Transcript: Once Upon a Christmas Cheery in the Lab of Shakhashiri
1987
These captions and transcript were generated by a computer and may contain errors. If there are significant errors that should be corrected, please let us know by emailing digital@sciencehistory.org.
00:00:00 were recorded using Blu-Ray.
00:00:30 Good evening, everyone, and welcome to my laboratory.
00:00:38 I'm very pleased to have you on the campus of the University
00:00:41 of Wisconsin-Madison tonight.
00:00:44 We have a number of special treats for you.
00:00:47 I want you to sit back and relax and try
00:00:50 to enjoy what's going to be happening
00:00:52 and be fully prepared for the unexpected.
00:00:56 There will be unexpected things happening in the laboratory.
00:00:58 There may be even some unexpected visitors
00:01:00 who might come tonight.
00:01:03 I want you to notice the button that I have on my lapel
00:01:07 here that says, of course, science is fun.
00:01:11 And we are going to be having fun tonight.
00:01:13 We are going to be having fun any time we do science,
00:01:15 because science is intellectually stimulating.
00:01:19 And when we do experiments, we try
00:01:21 to satisfy the intellectual curiosity that we have.
00:01:25 And we try also to satisfy whatever
00:01:28 emotional needs might develop as we
00:01:30 have these intellectual curiosities.
00:01:33 I want to pay special attention to all the people
00:01:36 in the audience tonight.
00:01:38 I want you all to be as attentive as possible,
00:01:40 as I have already mentioned, and to be aware
00:01:43 that in doing experiments, some of which you can do at home
00:01:47 and others you might not be able to do at home,
00:01:49 we have to be obeying the safety regulations.
00:01:52 And of course, I will be wearing my goggles
00:01:54 to protect my eyes from any potential splashes
00:01:57 of harmful chemicals.
00:01:58 And I want you to know that many of the experiments
00:02:02 that we will do tonight will be experiments
00:02:04 that you can do at home.
00:02:05 We'll go through this rather quickly.
00:02:08 And in fact, maybe we should get started.
00:02:10 And with your permission, I'm going to take my jacket off.
00:02:12 Is that OK if I took my jacket off?
00:02:14 All right.
00:02:15 Now, because it is a little bit warm under the lights here,
00:02:24 and in fact, I'll just take my tie off, too.
00:02:26 Would that be all right?
00:02:27 OK, I'll take it off.
00:02:36 That actually feels quite a bit cooler than before.
00:02:39 Maybe I'll take my shirt off, too, right?
00:02:41 OK, let's try that.
00:02:43 OK.
00:03:01 I want you to know that we really believe science is fun.
00:03:06 And that's what we're going to be doing now.
00:03:09 So the first set of experiments we're
00:03:11 going to be doing involve a very common chemical.
00:03:15 It's carbon dioxide.
00:03:17 You know, when we breathe, we inhale air,
00:03:21 which is a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen.
00:03:24 And when we exhale, we exhale carbon dioxide.
00:03:28 Well, we're going to deal with carbon dioxide now
00:03:30 not as a gas, but in a rather different mode,
00:03:35 in a rather different form at room temperature.
00:03:39 And this form is the solid form.
00:03:42 And we're going to deal with carbon dioxide
00:03:44 in the form of dry ice.
00:03:47 And dry ice, as you all know and should know,
00:03:52 here's a sample of dry ice, which I will put on the table.
00:03:57 You see, dry ice is a white solid.
00:04:00 Its temperature is minus 78 degrees Celsius.
00:04:04 You know, in science, we use the Celsius scale, not
00:04:06 the Fahrenheit scale, for keeping track of temperature.
00:04:09 Now, dry ice, unlike ordinary ice,
00:04:12 undergoes a process we call sublimation.
00:04:15 It changes directly from being a solid to a gas
00:04:19 without becoming a liquid.
00:04:21 You all know if you take an ice cube
00:04:22 and you put it in a glass, after a while,
00:04:25 the ice melts and becomes water.
00:04:28 And if you wait a bit longer, the water evaporates,
00:04:31 turns into water vapor, and all disappears.
00:04:34 So we go from a solid to a liquid
00:04:35 to a gas with ordinary ice.
00:04:38 With dry ice, we go directly from the solid phase
00:04:42 to the gaseous phase, as we call it.
00:04:45 And we don't have a liquid.
00:04:46 That's why, among other reasons, it's called dry ice.
00:04:49 So it's solid carbon dioxide.
00:04:51 And it is present in all, that is,
00:04:54 carbon dioxide is present in all carbonated beverages.
00:05:00 That's why they're called carbonated beverage,
00:05:02 whether it's a soft drink or beer or what have you.
00:05:05 We have carbon dioxide present.
00:05:07 And what we're going to do now is carry a series of experiments
00:05:10 with solid carbon dioxide to try to show
00:05:13 that carbonic acid, which is the substance that
00:05:17 forms when carbon dioxide dissolves in water,
00:05:20 carbonic acid is indeed an acid.
00:05:22 And I want you now to focus your attention on these tall
00:05:25 cylinders that we have over here.
00:05:27 And you see they have in them different liquids.
00:05:31 We can tell they're liquid because we can simply shake
00:05:34 this and see that the substance, the liquid, moves.
00:05:38 What we're going to do is take dry ice,
00:05:40 take chunks of dry ice, and do the experiment
00:05:43 in a very special way.
00:05:44 And you pay close attention to the way
00:05:46 in which we're doing the experiment, OK?
00:05:54 Yeah, it is neat, isn't it?
00:05:56 You notice I'm doing the experiment now
00:05:58 by dropping these chunks of dry ice, not in every cylinder,
00:06:02 but in every what?
00:06:05 Every other cylinder, right?
00:06:06 Lots of interesting things are happening.
00:06:09 We see the gas bubbling.
00:06:10 That's the carbon dioxide bubbling out.
00:06:12 We see that there's some color changes taking place.
00:06:15 That's because the substances that we have in those cylinders
00:06:19 are substances that change color as the acidity, as it's called,
00:06:24 of the liquid changes.
00:06:27 You've all heard of pH, haven't you?
00:06:29 You've heard of pH in shampoo advertisements
00:06:31 and in other places, too?
00:06:34 Well, the pH of the liquid is changing.
00:06:37 And these colored substances that we
00:06:38 have in these cylinders are called indicators.
00:06:41 An indicator is a substance that changes color
00:06:44 when the acidity of the liquid changes.
00:06:49 It can be either an acid or it can be a base.
00:06:53 And lots of interesting things, as you see,
00:06:56 are happening.
00:06:57 And this stuff that's coming off the top here,
00:06:59 what does it look like?
00:07:02 Looks like smoke, but actually it's not smoke.
00:07:04 What do you think it is?
00:07:06 It looks like fog, doesn't it?
00:07:08 It actually looks like fog, and that's exactly what it is.
00:07:11 It is condensed water vapor.
00:07:14 The water vapor has condensed on the carbon dioxide that's
00:07:18 escaping from the liquid.
00:07:20 And you see it's moving in a downward direction, which
00:07:24 tells us that carbon dioxide, where the condensation is
00:07:27 taking place, is heavier than air.
00:07:30 So what I need right now, I need some hot water.
