Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 (Tek) 9/26/83; site vice.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!tekcad!vice!keithl From: keithl@vice.UUCP (Keith Lofstrom) Newsgroups: net.misc Subject: Airplanes gain weight (calculations) Message-ID: <1305@vice.UUCP> Date: Mon, 20-Feb-84 14:40:42 EST Article-I.D.: vice.1305 Posted: Mon Feb 20 14:40:42 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 22-Feb-84 02:32:49 EST Organization: Tektronix, Beaverton OR Lines: 45 It's odd that with all these computers around nobody even tries to base their estimates on calculation ... Here is the lung dose of the smokers on a 747. 50 smoking passengers ( A 747 seats 360-490 ) x 2 cigarettes/hr ( two-pack-a-day smokers ) ( check: that's 100 per hour - at 5 minutes / smoke that's 8 smokers lit up, average. I've seen more than that on a 737, with 1/4 the passengers ) x 15 mg tar/cigarette ( typical filtered cigarette - lung dose only ) x 12 hrs per day x 300 days per year ( an airline that doesn't use it's planes much ) _______ ( the envelope, please ) 13.5 kg/yr = 30 lbs/yr Now, that's what makes it through a filter into the lungs. The other end isn't filtered, and generates the bulk of the emissions. 200 pounds per year isn't THAT unlikely. ( a similar calculation for the butts at 1 gm each yields 800 pounds per year; I doubt ihuxp!esac could even lift his own 10 year accumulation of cigarette butts ) Where does it go? Airliners are made with a pressurized aluminum hull, INSULATION, and thin plastic panelling. If the main cabin is 50 meters long and 6 meters across, just the inaccessable flat surfaces alone are 2000 square meters. If tar has a specific density of 3, a 900 kg (one ton) deposit would leave a surface coating 150 microns thick on the flat surfaces. Now, how about the surface area of all that insulation? And the ducts? And the cabling? A coating too thin to see could do that. If cigarette tar is hygrosopic, even a smaller amount of tar could absorb water and account for that weight change. Ah, well, I should be thankful that all those drug abusers (and nicotine IS a drug) aren't using heroin instead. The weight of all the broken hypodermic needles in the cracks in the floor would surely be much worse :-) From the fiendish (and calculating) skies of: -- Keith Lofstrom uucp: {ucbvax,decvax,chico,pur-ee,cbosg,ihnss}!teklabs!vice!keithl CSnet: keithl@tek ARPAnet:keithl.tek@rand-relay