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Web Videos Show Off the Wonders of Chemistry

Posted by Zonk on Mon Mar 03, 2008 12:17 AM
from the it-started-explodey-and-got-explodier dept.
Media Television It's funny. Laugh. Idle Science
Timmy writes "Wired Science has picked ten of the best videos from YouTube and their own show on PBS to highlight the wonderful things chemistry can do. Only four of them involve fire or explosions. The rest range from music videos about the polymerase chain reaction to reactions that repeatedly change color. One shows how to pour sodium acetate stalagmites. Another shows Chris Hardwick giving instructions for building a glow stick while making absurd comments."
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Submission: Top 10 Amazing Chemistry Videos by Anonymous Coward
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  • I love how it... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Datamonstar (845886) on Monday March 03 2008, @12:22AM (#22620682)
    .... tells you right out how many include fire and/or explosions. That's the sort of data a geek REALLY needs.
  • What discussion of the wonders of chemistry would be complete without a mention of these nifty advances in the "better living through chemicals" department:

  • Dry Ice Bombs are fun to watch (^_^) (Score:4, Interesting)

    by MacDork (560499) on Monday March 03 2008, @12:23AM (#22620692) Journal
    Too bad the youtube version of this video [google.com] requires you to log in and be over 18...

  • HIGHSCHOOL CHEM (Score:3, Interesting)

    by kevmatic (1133523) on Monday March 03 2008, @12:23AM (#22620696)
    My high school chemistry teacher did the gummy bear combustion thing. Filled the entire room with smoke.

    He also did the color-change chemical thing. Its freaky to see in real life.

    Ever see the mythbusters about the coke and Mentos? At the end they make giant exploding bubble foam. We did that too.

    Man, I loved my chemistry teacher. He probably only got away with all that shit is because he retired that year.
    • The colour change one is actually much more interesting if carried out right. Around 1980 when I was doing my A level chemistry, I found a Scientific American article about these reversible reactions, and took it in for the chemistry teacher to see.

      More interesting that stirring a beaker, is to mix the ingredients in a shallow glass tray. The reaction starts spontaneously at several point and then concentric waves of colour radiate out from these points, interacting with each other. It's rather like watchin

  • Thermite - One concoction to rule them all... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by gnick (1211984) on Monday March 03 2008, @12:23AM (#22620704) Homepage

    ...a clear victory for thermite...
    May the gods smile upon whoever decided to combine aluminum and rust. But, this was posted on Sunday so I have to wait all the way until next weekend to spark anything up... =(

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by palegray.net (1195047)
      Try this dude's page of Chemical Mishaps [destructve.com]. Some pretty amusing reading...
      • I can speak from experience as to the authenticity of his acetone-peroxide mishap.

        Peroxide:Beauty shop - Some funny looks since a kid with a shaved head wanted what they considered hair-bleach, but that didn't prevent the sale. FYI, beauty shops sell peroxide in higher concentrations than pharmacies.
        Acetone:Hardware store - Duh.
        Strong acid catalyst:School chem cabinet - Sulphuric. The locker had solid double locks, but easily removable hinges.

        Gave the baby-sitter a heckuva story.
    • A friend of mine likes to tell the story of how when he was in high school chemistry, he did a little bit of studying of the periodic chart and found a variation of thermite that was much worse. With the instructor's approval, they made up about a teaspoon of the stuff. Then, the instructor (who really should have known better) put it on a lab bench on an asbestos pad and lit it off. Not only did it scorch the bench, it scorched the ceiling! And no, I'm not going to tell you what they substituted for th
      • There's nothing complex about it, you can create more powerful thermite mixes with additional oxidizers (like potassium permanganate or potassium nitrate). They are described in a lot of chemical literature, there's nothing secret in it.

        Of course, all this stuff is incredibly dangerous - it can burn through almost ANYTHING.
        • No additional oxidizers. Just powdered aluminum and yrnq bkvqr. Nothing else.
          • Makes sense, they are almost on the opposite sides of the reactivity series.
            • It's not exactly a secret. As I've said, anybody can work it out for themselves the same way my friend did. I just didn't want to spell ii out openly so that kids who didn't know how to work it out wouldn't find out. I figure that if they know enough to follow my hints, they probably know enough to be fairly careful about it.
        • No, my friend's story is true. There are several reasons this concoction isn't used, and the toxicity of the byproducts is only one.
          • The story's interesting - Its authenticity, IMHO, is unimportant. I'm sure that there are better metal-oxides to combine with aluminum powder to make thermite - Ferrous oxide (rust) is the most convenient, but any metal compound that provides a sufficient amount of oxygen for the aluminum to burn oughtta work. I'm curious - Sure you don't wanna share details? What's the worst that could happen?
            • Sure, I'll share, but only by telling you how he worked it out. He noticed that the reaction heat went up as the atomic weight of the oxide did, and looked at the next element in the same family as iron.
            • Nope! His concoction isn't useful partially because it's too toxic (not always important in a military application) and partially because thermite's already hot enough for what they need. Not being a chemist, I doubt he's ever published, although what I said in my original post is probably enough to let a chemist figure it out.
              • Or possibly because iron is all over the damn place, and making iron oxide isn't hard, whereas many (most?) other metals that would supply the proper amount of oxygen aren't really available in large quantities easily?
      • Except ceramics.

