People are just finding out why plane windows are round and it's a matter of life or death

Turns out there's a scientific reason why all the windows on planes and boats are round, and having it any other way could genuinely put you at risk of death.

Science is often the answer to many unexplained aspects of life, and what seems like the most trivial or inconsequential change can actually have massive ramifications if you look at the logic behind it all.

While picking the wrong seat could leave you with a bit of an unpleasant flight experience, there are plenty of mysteries surrounding planes that are still yet to be explained as being in the air holds countless risks.

One major risk that is thankfully now avoided though involves the windows on all planes and boats, as their shape technically prevents the entire vessel from exploding mid-journey.

Turns out plane windows are round for a good reason (Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

You might have wondered why all 'normal' windows are square or rectangular, yet the minute you start traveling on a boat or a plane they suddenly become round.

Naively you might think this is just a bizarre feature of the travel experience or even a cost-cutting measure, but it's actual a crucial safety feature that unfortunately had to be figured out the hard way.

As reported by Mental Floss, the transition of commercial flights to larger and faster jets in the 1950s initially had windows in their traditional rectangular formation, but this was very quickly switched out after a pair of de Havilland Comets essentially disintegrated mid-air.

This caused the deaths of 56 passengers in total, and engineers eventually realized that the critical fault was found within the sharp and angular edges of the windows, which caused intense pressurized stress.

Studies showed that up to 70% of the airplane's stress was concentrated within the corners of rectangular windows, so doing away with these in favor of smooth and curved circular windows has genuinely saved lives.

There isn't just one window in modern planes either, as each hole is protected by an exterior layer to take the pressure, a middle pane that acts as a failsafe, and then an interior 'window' on the passenger side that can be interacted with safely.

One user on Reddit makes the situation a bit easier to understand if you're struggling to comprehend, comparing the window in question to opening a packet:

"You know how if you're opening a snack bag, it's much easier to open ones with a little notch to tear from?" They explain, "Well if you're tearing apart an airplane, it's much easier to do that if there's some sort of notch to tear from, like the corner of a rectangle cut in the skin."

Next time you're in the air - especially if you're in a window seat - make sure to be thankful that the windows are round, as the last thing you'd want is for the whole plane to be ripped to pieces.