Awesome Experiments

We’ve broken our share of metal drill bits, so the idea of making one out of paper seems ludicrous. Mr. Hacker shows how a densely packed cone of paper can be used to drill through various materials. It’s definitely clumsy and inefficient, but we’re impressed it held up as well as it did.

It’s been a while since we checked in on PhotonicInduction’s dangerous and destructive electrical experiments. With 1000 amps running through the blade of a kitchen knife, it glows a brilliant reddish-orange and can surely slice through much more than a stick of butter. But how long until the knife itself fails?

Capacitors are capable of storing large amounts of energy and releasing it quickly. The Backyard Scientist teamed up with Peter Sripol and William Osman to show just how dangerous capacitors can be by subjecting a variety of objects to the power stored in a 20,000-volt bank of capacitors. Don’t even think of trying this at home.

A sailboat sailing straight downwind can only match the speed of the wind and never exceed it. But is it possible that a vehicle powered by wind could defy this limitation of physics? Derek from Veritasium risked life and limb to test just that, as he took a ride in an experimental three-wheeler called Blackbird.

The guys from the Beyond the Press channel teamed up with the fabrication experts at Speweld to create a cube out of 2″ thick steel, then took it to a safe place to see what would happen if they set off a homemade grenade inside of it. We’re incredibly impressed by construction of the steel box.

With the help of the guys at the Magnet Tricks channel, Magnetic Games shows off a neat effect that occurs when placing tiny magnets between a block of pyrolytic graphite and a strong magnet aimed at them from at a distance. These mini magnets spin, dance, and shuffle about, and can even levitate off of the surface.

A while back, Hacksmith Industries built a working lightsaber with a terrifying 4000º plasma blade. Now James is here to test whether there’s a safe way to put his hand into its beam, along with a lesson on the physics of heat transfer.

A while back, YouTuber Mr. Michal showed off a simple railway he built from coils of wire, batteries, and magnets. Now, he’s back with a much longer and more complex train set that still operates on the same electromagnetic principles. This time, the track measures in at over 20 meters long, or about 66 feet.

Friction welding is the process of joining two metals together by spinning them rapidly until they heat up enough to meld together. Anni, Lauri, and his dad Timo from the Beyond the Press channel show how rigged up an old manual lathe to join two hammers together by rapidly spinning one while the other was stationary.

Flicking a cigarette lighter takes a fraction of a second. But there’s actually quite a bit going on as the flint sparks up and ignites the butane fuel. This 7,600 fps slow-motion clip shows exactly what is happening as the flame emerges from the lighter. Here’s a similar clip at 20,000 fps.

After impressing us with a LEGO car that can climb over a stack of books, the Brick Experiment Channel is back with a simpler vehicle design challenge. The plan? Dial in the right mix of traction, gearing, wheelbase, and weight balance to climb the steepest sheet of glass possible. And then, start cheating.

A few years back, the guys at the Beyond the Press channel created a small carousel on a frozen lake by cutting a circle in the ice. Now, they’re back with a super-sized version of the stunt, in which they helped make a 1000-foot diameter circle out of Finland’s lake Lappajärvi. The ice disc is estimated to weigh about 30,000 tons.

The Action Lab conducted an interesting (and seemingly dangerous) experiment by running backward off of a moving trailer to see if his motion would negate the forward motion of the vehicle. You’d think he’d fall on his face doing this, but he has physics on his side. Regardless, we don’t recommend trying this at home.

Now that The Action Lab has painted a room in the blackest and glowing-ist paints, he’s renovated his temporary space again. This time, he covered its walls, ceiling, and floor entirely with mirrors. Despite the reflections seeming infinite, he explains how they eventually drop off.

Glue traps are used to catch bugs and rodents. But if you had enough of them, could you use them to snare a full-grown human? The guys at The King of Random put that idea to the test, culminating with an experiment where they tried to stick people to a wall.

Musou Black is said the be the blackest paint you can buy at the moment, absorbing almost all visible light. After painting some small objects with the super-dark stuff, The Action Lab created a room just so he could paint it entirely black. The Rolling Stones would be proud.

The Q shows off a goopy compound they made from wood glue, nail varnish, and match sulfur that lets homemade matches burn even when fully submerged in water. This is definitely one you shouldn’t try at home, given the risks of both fire and the unknown consequences of breathing the vapors the chemicals produce.

After watching a video from Plasma Channel which explored the possibilities of levitating objects with electrostatic energy, Mehdi from ElectroBOOM decided to see if he could replicate the experiment. Naturally, it’s not an ElectroBOOM video without delivering a jolt or ten to its host.

Combining vinegar and baking soda inside a soda bottle creates an explosive amount of pressure – enough to launch the bottle sky high. Nick Uhas wanted to see not only how far he could make a soda bottle fly horizontally using this method, but also what would happen if he super-sized the experiment using a 5-gallon water jug.

After building a supersonic baseball cannon, Devin from SmarterEveryDay and his friends turned their attention to the business end of the cannon. The goal of their latest experiments? To see how many leather baseball gloves it takes to stop a baseball moving at 1.3 times the speed of sound.

The guys at the Hydraulic Press Channel have been causing paper to explode under pressure for quite some time now. In this clip they attempt to measure just how much force a stack of paper can endure before failing spectacularly.

Physics can be so much fun. The Lutetium Project shows how a dropper filled with a mixture of water, alcohol, and dye dripped into an oil bath can create beautiful and unexpected patterns thanks to their differences in surface tension. For more droplet fun, check this out.

We all know that breathing helium makes you sound like Mickey Mouse. But does that pitch change affect the air you blow into a saxophone or a bagpipe? The guys from The King of the Random conducted a few experiments to test out the impact of helium and sulfur hexafluoride on the frequencies wind instruments produce.