        Also, the reaction puts off enough UV to ruin your eyes if you look directly at it.

  • Entertainment, not education (Score:5, Insightful)

    by neapolitan (1100101) * on Monday March 03 2008, @12:25AM (#22620718)
    From TFV:

    "Adding something cold to thermite doesn't cancel it out, it just makes it angry."

    Wow, just wow. We've talked about this kind of thing before in the context of CSI and Mythbusters.

    I really wish that popular science shows would at least attempt to bring some education into the mix. I am not against blurring of education and entertainment, but the videos presented are simply bad entertainment. Why not give an elementary discussion of 'heat capacity' or energy that is associated with phase transitions, etc? It would still give the explosion of thermite and provide a small education.

    Does anybody remember the old PBS series "3-2-1 contact" or "Square One?" It had education plus entertainment in a nice combination IMHO. What I would like to see is a Mythbusters-type show where they try to predict things *first* with introduction to physics / chemistry concepts, and then test their findings (with explosions and the hilarious consequences.) They do this a bit with their *Warning Science Content* segments, but it could be made a bit more rigorous.

    Yes, I know the arguments that this is making kids "interested in science," but true research / science is very little about explosions, and these shows are, in my experience, not making kids interested in the rigor or reality of scientific reasoning. The question regarding thermite was proposed by a 30+ year old man!

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by wizardforce (1005805)

      Why not give an elementary discussion of 'heat capacity' or energy that is associated with phase transitions, etc?

      you know, it's important to know concepts important to thermodynamics although it's infinitely more important and useful to understand the scientific method its self. The facts and theories are the result of the scientific method and would be pretty much unthinkable without it. knowing that we know something is not as important as knowing HOW we know something. It's always been something tha

        • getting the idea in the first place doesn't have a method but testing that idea does. I would argue that the single most important difference between the time our technology advanced exponentially and the dark ages is the scientific method. People always had ideas- tons of them and no real method to test them. once they figured out how to evaluate claims they could make true use of these ideas. without ideas there is nothing, without the scientific method there may as well have been nothing.
        • Did you ever consider that when you're looking at very similar shapes and very dissimilar colors you've made a very silly experiment? Try something like picking the [0,0,205] blue ball out of the field of [0,0,255] blue balls (search for blue3 on this [njit.edu] page) as easily as you did the red? I'd also bet you could find the O in a field of T's almost as easily as you did the red ball in the blob of green ones, as long as you weren't colorblind.

          But I'm betting that I'm just a peer in your scientific review proce
    • It's sad that there's a show that makes Mythbusters look like Science class. Yes, Hamster is/was in it and I love his work... On Top Gear. I'll take his word on the new Mustang but I won't on the effects of thermite on liquid nitrogen(even if someone is shoving words into his mouth).

      The reality though is that shows have to entertain first, and educate second.
    • Thank goodness someone's having a whinge about Myth Busters and isn't being modded down into oblivion. That show isn't science, it's special effects guys blowing things up. Mythbusters basically piss on the scientific method every time they put a show together. If it were presented as that I'd be fine with it. (I love the British show "Brainiac" for instance, which is presented as comedy) but it's presented as a serious show and it has a cult following even amongst those who should know better.
    • For those who want to get an entertaining but substantial overview of chemistry rather than 5-minute gee-whiz demonstrations or music videos, I recommend the learner.org's The World of Chemistry [learner.org] 1/2 hour videos. These are very well done. I particularly find the simulations in the "The Genetic Code" amazing, even mesmerizing; it is mind-boggling how an arrangement of mere atoms can perform such extremely complex and organized behavior that we call "life". Makes the Linux kernel seem like kindergarten st

  • Obligatory grousing... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    ...about how chemistry-as-a-hobby is increasingly a victim of the War on Terror (TM).
    • , because hobby chemistry was pretty much destroyed well before 9/11. The "War on Drugs" caused most chemical sellers to eliminate sales to individuals, and in some states (like Texas) it is illegal to even own laboratory glassware without a permit (and regular inspections) from local police.

      Add in the effect of lawyers and insurance companies (who drove chemistry sets off of toy store shelves), and you have one more "perfect storm" contributing to the ongoing "dumbing down" of the US.

