How do jet engines work?
I'd love to help you demystify how these incredible machines work! To make sure I tailor our journey perfectly to you, let's start with a quick question.
To help me explain this in the best way for you, could you tell me a little bit about your background in physics or engineering? For example, are you a complete beginner, or do you have some technical knowledge?
I'm a complete beginner, keep it simple!
Your path
The Four Stages: Suck, Squeeze, Bang, Blow
Key Components
Types of Jet Engines
Action and Reaction
Welcome aboard! Since you are a complete beginner, we are going to keep things incredibly simple, starting with the core physical principle that allows a jet engine to work in the first place.
To understand how a jet engine pushes a massive airplane through the sky, we have to look at a rule of physics discovered by Sir Isaac Newton back in the 17th century: . It states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This means forces always come in pairs.
Imagine you are standing on a skateboard and you throw a heavy bowling ball as hard as you can. The action is you pushing the ball forward. The reaction is the ball pushing you backward, causing your skateboard to roll in the opposite direction. A jet engine does the exact same thing, but instead of throwing bowling balls, it throws a massive, high-speed stream of hot air out its back.
The Reaction Engine
Because of this action-reaction principle, a jet engine is scientifically classified as a . It generates forward force, known as , entirely by expelling mass behind it.
If we want to understand how the engine creates this powerful, fast-moving stream of air internally, we can use a classic four-word memory trick that engineers use: Suck, Squeeze, Bang, Blow.
Let's start diving into those four steps. Ready to see how the engine sucks the air in?