00:07:34 Let's see, I don't have any hot water here.
00:07:36 Can somebody come out and bring me some hot water, please?
00:07:39 Since I seem to have, oh, there we go.
00:07:43 Well, look who's here.
00:07:44 Thank you very much, Bucky.
00:07:46 Come on over here, Bucky.
00:07:50 I'm so glad that you've made, again, an appearance.
00:07:54 Are you bashful?
00:07:55 No.
00:07:56 You're touched, right, that I came all the way
00:07:58 from Washington to do this.
00:07:59 Well, thanks a lot, Bucky.
00:08:00 God, thanks.
00:08:01 You know, I've been doing this, as I mentioned before,
00:08:04 for a long time, for 18 years.
00:08:06 And I'm very happy that you are making your 18th appearance
00:08:10 in this very special lecture.
00:08:13 I want you to know, Bucky, that many of the experiments
00:08:16 that we're doing are in this book.
00:08:20 And I want you to have this book as a special present.
00:08:23 In fact, I want you to know that we
00:08:25 have two volumes of this series of chemical demonstrations.
00:08:29 And I know you've been a very good chemistry student.
00:08:33 And I heard that you're going into science teaching.
00:08:38 And therefore, I decided that maybe you can use these books.
00:08:41 And I want you to have them.
00:08:42 So here you go, Bucky.
00:08:43 Congratulations.
00:08:44 I want you, if you can, I know you're very busy
00:08:47 and you're getting ready to prepare for final exams.
00:08:49 But can you stay for the rest of this presentation?
00:08:51 Would you like to stay?
00:08:52 Would you like Bucky to stay?
00:08:54 All right.
00:08:54 So why don't you come along, Bucky?
00:08:57 Why don't you come along with me this way?
00:08:59 I have a seat reserved for you.
00:09:03 Just be careful not to trip.
00:09:05 Whoopsie, that's what I said.
00:09:08 OK, I have a seat reserved for you, right in the front there.
00:09:12 Right there, I'll show you where to sit.
00:09:14 I'll show you where to sit, right here.
00:09:15 Right here.
00:09:18 OK?
00:09:20 So if you sit over here, Bucky.
00:09:26 All right, thanks.
00:09:32 Now, the experiment that I wanted the hot water for,
00:09:35 and that Bucky was so helpful to bring the hot water for,
00:09:41 is I'm going to do this experiment with dry ice,
00:09:43 of course, which I will bring over here.
00:09:46 I'll take some dry ice, and take the hot water,
00:09:51 and dump the hot water in this empty dish washing pan.
00:10:00 And you see something coming off?
00:10:02 What do you see coming off?
00:10:04 Actually, steam is an invisible gas.
00:10:06 You can't see steam.
00:10:08 What you see is condensed water vapor.
00:10:11 Again, the condensed water vapor, which forms fog,
00:10:14 is what you see.
00:10:14 So let's take some dry ice, and dump the dry ice
00:10:18 into this hot water.
00:10:23 You see what's happening?
00:10:25 What does it look like now?
00:10:28 Looks like fog, right.
00:10:29 And that, in fact, is one of the ways in which they
00:10:32 make fog in the movies.
00:10:33 They take dry ice, and put it in hot water.
00:10:36 And of course, it's flowing again downward,
00:10:38 indicating that the carbon dioxide is heavier than air.
00:10:41 We can try to blow some in Bucky's direction.
00:10:51 Now, as I mentioned to you, carbon dioxide
00:10:55 is a very important substance.
00:10:58 Not only do we exhale it, but it's
00:11:00 present in the atmosphere in a variety of quantities.
00:11:04 And it's used, actually, by plants very effectively.
00:11:07 In fact, you've all heard of the process
00:11:09 we call photosynthesis.
00:11:12 And that's the process that plants use carbon dioxide.
00:11:16 And I have tonight, as a special guest,
00:11:21 a colleague from the Department of Plant Pathology,
00:11:25 Professor Paul Williams, who has agreed
00:11:27 to come and do some experiments in my laboratory.
00:11:30 I want you to welcome Professor Paul Williams.
00:11:40 Thank you, boys and girls.
00:11:43 Thank you, Dr. Chakrashiri, for the opportunity
00:11:45 of sharing with you something of biology.
00:11:47 This is kind of a new experience in this program,
00:11:50 to introduce, in the midst of chemists and physicists,
00:11:53 some biology.
00:11:55 So we're going to get on, and we're
00:11:57 going to introduce to you some of my friends
00:12:00 that I've been working with here,
00:12:02 known as the Wisconsin fast plants.
00:12:04 Fast plants are part of a family.
00:12:07 And I've got my fast plants in front of me here.
00:12:10 They are part of a family called Brassica.
00:12:13 Can you all say Brassica?
00:12:15 Brassica!
00:12:17 Very good.
00:12:19 Fantastic.
00:12:20 You've just said a Latin word.
00:12:21 You're on your first way to high school Latin and biology.
00:12:26 These are the Brassicas, and they're
00:12:29 part of the fast plants.
00:12:30 Well, as a plant breeder and a plant pathologist,
00:12:33 many years ago, I started to try to shorten
00:12:36 the lifecycle of these.
00:12:37 This takes a year and a half before it produces seed.
00:12:42 And you know, you get cabbages from seed.
00:12:44 And I produced a very fast type of cabbage, and here it is.
00:12:49 This little fella is called Speedy Bee, or Speedy Brassica.
00:12:54 This is exactly the same species as this tree cabbage.
00:12:58 And yet, this is in full flower, and this plant is 25 days old.
00:13:03 What I want to do for you, though, tonight,
00:13:06 is give you an opportunity to experience biology
00:13:09 throughout the winter.
00:13:11 Because with winter coming, many of us
00:13:12 think that biology is sort of slowing down.
00:13:14 Life around us is becoming sort of dormant.
00:13:18 Well, one can bring life into your bedroom,
00:13:21 into your classroom, by putting them into bottles.
00:13:24 And one of the very best ways is to use
00:13:27 some of these non-recyclable things that
00:13:29 usually go in the garbage.
00:13:31 They make the most wonderful aquariums and terrariums.
00:13:34 And we're handing out to you, after the program's over,
00:13:37 a set of instructions to make your own aquarium
00:13:42 or a terrarium, so that you can have these on your windowsill
00:13:45 and begin to explore some of the wonders of biology.
00:13:47 I'm going to demonstrate to you that right now.
00:13:50 All you need is one of these old throwaway bottles.
00:13:54 Now, how do you get to something like you see here?
00:13:57 Here's a terrarium where they're growing plants in.
00:14:01 Here's an aquarium with one of my little friends
00:14:04 swimming around in it from Lake Mendota.
00:14:06 And there's lots of other little friends in there
00:14:08 that are very, very interesting to observe.
00:14:11 Well, what you want to do is start with your Coke bottle.
00:14:17 And I'm going to put some hot water in this,
00:14:19 because this is, and you've got to watch you don't scald
00:14:22 your hands when you're dealing hot, real hot tap
00:14:25 water is good enough.
00:14:28 Fill this in with a little funnel,
00:14:31 or straight out of a hot tap.
00:14:32 Fill this bottle with hot water.