  • chemistry (Score:4, Funny)

    by davidknippers (1207588) on Monday March 03 2008, @12:44AM (#22620806) Homepage
    Chemistry isn't as nearly as 'cool' as these pretty make-fire videos lead one to believe. Every explosion a young chemist commits brings them closer and closer the sad reality of their career later in life, performing volumetric titrations day in day out in labs with limited ventilation and no capacity to do dumb shit with metal sodium. Chemists are nothing more than glorified, poor cooks who use class 'A' glassware.
    • Yet another profession that works out much better as a hobby :-)

    • Every explosion a young chemist commits brings them closer and closer the sad reality of their career later in life, performing volumetric titrations day in day out in labs with limited ventilation and no capacity to do dumb shit with metal sodium.
      All the more reason to demonstrate all of the "dumb shit" that they can, enjoy it, and explore the fun-but-not-commercially-exploitable sides of their chosen path. Especially when it entertains the rest of us.

      Cheers.
  • Does this mean we can cast fire, acid, cold, and lightning spells now?
  • i've really been enjoying Breaking Bad on amc

    high school chemistry teacher gets lung cancer, decides to leave the world without saddling his family with debt, so he begins to make meth

    in the episode i just saw tonight

    ***SPOILER***

    he goes into a drug lord's den with a bag of meth. said drug lord isn't very impressed with the man and has put his partner in the hospital. so said mild mannered chemistry teacher, now unafraid of death, takes the "meth" he brought with him and throws it on the floor, hard

    it's really fulminated mercury

    BOOM

    meth drug lord meets fulminated mercury beats any youtube chemistry video i've seen
  • Potassium permanganate is purple.

    Besides, even the video says "chlorate".

    I think they could have used a bigger bucket of liquid nitrogen on number 10.

    Two videos, two errors. Eight more to go...

  • I never realised Gummy bears were so toxic!
  • Eh, big deal.
    Web videos have been showing off the wonders of biology for years.
  • Truly entertaining educational videos: http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/lookaroundyou/media/ [bbc.co.uk] , and more on Youtube.
  • Another great video: Mercury Drop Experiment [mac.com]

    A cyclic redox reaction on the surface of a drop of mercury causes it to wobble around. Chemical energy -> motion.

    Click "Activity 3" or "Activity 5" for the coolest ones.
  • Does anyone know the formula for the color-changing experiment? That amazes me, and assuming I don't kill myself or my neighbors in the process, I would love to try it out.

    Plus, if anyone knows the recipe, do you also know the reaction that is taking place and why it happens repeatedly?

    The other videos were cool, but that was the only one I just kept repeatedly staring at in amazement.
    • Most things are accessible if you're creative enough. The benign stuff you can just buy outright from a chemical supply store. Now that the interwebs are available to the unwashed masses, the nasty stuff can be improvised.

      My friends' 10-year old daughter was complaining recently about inaccessible chemicals interfering with her science fair project. (She wanted sulphuric acid - Her mom insisted on lemon juice because she "didn't want to be put on a list"). Her mom complained (half-heartedly - mostly in

      • On a related note, the first time I tried to swipe gasoline by storing it in a Styrofoam Sonic cup was messy, but an open door into a whole new kind of fun.
        Oh yeah been there before. For me the big problem occurred when I set an entire table on fire in the shed when the old man wasn't home. Ah to be young again, such joys were had.

        I'm curious though, what school the 10 year old goes to. Want to start sending my siblings-children there!

        • Re:not easy to get some of this stuff (Score:5, Interesting)

          by gnick (1211984) on Monday March 03 2008, @01:12AM (#22620980) Homepage

          For me the big problem occurred when I set an entire table on fire in the shed when the old man wasn't home.
          For me, one of the most memorable (certainly not the most dangerous or biggest injury inflicted, just memorable) was when my parents were gone and I managed to set fire to the surface of a large jarred candle. Mind you, once all of the wax in a candle is melted and the surface has actually caught fire, water is a bad idea. The wax boils and begins shooting flaming wax balls out. Then the glass shatters. Major bummer and hard to explain when the parents notice the huge charred area on the porch.

          I'm curious though, what school the 10 year old goes to.
          Los Alamos, NM has a very unique school district. I'm actually torn between moving away and furthering my career or stagnating the career, staying, and viewing it up as an investment parallel to private-school...
          • I read "Bringing Up Boys" a while back, and right of the bat there were some amusing tales of what boys in particular get up to.

            Now ad science to this mix - and my son who is now 9months old...

            Why, we CAN experience our childhood adventures all over.

            "Honey, I am NOT just messing around... this stuff is important... yes I know he's only nine months old... well by the time he is old enough I'll want to have had this sorted out no problem..."

            And why do only four of those experiments explode?

            MORE 'SPLOSIONS!
            • It seems fairly clear in retrospect:
              1) Water sinks o bottom of jar full of molten wax
              2) Water boils
              3) Big problems

              The problem is, how do I warn my sons about these kinds of risks without encouraging them to do stuff equally as stupid?

              Unfortunately, based on my antics and similar antics that I've since learned about my dad pulling in his youth, I think I'm doomed...

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