Web Videos Show Off the Wonders of Chemistry 93
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."
Like the Mountain Dew glow stick? (Score:1)
Petition (Score:5, Insightful)
More this and less Microsoft/RIAA/FSF crap.
Sincerely,
BadAnalogyGuy
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not easyt to get some of this stuff (Score:1)
Re:not easy to get some of this stuff (Score:3, Funny)
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
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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)
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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!
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I did this e
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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...
Diet Coke and Mentos you say? (Score:1)
http://xkcd.com/346/ [xkcd.com]
I love how it... (Score:4, Funny)
Other wonders. (Score:5, Interesting)
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Or their consequences (Score:2)
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Dry Ice Bombs are fun to watch (^_^) (Score:4, Interesting)
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HIGHSCHOOL CHEM (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
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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)
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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.
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It's kind of like your friend's story, except true.
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Of course, all this stuff is incredibly dangerous - it can burn through almost ANYTHING.
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Also, the reaction puts off enough UV to ruin your eyes if you look directly at it.
Entertainment, not education (Score:5, Insightful)
"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!
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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
The scientific method; potential misconceptions (Score:1)
Yeah.
Kinda. Depends on what you define the scientific method to be. [I'm reiterating a point made previously (http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=466370&cid=22553660 [slashdot.org])]. New scientific knowledge (and let's not go out on a cartesian limb here) is the product of two major components, one of them being being the design and execution of experiments combined with peer review.
The other is
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But I'm betting that I'm just a peer in your scientific review proce
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The reality though is that shows have to entertain first, and educate second.
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Man, I used to LOVE that show! One of my favorite episodes was the one with the thermal imaging camera. I thought it was SO COOL watching them pour liquid nitrogen into the camera.
Also, Bloodhound Gang ftw. No, not this one [wikipedia.org], that one [wikipedia.org].
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..It's the answer! It's the reason!..something something
I don't actually remember the show very well, just thinking it was awesome. What about the other show with the math detectives? I can't remember what it was called. But when they entered dangerous situations they'd whip out their calculators for protection!
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Obligatory grousing... (Score:2, Insightful)
"War on Terror" is but the last nail in the coffin (Score:2)
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)
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Cheers.
So... (Score:2, Funny)
speaking of chemistry videos ***SPOILER*** (Score:4, Interesting)
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
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Number 9 is potassium chlorate, not permanganate (Score:2)
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...
wow! (Score:2)
BioVisions (Score:1)
I freggin' love this stuff.
Big Deal (Score:2)
Web videos have been showing off the wonders of biology for years.
Slashdot vs. Youtube vs Wired! (Score:1)
Now that is something I would register to see...
Junk Science (Score:1)
Seriously, I watched a season of it and was dumbfounded at the amount of misinformation and fake stunts they pulled. Once they put a fire extinguisher into a oven, and it exploded in a fireball shortly after. Yes, that's right. A fireball.
Mythbusters may err on the side of theatrics, but they never fake a result. And they have people who actually know stuff about science, instead of Richard Hammond.
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If so, they may have damaged the oven to produce a fireball, instead of magically producing one from a fire extinguisher.
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More chemistry videos (Score:1)
Recipe for eternal Youtube hotness (Score:1)
(What do you need the Chuck Norris for? Oh, the question you should be asking is, what does he need you for. And the answer is, he doesn't need you for anything, so you'd better get running while you still can.)
What about College Students? (Score:1)
Better Living Through Chemistry? (Score:1)
Interesting! Steve Spangler anyone? (Score:1)
Look around you (Score:2)
Amazing Mercury Video (Score:2)
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.
Color-Changing Experiment (Score:2)
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.
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