00:14:42 They say you've got to be a little careful
00:14:44 that you don't scald your hands.
00:14:48 Other than that, for this one, you probably
00:14:50 don't have to wear goggles.
00:14:52 Screw the cap back on.
00:14:53 And what's happening is the hot water in there
00:14:56 is melting the glue, so that you can take the glue off
00:15:00 this cherry Coke bottle, or whatever you have,
00:15:02 very, very easily.
00:15:04 It just comes off like that.
00:15:07 And you've got a clear bottle.
00:15:08 Now, the problem is, how do you get the bottom out?
00:15:10 With the cap on, you just start to rotate.
00:15:13 And look at how the bottom comes off.
00:15:15 Oh!
00:15:15 Oh!
00:15:16 Oh!
00:15:16 Oh!
00:15:17 Oh!
00:15:17 Isn't that easy?
00:15:19 Then you pour the water out, and you
00:15:33 will have the makings of a terrarium or an aquarium.
00:15:36 I've got a couple here that I've already poured out.
00:15:38 What you want to do is make a mark on the bottle, a ring,
00:15:42 a nice uniform ring on the bottle,
00:15:45 with a felt marking pen.
00:15:47 So you get a felt tip pen, and you now, of course,
00:15:50 have the bottom off, right?
00:15:51 So here's your empty bottle.
00:15:53 You put this in a drawer.
00:15:54 You can pull a drawer out in the kitchen,
00:15:56 and just put this up against the drawer here.
00:15:59 OK, I'm going to do this up in front so you can see that.
00:16:03 Put this, and then with your felt marking pen,
00:16:05 holding that very closely to the drawer or the little tray,
00:16:08 just rotate the bottle, you see?
00:16:11 And you make a nice, what we call a cutting ring.
00:16:14 You end up with a black ring mark on there, just
00:16:19 around that.
00:16:20 And then with a nice, sharp knife,
00:16:22 you've got to be a little careful,
00:16:24 pen knife I used in my back pocket here,
00:16:27 puncture on the cutting ring.
00:16:29 Make a mark, puncture through the plastic,
00:16:31 and then with a pair of sharp scissors,
00:16:33 just go into the puncture wound, or puncture where you puncture,
00:16:36 and begin to cut that.
00:16:39 Freudian, I'm sure.
00:16:43 What you want to do is cut that ring very carefully off
00:16:48 like this, you see?
00:16:50 And what you have, of course, when you're finished,
00:16:53 if you hold it this way, is an aquarium.
00:16:56 You save the bottom, and all you have to do
00:16:58 is put that in like that, and go to Lake Mendota
00:17:01 with a little of that wonderful mud and scudge
00:17:03 before the lake freezes up.
00:17:05 It's got to be pretty soon.
00:17:07 And fill it with water, and you have an aquarium.
00:17:10 If you want to do some more interesting things,
00:17:13 fill the bottom with sand and soil and earth.
00:17:18 Find a fern, or find something under a log that's
00:17:20 still growing, put it in there.
00:17:23 Tape up the little holes if you want
00:17:25 to keep the water in it with a little electrician's tape,
00:17:28 and cover it up with either this,
00:17:30 if you've got little mosses and little slow-growing things,
00:17:34 and you have a terrarium.
00:17:35 If you've got a plant that's going to grow a long way,
00:17:38 put it in like this, and you have a terrarium.
00:17:41 Put it on your window sill, and you're
00:17:44 in for a winter of really neat things.
00:17:47 Now, I'm going to just show you very briefly
00:17:50 a few modifications for the more adventuresome and more
00:17:52 sophisticated sort of engineering types out there.
00:17:57 If you take, for instance, what you just cut off,
00:18:02 and put it inside here this way, and cut off
00:18:08 this top by the same way, you sort of have a reverse funnel.
00:18:13 And if you take some good old-fashioned duct tape,
00:18:16 you can do everything with duct tape
00:18:17 almost, if you're handy.
00:18:20 Put it around there.
00:18:21 You end up with this funnel inside.
00:18:23 And what this does is it provides you an opportunity
00:18:26 to create a system like this, where you now
00:18:30 have a closed system, and yet it's open to the next system.
00:18:34 And the way these bottles are curved
00:18:36 permits you to begin to stack bottles.
00:18:38 And I have what I call an eco column here.
00:18:42 I'm going to just describe that to you in a minute.
00:18:44 But you see what I mean by stacking?
00:18:46 I can take one of these, because they're curved,
00:18:48 and this one, incidentally, contains an insect-eating
00:18:51 plant called a sundew, and we can stack that on top of that.
00:18:56 But this could just as easily have been an aquarium
00:18:59 like we have here.
00:19:00 And so I'm going to just draw your attention
00:19:02 to a more sophisticated series of bottles
00:19:04 that cost me absolutely nothing, duct tape.
00:19:09 And what we have here is an interesting system,
00:19:12 because we have a source of energy, which I put through.
00:19:16 Incidentally, on the directions that we hand out,
00:19:18 you can poke holes in here.
00:19:19 These are like spaceports, you know?
00:19:21 So with a hot tube, you can put a hole in there, cork it up.
00:19:25 And I have in here, and I think if the photographer comes
00:19:27 in close, the cameraman, he will see
00:19:30 that there's a little group of crickets in here.
00:19:32 So this is the cricketerium, but just as easy,
00:19:35 fruit flies can be grown in here.
00:19:37 If you keep putting in fruit and all sorts of things that
00:19:40 get rotten and composty, you've got an energy generator.
00:19:43 It's a fruit fly generator.
00:19:44 So this is the energy generator of the Eco column.
00:19:48 It's connected to the spider condo.
00:19:52 Up here, I have my spiders.
00:19:54 And of course, with a small hole between the two,
00:19:57 the flies get in and feed the spiders.
00:19:59 Those flies that get a little more adventuresome
00:20:02 move down into the bog.
00:20:05 And this is where the insectivorous eating plants are.
00:20:08 But they're waiting for flies, too.
00:20:10 Below the bog, and still open to the column, is Lake Mendota.
00:20:17 And so in this little simple column,
00:20:20 you can watch life going on throughout the winter.
00:20:24 Thanks very much.
00:20:25 Well, thank you very much Professor Williams.
00:20:44 You can be sure that I, myself, will
00:20:46 be doing those experiments, not next week,
00:20:49 but tomorrow.
00:20:49 They sound very, very interesting, very exciting,
00:20:52 and all those little critters moving around,
00:20:55 and the various plants that you brought.
00:20:57 So I thank you again.
00:20:59 Let's then go on and, uh.
00:21:02 HO, HO, HO!
00:21:03 HO, HO, HO!
00:21:04 HO, HO, HO!
00:21:05 HO, HO, HO!
00:21:09 HO, HO, HO!
00:21:10 HO, HO, HO!
00:21:12 HO, HO, HO!
00:21:16 HO, HO, HO!
00:21:17 Ho, HO, HO!
00:21:18 HO, HO, HO!
00:21:20 HO, HO, HO!
00:21:22 Well look who's here!
00:21:23 Yes, Mr. Williams.
00:21:25 HO, HO, HO!
00:21:26 Welcome to my lab, Santa!
