Smarter Every Day: Prince Rupert's Drop

in science •  8 years ago 

One of my favorite Steemit Posts was from 9 months ago where I highlited 11 of my favorite YouTube channels for educational entertainment.

One of the channels mentioned is Smarter Every Day (you can support them on Patreon here). Since 2013, they've done a few videos on Prince Rupert's Drop which I've found fascinating. This glass causes bullets to shatter. Seriously.

Destin just released the latest video where he tested them against larger and larger caliber bullets. I enjoyed it so much, I wanted to share it here on Steemit.

First we'll start with the video from 2013:

Then they get into the history of it a bit more and fire a bullet at it at 150,000 fps:

Next, we're at 170,000 fps with a .38 Special:

On to today's video with much bigger guns (and explosions) at 223,000 frames per second:

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

If @smartereveryday has any concerns about me making SBD off their content, I'll gladly send it his way.

I'm feeling sick today and browsing YouTube, so if you see any other YouTube channels that aren't on the list I mentioned before you think I'd like, please let me know about them in the comments.

Thanks!


Luke Stokes is a father, husband, business owner, programmer, voluntaryist, and blockchain enthusiast. He wants to help create a world we all want to live in.

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Thanks for sharing, I've actually discovered their channel before and really liked their videos as well!
YouTube has so much material for education!

There's so much good stuff out there! Did you catch the other 11 channels I mentioned in the other post? If you have any others you think I'd like, please share away. Thanks!

Destin is fantastic. He actually gave a speech at skepticon, which is worth a look.

@mattclarke: That was fantastic! Thanks so much for sharing. I love this video. Having spent most of my life riding the bike one way (Christianity), I've since learned to ride it differently, and I've lost many friends because of it. I love this example of how our brains work and how important skepticism is combined with love.

Now that is amazing!!

Science is awesome!!! :)

Prince Rupert Drops are amazing! I used to hang out with some glassblowers in Austin, TX and they'd make them, right there, dropping hot glass into buckets of cold water... you couldn't smash them with a sledgehammer, but then they'd snap the "tail" and they'd shatter into a million pieces.

Science is awesome!

You'll like this videos. :)

Oh yeah, the videos are awesome... I love science in super slo-mo.

Here's a piece of esoteric science-trivia for you: In the 1800s, the very long canes they would offer fine ladies and gentlemen to help them step down from tall carriages without losing their balance were often made-- of all things-- from spun twisted glass, because it was the strongest most flexible material available.

Wow, very interesting. Who would have thought to make a cane out of glass. :)

If you ever find yourself in a flea market or junk shop and see something that looks like a 6-foot long thin (about the thickness of your thumb) twisted candy cane made of glass... often with a small hole at one end (for a leather strap)... it's probably a coach cane, most likely from England or France.

I like watching people shoot things!

science!!

upvoted

@shayne

:)

I'm not sure what it is about exploding things which is so fascinating.

Interesting post!

Thanks for this helpful information!