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keshlam
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There's a classic thought experiment in which you speculate that a modern fighter jet is somehow dropped back in time about a hundred years, and try to figure out what the scientists of the time could learn from it.

Last time I was involved in this, the conclusion would be that the main thing they'd learn would be how to make precision resistors. None of the electronics would make sense, given no theory of semiconductors; even if they somehow figured out that part of it was a high-frequency oscillator they'd be completely confused by waveguides ("circuitry with plumbing?!") and wouldn't be able to figure out what that signal was being used for. Most of the materials would defy analysis with the tools of the time; the aerodynamics likewise. 

They could probably figure out that the jet fuel was fairly obscene quantities of kerosene, but not how the engine actually worked. 

Don't think too hard about the likely outcome of attempts to analyse the ordinance...

There's a classic thought experiment in which you speculate that a modern fighter jet is somehow dropped back in time about a hundred years, and try to figure out what the scientists of the time could learn from it.

Last time I was involved in this, the conclusion would be that the main thing they'd learn would be how to make precision resistors. None of the electronics would make sense, given no theory of semiconductors; even if they somehow figured out that part of it was a high-frequency oscillator they'd be completely confused by waveguides ("circuitry with plumbing?!") and wouldn't be able to figure out what that signal was being used for. Most of the materials would defy analysis with the tools of the time; the aerodynamics likewise. They could probably figure out that the jet fuel was fairly obscene quantities of kerosene, but not how the engine actually worked. Don't think too hard about the likely outcome of attempts to analyse the ordinance...

There's a classic thought experiment in which you speculate that a modern fighter jet is somehow dropped back in time about a hundred years, and try to figure out what the scientists of the time could learn from it.

Last time I was involved in this, the conclusion would be that the main thing they'd learn would be how to make precision resistors. None of the electronics would make sense, given no theory of semiconductors; even if they somehow figured out that part of it was a high-frequency oscillator they'd be completely confused by waveguides ("circuitry with plumbing?!") and wouldn't be able to figure out what that signal was being used for. Most of the materials would defy analysis with the tools of the time; the aerodynamics likewise. 

They could probably figure out that the jet fuel was fairly obscene quantities of kerosene, but not how the engine actually worked. 

Don't think too hard about the likely outcome of attempts to analyse the ordinance...

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keshlam
  • 483
  • 2
  • 9

There's a classic thought experiment in which you speculate that a modern fighter jet is somehow dropped back in time about a hundred years, and try to figure out what the scientists of the time could learn from it.

Last time I was involved in this, the conclusion would be that the main thing they'd learn would be how to make precision resistors. None of the electronics would make sense, given no theory of semiconductors; even if they somehow figured out that part of it was a high-frequency oscillator they'd be completely confused by waveguides ("circuitry with plumbing?!") and wouldn't be able to figure out what that signal was being used for. Most of the materials would defy analysis with the tools of the time; the aerodynamics likewise. They could probably figure out that the jet fuel was fairly obscene quantities of kerosene, but not how the engine actually worked. Don't think too hard about the likely outcome of attempts to analyse the ordinance...