Last year, Neil deGrasse Tyson tweeted this amusing thought:
An airplane whose engine fails is a glider. A helicopter whose engine fails is a brick.
It makes sense on the surface. If a helicopter’s main rotor blade just stops spinning, won’t the whole contraption just fall from the sky?
Destin Sandlin decided to test out that theory by, um, getting in a helicopter and shutting off the engine. Because science.
(Okay, so he had a little bit of help, but the explanation is really neat.)
Kudos to Prophet Neil for being a good sport about all of this.
By the way, if you’re not already subscribed to Smarter Every Day, you’re missing out. It’s one of the best science-y channels out there.
