Engineering
The Quiet Battle Against Cavitation in Ship Propellers
Quick fact
During early submarine development, adding a seventh blade and skewing the propeller tips reduced cavitation enough to cut underwater noise dramatically – allowing detection ranges to shrink from kilometers to just hundreds of meters.
Why this is interesting
You've probably heard the rumble of a ship's engine – but what if the loudest noise isn't the engine, but the propeller silently boiling the water around it?