Fact or Fiction: Debunking Fictional Ideas about Inventions and Technology

The “Stealth” technology reduces the likelihood of military equipment being detected in the radar and infrared ranges. It is not limited to a special top-secret coating; it is a whole science that offers numerous ways to reduce the probability of aircraft, ships, tanks, and other equipment being detected by enemy means. Therefore, those who believe that the American strike aircraft F-117 and strategic bomber B-2, created using “Stealth” technology, are completely invisible are mistaken.

The fact is that significant absorption of radio waves can only be achieved in the centimeter range, and much worse in the decimeter range. Due to the physics of radio wave propagation, making an object less visible in the meter range (when the wavelength is comparable to the object's own size) by changing its shape is fundamentally impossible. Also, at the current level of technology, it is impossible to achieve complete absorption of any radio emission falling on the object at any angle. In particular, this task cannot be solved by stealth technologies at all.

Therefore, the main goal when choosing the shape of an object (for example, a combat aircraft) is to reflect waves away from the transmitter; thus, part of the signal is absorbed by special coatings, and the rest is reflected so that the radio echo does not return to the observing radar station.

The international unit of power, the Watt, is named after this scientist, but in fact, James Watt improved and proposed a new type of engine, while the history of steam engines begins much earlier.

The first steam engine was built in the 17th century by French physicist Denis Papin and consisted of a cylinder with a piston that was raised by steam and lowered by atmospheric pressure. The same principle was used in 1705 in the vacuum steam engines of Savery and Newcomen for pumping water. Significant improvements to the vacuum steam engine were made by James Watt in 1769.

Archaeological findings indicate that the boomerang was used in Mesopotamia, on the territory of modern India, and in Egypt. Moreover, a boomerang made of oak was found in the Netherlands. However, it is in the skilled hands of Australian Aboriginals that the boomerang can fly up to 200 meters, inflict significant damage, and return back.

It is incorrect to talk about the complete oblivion of electron tubes and vacuum devices in general. They are actively used in technology, making possible radio communication on very short waves, satellite communication and data transmission, radar, and much more.

Vacuum tubes were widely used in the 20th century as the main elements of radio equipment. With the advent of semiconductor devices (diodes, transistors), vacuum tubes began to be displaced from radio equipment, as semiconductor devices proved to be significantly more compact and efficient. Currently, vacuum tubes are found where semiconductor analogs are more expensive or more complex to manufacture (for example, a vacuum tube - magnetron - is used as a powerful generator of radio waves in a microwave oven). Vacuum tubes are also traditionally used in some types of audio equipment positioned as high-quality.

When driving on a perfectly flat road, the engine is needed to overcome friction and air resistance. In space, there is no medium creating resistance to movement, and to achieve "eternal movement", a short acceleration is enough, and you can forget about the engine afterward.

The main problem is not even that the structure of the submarine may not withstand the high pressure at depth, the complexity lies in the mechanism of submerging and surfacing the submarine from depth.

Horsepower is a rather abstract unit of power measurement. In particular, 4 horses in one harness work as 3 free ones, and 8 as 4. The larger the number of animals used, the smaller the increase in power observed.

Creating a perpetual motion machine is impossible. This hypothetical device should perform work without the input of energy from outside infinitely long or until it is destroyed by friction forces and material fatigue. The law of conservation of energy states that no energy can simply arise and disappear, it only transforms from one form to another.

However, it is possible to create mechanisms capable of working, although not indefinitely, but for an indefinite long time (until the wear of their components) without human intervention. Unlike the perpetual motion machine, they do not violate the laws of thermodynamics, as they draw energy from the environment (for example, it can be energy from the Sun or radioactive decay).

In the image above, you see the cover of the October issue of Popular Science magazine from 1920. It shows an inventor working on a perpetual motion machine. The depicted device is a “mass lever” device, where the spherical weights on the right have a greater lever than those on the left, presumably creating perpetual rotation, but more weights on the left balance the device.

Although scientists have established that perpetual motion machines are impossible by the laws of physics, they continue to capture the imagination of inventors.