Science Max | FULL EPISODE | States Of Matter | Season 1

have you ever done a science experiment

and wondered what it'd be like if you

did it big

i have

[Music]

my name is phil and i take your everyday

science experiments and do them big

this is science max experiments at art

science facts

this episode of science max is a messy

one we're looking at solids liquids and

gases and things in between like

cornstarch mud

today on science max experiments at

large

we hold the power of states of matter

creating science maximize

i'm phil mccordick

i think i overdid it with the fog

machine

this is science max experiments at large

can you even see me let's let's go over

here

today we're talking about states of

matter now there are three main states

of matter solid like this table liquid

like the water in the speaker and gas

yes thank you and we're also going to be

looking at the things that kind of go in

between things that are sometimes solid

sometimes liquid like cornstarch mud

which is very easy to make all you need

is water and corn starch which you can

get at the grocery store mix it up

however much you want just remember two

parts corn starch to one part water

twice as much of this than you have of

that very easy mix it up and you get

cornstarch mud which sort of seems like

a liquid unless you hit it

and then it becomes

solid

but if i pour it

it's a liquid

even if i hold it in my hand and i hit

it really fast it turns into a ball and

it will stay in a ball as long as i keep

hitting it or squeezing it but soon as i

stop

it turns into a liquid again

now we're gonna max this out

we'll go through the portal and learn

more about solids liquids and gases yeah

right that's why i'm going to the center

for skills development and training oh

no wait that's the code for the fog

machine wait uh

stop

stop it seems to be stuck oh

never mind never mind i'll fix it later

uh right hey judy how are you phil how

are you good judy is going for her phd

in chemistry right yes fantastic because

that means you can explain cornstarch

mud to me now is this a solid or is it a

liquid

well it kind of has properties of both

it's called a non-newtonian fluid so

that makes it a liquid a liquid well i

mean it pours like a liquid but when you

hit it it's a solid so why does it turn

solid when you hit it so when you're

pouring it the particles are still far

apart so they can't interact with each

other and so they stay liquid but when

you're hitting it you're jamming the

particles together and they line up to

become a solid now does it still work

the same way if we have a lot more of it

uh it should great because i've got

this 20 kilogram bag of cornstarch and i

have 34 more of them wow that's a lot uh

but i think you'll need a much bigger

container much bigger container great um

i got some wood over there i want you to

go and i'll follow you all right i'll

follow you

yeah thanks ramona and give me one of

them fizzy drinks not too fizzy just

sort of medium fizzy thanks a lot

hello do you have trouble knowing what

is this solid liquid or gas are you

confused by jello i mean which is it is

it a solid or is it a liquid water is a

liquid but what about when it's ice

well you've got to know your states of

matter there are three main states of

matter solid

liquid and gas and there are three rules

that you need to figure out which one of

them is which does it flow does it fit

the shape of its container and can you

squeeze it

rule number one does it flow solid

liquid gas here's a guess does it flow

do the particles pour over each other

and cascade down yeah yeah they do does

the liquid flow

yeah yeah it does does it solid

nope

rule number two what happens when you

put it in a container does it take the

shape of the container gases take the

shape of the container liquids takes the

shape of the container solids do not

take the shape of that container

i know what you're thinking you're

thinking i get the whole pouring and

taking the shape of the container but

come on liquids and gases they do both

of those things well it all comes down

to rule number three can you squeeze it

now solids you can't you can't really

squeeze them liquids you can't really

squeeze them gas is ha ha bam you can

squeeze them you see gases compress

liquids and solids they don't really

compress very well the other difference

between gases and liquids is gases will

take the shape and the volume of the

container they're put in liquids don't

do that so there you go solid liquid gas

and the rules does it flow does it take

the shape of the container and can you

squeeze it now you know your states of

matter

that'll be 6.50 cash only

so what is cornstarch mud and how does

it work well cornstarch mud is a

non-newtonian fluid which means it

behaves differently than you or newton

would expect

here's cornstarch and here's water

corn starch is made up of large blocky

molecules like this

water is made up of much smaller rounder

molecules like this when you put them

together it looks something like this

it all has to do with how the molecules

slide past each other when you put light

pressure or slow pressure on the mud the

water molecules and cornstarch molecules

have time to shift out of the way but

when you put a sudden pressure on it the

water molecules squirt out of the way

but the cornstarch molecules don't have

enough time so you get a section that's

nearly all cornstarch

which acts as a solid

cornstarch mud is a sheer thickening

fluid

shear is talking about the force of

things sliding around in this case the

molecules

so when the sheer force is strong the

fluid thickens sheer

thickening

so here's the plan if judy and i make

enough cornstarch mud

could we run across it

let's find out

yeah i think mine is just the right

consistency how's yours judy i think i'm

ready too this is much harder than i

thought yeah it's really hard to get it

mixed at the very beginning but uh mine

is ready to go okay here we go first

batch you ready yup dump it

[Music]

