3 ms·
There's a ton of comments on HN like this. A quick brainstormed "why don't they just.." as if cooling a runway, building a subway, conducting space travel or do
by johnwalkr 4y ago
There's a ton of comments on HN like this. A quick brainstormed "why don't they just.." as if cooling a runway, building a subway, conducting space travel or doing anything else bound by physics is as trivial just because it is conceptually simple. Might as well ask why you can't ski in your backyard in London because after all it is trivial to add some pipes to your refrigerator.
Also I don't know of any skating rinks that operate outdoors in summer, or to use a more favourable example, something like lowering a surface temperature from 20C to -5C (an ice rink, indoors) vs lowering a surface temperature from 80C to 55C (an assumption for a runway, outdoors). Even Dubai, a major transport hub, much hotter than UK even this week, with cheapish energy costs, little public debate uses other mitigations such as runway materials and scheduling many takeoffs for 2-5AM (there are many costs due to high temperature besides runway degradation).