2 ms·

> It takes a lot less energy to move a big ship with 4000 people sideways on water at 50 MPH than to lift people into the sky in 20 groups of 200 at 600 MPH. I

• cm2012 7y ago
  That is genuinely surprising and nasty. To be that much less efficient given the constraints, cruise ships must be using terrifyingly dirty fuel.
  • MagnumOpus 7y ago
    As a side-note, please be careful to distinguish between local pollution from dirty fuel (SOx emissions, particulates), and global pollution from _carbon emissions_. They are two wildly different things, and often there is a big trade-off where cutting one raises the other (c.f. the VW scandal). Cruise ships, as it happens, are horrible on both measures.
  • boomlinde 7y ago
    They are very large and heavy (much more weight per passenger), there’s additional drag and resistance, not to mention time, which I think accounts for some of the energy waste. In short, that spending a few hours on a thin metal aerodynamic cigar is more energy effective than a week spent on a bulky floating city doesn’t surprise me.
  • noonespecial 7y ago
    That's an understatement. If you saw this "fuel" you'd call it tar. They have to heat it with steam just to get it pumped to the engines. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_oil#Bunker_fuel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_oil#Bunker_fuel