00:21:28 HO, HO!
00:21:29 So happy that you could come here.
00:21:31 I know this is a very busy season for you.
00:21:33 Oh, that's for sure.
00:21:34 I went with this for all snow in North Pole.
00:21:37 Oh, my goodness.
00:21:38 You're very, very, very kind that you would come.
00:21:41 And I know your elves have been very busy doing
00:21:43 all kinds of things.
00:21:44 Very busy.
00:21:44 And I've got a few things to give people here.
00:21:47 All right.
00:21:48 I've got something, in fact.
00:21:49 My elves have been so busy, I've got something here
00:21:51 for the whole group.
00:21:52 Everybody here been good for Christmas?
00:21:54 Yeah!
00:21:55 OK.
00:21:56 What do you have?
00:21:57 Well, I've got something in the bag here, I think.
00:21:59 Let's see.
00:22:00 Is it safe?
00:22:00 Oh, I hope it is.
00:22:01 All right.
00:22:02 I hope it is.
00:22:02 OK.
00:22:03 We've got one of these.
00:22:04 I'd like you to hold that up for us.
00:22:05 Sure.
00:22:07 Oh, my goodness.
00:22:08 There are lots of goodies.
00:22:09 Instructions for doing experiments.
00:22:12 There's even a Science is Fun button for everyone.
00:22:16 And there's a small, little jumping disc, as it's called.
00:22:25 And is there a set of instructions
00:22:27 for using that jump?
00:22:28 Oh, yes, there is a set of instructions.
00:22:30 Oh, and there are the instructions
00:22:32 from Professor Williams's experiments.
00:22:35 There are lots of other goodies in here,
00:22:36 which I won't tell about now.
00:22:37 So people can get those.
00:22:38 It's for the whole bunch out in back,
00:22:40 and then when everybody leaves, they
00:22:41 can pick one of these up for everyone.
00:22:43 All right.
00:22:43 That's very nice of you.
00:22:44 Thank you.
00:22:51 I've got a little something for you, Masail.
00:22:53 Ah, really?
00:22:54 Have you been a good boy for Christmas?
00:22:55 I've been trying to be good.
00:22:58 This is not Washington.
00:22:59 This is Madison, Wisconsin.
00:23:00 Hello to you.
00:23:01 I've been real good.
00:23:02 How's it going?
00:23:03 Well, let's see what we can find in the bag.
00:23:05 Oh, yes.
00:23:05 There it is.
00:23:06 Something that I asked for.
00:23:07 I think this is something you've always wanted.
00:23:09 The elves sometimes do experiments.
00:23:11 And we've got an experiment for you.
00:23:13 We'd like you to maybe show the people here
00:23:15 some directions for it.
00:23:16 Oh, my goodness.
00:23:17 I really wanted to get this.
00:23:19 This is a special experiment that
00:23:21 involves one of the biggest discoveries in 1987,
00:23:26 the superconductivity phenomenon.
00:23:28 Can I do this experiment, please?
00:23:29 Please do.
00:23:30 Santa, can you stay for the rest of this presentation?
00:23:32 Sure, my dear.
00:23:33 I'm going to report up on the roof.
00:23:34 All right.
00:23:35 All right.
00:23:35 Well, I have a place saved for you.
00:23:37 How about sitting next to Buddy?
00:23:38 All right.
00:23:49 Two very special friends that have, again,
00:23:53 been coming to this Christmas lecture for 18 years.
00:23:56 Well, let's get back to this experiment
00:23:58 that we're going to do with the red cabbage.
00:24:00 And this is a rather simple experiment.
00:24:02 What you do is take a knife, and you need a cutting board,
00:24:05 and you cut the stuff up like this.
00:24:06 And then you cut it up some more like this.
00:24:10 I know some of you are thinking this
00:24:12 looks like Julia Child doing an experiment.
00:24:14 Well, actually, that's not terribly different.
00:24:17 You take these chunks of red cabbage.
00:24:21 You put them in a blender like so.
00:24:23 All right.
00:24:24 And then the next thing that you do is you get some water,
00:24:29 and you cover the chopped cabbage with water.
00:24:36 And of course, before you use the blender, what do you do?
00:24:40 Put the top on, right?
00:24:42 Always be obeying the safety rules and regulations.
00:24:46 And then what we'll do is push this and see what happens.
00:24:52 All right.
00:24:55 And the next thing that you do is you take this off,
00:24:59 and you get yourself a big measuring cup or a big glass
00:25:03 or any container of some sort that can hold the liquid.
00:25:09 And then you get a, what's the big chant at the hockey games?
00:25:14 Right, that's what you get.
00:25:16 And you separate the liquid from the chunks of red cabbage,
00:25:21 and what you've done here is you've
00:25:22 made yourself, just like I have now, some red cabbage juice.
00:25:26 Now it turns out that red cabbage juice is a substance
00:25:31 that can be used as an acid-base indicator.
00:25:35 And the way you do this experiment
00:25:37 is you take the red cabbage juice,
00:25:40 and you have set up in advance, or you can do it on the spot.
00:25:43 I have it set up in advance here.
00:25:46 You have a series of glasses or beakers, as I have here,
00:25:50 with equal volumes of water in them.
00:25:53 And then you put a little bit of the red cabbage
00:25:56 juice in each of the beakers.
00:26:02 So the color is about the same.
00:26:03 Are the colors about the same?
00:26:06 No?
00:26:08 Second one needs a little more.
00:26:10 Is that too much now?
00:26:12 Maybe the first one needs a little more, right?
00:26:14 How about this one?
00:26:15 Oh, well, all right.
00:26:17 Let's just go on, do this, and do this.
00:26:20 Are they about the same now?
00:26:23 You make sure that they're about the same.
00:26:25 And you get a spoon, if you want to.
00:26:27 I don't have spoons here.
00:26:28 I have these glass stirring rods,
00:26:31 which I'll use to simply mix up the liquids.
00:26:37 I dropped one, but it didn't break.
00:26:40 OK, now what we're going to try to do now
00:26:43 is do the experiment to find out which substances
00:26:47 that we have around the house are acidic
00:26:50 and which ones are basic.
00:26:53 And we're going to use, as a reference, vinegar.
00:26:56 Vinegar contains acetic acid in it.
00:26:59 And what we'll do is take some vinegar and add it.
00:27:03 And you see what the color of red cabbage juice
00:27:05 is in an acid substance.
00:27:09 Now, I take ammonia.
00:27:10 It doesn't have to be this brand.
00:27:13 But we take any household ammonia.
00:27:16 And we add the household ammonia.
00:27:18 And you see it turns a different color.
00:27:21 So you can generate a whole set of different colors yourself
00:27:25 as you do this experiment.
00:27:27 We take some, what is this?
00:27:29 Baking soda.
00:27:30 We take baking soda.
00:27:32 And we add the baking soda.
00:27:35 And see, you get still a different color there.
00:27:41 We take some detergent.
00:27:43 And we add some detergent.
00:27:47 You still get a different color.
00:27:50 And we take a soft drink.
00:27:53 What's this drink here?
00:27:55 7-Up.
00:27:56 That looks pretty good, right?
00:27:57 Cheers, everybody.
