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  • Welcome to Half as Interesting, where today, we're getting deep—36,201 feet deep, specifically, and I'm not giving you a metric conversion for that because either way, it's unfathomable.

  • But just for fun, here it is in Fathoms.

  • That's the depth at the ocean's lowest point, located here, and named Challenger

  • Deep after an old English boat.

  • Which is nice, I guess, but if I'm a boat, the last thing I want named after me is the deepest point on the ocean floorjust one boat's opinion.

  • Challenger Deep is about seven miles down, or fine, like 11 kilometers, and it looks like this because no light gets there.

  • It's so deep that you could sack Angel Falls, the Burj Khalifa, the Great Pyramid, the Louvre

  • Pyramid, the tallest sequoia tree, Big Ben, all three members of Destiny's Child, and the entirety of Mount Everest in there without breaking the surface.

  • The water is always just above freezing and, as a fun bonus, the water above it exerts almost 16,000 pounds per square inch of pressure on anything down there, so it's not what

  • I'd call an ideal vacation spot.

  • But nevertheless, somewhere between 27 and 40 people have stopped by since the first successful expedition in 1960.

  • How have so many people managed to visit such an inhospitable place?

  • Scientific necessity?

  • Some Cold War proxy thing?

  • Nope, most Challenger Deep missions trace back to everyone's favorite group, eccentric rich guys.

  • The US Navy takes credit for the first one, but its co-pilot, Jack Picard, built the ship with his father using money from a bunch of European industrialists, then sold it to the

  • Navy on the condition that he would still get to drive it.

  • The next person went 52 years later, and it was James Cameron, who directed Titanic, and is somehow still not afraid of the sea, and today, the vast majority of successful Challenger

  • Deep missions happen on a submarine built for private equity investor and lover of highly specific vehicles, Victor Vescovo.

  • Of humanity's 22 trips to Challenger Deep between January 1960 and July 2022, 19 of them were on that submarine, the limiting factor, and we're getting to the bottom of how it gets to the bottom of this.

  • The limiting factor cost $37 million and was designed, built, and tested all over the world for about four years before its first expedition.

  • The core of the thing is a big sphere with 9-centimeter-thick titanium walls and a 59-inch, or 1.5-meter, diameter interior.

  • They chose a titanium grade V ingot for the walls because it offered corrosion resistance and a good strength-to-weight ratioit's also got three domed acrylic windows passengers can look through.

  • When assembled, the hull is within 99.933% accuracy of a perfect sphere, which keeps the pressure evenly distributed across its surface.

  • It's also pretty darn impressivehave you ever tried to roll play-doh into a perfect sphere?

  • Have you ever tried doing the same thing with a titanium grade V ingot?

  • Not easy.

  • Before hitting the mighty Pacific, they needed to prove the hull could withstand some of the greatest pressure on Earth.

  • Unfortunately, the team couldn't get a titanium ball into an air traffic control job or a middle school game of truth or dare, so they did the next best thingsend it to a state research center in St. Petersburg, Russia, one of the only places with machines capable of this high pressure of a pressure test.

  • Other components of the limiting factor were made in the UK, Germany, Spain, and Australia, and in the US everywhere from Florida to North Carolina to Wisconsin and beyond, which is to say, despite its name, cost, convenience, and transport distance were not limiting factors in building the limiting factor.

  • The pilot gets a joystick and touchscreen to drive with, a bunch of computers to look at stuff, and one of two chairs to sit in that, don't worry, I've confirmed are both ergonomic and have enough room to stash a tuna sandwich underpresumably other sandwiches would fit too, but I haven't been able to verify.

  • The hull sits in this big ol' box, and when it's exploring time, an air-filled chamber above the entry hatch fills with water, and it starts sinking down at about one to two knots.

  • There's a layer of syntactic foam that adds some positive buoyancy to the whole thing, and because it's above the hull, it keeps the sub upright.

  • On the side, thrusters allow omnidirectional movement.

  • On the top, tracking and communications equipment keeps the sub in contact with the mothership, but the pilot has to check in with every 15 minutes.

  • After four hours, it's time to slow the descent, so the pilot starts dropping 20 weights, each weighing 5 kilograms, one at a time, so the sub becomes positively buoyant by the time it's near the seafloor.

