41 00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:15,000 A catapult is actually two sets of cylinders that run 300 feet long, 42 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:18,000 and within each cylinder is a piston, 43 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:24,000 and connected to the piston is a shuttle that extends above the level of the flight deck. 44 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:26,000 Not a space shuttle. 45 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:30,000 No, the shuttle is actually a metal object that connects to the aircraft 46 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:33,000 that we use when we're launching airplanes on the flight deck. 47 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:39,000 The shuttle can actually take an airplane from zero to over 160 miles an hour in about two seconds. 48 00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:40,000 Now that's fast. 49 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:42,000 And a lot of thrust. 50 00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:44,000 But what makes the shuttle go so fast? 51 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:49,000 When we want to fire the catapult, steam actually enters the power cylinders 52 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:52,000 and it pushes the piston, cylinder, shuttle, and the aircraft 53 00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:55,000 to the opposite end of the catapult at a very high rate of speed. 54 00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:58,000 Steam is really powerful stuff. 55 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:00,000 But where does steam come from on a ship? 56 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:04,000 Well, on a carrier, the steam comes from the ship's power plant. 57 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:07,000 That power plant consists of two nuclear reactors. 58 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:11,000 Nuclear reactors? Wow, they must create major power. 59 00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:18,000 We wonder what it felt like to be launched off such a short runway off the deck. 60 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:21,000 So we contacted a real F-14 pilot. 61 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:26,000 It's like a violent, somewhat violent roller coaster ride. 62 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:31,000 You get thrown back in your seat and in about two seconds you're going from zero to 150 miles an hour. 63 00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:32,000 Bye, thanks. 64 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:33,000 Thank you. 65 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:35,000 Bye-bye, enjoy your cat shot. 66 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:44,000 That's really weird. It couldn't be him. 67 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:45,000 What? 68 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:47,000 I think I just shot some video of Dr. D. 69 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:49,000 Look over there. Call him. 70 00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:51,000 Dr. D! 71 00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:54,000 Huh? What are you guys doing here? 72 00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:56,000 Well, what are you doing here? 73 00:03:56,000 --> 00:03:57,000 Just doing a little research. 74 00:03:57,000 --> 00:03:59,000 So are we, on thrust. 75 00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:00,000 What have you learned? 76 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:05,000 We learned today that the plane has to be going about 160 miles per hour to get lift, 77 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:09,000 and the catapults help the plane go that fast very quickly because of the short runway. 78 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:13,000 Dr. D, how does this compare to a regular airport runway? 79 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:20,000 An airport runway is 10,000 feet long, but a carrier's catapult runway is only 300 feet long. 80 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:27,000 That means the ratio of the airport runway to the catapult runway would be 10,000 to 300. 81 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:31,000 If you do the math and divide the airport runway length by the catapult runway length, 82 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:37,000 you will find that the airport runway is about 33 times longer than the carrier's catapult runway. 83 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:42,000 On a carrier, the catapult provides immediate thrust for the plane to take off that quickly. 84 00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:47,000 Isaac Newton's laws of motion tell us that if you want to speed an object up, you have to apply force to it. 85 00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:53,000 That makes sense. I have to push really hard on the pedals of my bicycle to make it go faster, quicker. 86 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:58,000 Very good. What would happen if you were pulling a wagon with your kid sister in it? 87 00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:00,000 That would be a lot harder. 88 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:04,000 Isaac Newton also told us it takes more force if you want to speed up more mass. 89 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:07,000 In math, that's called a direct variation. 90 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:09,000 Wow, math is everywhere. 91 00:05:09,000 --> 00:05:14,000 Oh, so that means if the plane is bigger or has more fuel or more cargo, 92 00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:18,000 it needs greater thrust to make it to its takeoff speed by the end of the runway. 93 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:20,000 Watch this. 94 00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:25,000 Wow, your plane really spun. I don't think we want our plane to do that. 95 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:27,000 That's called roll. 96 00:05:27,000 --> 00:05:31,000 What many planes do to avoid roll is to have what's called dihedral angle. 97 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:34,000 That means having the wings tipped up like this in a V. 98 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:39,000 That made a big difference. 99 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:43,000 Looks like our plane's ready to take off. 100 00:05:43,000 --> 00:05:45,000 I can't wait to try the catapult. 101 00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:47,000 It's going to be so awesome. Let's go. 102 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:50,000 Hold on. Here we go.