Audible dot com is the leading provider of digital audio books and spoken word, with over one thousand titles to choose from. Audible lets you listen to your favorite books anywhere, anytime. Go to Audible podcast dot com slash stuff brain to get a free audio book download of your choice when you sign up today. Welcome to brain Stuff from house stuff works dot com where smart happens. Hi Am Marshall Brain with today's question, how do torpedo engines work if
they're under water? A torpedo is essentially a guided missile that happens to fly underwater. A torpedo therefore has a propulsion system, a guidance system, and some sort of explosive device that's gonna blow up the target. Torpedoes can travel several miles on their way to the target, and therefore they need a propulsion system that can run for ten to twenty minutes. Most missiles that fly through the era use either rocket engines or jet engines, but neither of
these work very well. Underwater torpedoes use one of two techniques for propulsion. Batteries, and an electric motor is one option. This is the same technique that any non nuclear submarine must use when it's running underwater. Engines using special fuel is the other option. Most engines that were familiar with, like car engines and jet engines, draw their oxygen from the error around the engine and use it to burn
the fuel. A torpedo can't do that, so it uses fuel that either does not need an oxidizer, or it carries the oxidizer inside the torpedo. Auto fuel spelled O t t O has its own oxidizer mixed in with the fuel. Hydrogen peroxide doesn't need an oxidizer. It turns the steam when it hits a catalyst. We don't encounter too many fuels that contain their own oxidizers in our normal lives for two reasons. When a fuel has its own sidizer, it tends to make it explosive. Dynamite, for example,
has its own oxidizer and it's quite explosive. Rocket engines have to carry their own oxidizer. But because we normally run engines in the error, which has a good supply of oxygen, carrying the oxidizer means extra weight and hassle, which is unnecessary. For more on this and thousands of other topics. Because it has staff works dot Com audible dot com is the leading provider of digital audio books and spoken word, with over one titles to choose from.
Audible lets you listen to your favorite books anywhere, anytime. Go to Audible podcast dot com slash stuff brain to get a free audio book download of your choice when you sign up today.