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Post by The Urban Mythbuster on Feb 2, 2014 4:15:37 GMT
Watched this with my six-year-old daughter & she loved it! We will be trying all the 'Do' this at home (except the metronomes, in favor of my sanity...)
Microwaved Water kills Plants: I think the biggest takeaway on this was to cool the water before using it on the plant. Wasn't sure what to expect for the result.
Elephant Toothpaste: Hydrogen Peroxide + Yeast reminds me of the Vinegar + Baking Soda "volcanoes" that I made as a kid.
The ultimate Do NOT Try This at Home or EVER: Dry Ice + Water in a sealed container. My daughter was flabbergasted by all the damage it did to the "hands". Safety first, always. (We did talk about how dry ice & water in an open container makes smoke though)
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Post by the light works on Feb 2, 2014 15:36:13 GMT
lets see - boiling water is advertised as an environmentally friendly way to kill weeds...
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Post by breesfan on Feb 2, 2014 21:13:35 GMT
I liked some of these but for the snake one, I thought Grant was a bit too close to the cup.
The one about the motor boat, Did you blame the guy for wanting to go with them? Unless maybe they wanted him to come.
I didn't realize there were so many dry-bombing going on but I think they should have done a 'DO NOT DO' only episode and a 'DO IT' instead of both in the same episode.
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Post by craighudson on Feb 2, 2014 23:18:20 GMT
In the snake with 3% peroxide and yeast, it looked as though the soap wasn't mixed properly with the peroxide, meaning that it's not surprising there wasn't much of a froth.
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Post by the light works on Feb 3, 2014 0:42:36 GMT
the metronomes - I think they were also reaching a point of having too much static mass compared to the dynamic mass. - as well, as adam said, as the metronomes not being calibrated closely enough.
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Post by The Urban Mythbuster on Feb 3, 2014 4:06:30 GMT
In the snake with 3% peroxide and yeast, it looked as though the soap wasn't mixed properly with the peroxide, meaning that it's not surprising there wasn't much of a froth. I was wondering about that. Is the soap necessary for the reaction? Or, is it just there to accentuate the reaction?
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Post by The Urban Mythbuster on Feb 3, 2014 4:08:23 GMT
the metronomes - I think they were also reaching a point of having too much static mass compared to the dynamic mass. - as well, as adam said, as the metronomes not being calibrated closely enough. Did the air jets on the air hockey still provide a frictionless enough of a surface with the 216 metronomes? Or, would it have be better to use a Styrofoam platform on ball bearings?
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Post by the light works on Feb 3, 2014 4:44:05 GMT
In the snake with 3% peroxide and yeast, it looked as though the soap wasn't mixed properly with the peroxide, meaning that it's not surprising there wasn't much of a froth. I was wondering about that. Is the soap necessary for the reaction? Or, is it just there to accentuate the reaction? my understanding was that the soap provided the structure for the bubbles to form - like bubble blowing solution.
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Post by the light works on Feb 3, 2014 4:47:44 GMT
the metronomes - I think they were also reaching a point of having too much static mass compared to the dynamic mass. - as well, as adam said, as the metronomes not being calibrated closely enough. Did the air jets on the air hockey still provide a frictionless enough of a surface with the 216 metronomes? Or, would it have be better to use a Styrofoam platform on ball bearings? I think the weight of the accumulated metronomes, and the randomness of the impulse, was working against the synchronizing effect. if that interpretation is correct, they could start with two metronomes, get them in sync, then start two more, and progress in that manner until they get them all going and in sync.
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Post by blindleader on Feb 3, 2014 6:19:17 GMT
metronomes: I don't remember how many were used in the youtube video I saw. I'm pretty sure it was less than a hundred, maybe fifty? I believe granularity, or rather the lack of granularity, was the key to the result. This is what I think the light works is saying. In order for the metronomes to sync up, the initial conditions have to have some minimum majority of the metronomes being in the same phase quadrant most of the time in order to get the platform moving enough. With 216 of them, the law of averages apparently makes that unlikely. Another way of putting it is that the signal to noise ratio was too low. The beginning phases were just too spread out. Having all the metronomes tuned very close to the same cadence is also necessary.
Have most of you heard the story of two similar but not identical tall case clocks (AKA Grandfather Clocks) standing on the same wooden floor, eventually running in perfect sync? In a case such as that, there is maximum granularity, plus you would expect that the periods of the two pendulums would be very closely matched.
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Post by the light works on Feb 3, 2014 14:48:42 GMT
metronomes: I don't remember how many were used in the youtube video I saw. I'm pretty sure it was less than a hundred, maybe fifty? I believe granularity, or rather the lack of granularity, was the key to the result. This is what I think the light works is saying. In order for the metronomes to sync up, the initial conditions have to have some minimum majority of the metronomes being in the same phase quadrant most of the time in order to get the platform moving enough. With 216 of them, the law of averages apparently makes that unlikely. Another way of putting it is that the signal to noise ratio was too low. The beginning phases were just too spread out. Having all the metronomes tuned very close to the same cadence is also necessary. Have most of you heard the story of two similar but not identical tall case clocks (AKA Grandfather Clocks) standing on the same wooden floor, eventually running in perfect sync? In a case such as that, there is maximum granularity, plus you would expect that the periods of the two pendulums would be very closely matched. that is a good way of putting it.
