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