Dear Mitt: I thought you would know this, but here's why airplane windows don't open. [View all]

[trof]

(DUers: I finally realized that I/we are dealing with an infantile personality.)

Mitt: The reason airplane windows don;t open is twofold.

1. The air noise would be horrific. You'd never be able to hear the sound on the movie.
Or the PA announcements.
This is the explanation I think you're most able to understand, so I put it first.

2. OK, this one involves aerodynamics and physics, so it will take a little more concentration on your part.
Aerodynamics is all about what makes an airplane fly and what happens to it, both inside and outside, when it does.
Physics is about why and how the physical world works.
Remember Newton and the apple?
Yeah, like that.

An airplane's inside air is pressurized. That means that it's kept at a higher pressure than the outside air. I won't try to explain how. it just happens. Trust me.
Why? Because as you get higher the outside air gets 'thinner' and there's therefore LESS oxygen in it. So you have to keep the inside air 'thicker' with more oxygen in it. Otherwise you'd pass out from lack of oxygen. It's a big word...'hypoxia'', but you don't have to remember that.

Until you get to about 10.000' you're OK with outside air. It's thick enough. But ABOVE 10,000' the air starts to get thinner so that's why they pressurize the inside air to make it thicker.
OK?
NOW...if you should open a window at say 35,000 feet ALL the INSIDE high pressure air would try to get OUTSIDE, and all the OUTSIDE air would try to get INSIDE.
Right away you'd notice that you couldn't hear the movie any more. And any papers you had out and your laptop would go with the inside air, OUTSIDE.
Bummer.

This is called an "EXPLOSIVE DECOMPRESSION".
And that's a bad thing.
If you're the guy who rolled down the window you'd probably lose a body part, or be sucked out of the airplane, if you didn't have your seat belt fastened.
That's why it's always a good idea to have your sea belt fastened.
Just in case you're on an airplane where the windows roll down.