Do you get a little nervous before a flight? If you do, you’re not alone. Between 33% and 40% of people feel some form of anxiety when they board a plane. While a giant metal object, flying through the air stuffed with people and cargo sure sounds precarious, planes are actually pretty steady. Not convinced? Let’s do an experiment. Here we have a Boeing 777. It’s a full flight. And we’re going to make all 500 passengers jump at once. How much force would that exert? What is natural frequency? Why are sandbags used on a plane?
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