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Comparing the Sizes of Heavy Construction Machinery

Comparing the Sizes of Heavy Construction Machinery

We’ve been up close with some of the impressive land-moving and construction equipment that Caterpillar makes. MetaBallStudios sizes up these alongside some even bigger machines, including giant excavators, cranes, and earth movers that make even the 51.5 foot-tall CAT 797F mining truck look like a miniature.

Spinning a Skateboard Wheel at 100,000 RPM

Spinning a Skateboard Wheel at 100,000 RPM

At a speed of 30 MPH, a skateboard wheel spins at about 5000 RPM. The guys at the Waterjet Channel wanted to see how quickly they could get a wheel to spin under the pressure of their 60,000 PSI waterjet. After realizing that ordinary plastic wheels wouldn’t hold up, they milled their own out of aluminum.

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True Facts: Animal Superpowers

True Facts: Animal Superpowers

Nature can be truly amazing, bestowing creatures with all kinds of wondrous capabilities to help them survive and thrive. Ze Frank looks at creatures with superpowers like transparency, squeezing prey to death, and the ability to sling slime.

Pulling a Real Train with Miniature Trains

Pulling a Real Train with Miniature Trains

A couple of years back, Miniatur Wunderland set a world record by playing Christmas music on a model railroad. Now, they’ve set another world record by pulling a full-size train engine with 198 miniature train engines. They only went about 40 feet, but it’s still astounding that they pulled 84 tons.

Making a Knife from Sparklers

Making a Knife from Sparklers

Our ability to reclaim and reuse metal means it’s possible to make knives and tools out of all kinds of stuff. Knives Project shows us how they burnt the explosive coating off a bunch of sparklers, then twisted and forged the remaining metal rods to create a uniquely patterned blade.

Why Social Media Divides Us

Why Social Media Divides Us

There’s no question that extreme opinions have become more prevalent in recent years, and much of the blame is laid at the feet of social media. Kurzgesagt explores the psychology of online communication and theorizes why it’s making people less empathetic and more divided. They then provide some ideas about how we could make things better.

Measuring the Horsepower of a Horse

Measuring the Horsepower of a Horse

Contrary to popular belief, one horse is said to produce about 15 horsepower. But that number is disputed because there’s some question about the accuracy of the original measurements. With the help of Motivo, the guys from Donut came up with a new test: connecting a horse to a dynamometer to measure its true pulling power.

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Engineering a Walking Star Wars Droid

Engineering a Walking Star Wars Droid

Inspired by the two-legged droids being tested at Disneyland’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge attraction, engineer James Bruton wanted to see if he could build a similar walking robot without Disney’s millions of dollars. His 3D-printed robot is powered by four servo motors and has no hip joints, so it teeters around impatiently from side to side.

Matador SEG28 Backpack

Matador SEG28 Backpack

Matador’s weather-resistant, 28-liter backpack holds all your everyday gear and then some. It has four zippered compartments which can be accessed externally or left empty to increase interior space. Features include a padded laptop pocket, a gear pocket on top, a side water bottle pocket, and multiple grab handles for carrying flexibility.

Pine Cone to Pine Tree Time-Lapse

Pine Cone to Pine Tree Time-Lapse

With the holidays upon us, the fragrance of pine is in the air. After buying some pine cones from the market, Boxlapse plucked and planted one of their seeds to see if it would grow into a tree. This captivating time-lapse footage condenses 300 days of growth to about two minutes. Perhaps it’ll be big enough to use as a Christmas tree in a few years.

NOMAD Grill & Smoker

NOMAD Grill & Smoker
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The portable NOMAD is a grill and smoker you can carry like a briefcase. It burns charcoal for fast heating and offers 425 square inches of grilling space with its optional second grate. It smokes, sears, bakes, and barbecues and has features like a heat-dissipating shell, lightweight stainless steel grates, adjustable air vents, and a built-in thermometer.