00:28:02 That tastes good, actually.
00:28:07 Now let's do the experiment.
00:28:10 This is a carbonated beverage, right?
00:28:12 Therefore, you would predict that the color change
00:28:14 will be on the acid side or in the basic side?
00:28:18 On the acid side.
00:28:19 So let's add some.
00:28:21 And sure enough, it turns color in the acid direction.
00:28:26 What about this?
00:28:28 What about this?
00:28:31 This is milk of magnesia.
00:28:34 And it's used as an antacid, right?
00:28:36 So you would predict that it will be,
00:28:39 what color would it produce?
00:28:40 Would it be red?
00:28:41 Or pink?
00:28:42 No?
00:28:43 It won't be?
00:28:44 How do we find out?
00:28:45 We do an experiment, right?
00:28:47 That's what we do.
00:28:48 We do the experiment by adding the milk of magnesia.
00:28:56 And you see, it's not very, it doesn't dissolve very much.
00:28:59 It's not very soluble, right?
00:29:04 Am I adding the same one?
00:29:07 Well, you can't see.
00:29:08 You have to be very careful when you do experiments.
00:29:14 That was the 7-up, he said.
00:29:16 All right, well, 7-up, cheers again.
00:29:21 Let's do the 7-up over here.
00:29:23 See, that's the right color, right?
00:29:25 Now, here's the milk of magnesia.
00:29:27 In here?
00:29:28 No, no, in here.
00:29:29 OK, we'll add it in here.
00:29:32 And sure enough, you see.
00:29:34 All right, so that's the color in.
00:29:37 All right, let's do the experiment.
00:29:39 I want to show you this.
00:29:40 I should have done this before.
00:29:42 I think, again, about the same amount of water.
00:29:44 Do I have any red cabbage juice left?
00:29:46 Yeah, I have some here.
00:29:48 Let's add some.
00:29:53 Oh, that was, well, it doesn't matter.
00:29:55 It's all right.
00:29:56 And what I'm going to add is some dry ice.
00:30:01 OK?
00:30:02 Because you like to see the bubbles, right?
00:30:06 I do, anyway.
00:30:12 And you see the color gets more in the red direction.
00:30:18 This was the reference.
00:30:19 Remember, this is the beaker I had at the far left, my far left?
00:30:23 See, that's where you can compare the colors this way.
00:30:26 And you see that you have a very easy way
00:30:30 of telling which substances around the house are acidic,
00:30:33 which ones are basic.
00:30:34 Actually, I have another one here
00:30:36 because we still have this beaker to go.
00:30:38 Let me, what do you think this is going to be?
00:30:42 Basic?
00:30:43 Some people say acidic.
00:30:46 How many say acidic?
00:30:48 How many say basic?
00:30:50 How many don't care?
00:30:55 Well, I do care because we have to be very careful
00:30:58 about knowing information about the chemicals that we use.
00:31:02 So let's add some of this vanish.
00:31:07 And you see it's very, very acidic.
00:31:10 And what we're going to do next is,
00:31:14 with the help of a very special friend of mine
00:31:18 who himself has been doing a number of these kinds
00:31:22 of experiment presentations for audiences in Madison,
00:31:26 a friend from the physics department,
00:31:28 Professor Clint Sprott.
00:31:31 And I'd like Professor Sprott to come out now
00:31:33 and do a couple of...
00:31:34 Oh, look at that.
00:31:35 He even brought me some balloons.
00:31:37 Thank you so much.
00:31:38 Give me that please.
00:31:39 Thank you.
00:31:44 Balloons for the professor.
00:31:46 Thank you, thank you.
00:31:48 What I'm going to talk to you about now
00:31:50 is the science of physics.
00:31:51 Now, physics and chemistry are very closely related
00:31:54 because they both deal with the things
00:31:56 that the world is made up of.
00:31:59 How many of you have blown bubbles before?
00:32:01 Does some of you have a little pipe
00:32:03 that you put bubbles in and blow with your mouth?
00:32:06 You've seen those?
00:32:07 I would like to blow some bubbles for you,
00:32:09 but instead of doing it with a little pipe in my mouth,
00:32:11 I have a pipe here,
00:32:12 and it's connected to another gas back here.
00:32:14 And I'm going to turn on the gas,
00:32:16 and I'm going to put some of this soap bubble solution
00:32:19 in here.
00:32:20 It's the same kind of solution you might buy
00:32:22 at the toy store.
00:32:23 So I'm going to just put some of that in the pipe.
00:32:27 And you can see it's bubbling away.
00:32:32 And you notice it's making bubbles.
00:32:36 Here we have a nice bubble.
00:32:37 Now, I want you to watch that bubble
00:32:39 because it's going to do something rather unusual.
00:32:46 Did you ever see a bubble do that before?
00:32:50 I'll bet not.
00:32:51 And the reason is that these bubbles
00:32:53 are being blown not with air, but with a gas.
00:32:57 Natural gas, just like you might have in your home.
00:33:01 Because it's a gas that's lighter than air,
00:33:03 it's like helium because it's lighter than air,
00:33:06 it tends to rise,
00:33:07 just like the helium-filled balloon would rise.
00:33:10 And as it rises,
00:33:11 since it's filled with natural gas,
00:33:13 I can ignite it
00:33:14 because natural gas, of course, is a flammable gas.
00:33:17 And of course, this is another demonstration
00:33:19 that you should not do at home
00:33:21 because you could burn yourself.
00:33:23 Now, how many of you would like to see that done again
00:33:27 Okay, if you'll watch the monitors,
00:33:28 we'll play that back now for you in slow motion.
00:33:45 Very good.
00:33:46 Now, we're talking about the physics of sound.
00:33:49 Sound is one of the main branches of physics
00:33:51 and you've probably noticed this instrument in front of me.
00:33:53 You notice the little wiggles up and down on it?
00:33:56 Does any of you know what this is called?
00:33:58 Who?
00:33:59 An oscilloscope.
00:34:00 Several people said it.
00:34:01 An oscilloscope is something that allows us
00:34:03 to see the electrical waveform
00:34:05 that corresponds to the sound waves
00:34:07 that are coming from my voice.
00:34:08 And the waves that you see here
00:34:10 are being produced by this microphone
00:34:12 that's right here.
00:34:13 See it?
00:34:15 And that microphone is picking up the sound of my voice
00:34:18 and any other sounds that I make here.
00:34:20 And I would like to make some very particular sounds
00:34:22 and have you look at how those sounds appear
00:34:25 on the oscilloscope.
00:34:26 Now, I have here something that we call a tuning fork.
00:34:29 A tuning fork is a little U-shaped object
00:34:31 that we can hit with a mallet
00:34:33 and it makes a sound.
00:34:34 And I want you to listen carefully to the sound
00:34:36 but also look at what the electrical waveform
00:34:39 corresponding to the sound looks like.
00:34:41 Watch and listen.
00:34:48 You see, it's a very regular up and down.
00:34:50 It's something that we call a sine wave.
00:34:52 Now, I'm going to do it with a different tuning fork.
00:34:55 I'm going to turn it on and see if you can tell
00:34:57 what the difference is.
00:35:01 You see the difference?
00:35:03 The second one was a low pitch,
00:35:05 a lower pitch than the first one.
