Actually dragging (or wheeling in) a wire or having a wire car supplying the plane with electricity during takeoff would work too.

After doing more of the math, I realized that the energetic cost of takeoff is quite a small fraction of the overall cost. So the only real benefit of the catapult would be to reduce the size and weight of the propulsive machinery on the plane. So externally providing just the electricity wouldn’t be much of a benefit.

I didn’t say which type of catapult. I don’t need ICE showing up at my door.

This seemed intuitively wrong to me (like, way too low a cost), but: 25,000 pounds moving 100 mph is equal to 11,331,007 J of kinetic energy. Since 3.6 million J equals 1 kWh and 1 kWh on average costs $0.17, that means you could accelerate 25,000 pounds to reasonable bare minimum flying speed for about fifty cents (not considering efficiency of the machinery). My mind still can’t process this, but math is math.

On the other hand, looking at it from a potential energy perspective it’s a bit more expensive. 25,000 pounds at a cruising altitude of 10,000 ft. (still quite low from an airliner perspective) is about 339 million J, 94 kWh or about $16 – the cost of lunch at MacDonald’s.

Since a plane requires the most thrust at takeoff, you could use ground-based catapults to get the plane to takeoff speed (or faster even) and then you could carry smaller batteries and propelling machinery. For extra fun, you could have landing planes snag a wire and use their momentum to accelerate a plane taking off.

To save even more weight, since you’re going airport-to-airport you could leave off the landing gear and just have the planes come down on a bouncy trampoline-like surface. If you think that’s batshit crazy, the British actually experimented with this idea for their aircraft carriers in the 1950s.

Edit: to make these numbers more realistic I’m going to assume something like a 737, which can weigh something like 150,000 pounds fully loaded (this includes fuel but you’d need batteries instead for an electric plane). Getting this to a 150 mph takeoff speed would take about 100 million J (getting it then to a cruising speed of 500 mph would be another 233 million J, but that’s pretty minor compared to the other costs). Climbing this plane to 30,000 ft would take 6.1 billion J. Resisting a drag force of 5000 pounds (about what a 737 experiences at cruising speed at 30,000 ft) for 500 miles (the distance from Cleveland to New York City) would need 17.6 billion J. Assuming landing is free (fuck TANSTAAFL) that means a typical trip needs 23.8 billion J or 6618 kWh or $1125. Assuming a real-world efficiency of 25% means the actual cost would be $4500 (which is in the ballpark of what jet fuel costs). Assuming 200 passengers, that’s $22.50 per person. Not exactly “$5 of electricity” but surprisingly small.

Feel free to check my math, my brain hurts.

My cat had an enlarged heart near the end of her life and when I took her to a chain vet they quoted me $3500 to do what they could and she still would have been in pretty bad shape. I could tell the vet didn’t really want to do it and when I asked about euthanasia instead she immediately said “that’s the right thing to do” and went off to get the process started without asking me again about the expensive treatment. I will always be indebted to her for this.

I used to take my cats to my sister-in-law’s mother, but she had to sell her practice (to this very same chain, in fact) in order to have something for her retirement. The chain told her quite openly that they were buying her practice to shut it down and remove local competition. Corporations are such a fucking cancer.

I got lunch for my mom and myself at Five Guys the other day. Two burgers, one order of fries, two fountain drinks, $44. I wouldn’t even have minded the price if it had been, y’know, fantastic food, but it was just mid. Burgers were bland, fries were limp and greasy – so greasy that the bottom of the bag broke open when I got it home – and even the drinks were watery. For $44!

I tried Taco Bell yesterday for the first time in years. At least it was “only” $11 for a mexican pizza, two tacos and a large drink. Unfortunately it was utterly disgusting, everything tasted like stale wheat flour which was weird because I don’t think the food actually had wheat flour in it anywhere.

I was doing my taxes one night on April 15th and while looking for my W2s I found a bag of weed that I had misplaced weeks before. I hadn’t smoked since I had lost it so I naturally toked up and completed my tax form (thank god for the 1040-EZ form). Then I drove to a post office that was open until midnight and had a drive-thru lane to accommodate us tax procrastinators. Then I drove through the drive-thru lane twice, each time giving the dude collecting envelopes a “what the fuck are you looking at?” scowl before realizing too late that he had a legitimate reason for looking at me. I managed to hand him my return on the third trip through the line and he just laughed.