r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/InsaneMocktail • Sep 08 '26

Video University of Waterloo Students Launch Rocket Breaking World Record

41k Upvotes

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59

u/Chrisnessbae6 Sep 08 '26

This is outstanding work for a University. I'm impressed and curious to see how their rocket evolves.

Off topic: Not to start a fight with anyone....

I've seen many clips similiar to this and I still can not understand why some people think the earth is flat.

40

u/Content_Plantain_339 Sep 08 '26

Canada has a lot of bright minds. It's a shame they all get poached by US companies.
We need more R&D and end of the line manufacturing within Canada.
Sadly, the US for decades has convinced us that we should stick to extracting raw resources (lumber, oil, minerals) to sell to them cheaply and leave the manufacturing and tech up to them to sell back to us at a mark up.
I believe was intentionally structured post WW2 to make Canada more reliant on the US.
With the current political environment, we need to develop and modernize and make up for the decades lost in order to catch up to the other G7 countries. We're the only one that doesn't manufacture our own cars and products

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u/Tycoon004 Sep 08 '26

Most educated country on earth!

7

u/Sportfreunde Sep 09 '26

Canada has recently started to poach US scientists.

And that financial system you mentioned exists because the USD became the world reserve currency post WW2 allowing them to buy assets from other nations for printed dollars without too much inflation. That system is eroding now as many countries are doing more trade outside the USD system and shoring up on gold reserves while the US also has to pay higher yields on treasuries as bond auction demand goes down.

1

u/Pndapetzim Sep 09 '26

A lot of our tax structure is geared towards small business on one end and taxing mature businesses on the other. Once startups get past a certain point they all start looking at moving south - getting the right incentives for startups to scale in Canada is a major thing we need to do going forward.

38

u/Dear_Half2871 Sep 08 '26

Waterloo is our Caltech / MIT / IIT in terms of STEM major prestige, it’s crazy competitive to get in. This is the work of some of our brightest students!

6

u/m_ttl_ng Sep 08 '26

Their student team facilities are some of the best in the world as well.

4

u/No_News_1712 Sep 09 '26

MIT is the Waterloo of the South!

7

u/VP007clips Sep 09 '26

The real advantage Waterloo has is the co-op program. It's the largest and highest ranked co-op program in the world.

It's tough to get through, alternating school and internship every term somewhere else is exhausting with needing to find a new place to live 3x/year and a co-op 1.5x/year. I got pretty lucky with mine, since most of my jobs gave me free housing and food on site, and flights to and from home every other week.

It puts you very far ahead of students from other schools. You'll have work experience at 5-6 relevant jobs by the end.

And especially in engineering, Waterloo students are well known. I've heard that there are enough Waterloo interns at companies like Google, Lockheed, Microsoft, etc that they often have several large tables in the lunchroom dedicated just to them, and that's in an entirely different country, local companies approach 100% Waterloo interns and graduates.

3

u/bob888w Sep 09 '26

Not UWaterloo... But trust me when I say I know a fair share of people from back when I was Uni student that complained just how much industry 'insider-knowledge' the co-op system got students. Even my pretty great uni had some jealousy over it. Some pretty exclusive companies essentially offered Spring internships ONLY for UWaterloo too.

1

u/Fuzzlechan Sep 09 '26

From the company side, UW co-op is a hassle. You have to sign up and interview them months before co-ops from any other school, and there’s no guarantee you get a match. You basically commit to either all UW co-ops, or no UW co-ops.

Great program and fantastic school, though.

10

u/[deleted] Sep 08 '26

[deleted]

5

u/Lookingforjustice223 Sep 08 '26

So many comments in here about flat earthers and I feel like this is the exact kind of stuff those people would look at and go "see? these idiots don't even understand they're looking at a fish eye lens! Of course they don't know NASA lizard people are hiding behind the ice wall of..." Ok I don't actually know what they think is going on, but my overall point remains. When something as clear as a fish eye lens confuses people, it's easy for conspiracy theorists to dismiss what said people believe.

3

u/KardelSharpeyes Sep 08 '26

Because some people are absolute morons. It isn't anything more complicated than that.

1

u/peter9087 Sep 09 '26

If you think this is evidence of a round earth you’re just as stupid as flat earthers. It’s a fish eye lens. Although the rocket is at an height you could see the curvature it would look nothing like this. The horizon would just have a very slight curve

1

u/Chrisnessbae6 Sep 09 '26

"Peter9087 If you think this is evidence of a round earth you’re just as stupid as flat earthers. It’s a fish eye lens. Although the rocket is at an height you could see the curvature it would look nothing like this. The horizon would just have a very slight curve"

Lol! Mike Tyson has been always right about some people on the internet. I would love for you to say this to my face. In all seriousness

Lets be respectful to one another going forward....

When taking photos or capture video for measuring or for accuracy companies do not use a fish eye lens cameras because of distortion. Example would be a company that surveys land.

Fish eye lens are not as common as some people may think because of their distortion. But they do have their use.

So to my statement I have seen many videos both professional and amateur like this one. And this includes class trips to NASA listening to stories from people who said they have been to space and seeing their videos. All these videos I have seen have shown the earth to have a similar curvature, thus confirming for me the earth is round.

Like I tell everyone, travel. Traveling around to different countries around the world with give you so much knowledge.

1

u/peter9087 Sep 09 '26

Now that’s an entire different thing if it’s an actual scientific experiment to capture the curvature. You referensed this video and videos like it so my comment was aimed towards that statement and it still holds true. Notice how I started with ”If you think…” meaning you shouldn’t take offense if you knew the difference.

Also it’s bad etiquette to just copy and paste and AI output and claim it as your own

1

u/Chrisnessbae6 Sep 09 '26

Copy and pasted your comment with your name in quotes because people have a habit of hitting and running on here. Say something , only to then delete their comments and/or account. That was the only thing copy and pasted.

Again in my initial comment I said " similar" not the same. As you said "videos like it" You and I can use 2 totally different cameras to take a picture of the same area and get similar images. Most likely their images will not be the same, especially when you get into color. But this does not take away from the truth of the matter.

Perfect example: The viral "What color is this dress?" Debate that went viral. The colors were debate, but the overall fact that it was a dress never was.

But overall I am glad we came to an understanding. Enjoy the rest of your day

1

u/peter9087 Sep 09 '26

I was referring to your middle segment that’s clearly Ai-written

1

u/Chrisnessbae6 Sep 09 '26

None it was AI, all my own words.

Same way I talk with my customers via e-mail.