r/interestingasfuck • u/ThugLeeVoguee • 1d ago

The implosion of the Titan submarine (OceanGate) was so rapid that the pain wasn't even registered by the brain. They didn't feel anything at all. Utterly instantaneous.

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u/chefbobbyjay 1d ago

Which is why you leave engineering to engineers and not try to build your own home made sub. Well explained.

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u/Chemical-Elk-1299 1d ago

Don’t forget he bragged about getting the carbon fiber secondhand

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u/Fear023 22h ago

Everyone should watch the ocean gate documentary. He did so much shit wrong. When the dive season ended, he left it out in freezing temps because he wanted to save money on transport costs.

That's when I think their qa manager left. You're apparently really not supposed to do that with carbon fibre.

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u/Rico_Solitario 16h ago

And the guy came from old money. He was not hurting for cash he was just a greedy arrogant son of a bitch

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u/Disastrous_Visit9319 9h ago

Bro was the personification of late stage capitalism. Do everything cheap as possible to maximize profits who cares if it harms customers maybe just pay a fine or bribe the cheeto. He forgot he was putting himself in the same position as the customers.

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u/lazylazygecko 5h ago

I remember there was a comic about billionaires escaping to their own man-made island, but people still managed to infiltrate it cause they had cut so many corners on security. At the time I thought that just sounded too implausible, and then the submarine implosion happened lol.

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u/jake04-20 1d ago

Didn't he also basically admit that he knew of other experts that stated carbon fiber was not the right material for something like that, and he pompously bragged something along the lines of "well clearly it's working for me, I've done X dives and the sub is fine?"

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u/faldese 1d ago edited 1d ago

Not the way he's done it, but it's worth noting that the material hasn't been written off by submersible experts. Initially OceanGate was doing much shallower dives, and a carbon fiber hull (not his carbon fiber hull though) might have been well-suited for that. But Stockton Rush wanted big big money and a big big reputation so he saw Titanic as the ultimate goal and, well, he did get the latter wish in the end.

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u/Gregorymendel 1d ago

He increased his net worth tremendously with that intelligent move 🙏🙏🙏

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u/bradimir-tootin 18h ago

I have 2 degrees in materials science, BS and PhD. I can put the sheer foolishness of this mistake in perspective. This is the kind of question you can ask a 2nd year mechanical, civil, or materials engineering student. It is also the sort of question that is considered a gimme.

Somewhere around the end of the first month of the intro to materials course you learn about ductile vs brittle fracture and materials. You are shown engineering diagrams, fracture surfaces, atomicistic and molecular reasons as to why materials are ductile or brittle etc. You learn that brittle materials fail fast and that the cracks in them propogate at the speed of sound (km / s). You also have quiz, hw, and exam questions about selecting materials for different applications. This mistake isn't even about leaving it to professional engineers this mistake is the kind of thing we use as freebee points on a quiz for the youngest students. THAT'S how bad this mistake was. We expect what are basically children to get this correct.

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u/chefbobbyjay 18h ago

Funny story. I’m a 2nd year engineering student and I’m taking intro to materials and.. yup. Ya nailed it lol

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u/Calculagraph 1d ago

I mean, how did the first engineer become an engineer? Checkmate.

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u/SuperCruisePanther 22h ago

What came first, the physicist or the engineer?

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u/PH_Prime 23h ago

Just wait until we have similar rich guys building subs from a chatgpt output

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u/Kaa_The_Snake 23h ago

I’ll also leave the diving to the engineers tyvm!

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u/chiefteef8 14h ago

He was an engineer. Just a bad and arrogant one 

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u/granitefloors 8h ago

He had engineers to build it. They just went along with it. The one engineer who spoke to was fired

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u/Festival_Vestibule 23h ago

He was an engineer. Aerospace.  Last time I checked James Cameron isnt an engineer either.

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u/Nerevarine91 21h ago

James Cameron doesn’t go down to the depth of the Titanic in submersibles he built himself out of cheap materials. You don’t have to be an engineer to avoid doing that

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u/fused_of_course 23h ago

James Cameron is smart enough to listen to engineers

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u/Festival_Vestibule 7h ago

I'm not defending the guy. Im just saying that he had an engineering degree from Princeton.  And now you know that too.

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u/fused_of_course 5h ago

When did I say I didn't know that? I just meant JC doesn't pretend to be an engineer - he just talks as an enthusiast. Rush didn't listen to other people.

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u/Festival_Vestibule 4h ago

Talks as an enthusiast?   He designed and built his own sub. He's widely regarded as an expert in the submersible industry.  Also holds more than one patent in underwater engineering technology.  Enthusiast my ass.

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u/fused_of_course 1h ago

So is he an engineer or an enthusiast? My dad built a car because he's an enthusiast not a mechanic. You made the point that there is a difference not me so don't try to put me on the spot to explain your point. If he's not an engineer - which you said he isn't - then what is he? Because the word used for an amateur who gains competence in a space is enthusiast.

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u/chefbobbyjay 23h ago

Well there ain’t no damn aero or space down there.