3 ms·

Actually the Anwser is simple to solve at least estimate fairly accurately if you assume the Airplane has to fly. You just need to know the model and how many p

by rdtwo 5y ago

Actually the Anwser is simple to solve at least estimate fairly accurately if you assume the Airplane has to fly. You just need to know the model and how many pallets fit into the cargo. The pallets are square with known volumes you pack them at the packing factor for spheres and you are done. There is some bulk cargo area but it’s not big so you need to account for that and That’s about it. You can ignore mass unless the problem lets you smash then then you are just packing plastic blocks into a container and you have to double check you aren’t limited by cargo capacity and range. A more interesting problem would be to suppose you needed to float a 747 that crashed and sank in tact. How would you go about calculating the right number of ping pong balls to do that.

tharkun__ 5y ago
Square pallets sounds awesomely easy indeed. I didn't know that existed. I've only seen the ones that are wider on the top vs. the bottom. Like this one https://www.dsm.com/content/dam/dsm/dyneema/en_GB/images/applications/v2/air-cargo-containers/container_header-img.jpeg https://www.dsm.com/content/dam/dsm/dyneema/en_GB/images/app... Those look like they'd be easier to deal with too though. And in any case a great discussion in the interview can ensue regardless. Which is the point. Interesting second problem too. So you have a regular 747 you say, which I suppose has a mass I can look up somewhere, we have statistics probably about how much cargo and passenger baggage usually weigh (or maybe these are even available for the specific flight?) and passengers hopefully made it out alive since you said the aircraft was intact and didn't burst into pieces. Now would come the part of just looking stuff up that I don't know but know is known to man already so you better look it up instead of reinventing it all. Apparently from a quick google I would probably want to know how much the plane's buoyancy already works for us (it definitely sank so there's that, but did it barely sink or did it sink like a stone?) and see how much a ping pong ball wants to float. My guess is that the ping pong balls are so buoyant that we can even ignore their small plastic shell and calculate it as if the plane was directly attached to the needed volume of air to make it float.

by rdtwo 5y ago

tharkun__ 5y ago

Square pallets sounds awesomely easy indeed. I didn't know that existed. I've only seen the ones that are wider on the top vs. the bottom. Like this one https://www.dsm.com/content/dam/dsm/dyneema/en_GB/images/applications/v2/air-cargo-containers/container_header-img.jpeg https://www.dsm.com/content/dam/dsm/dyneema/en_GB/images/app... Those look like they'd be easier to deal with too though. And in any case a great discussion in the interview can ensue regardless. Which is the point. Interesting second problem too. So you have a regular 747 you say, which I suppose has a mass I can look up somewhere, we have statistics probably about how much cargo and passenger baggage usually weigh (or maybe these are even available for the specific flight?) and passengers hopefully made it out alive since you said the aircraft was intact and didn't burst into pieces. Now would come the part of just looking stuff up that I don't know but know is known to man already so you better look it up instead of reinventing it all. Apparently from a quick google I would probably want to know how much the plane's buoyancy already works for us (it definitely sank so there's that, but did it barely sink or did it sink like a stone?) and see how much a ping pong ball wants to float. My guess is that the ping pong balls are so buoyant that we can even ignore their small plastic shell and calculate it as if the plane was directly attached to the needed volume of air to make it float.