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Post by OziRiS on Feb 4, 2014 1:06:41 GMT
With the metronomes I think they made one crucial mistake. The air hockey table.
When Adam made his small scale test, the base he put them on only had one axis of movement, namely side to side. The air hockey table made the whole thing unstable, as the styrofoam base could move both on the X and Y axis. It seemed like a good idea to begin with, but I think they would have come up with a different result if they had found a way to make a light enough rig similar to Adam's initial one.
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Post by The Urban Mythbuster on Feb 4, 2014 4:03:32 GMT
With the metronomes I think they made one crucial mistake. The air hockey table. When Adam made his small scale test, the base he put them on only had one axis of movement, namely side to side. The air hockey table made the whole thing unstable, as the styrofoam base could move both on the X and Y axis. It seemed like a good idea to begin with, but I think they would have come up with a different result if they had found a way to make a light enough rig similar to Adam's initial one. More durable Styrofoam board on top of larger diameter pipes to limit movement to side-to-side? I was thinking ball bearings but, based on your observation, those would create the same problem as the air hockey table.
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Post by watcher56 on Feb 4, 2014 4:06:44 GMT
Microwaved water:
I didn't expect it to be detrimental to the plants, but can anyone explain why the plants watered with microwaved water grew substantially taller than the others?
Metronomes:
Couple of things come to mind. First, the coupling between them was small, so they would have to be tuned very closely to the same frequency if there was to be any hope of them synchronizing. Second, with 216 running at random, there would be no effective 'leader'. I would propose one 'master' metronome - one that was large enough and/or designed differently* so that it imparted the needed oscillatory motion to the base board.
*It was interesting that the metronomes chosen for the test had counter-moving masses. They were apparently designed to *not* torgue left and right. Perhaps simply using metronomes with a single weight - that would increase the left-right forces - may have been successful.
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Post by The Urban Mythbuster on Feb 4, 2014 4:57:26 GMT
Microwaved water: I didn't expect it to be detrimental to the plants, but can anyone explain why the plants watered with microwaved water grew substantially taller than the others? Would microwaving water essentially turn it into deionized water? What would in a test of microwaved vs deionized water?
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Post by OziRiS on Feb 4, 2014 13:27:58 GMT
With the metronomes I think they made one crucial mistake. The air hockey table. When Adam made his small scale test, the base he put them on only had one axis of movement, namely side to side. The air hockey table made the whole thing unstable, as the styrofoam base could move both on the X and Y axis. It seemed like a good idea to begin with, but I think they would have come up with a different result if they had found a way to make a light enough rig similar to Adam's initial one. More durable Styrofoam board on top of larger diameter pipes to limit movement to side-to-side? I was thinking ball bearings but, based on your observation, those would create the same problem as the air hockey table. Unless you laid the bearings out in grooves that limited their movement to one direction.
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Post by the light works on Feb 4, 2014 14:57:45 GMT
More durable Styrofoam board on top of larger diameter pipes to limit movement to side-to-side? I was thinking ball bearings but, based on your observation, those would create the same problem as the air hockey table. Unless you laid the bearings out in grooves that limited their movement to one direction. or used roller bearings
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Post by The Urban Mythbuster on Feb 4, 2014 15:20:57 GMT
Unless you laid the bearings out in grooves that limited their movement to one direction. or used roller bearings Channeled ball bearing vs roller bearings vs pipe, which would give the greatest mechanical advantage for the metronome test? Would this make it worth a retest?
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Post by the light works on Feb 4, 2014 15:26:05 GMT
Channeled ball bearing vs roller bearings vs pipe, which would give the greatest mechanical advantage for the metronome test? Would this make it worth a retest? I am thinking probably not. I think they are simply running into the law of diminishing returns.
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Post by Cybermortis on Feb 4, 2014 16:39:39 GMT
Microwaved water: I didn't expect it to be detrimental to the plants, but can anyone explain why the plants watered with microwaved water grew substantially taller than the others? First thoughts; Boiling removed trace elements from the water that restricted plant growth, or altered those elements so they no longer effected them. (Some plants produce chemicals that reduce root growth in other plants, and it is possible that traces of those chemicals may be found in tap water.) Boiling removed traces of bacteria in the water that restricted growth. (Some types of bacteria are used in water treatment plants, and I'd guess some of those may be found in tap water) Boiling reduces the amount of oxygen in the water, which might reduce the ability of bacteria in the soil to reproduce and affect the plants. Boiled water may have be better at dissolving chemicals in the soil or on the surface of the soil, as it might have a lower concentration of elements after being boiled. The act of pouring the water into a container twice (once into the kettle, and once into the container) may have allowed the water to absorb more nitrogen compounds from the air than water that came straight from the tap. I'm guessing that between water treatment plants and being stuck in pipes there is not much nitrogen in tap water.
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