  • I say near the seafloor, because the limiting factor doesn't actually touch the ground at Challenger Deepit travels all that way to hover just above, which is both very disappointing and very smart.

  • See, on the first expedition to Challenger Deep, they landed the submarine on the ground and kicked up so much sediment that it blocked all the windows and nobody saw anything.

  • So at depth, the limiting factor makes itself just a little bit floaty, then uses the thrusters to push itself ever so slightly down to stay near the floor without disturbing it.

  • It's got cameras to capture footage, LED lights so you can see stuff out the windows, and a robot arm to collect research samplesthough there's not much to see out those windows, except apparently a few freaky little fish things and a plastic bag.

  • Can you believe freaky little fish things produce and discard single-use plastics?

  • Despicable.

  • On the bottom of the limiting factor, there's a big steel weight, and when it's time to surface, the pilot drops that weight to start the sub's ascent.

  • Because the weight's held on by an electromagnet, it'll drop and start the ascent automatically if the sub loses power.

  • It'll also drop if the sub detects that the pilot is either passed out or dead.

  • There are also 12 backup batteries, 96 hours of emergency life support, and several other failsafe features that ensure nothingumbad happens.

  • All these features and more are how, after a 52-year gap between the first Challenger

  • Deep expeditions, and a seven-year gap between James Cameron's and Victor Vescovo's first, the gap between the limiting factor's first trip and its second was four days, and between its second and third, another four days, then it did 12 in the next two years.

  • As for why it did all that, I don't know, doesn't seem like that fun of a place to go.

  • I'd honestly rather see any of these.

  • If you want to get to the bottom of the ocean, you need a specialized, multi-million dollar submersible.

  • But if you want to get to the bottom of the news, all you need is this video's sponsor,

  • Ground News.

  • As our media landscape has gotten more online, more fragmented, and more algorithm-driven, outlets have been rewarded for catering to more specific audiences.

  • The result?

  • More clicks, and more bias.

  • Ground News helps you understand that bias and find the real story amidst all the noise.

  • For example, if, hypothetically, you've been googling submarines a lot lately, maybe you came across a story about a certain former president running his mouth about the US's nuclear submarines.

  • When you go to Ground News, you can find the story, and the story behind the storyall 112 articles they've found about the incident, the full bias distribution of the story itself.

  • 46% of reporting outlets lean left, while only 24% lean right.

  • You can even see the average political leanings of each outlet, the factuality rating of these outlets, and who owns these outlets.

  • But my favorite part of each story has to be Ground News' new comparison feature, that highlights key differences in reporting.

  • Here you can see that left-leaning outlets focused on Anthony Pratt's role in sharing sensitive information, while the right focused on the Mar-a-Lago investigation.

  • In an instant, you can see who wants you to know about this, who doesn't, how different outlets frame it, and whether you're being informed, or just tricked for clicks.

  • To understand the bias shaping your media diet, you can get a 30% discount on a Ground

  • News Vantage subscription by heading to ground.news slash half as interesting, or clicking the link in the description.

  • And when you do, you'll both support this channel and an independent news platform working to make the media landscape more transparent.

Welcome to Half as Interesting, where today, we're getting deep—36,201 feet deep, specifically, and I'm not giving you a metric conversion for that because either way, it's unfathomable.

Subtitles and vocabulary

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B1 US challenger limiting factor pilot hull ground

How Submarines Survive at 36,201 Feet Below

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    Kanta Mori posted on 2024/06/14
Video vocabulary

Keywords

stuff

US /stʌf/

UK /stʌf/

  • noun
  • Generic description for things, materials, objects
  • verb
  • To push material inside something, with force
specific

US /spɪˈsɪfɪk/

UK /spəˈsɪfɪk/

  • adjective
  • Relating to a particular species, structure, etc.
  • Precise; particular; just about that thing
  • Relating to a particular thing.
  • Clearly defined or identified.
  • Stated clearly and in detail, leaving no room for confusion or doubt.
  • Concerning one particular thing or kind of thing
bunch

US /bʌntʃ/

UK /bʌntʃ/

  • other
  • (of a fabric) gather or cause to gather into folds or wrinkles.
  • other
  • Collect or gather together.
  • noun
  • A group of things of the same kind
  • A group of people regarded as a unit; a company.
  • A group of people.
  • verb
  • To group people or things closely together
  • (Cloth) to gather/be gathered together in folds
bias

