Transport
Discover facts about transport. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Transport
Plastic carpet sliders eliminate furniture friction
Dragging a solid oak dresser across a carpeted room is essentially impossible for one person. By placing tiny, completely smooth plastic disks under the…
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Salmon get shot over dams
Nothing says environmental preservation like aggressively shooting aquatic life out of a pressurized tube. Originally designed for fruit, this pneumatic…
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Waiter trays balance massive meals on one palm
Moving food from a kitchen to a table should not require circus-level acrobatics, yet here we are. Servers transport an unreasonable amount of heavy, sloshing…
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Sedan chairs provide open-air carried seating
Similar to a palanquin but with far less privacy. You sit aggressively upright in an ornate wooden chair while two highly exhausted people carry you through…
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Alpacas gently carry light cargo across mountains
Think of them as the delicate, eco-friendly tote bags of the animal kingdom. Because they have soft pads on their feet instead of sharp hooves, alpacas can…
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The ocean can carry a tree for thousands of miles
When a giant tree falls into the ocean, it enters a sluggish, worldwide conveyor belt. These massive wooden logs float across immense stretches of open water,…
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A brewery pumps beer through underground pipes
Forget municipal water, the true marker of an advanced civilization is subterranean alcohol transport. To stop heavy delivery trucks from ruining cobblestone…
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Timber rafts transport thousands of massive logs
Why put heavy wood in a boat when the wood naturally floats? Logging operations lash massive quantities of cut timber together to form giant, unwieldy…
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Why ice skates glide across the ice
You aren't actually sliding on hard ice. The immense pressure concentrated on the incredibly thin metal blade melts the very top layer of the frozen surface…
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Surfboards capture the immense power of sea waves
Instead of moving forward under your own power, you are hijacking ocean momentum. You paddle a foam plank into a moving swell, stand up, and let thousands of…
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Why you carry every grocery bag at once
Rather than walking back to the driveway twice, humans will willingly cut off circulation to all ten fingers. By threading fifteen plastic bag loops onto…
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How Florida orange juice travels through factories
It turns out moving thousands of gallons of citrus liquid via buckets is highly inefficient. Massive processing plants use dedicated, sanitary stainless steel…
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Human chains transport heavy sandbags to floods
When water threatens to destroy a town, heavy machinery isn't always viable. The quickest way to build a temporary wall is a human conveyor belt, passing…
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Swimming requires fighting against liquid drag
Moving horizontally through water is absurdly inefficient for land mammals. Since humans lack fins and hydro-dynamic shapes, we have to aggressively thrash…
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Why a flexible pole keeps heavy loads steady
Walking with heavy buckets of water is a fast track to spilled liquids. By balancing a flexible pole across the shoulders, the transporter can time their…
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Mother cats transport kittens via neck scruff
Feline offspring aren't great at keeping up with the group, so mothers resort to aggressive facial clamping. By gently biting the loose skin at the back of…
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Baggage carousels are loops of endless waiting
Standing around a giant mechanical snake waiting for your belongings is a bizarre ritual. These moving rubber tracks slowly parade identical black suitcases…
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Heavy backpack items must sit close to the spine
Shoving gear into a canvas sack haphazardly is a guaranteed way to fall over backward. Proper load transport requires placing the densest items flush against…
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The part of the Moon lander left behind
The bottom half of the moon lander was strictly a one-way trip. Once it served its purpose of slowly lowering the astronauts to the surface, it doubled as a…
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Why cockpit voice recorders keep only two hours
The cockpit voice recorder is basically a strictly timed wiretap. It only saves the last two hours of conversation, meaning the pilots can complain about…
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The aircraft that fits in a backpack
Instead of paying hangar fees or dealing with airport security queues, these pilots just stuff a massive fabric wing into a knapsack, hike up a massive hill,…
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Commercial jet windows feature curved oval edges
The rounded ovals aren't just for a sleek aesthetic. Corners concentrate air pressure unevenly, which stresses the metal frame. By smoothing out the edges,…
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Skydivers use a tiny parachute to open the big one
Because manually yanking a giant bedsheet out of a backpack while falling at terminal velocity is a highly flawed idea. You toss out a cute little pilot…
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How space stations turn trash into fire
When a cargo ship finishes dropping off fresh apples and clean socks, astronauts fill it back up with their accumulated trash. The ship undocks and…
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