Wednesday 3 October 2012

Physics 101 for Mitt Romney

Ahead of the Presidential debate tonight, I thought I'd help Willard Mitt Romney out a little. 

He recently said this, after his wife's plane had to make an emergency landing due to smoke in the cabin:
"When you have a fire in an aircraft, there's no place to go, exactly, there's no – and you can't find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don't open. I don't know why they don't do that. It's a real problem. So it's very dangerous.

1. Fires need oxygen. So adding more isn't a great idea.
2. Air in a plane is pressurised. Air outside is very thin. So if you open the window, all the air inside will want to go outside to equalise the pressure. 

Here's a diagram of what happens if Mitt Romney opens the window of his executive jet: click to enlarge. 

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