in hmm i thought that would be more i

thought so too it's really not filling

this up very much is it no

huh that's a lot of cornstarch this is

um

this is great but i think we're gonna

have to go a little faster than this i

think we need some sort of mixing device

yeah i mean we don't have to do this by

hand we can get some sort of machine to

help us yeah right on high five

oh

we shouldn't high five when we have

stuff on our hands no yeah good call

[Music]

this science is delicious this is rock

candy it's basically crystallized sugar

and you make it by turning a solid into

a liquid and then back to a solid again

here's how you can make it at home

[Applause]

you need a container that you're not

going to need for a while and some water

some sugar you can use brown or white i

like to use brown and an adult here's

why you need an adult you want to

dissolve three cups of sugar into every

cup of water and you can't do that

unless you heat the water so get an

adult a saucepan and heat the water up

pour the sugar in and keep stirring

until it's all dissolved then pour it in

your container and let it cool down then

you'll need a shish kebab skewer which

is something you can get at the grocery

store cut it down to the right size so

it fits nicely into your container and

then dunk it in your sugar and get some

crystals coated around the stick these

are seed crystals and they get the whole

process started now you have to wait for

these to dry otherwise they'll just fall

off the stick when you put it in the

water so i've got one here that has

dried out you'll also want something to

keep it from falling in the top of the

container so i'm going to use a

clothespin

put it in there

and dunk it in the container like that

and now for the final step if you want

you can add food coloring i like to use

red because it reminds me of science

and i'm gonna use the stick to actually

stir that up a little bit

there we go now the dissolved sugar

crystals in the water will slowly grow

on the crystals that are already

attached to the stick and it will

eventually grow into a rock candy

pop

but it takes about a week

no i'm just kidding i've already got one

that's standing by here we go

this one has been growing for about

seven days

and there you go

rock candy

delicious science now how can we make

this any better i mean it's crystallized

sugar it doesn't get any more maxed out

than that does it

yeah it does come on

this is a giant container of sugar water

and i've been brewing a massive rock

candy

crystal in it for a while but

it's sort of

it's sort of

you're getting a little bit too big to

fit out the top of the container so

um

you know what i'm just gonna put that

back

in there

and

chalk that one up to science because

well eating a rock candy crystal that

big will definitely not be good for my

teeth so

[Music]

so our big experiment is to take a whole

lot of cornstarch and fill a trough to

see if we can run on it

but mixing it by hand was going to take

forever so judy and i got a drill with a

mixing attachment on the end

whoa sorry

all right so judy i'm noticing a bit of

a problem here what is it well if i mix

at the top everything's fine but soon as

i get it a little bit deeper and then it

gets

really

tough and the whole bucket starts to

spin and the drill stops yeah i think

it's because it's joe's trying to mix it

too fast when we're mixing it by hand

it's slow and you can still let it stay

a liquid but now you're just making a

solid right because it's a sheer

thickening fluid so if you hit it really

quickly with something like the blades

of this spinning really quickly in the

thing it'll suddenly turn into a solid

and it'll be really hard to mix yup so

we go slow

going slow

going slow

suddenly realizing that if we go slow

we'll be here forever yep you know what

i think we need

sorry you know what i think we need we

need a different way to mix this

yep we need a way to mix more of it and

we need a way that it doesn't

hit it with blades that suddenly go

through it really quickly something that

can mix on a large scale but slowly

i have just the thing come with me all

right

[Music]

the interesting thing about bubbles is

they're a gas surrounded by a liquid so

get some dish soap and some water and

then be science maximites and find

things around the house that you can

make bubbles out of just about anything

that has holes will do

or

[Music]

or

i like this one i call it the loud

bubble

[Music]