00:35:07 And so it had fewer wiggles, fewer ups and downs
00:35:09 than the high pitch one did.
00:35:11 And so that's what makes one pitch sound high
00:35:13 and one sound low.
00:35:14 It has to do with how rapidly
00:35:16 the tuning fork is vibrating back and forth.
00:35:19 I've got this beaker sitting here
00:35:22 on the table in front of us
00:35:25 and behind the beaker here, a loudspeaker
00:35:27 very much like you might have on your stereo at home.
00:35:30 And I've got the stereo amplifier here
00:35:33 connected to an electronic instrument
00:35:36 that makes sine waves
00:35:38 just like the tuning fork.
00:35:40 And it amplifies them and it comes out the speaker.
00:35:43 And we're going to put the beaker near the speaker.
00:35:46 And whenever I do this, I like to take precautions
00:35:49 as we always do in science
00:35:51 when we do things that could be dangerous.
00:35:54 And I want you to watch the beaker carefully
00:35:56 because this could be a shattering experience.
00:36:19 Now how many of you have seen a commercial on television
00:36:23 that does that? A lot of you.
00:36:25 And it's because of a principle of physics
00:36:27 that when the sound is exactly at the same frequency
00:36:30 as the frequency that it naturally has
00:36:32 when you hit it with a mallet,
00:36:34 it will vibrate with a very large amplitude
00:36:37 and that will cause the beaker to break
00:36:39 if the sound is loud enough.
00:36:41 Well, with that, I would like to conclude
00:36:43 this part of the presentation on physics
00:36:45 and invite you all to come to see
00:36:47 The Wonders of Physics,
00:36:49 which will be presented in February.
00:36:52 Thank you.
00:37:01 Thank you very much, Professor Sprott.
00:37:03 I too would like to invite you
00:37:05 and urge you very strongly
00:37:07 to attend Professor Sprott's physics demonstrations.
00:37:10 I know some of you have seen him on television
00:37:12 and those of you who haven't
00:37:14 might check the local listings to see
00:37:16 if indeed you can see his presentations on television.
00:37:19 They're very, very exciting.
00:37:22 What do you think we have in these balloons?
00:37:25 I think we have helium.
00:37:27 You know why you say helium?
00:37:29 Because all of you have had experience
00:37:31 with helium-filled balloons.
00:37:33 They are lighter than air and they rise
00:37:35 and that's why we keep them on a string.
00:37:37 So let's try to find out what's in these balloons
00:37:40 by taking advantage of one property of helium,
00:37:45 namely the property that tells us
00:37:49 that helium does not burn
00:37:51 if we put a source of fire or flame to it.
00:37:57 I'll take this balloon
00:37:59 and tape it over here
00:38:01 like so to hold it
00:38:03 and then to try to find out
00:38:05 what's in that balloon
00:38:07 I'll take a match
00:38:09 everybody's done this before
00:38:11 and I have a special...
00:38:14 I need to make sure the match stays lit
00:38:18 here we go
00:38:20 and I have a special burner
00:38:22 it has an interesting flame to it
00:38:25 see that?
00:38:27 What we're going to try to do
00:38:29 is put this flame to the balloon
00:38:31 and see what happens, alright?
00:38:33 Are we ready?
00:38:35 And all that has happened
00:38:37 is that the balloon popped, right?
00:38:39 That balloon indeed had helium in it
00:38:42 I'll set the flame down here
00:38:44 nobody comes close to it
00:38:46 I will take another balloon
00:38:48 that balloon that we used first
00:38:50 has what color?
00:38:52 That balloon was blue
00:38:54 let's try a different color balloon
00:38:56 where's my tape?
00:38:58 Here's my tape
00:39:00 and we'll tape it about the same place
00:39:02 as the first one
00:39:06 Okay, I will take the flame
00:39:08 Are you ready?
00:39:11 What do you think is going to happen
00:39:13 when I put this flame to the balloon?
00:39:15 It'll pop for sure
00:39:17 let's see if it pops or not
00:39:19 Boy, that was a big pop, wasn't it?
00:39:21 That was...
00:39:25 That was an explosion
00:39:27 in fact
00:39:29 you know what explosions are?
00:39:31 Explosions are very fast chemical reactions
00:39:33 that go out of control
00:39:35 I'll tell you what is inside
00:39:37 the yellow balloons
00:39:40 is not helium obviously
00:39:42 it is hydrogen
00:39:44 and hydrogen is a gas that burns
00:39:46 very very quickly
00:39:48 and very rapidly
00:39:50 and releases energy in the form of light
00:39:52 and in the form of sound
00:39:54 so we've seen sound energy experiments
00:39:56 from Professor Sprott
00:39:58 let's try to do this next experiment
00:40:00 if we can
00:40:02 by dimming the lights
00:40:04 and see if we can get a better look
00:40:06 at the flame
00:40:09 and you can watch
00:40:11 and see what happens
00:40:13 there we go
00:40:15 if you see that flame
00:40:17 that's hydrogen
00:40:19 and what we'll try
00:40:21 Santa Claus likes that
00:40:23 I heard your jingles
00:40:25 that is a reaction
00:40:27 a combustion reaction
00:40:29 between hydrogen and oxygen
00:40:31 and actually what we ought to try to do now
00:40:33 is to look at that combustion reaction
00:40:35 in slow motion
00:40:38 you won't be able to see that reaction
00:40:40 in slow motion
00:40:42 you won't be able to hear the sound
00:40:44 no sound at all
00:40:46 but watch the color of the flame
00:40:48 and which direction the flame moves in
00:40:50 there you go
00:40:52 well we've got
00:40:54 a red balloon over here
00:40:56 right
00:40:58 so let's try
00:41:00 the red balloon
00:41:02 and actually what we're going to do
00:41:04 with this red balloon
00:41:07 is we're going to do this experiment
00:41:09 in the dark
00:41:11 this balloon has
00:41:13 a different color of course
00:41:15 than the other balloons
00:41:17 and we've noticed that as we do these experiments
00:41:19 we notice that there is
00:41:21 a sound energy being released
00:41:23 and what I want you to do
00:41:25 is to protect your eardrums
00:41:27 from potential danger
00:41:29 potential damage
00:41:31 I want you to put your
00:41:33 fingers in your ears
00:41:36 damage
00:41:38 and what I will do because I can't do the experiment
00:41:40 and put my fingers in my ear
00:41:42 I'll use these ear plugs
00:41:44 now I want you to really
00:41:46 plug up your ears very very well
00:41:48 if you can hear what I'm saying
00:41:50 then you don't have your ears
00:41:52 plugged very well
00:41:54 I can see that some of you are smiling
00:41:56 so you can hear what I'm saying
00:41:58 so plug your ears and let's do this experiment
00:42:00 in the dark
00:42:02 ready
00:42:05 BOOM
00:42:07 laughter
00:42:09 applause
00:42:11 applause
00:42:13 applause
00:42:15 applause
00:42:17 applause
00:42:19 applause
00:42:21 that balloon had in it
00:42:23 oh Tanner likes that and Bucky likes that
00:42:25 they're both waving
00:42:27 that balloon had in it a mixture of hydrogen
00:42:29 and oxygen
00:42:31 and therefore it was a much louder
00:42:34 so these two combinations are very dangerous
00:42:36 combinations
00:42:38 and we have to try to keep flames
00:42:40 any sources of ignition away from them
00:42:42 and let's take a quick look in slow motion
00:42:44 at that last explosion and see what it looks like
00:42:46 so watch the monitor again
00:42:48 you won't hear a sound
00:42:50 and let's see if the color of the flame
00:42:52 is different than it was before
00:42:54 and of course
00:42:56 it is much brighter
00:42:58 and quite a bit different
00:43:00 in this experiment
00:43:03 so what we're going to try to do
00:43:05 in this long tube over here
00:43:07 this tube is filled with a mixture
00:43:09 of chemicals
00:43:11 it's got a rubber stopper at the bottom
00:43:13 it has another rubber stopper
00:43:15 on the top
00:43:17 what I'm going to do is light the match
00:43:19 remove the top rubber stopper
00:43:21 and drop the match in