US /ˈbaɪəs/

UK /'baɪəs/

  • noun
  • Preference to believe things even if incorrect
  • An influence that unfairly affects a decision
  • A tendency to prefer one person or thing to another, and to favour that thing
  • A systematic error in a statistical result
  • A tendency to prefer one person or thing to another, and to favour that person or thing
  • verb
  • To unfairly favor one view over another
  • other
  • To apply a steady voltage or current to an electronic device to control its operation.
  • To cause someone to have prejudice
  • other
  • The action of supporting or opposing a particular person or thing in an unfair way, because of allowing personal opinions to influence your judgment
research

US /rɪˈsɚtʃ, ˈriˌsɚtʃ/

UK /rɪ'sɜ:tʃ/

  • noun
  • Study done to discover new ideas and facts
  • A particular area or topic of study.
  • A department or group within an organization dedicated to conducting research.
  • A detailed report of the results of a study.
  • verb
  • To study in order to discover new ideas and facts
  • other
  • A particular area or topic of academic study or investigation.
  • The work devoted to a particular study.
  • Systematic investigation into a subject in order to discover or revise facts, theories, applications, etc.
  • The systematic gathering, recording, and analysis of data about issues relating to marketing products and services.
  • other
  • Systematic investigation to establish facts or collect information on a subject.
  • other
  • To study the market relating to marketing products and services.
  • To study (a subject) in detail, especially in order to discover new information or reach a new understanding.
  • other
  • To carry out academic or scientific research.
pressure

US /ˈprɛʃɚ/

UK /'preʃə(r)/

  • noun
  • Anxiety caused by difficult problems
  • Force, weight when pressing against a thing
  • Strong persuasion to do something
  • other
  • To apply pressure to something
  • Attempt to persuade or coerce (someone) into doing something.
  • To apply physical force to something.
  • other
  • The burden of physical or mental distress.
  • The difficulties in your life
  • The force exerted per unit area.
  • Force of blood pushing against the walls of the arteries
  • The act of exerting influence or control.
  • Political or social force or influence.
  • A sense of urgency or stress caused by time constraints.
  • A feeling of stressful urgency caused by expectations
  • other
  • The exertion of force upon a surface by an object, fluid, etc., in contact with it.
  • The use of persuasion, influence, or intimidation to make someone do something.
  • The continuous physical force exerted on or against an object by something in contact with it.
  • The force applied in printing to transfer ink to paper or another surface.
  • Stress or strain caused by demands placed on someone.
  • verb
  • To apply force to something
  • To persuade or force someone to do something
lean

US /lin/

UK /li:n/

  • verb
  • To balance against or on something for support
  • To have a tendency to do something; favor
  • other
  • To be in or move into a sloping position.
  • To depend on someone or something for support or help.
  • To rest against something for support.
  • adjective
  • Having a low fat content
  • Efficient; well-designed with no waste
  • Thin; slim; skinny; with little fat on your body
  • Thin and healthy.
  • other
  • Meat containing little or no fat.
surface

US /ˈsɚfəs/

UK /'sɜ:fɪs/

  • verb
  • To give (road) a top layer
  • To appear after being hidden, unseen, or unknown
  • To come to the top of something; emerge
  • To come to the top level of water, mud, etc.
  • adjective
  • Of the top layer; not deep or meaningful
  • noun
  • Top layer of the ground or of water
  • Nature or emotions that show, but may not be true
  • Outside or upper layer of something
transparent

US /trænsˈpærənt/

UK /trænsˈpærənt/

  • adjective
  • Being open to see and to public criticism
  • Able to be seen through
  • Being simple and easily understood
contact

US /ˈkɑnˌtækt/

UK /'kɒntækt/

  • adjective
  • Touching or feeling something
  • noun
  • Touching or feeling something
  • A conductor allowing electricity to pass.
  • Exposure to a disease.
  • Object that allows electricity to run through it
  • Communication with someone or something
  • People who can give you information, introductions
  • other
  • To communicate with someone.
  • To communicate with someone.
  • To touch something
  • other
  • Communication or interaction.
  • The state or condition of physical touching.
  • other
  • Communication or interaction.
  • The state or condition of physical touching.
  • verb
  • To get in touch with someone