> “I tend to approach things from a physics framework,” Musk said in an interview. “Physics teaches you to reason from **first principles rather than by analogy**. So I said, okay, let’s look at the first principles. What is a rocket made of? Aerospace-grade aluminum alloys, plus some titanium, copper, and carbon fiber. Then I asked, what is the value of those materials on the commodity market? It turned out that the materials cost of a rocket was around two percent of the typical price. https://fs.blog/first-principles/ #stub #published 2025-02-23