Awesome Experiments

The Science Channel’s series Street Science presents a neat experiment, mixing bulk quantities of the nasty goo inside of glowsticks to produce a variety of vibrant colors. The result is a new abstract painting medium. Needless to say, don’t play with these chemicals at home.

We’ve seen the strange properties of these hardened glass drops before. Now see how one handles the deadly hydraulic press. It’s so strong that it damages the press tools before violently exploding. Hopefully these guys can buy a better high-speed camera soon.

(PG-13: Language) The guys from Beyond the Press were inspired by CarsandWater’s red hot nickel ball experiments, but they supersized things by dropping a ridiculously hot steel weight into a thick sheet of ice-covered lake to see what would happen.

The Backyard Scientist adds a propane torch to his sweet rocket sled knife so he can heat the knife’s blade to over 1000ºF before launching it towards its inanimate victims at the end of the track. It didn’t stay glowing hot, but slow-mo rocket sled destruction is still fun to watch.

This video comes with no explanation, but it appears that it’s a group of students in a science class passing around a flaming ball of propane. It’s also possible that it’s just the Fire Manipulation 101 class at Professor Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.

If you thought adding Mentos to Diet Coke caused a reaction, check out what happens when the Crazy Russian Hacker puts a small amount of liquid nitrogen into a bottle of regular Coke, then flips it upside-down. Turns out it works with water too.

That unpronounceable acronym stands for “Tesla Coil Triggered, Ethanol Powered, Film Canister Gatling Gun,” a silly, overcomplicated, yet awesome weapon created by “Science Bob” Pflugfelder, capable of firing over 300 film canisters in 20 seconds.

If you thought the best way to illuminate the inside of your jack-o-lantern was with a little candle, or maybe an LED tealight, you’d be wrong. PhotonicInduction shows us that a 5000-watt lamp is the way to go if you’ve got the proper power supply lying around.

The power-mad minds at PhotonicInduction decided to see what would happen if they attached a length of steel chain to some high-current transformers. At first, all they were able to muster was a few sparks, but with a higher output power source, it glowed bright orange.

A cool science demonstration which shows how the electrons swirling around the outside of a Tesla coil can turn it into an impromptu motor – in this case, causing a wire balanced on top of it to spin and shoot sparks as it goes. Originally seen in a video from ElectroBOOM.

Physics Girl and Arc Attack might sound like a superhero and her evil archnemesis, but they’re just everyday geeks who love science. Here, they show us how to rip an aluminum soda can to shreds using a powerful electromagnet, along with a couple of other fun experiments.

Maker johnnyq90 was playing around with a ceramic bearing and compressed air to see how fast he could make it spin, when he discovered something pretty awesome. As the bearing approaches extreme speeds, some phenomenon causes it to glow.

The King of Random, Grant Thompson conducts a simple experiment to see what happens if you pour liquid nitrogen into a balloon, with an explosive result. We’re just surprised that he wasn’t wearing protective gloves to handle this ridiculously cold stuff.

A brief demonstration of what happens when you submerge a styrofoam cup in acetone. The solvent properties of the acetone dissolves the polystyrene and the cup vanishes into a pile of goo. One commenter pointed out this chilling reference from Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

A demonstration of just how intense the heat of the Sun can be when concentrated through a fresnel lens. It takes less than a minute to turn what was once a solid metal penny into a molten pile of goo. Also, we’ve just subscribed to Let’s Melt This.

(PG-13: Language) Folding paper in half exponentially increases its strength. At seven folds, it’s as thick as 128 sheets of paper. You can go beyond seven if you use a really long sheet, but Hydraulic Press Channel tried it with a small piece – with unexpected results.

Med livet som innsats (Life on the Line) is a Mythbusters-style Norwegian show where physicist Andreas Wahl entrusts his life to the laws of physics. So far he’s done a freefall, passed through fire and shot himself. May he make it past the first season.

We’re not sure of the health implications of eating steak cooked in molten copper, but it’s still cool to watch as this raw T-bone is cooked to within an inch of its life as YouTuber Tito4Re douses it with hot liquid metal. Cooking rice the same way doesn’t work quite as well.

YouTuber carsandwater dips a red hot nickel ball into flame-retardant tinsel, which immediately turns into The Ghost of Cancer Yet to Come. Also, can we all just pause and marvel at this ball’s staying power? Good for you ball. You deserve that cup of coco.

The Backyard Scientist has made a habit of pouring molten aluminum into things to see how it will interact with them. This time, he pours the hot metal into an aquarium filled with thousands of water-absorbent polymer beads. The resulting sculptures are totally awesome.

The red hot nickel ball encroaches into Will It Blend? territory. Can the literally hot new thing take on the legendary 3310 and its mythical indestructibility? Let’s just say this is like when Apollo Creed took on Ivan Drago.

You’d think that placing a searing hot sphere of metal on a block of foam would cause it to melt into a puddle of stinky goo. But what happens is pretty unexpected in the latest Red Hot Nickel Ball vs. Something video by CarsandWater.

We recently saw carsandwater’s failed attempt to destroy a hockey puck with his almighty red hot sphere. Now he’s brought out the big guns – engulfing the puck in thermite, which burns at 4000ºF. Will the mighty puck surrender?