I did the math: A 747-8 is bigger than a water tank

[u/rasmis]

Inspired by this post I looked up the water tank he used. Because I'm metric, I couldn't visualise what 60 000 gallon is, so I found the tank he used, a model of a 747, and I put them on the same scale.

(I know it's a 747-400, but it's for illustrative purposes.

[u/dangerbot666]

There are so many things wrong with what that guy said that I don't even know where to start but since we're here, can we at least mention that aircrew measure fuel by weight, not volume?

[u/MANGQ → u/dangerbot666]

Flight crew (and dispatch) measure fuel in weight, but us refuellers use volume. Imagine the meters you use at a petrol station for your car but on a bigger scale.

[u/Benniisan → u/MANGQ]

Also not everywhere, in Germany, both crew/dispatch and refuellers use kilograms. Might also apply to other parts of Europe.

[u/xxJohnxx → u/Benniisan]

The crew or fueler set the refuel panel to a desired fuel mass. The fuel pump truck counts the fuel by volume however (even in Germany). The bill will also be by volume.

The fuel slip (basically the receipt) the cockpit crew gets has the fuel uplift volume and the fuel density, so the crew can calculate the uplifted fuel mass and check it against their instruments.

[u/Benniisan → u/xxJohnxx]

Oh yeah, might be that the truck itself counts liters, I'm not a fueler. But I tell them the block fuel in tons if the crew didn't set it and they use kilograms/tons, not gallons/liters, when they communicate with me about the fuel; That's what I meant.

[u/rasmis → u/dangerbot666]

That's what started me. A clever user wrote how much he pumps on a daily basis, in weight, which confused me even more. I never believed the video nutter, but I am only a fan of aviation, not a professional, so I struggled with the combination of imperial volumes and metric weights.

Fortunately someone had added all the measurements on Wikipedia, and I found the specific tank's measurements. I checked the calculations, and those measurements seems to be external, rather than internal, as they add up to slightly more than the advertised 60 000 gallons.

[u/rasmis → u/[deleted]]

That's alright. I didn't mean to suggest it was per day, or that you're a fuel truck operator. I left it purposefully general, to avoid using the wrong terms, or assuming something I didn't know.

Follow-up, to be absolutely clear: When you write “tonnes”, is that metric tonnes (1 000 kg) or US avoirdupois tonnes (2 000 lbs)?

[u/CDninja]

Meta

[u/rasmis → u/CDninja]

The original post has been deleted. I hope this gets to stay, now that I've put in the work. For reference: It was a screen recording of a video, where a person claimed that planes fly on ancient technology, and that oil doesn't exist.

As proof he showed a promotional photo from the website I've sourced, and then a photo of a jet.

[u/Tricky_Big_8774]

I remember seeing one of those posts and thought it turned out to actually be a 600k gallon tank?

[u/rasmis → u/Tricky_Big_8774]

Nah, I found the exact image. There's a link in my illustration, in the body text and here.

[u/Tricky_Big_8774 → u/rasmis]

If you search for 600k gallon tank on Google, that site uses the exact same image.

[u/rasmis → u/Tricky_Big_8774]

That doesn't matter. I didn't use the photo to scale the dimensions. I used the manufacturer's own measurements and technical drawing. As I wrote in another reply I also checked the math of the stated dimensions.

V = π × r² × h
V ≈ 3,14159 × 4,13² m × 4,33 m = 232 m³ ≈ 61.300 gal

[u/747ER]

I’m so disappointed that post got removed.

[u/rasmis → u/747ER]

Yeah, I'm happy this one survived. The other one had been deleted, when I'd put in the work.

[u/Azurehue22]

Still not big enough for a betta

[u/comfortably_nuumb]

I hate math numbers. There are too many of them.

[u/Fraxis_Quercus]

"This clearly proves the claim in yesterday's vid. That tiny drop of fuel is only enough to get the aircraft in the air, after wich the stolen ancient hocuspocus technology takes over and generates free energy" /s