Scotch Ness Monster Whiskey Chilling Stone

Scotch Ness Monster Whiskey Chilling Stone
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Both the Loch Ness Monster and some of the world’s best whiskeys hail from Scotland. This stainless steel Nessie swims in your rocks glass and keeps scotch or other spirits cool without watering them down. The little dude rides atop a food-safe silicone suction cup to keep him upright and peeking out of his boozy lake.

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Bowling Ball Cannon vs. Bulletproof Glass

Bowling Ball Cannon vs. Bulletproof Glass

When The Slow Mo Guys and How Ridiculous got together, they didn’t just crush some heads. After all, if you’ve got a cannon that fires bowling balls at 500 MPH, you want to destroy all the things. With the help of the cannon’s maker, BealsScience, they tested the strength of bulletproof glass and polycarbonate along with a fiberglass-lined safety door.

Octopus vs. Obstacle Course

Octopus vs. Obstacle Course

It’s common knowledge that octopi are intelligent creatures. After he purchased an octopus from a pet store, engineer Mark Rober wanted to release the animal back into the ocean. Before he could do that, he built a challenging maze to confirm that Sashimi would be able to hunt for food after being hand-fed for most of her life.

Launching a Rice Cooker with Firecrackers

Launching a Rice Cooker with Firecrackers

Here’s one from the “don’t try this at home” file. TikTok user ex9g6oxt has posted a series of videos in which he uses firecrackers to launch metal bowls and rice cookers into the air. He starts with the smallest firecracker and gradually ups the size to see how high the explosion can launch each object.

Making a Vacuum-powered Dragster

Making a Vacuum-powered Dragster

Using large syringes, Tom Stanton shows us how the vacuum captured inside can be used to drive gears, a belt, and an axle. The result is a mini dragster that travels an impressive distance compared to the short distance that the syringe’s piston moves.

How Peanut Butter & Cheese Crackers Are Made

How Peanut Butter & Cheese Crackers Are Made

When we’re dragging, one of our go-to snacks is peanut butter and cheese sandwich crackers. They offer a savory mix of carbs and protein and help us power through. Science Channel’s How It’s Made goes inside the Lance factory to see how they’re baked, cut, and assembled, and where that orange color comes from.

Fun with Sheet Metal

Fun with Sheet Metal

Get your daily dose of engineering porn with this video from Uwe Krumm GmbH. The company makes precision tooling for manufacturing, including the press brake tools shown here. It’s a hypnotic and satisfying 6-minute sequence of sheet metal being bent into complex shapes through the simple application of force.

Bird Speed Comparison

Bird Speed Comparison

Red Side has compared the speeds of aircraft, spaceships, and other vehicles; now they’re back to show the differences in flying speeds of birds – or, in the case of penguins, chickens, and kiwis, how fast they can walk or run. Who here knew a seagull was faster than Usain Bolt?

How Coins Are Made

How Coins Are Made

While the use of physical currency continues to dwindle, there’s still a need for coins to be produced. Process X takes us on an in-depth tour of Japan’s only coin factory for a look at how they make coins. The Osaka mint produces six kinds of coins, from aluminum 1 yen coins to the copper, nickel, and zinc 500 yen coins shown in the video.

Escaping a Rhino… in Reverse

Escaping a Rhino… in Reverse

So you’re driving down a road in your Jeep when a wild rhinoceros comes out of nowhere. You could try to go around the beast, but you’d risk an impact. Based on this video, the better move is to back away as fast as possible. We’re equally impressed with the driver’s skill and the speed at which such a heavy animal can move.

Which Is More Destructive: Acid or Lava?

Which Is More Destructive: Acid or Lava?

We would say, “Don’t try this at home,” but most of us don’t have a cauldron of molten lava or a vat of acid lying around. Mark Rober’s video includes a series of experiments in which he and his pals tested the destructive abilities of lava, acid, and some wildcards. The video culminates in a challenge to see which could kill a car engine quicker.

LEGO 1×1 Gear Train

LEGO 1×1 Gear Train

Today’s most satisfying video comes in the form of this clip from the Brick Experiment Channel. Their goal? Create the longest possible chain of 1×1 LEGO Technic gears while retaining the same gear ratio from start to finish. We’re impressed that a single motor can drive that many gears.

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