00:43:23 and we'll see what happens
00:43:25 actually what we'll do is carry out this experiment
00:43:27 in the dark
00:43:29 alright so let's carry out this experiment in the dark
00:43:32 I'll turn off all the lights
00:43:34 and there is
00:43:36 the match
00:43:38 I'm near the top
00:43:56 that was another
00:43:58 combustion reaction
00:44:01 actually some people say
00:44:03 this experiment reminds them of
00:44:05 the ghost of Christmas fast
00:44:07 but it really isn't
00:44:09 let's take a look at this in slow motion
00:44:11 see what it looks like in slow motion
00:44:13 watch the monitor again
00:44:15 you won't hear any sound
00:44:17 there you see
00:44:27 alright so those were a couple of
00:44:30 combustion reactions
00:44:32 which were very very slow
00:44:34 let's carry out an experiment now
00:44:36 in this very large beaker
00:44:38 which has a volume of 4 liters
00:44:40 again you know in science we keep track of volume
00:44:42 not in quarts or in gallons
00:44:44 or pints
00:44:46 we keep track of volume
00:44:48 we make measurements of volume in liters
00:44:50 so we're going to
00:44:52 take a small
00:44:54 teflon coated
00:44:56 magnet
00:44:59 and we turn the
00:45:01 steering motor on
00:45:03 can you see it spinning
00:45:05 ok what I want you to do is
00:45:07 watch it spin very carefully
00:45:09 and tell me is it turning in a clockwise
00:45:11 direction or a counter clockwise
00:45:13 direction as you're looking at it
00:45:15 now some of you are not answering
00:45:17 that's because you probably have a digital watch
00:45:19 and can't tell which is clockwise
00:45:21 and which is counter clockwise
00:45:23 well look at it very carefully
00:45:25 we're going to use that as a way of mixing
00:45:28 one liquid
00:45:30 followed by another
00:45:32 liquid
00:45:36 anything happening yet
00:45:38 all I've done
00:45:40 see there's the bar
00:45:42 it's jumping around
00:45:44 ok we'll turn it slowly
00:45:46 and let it mix
00:45:48 and I'll add the third liquid
00:45:50 now let's take a look at the third liquid
00:45:52 as we add it and see what happens
00:45:54 if anything indeed happens
00:45:57 ok we have our yellow solution
00:45:59 what
00:46:01 what's going on
00:46:03 is there something going on
00:46:05 I saw
00:46:07 a yellow solution right
00:46:13 am I missing out
00:46:15 on something
00:46:17 how come I'm missing out on something
00:46:19 because I'm not looking right
00:46:27 well this is an example of what we call
00:46:29 an oscillating chemical
00:46:31 reaction
00:46:33 alright let's move on and do a couple of other
00:46:35 quick experiments with substances
00:46:37 that we call
00:46:39 polymers
00:46:41 polymers are substances that are all around us
00:46:43 because they are nylon
00:46:45 and orlon and all kinds of teflon
00:46:47 I mentioned teflon already
00:46:49 they're all man made
00:46:51 synthetically made substances
00:46:53 but not all of them are synthetically made
00:46:55 you have in the bag that Santa's elves prepared for you
00:46:57 a rubber band
00:46:59 and I want you to follow the instructions that are
00:47:01 in Santa's bag in doing the experiment
00:47:03 with the rubber band so you learn more about
00:47:05 natural polymers
00:47:07 but let me now do very quickly
00:47:09 an experiment with you
00:47:11 whereby I take two liquids
00:47:13 and I take these two liquids
00:47:15 and um
00:47:17 mix them in this large
00:47:19 beaker
00:47:21 and these two liquids are in these
00:47:24 paper cups so I add one
00:47:26 what does it look like?
00:47:28 looks like syrup actually it's not syrup
00:47:30 but it looks like syrup
00:47:32 and here's another one I add another one
00:47:34 what does this one look like?
00:47:36 looks like honey but it's not honey either
00:47:38 it just looks that way
00:47:40 and what we've learned I think among other things tonight
00:47:42 is that for reactions to take place
00:47:44 we have to mix them together
00:47:46 so I'm going to mix those two together
00:47:48 and ask you to watch
00:47:50 and see what happens
00:47:53 we mixed about
00:47:59 oh wait a minute
00:48:05 we're making a mess out of things here
00:48:11 there I am
00:48:19 well you see
00:48:23 see what happens in the lab of Shaka Shiri
00:48:25 lots of interesting things happen
00:48:27 let me show you
00:48:29 another way of doing the same
00:48:31 experiment
00:48:33 whereby
00:48:35 we do this experiment in this small
00:48:37 plastic cup
00:48:39 move this out of the way
00:48:41 so you can see it
00:48:43 put this down
00:48:45 and I take the same two liquids
00:48:47 the first one that looked like syrup you said
00:48:49 and the second one that looked like honey
00:48:52 so it's green in color now
00:48:54 and I mix those
00:48:56 again we're going to mix things together
00:49:02 now you know what's going to happen right
00:49:04 what's going to happen
00:49:08 it's going to come up
00:49:10 what this substance is
00:49:12 whoops there it goes
00:49:22 I see we're beginning to make some Christmas ornaments
00:49:24 because it is the holiday season
00:49:26 right
00:49:28 and that is a substance
00:49:30 a polymeric substance
00:49:32 we call
00:49:34 polyurethane foam
00:49:36 let's
00:49:38 move on and do
00:49:40 one other experiment
00:49:42 what I'm going to do
00:49:44 in this glass assembly
00:49:46 which is in the form of a spiral
00:49:48 mix two liquids
00:49:51 and a colorless and clear liquid
00:49:53 we're going to mix these two
00:49:55 in the dark and see what happens
00:49:57 so here we go we turn the lights off
00:49:59 once more
00:50:01 and we have more darkness
00:50:03 and there you go
00:50:17 this is the release of energy
00:50:20 and it is called chemiluminescence
00:50:22 with the house lights on
00:50:24 this is very similar to bioluminescence
00:50:26 bioluminescence is what you have
00:50:28 in
00:50:30 what you have in the firefly
00:50:32 and that is something that we are
00:50:34 all familiar with
00:50:36 it's different than this because it's in a living organism
00:50:38 alright let's
00:50:40 move on and show you
00:50:42 one of the interesting
00:50:44 discoveries of 1987
00:50:46 using the kit
00:50:49 that Santa Claus brought for us
00:50:51 and to do that experiment
00:50:53 we're going to
00:50:55 use a
00:50:57 magnet
00:50:59 and we're going to use a ceramic
00:51:01 substance
00:51:03 this ceramic substance
00:51:05 is a superconductor
00:51:07 as we will see
00:51:09 and it's made up of a small disk
00:51:11 that looks like this
00:51:13 it's just a very small
00:51:15 disk that there you go
00:51:18 and we're going to put it on top of this
00:51:20 plastic
00:51:24 dish
00:51:26 and we're going to use liquid nitrogen
00:51:28 to do this experiment
00:51:30 we'll do this experiment by
00:51:32 taking this
00:51:34 ceramic substance
00:51:36 putting it in this plastic cup
00:51:38 and what we'll do is
00:51:42 add the liquid nitrogen to cool it
00:51:48 liquid nitrogen boils at
00:51:50 minus 196 degrees celsius
00:51:52 it's very very cold
00:51:54 and we'll let the liquid
00:51:56 cool down
00:51:58 let the
00:52:00 ceramic cool down
00:52:02 and we'll try
00:52:04 to then fish it out
00:52:06 using tweezers
00:52:08 okay let's see
00:52:10 it's probably cold enough now
00:52:12 let's wait a little bit longer
00:52:14 make sure it's at the same temperature as liquid nitrogen
00:52:17 let's put it back in this thermos bottle
00:52:19 and we take the pellet
00:52:21 and put it over here
00:52:23 and we cool it again
00:52:31 if you
00:52:33 come up a little bit
00:52:35 you'll be able to see that a little bit better
00:52:37 on the monitor
00:52:39 there you go, there's the disk
00:52:41 which is cooled
00:52:43 and what I'm going to do
00:52:46 I'll try this magnet
00:52:48 and see if it floats on top of it
00:52:54 can you see what's attached to this magnet?