or

now it's time to max it out

i'm here at the ontario science center

and this is anthony hey anthony hey

how's it going good so you are amazing

at bubbles uh i am i've been practicing

for a while let's get started we're

going to make an okie dokie sign like

this uh-huh we're going to dip it right

into our bubble solution come on get

right in there right in there make sure

you get it all okay that's that's a

little too much well i can make two and

then you're going to keep that okie doke

sign you're going to blow very gently

nice i brought these two

giant sticks here and i don't know if

you noticed but i've got a smoke machine

here right so we'll turn that on and

then if you press that green button

there you're gonna shoot some smoke and

we're gonna try to catch that smoke in a

giant bubble you ready

and i'm gonna try to

oh that was so close if you see that one

you give it a shot

nice

oh amazing

that was huge hide again let's see if i

can get the smoke machine here we go go

for it go for it push right towards

oh check that out you did it look at

that

smoke

and ground is on the floor because the

floor it doesn't have any oils like our

hands do

isn't that amazing

that was so cool that was great you know

what i think we should do what's that

giant bubble tons of smoke done okay

here we go let's do it you ready giant

bubble tons of smoke

go

oh so much

look at that

amazing look at that that's crazy maxed

out bubbles well there you go giant

smoke-filled bubbles awesome yeah

judy and i tried mixing the cornstarch

mud using a drill with a mixer

attachment but it didn't work

we should have known better here's the

mixer in our cornstarch mud usually a

mixer works by going really fast and

mixing everything together but remember

that cornstarch mud is a sheer

thickening fluid so when the blades of

the mixer tried to go fast through the

cornstarch mud it did what it always

does turn solid the faster and harder

you try to move it the more solid it

will become

this means the only way to mix it would

be if we made the drill go very

very slow

which wouldn't speed things up at all

so with the drill another lost cause

judy and i need the biggest thing around

that could mix stuff up

little bit more

perfect

a cement truck

a cement truck is a perfect thing to mix

because all we have to do is get all the

cornstarch up in here and it'll mix it

and it doesn't move it too fast it goes

nice and slow so hopefully a sheer

thickening fluid will be fine i'm gonna

get judy she's driving the truck hey

judy that's perfect

the only problem is we needed to get all

of those bags of cornstarch into the

hopper of the cement truck i didn't

think it would be this messy

we needed to call the entire science max

build team to help us out

this is possibly

the messiest thing i've ever done

awesome

hey judy you want to you want to lift up

any bags

oh okay thanks that's okay i'm having a

lot of fun so i can do them cool

oh no oh no oh no

i got most of it i got most of it

all right i think we're done i think

that's enough bags let's start the

mixing

so what do you think judy do you think

it's gonna work

i think so because you're mixing at a

very large volume but at a very low

speed yep so through the process it'll

stay a liquid until we're ready to run

across it that sounds exactly like the

kind of science i like to see you know

what i really like is that every time i

move more cornstarch comes off

it's like

it's like i'm a human fog machine

[Music]

this is liquid nitrogen nitrogen makes

up most of the air we breathe but if you

get it really really cold it turns into

a liquid the fun thing is you can use it

to make other things really really cold

too like

this banana i have frozen this banana

solid

thanks to the liquid nitrogen and

normally a mushy banana would not be

able to hammer in a nail but

whoa because it's frozen

i can hammer this nail into this block

of wood so that got me wondering if i

can turn a banana into a hammer using

liquid nitrogen could i turn a pumpkin

into a sledgehammer

let's find out

pumpkin sledgehammer take one

no i i think the answer is no you cannot

turn a pumpkin into a sledgehammer with

liquid nitrogen all you can do is make a

really really big mess

i'm gonna have to clean this up aren't i

now we have a cement truck to help us do

the mixing for our cornstarch mud

after making a giant mess getting the

cornstarch into the cement truck it's

time to see if it worked

hey phil how's it going yeah it looks

like it's mixing pretty well i'm really

glad we are not doing this by hand

guys it didn't take did it take a really

long time we've almost got it at the

right consistency but it's taken some

time but it's getting a little dark out

judy i don't know do you want to quit

and go home no course not that's not

what we do in science

oh here we go

yeah awesome all right let's see it

let's see if it's

i like how it comes down to little steps

and look it's still

it's working just like it should i hit

it

and it's solid but you can see it's

pouring like a liquid

ah here comes a big wave well here it

comes

wow

and it's totally filling up oh yeah it's

going up really fast i think we should

stop pouring very soon

yep we may not have a big enough fall

yep

liking it

it's good

yeah

i think it's time it's not even done

pouring but i'm gonna try it okay you

ready

[Music]

can't

you have to get back onto the sides

before you

stop moving or else if it becomes a

liquid all right it's your turn

okay here

go

okay ready okay you gotta hit your feet

really fast all right here you go

because cornstarch mud is a sheer

thickening fluid it means it stays a

liquid until you hit it suddenly like

with your hands or in this case our feet

and then it turns to a solid so as long

as judy and i keep slapping our feet

down with enough force we can walk on

top of it one more dance all right and

tell you what we'll do one more dance

all right let's do that okay ready all

right

go

all right all right there you go

we've done it

solid liquid gases thanks very much for

joining us on sciencemax experiments at

large

hey judy

catch

i have to be careful because the banana

will shatter

if i'm not careful i think it's stuck on

the bottom i call this one the loud

bubble

oh well uh i call this one the loud

bubble

[Music]

you