00:52:56 can you see
00:52:58 the magnet floating?
00:53:00 come in close on this and show me the magnet
00:53:02 there's the separation between the two
00:53:04 see this is because
00:53:06 the superconducting disk has generated
00:53:08 a magnetic field
00:53:10 and that separates
00:53:12 that enables the other magnet
00:53:15 let me just show you that this is actually happening
00:53:17 as long as it's cold
00:53:19 come on in again close on it
00:53:21 let's take a piece of paper
00:53:23 see I have this piece of paper
00:53:25 I can pass it right under it
00:53:27 see the piece of paper
00:53:29 that is the phenomenon of levitation
00:53:31 we're levitating this magnet
00:53:33 and this can
00:53:35 and I bet you some of you
00:53:37 who are going to go into careers
00:53:39 in science and math and physics
00:53:41 and so on
00:53:44 we can make good commercial applications of this
00:53:46 because we can have trains
00:53:48 and other kinds of vehicles
00:53:50 moving at much faster speed
00:53:52 if we take advantage
00:53:54 of this levitation phenomenon
00:53:56 let's try to
00:53:58 show you that
00:54:00 in my laboratory
00:54:02 not only can we make
00:54:04 explosions happen and talk about
00:54:06 plants and deal with sound energy
00:54:08 sound energy actually
00:54:10 is a very very
00:54:13 important part of energy
00:54:15 what we're going to do next
00:54:17 is do a special salute
00:54:19 because of the holiday season
00:54:21 but use now sound energy in a very special way
00:54:23 I'm going to ask Fred Juergens
00:54:25 to come out and do it
00:54:35 okay you're going to have to be real quiet
00:54:37 to hear this demonstration of sound energy
00:54:43 sound energy
00:54:55 Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!
00:55:07 of course these speakers were carefully tuned
00:55:09 so that we can do that experiment
00:55:12 let's look at this now
00:55:14 this is just a large flask
00:55:16 I put some hot water in it
00:55:18 what I'm going to do is dump the hot water out
00:55:20 just take the hot water out like so
00:55:24 and I have to reach over here
00:55:26 and get the stopper that was on this
00:55:28 and what we're going to do is
00:55:30 mix a bunch of chemicals in there
00:55:32 here's one chemical out of the small test tube
00:55:34 that we put in there
00:55:36 and here's another
00:55:38 mixture of chemicals that we
00:55:41 and you're watching that there's a color change
00:55:43 taking place already down the bottom
00:55:45 of this flask
00:55:47 that has been heated
00:55:49 with the hot water
00:55:51 I stopper this and what I'll do
00:55:53 I'll just mix those together
00:55:55 rather quickly and see what happens
00:55:57 you see what's happening
00:55:59 you begin to see what's happening
00:56:01 what does it look like
00:56:03 well it's dark right
00:56:05 what else
00:56:08 bubbles yeah there are bubbles in there what else
00:56:12 it's getting dark yeah what else
00:56:18 my hands are getting tired from shaking this right
00:56:22 what does it look like now
00:56:24 let's take a closer look at it right
00:56:32 it looks like a nice big Christmas ornament
00:56:34 actually
00:56:37 this is a silvered flask now
00:56:43 and what we have done
00:56:45 is make this very special
00:56:47 large Christmas ornament
00:56:49 for Santa
00:56:57 I'll show you another one that we made before
00:56:59 and this one
00:57:01 Santa looks pretty happy
00:57:03 and pleased with this we have two of those
00:57:05 and this is in fact how they used to silver mirrors
00:57:07 by taking a solution that has in it
00:57:09 silver nitrate adding some
00:57:11 sodium hydroxide to it and some ammonia
00:57:13 and some sugar
00:57:15 not ordinary sugar but a reducing sugar
00:57:17 like dextrose you mix them in the
00:57:19 right proportions and you can
00:57:21 have a silvered object
00:57:23 as we have done here
00:57:25 those of you who are teachers in the audience
00:57:27 I want to warn you that the liquid
00:57:29 that's inside the flask now
00:57:31 if it is allowed to dry
00:57:34 it will then become a solid
00:57:36 and a solid is
00:57:38 shock sensitive
00:57:40 the solid is shock sensitive
00:57:42 and it will detonate upon
00:57:44 just touching it
00:57:46 so what you have to do is within a half hour
00:57:48 within a half hour of doing this
00:57:50 is empty this liquid wash it down
00:57:52 the drain with a lot of water
00:57:54 rinse the inside of the flask
00:57:56 with water lots of water
00:57:58 and it will stay for a long time
00:58:00 well these are some of the experiments
00:58:03 that I wanted to share with you
00:58:05 in this holiday season
00:58:07 we've covered a lot of chemistry
00:58:09 a lot of physics a lot of biology
00:58:11 I hope each one of you
00:58:13 has enjoyed being here tonight
00:58:15 and I hope that each of you
00:58:17 actually begin to learn
00:58:19 that science is indeed fun
00:58:21 I want to wish you a very happy holiday
00:58:23 season and I thank you again
00:58:25 for coming tonight
00:58:32 www.globalonenessproject.org
00:59:02 www.globalonenessproject.org
00:59:32 www.globalonenessproject.org