The Spangler Effect - Back to School Science Season 01 Episode 26

STEVE: Hey, it's the first day of school and nothing says fun
like science.
HIGGINSWORTH: Psst.
STEVE: I've got some really, really cool--
HIGGINSWORTH: Psst, Steve.
STEVE: Be quiet.
And I've got some really cool activities you can do.
You're just going to find some stuff--
Higginsworth, quiet.
HIGGINSWORTH: What did you get for number four?
STEVE: Your name.
Write your name.
Gosh.
So all you're going to do is get some really
cool stuff at home.
I'll put the whole thing--
HIGGINSWORTH: Psst.
STEVE: I didn't want to have to do this.

It's going to be a good year.

I'm Steve Spangler and I'm all about making science fun.
For the last 20 years, I've been teaching ways to turn
ordinary science experiments into unforgettable learning
experiences.
I have an amazing team who will do whatever it takes to
affect the way people think about science.
And to do that, I live by one motto: make it big, do it
right, give it class.

Well, every year also starts with great school supplies,
and if you have a great mom like I do, she stocks you up.
So let me see, tape, pencil, glue, pen, scissors.
That's good.
Straw?
Why did she give me a straw?
Higginsworth, Mom gave me a straw.
HIGGINSWORTH: It's for the pitcher of water.
STEVE: Pitcher of water?
Oh, yeah.
Put that on your desk.
What are you writing?
HIGGINSWORTH: Nothing.
Hey, come on, Steve.
STEVE: Do you like me.
Yes, no, maybe?
No, she doesn't like you.
And my mom always packed me a great lunch.
Higgins, why do we have to eat at our desks?
HIGGINSWORTH: Because you read my note out loud.
TEACHER: Spangler, Higginsworth, it's quiet time.
STEVE: Sorry, Miss Jenkins.

Let's see what she got me.
Moms are so awesome.
Notes.
HIGGINSWORTH: Steve?
What's the note say?
STEVE: It's from my mom.
It says, have a great first day of school.
PS, stay away from Higginsworth, he's trouble.

And, San Pellegrino, so sparkling and refreshing.
HIGGINSWORTH: Hey.
STEVE: Hold that.
I'll share it with you.
HIGGINSWORTH: Come on.
STEVE: What else?
Peanut butter.
When you want only the best, Skippy.
Take this, Higgins.

Who doesn't like cheese?
Junior Mints, very refreshing.
Stewed tomatoes, Mexican style.
Gnocchi, when all your friends want to enjoy pasta, the pasta
alternative.
And a Slim Jim, spicy but great.
Tempeh for those people who don't like to eat other
carnivores.
And who doesn't love Cholula?
Cholula, the spicy alternative to salsa.
And for dessert, Fiji.
Fa gee yogurt.
Don't eat all the fruit.
What the heck?
Why another straw?
HIGGINSWORTH: Psst, its for the Cheese Whiz.
STEVE: Cheese Whiz.
Oh, I hate those.
Yum.
Higginsworth, look at this.
I spelled something inappropriate on the cal--
TEACHER: Spangler!
STEVE: Sorry, Miss Jenkins.
Well, since Miss Jenkins said I had to stay after school, it
means that I can show you some cool science experiments using
only the stuff that Mom sent.
We're going to need that sandwich bag first.
So grab a sandwich bag.
And to the sandwich bag you're going to add some water.
Start by filling the plastic bag with water,
probably 3/4 full.
Seal it up.
And now we're going to do the impossible
with these sharp pencils.
Now, normally if you were to take a sharpened pencil and
puncture a hole into a bag, it would leak with
no problem at all.
But if you know something about the science of this
plastic bag--
See, plastic bags are nothing more than polymers.
And a polymer is a long chain of molecules.
I want you to think of these long strands of molecules
almost like fibers that make up the plastic bag.
In this particular case, if you take your sharpened
pencil, and you just have to believe it's going to work,
and you push through, you literally, can separate these
long chains of molecules.
The bag seals around the pencil and hopefully, it
doesn't leak.
Bingo.
That look great?
So now the object is just to see how many pencils you can
get through.
It's kind of like doing sandwich bag surgery.
You will get a couple leaks here and there, but, for the
most part, you can do this right over a friend's head and
they should be fine.
Or for extra credit, do it right over the teacher's head
and they will love it.
The only problem with this, the waterproof bag, is pulling
out the pencils.
Higginsworth?
He'll do anything.
I've been doing this--
TEACHER: Spangler!
STEVE: Sorry, Miss Jenkins.
You can do something very cool if you have a ruler.
You just need a regular ruler and a sheet of newspaper.
And some air.
The object of this challenge is to karate chop
this ruler in half.
I know, that's bad.
But you can only use one hand.
Now, if you just put the ruler here like this and you karate
chop it like this.
It doesn't work.
And that's where the sheet of newspaper comes in.
Believe it or not, we need this flimsy little sheet of
newspaper to hold the ruler in place.
It'll do it.
The only change we're going to make to the newspaper is to
increase its surface area.
See it's 506 square inches.
If every square inch has air pressure pushing on it and if
we were at sea level, that would be about 14.7 pounds per
square inch.
That means that on this sheet of newspaper, if it was laid
out completely flat, this sheet of newspaper would have
nearly 7,438 pounds of pressure pushing on it.
I think it's enough to hold the ruler in place.
Ready?
Three, two, it's not exactly about just the air pressure.
Yes, there's air pushing down on it, but if you'll notice,
there's a little bit of air sneaking underneath.
So in theory, it's air.
In reality, it's a combination of the air pushing down on it
and the drag, or what's going to happen when it tries to
flip back up again, and the sheet of newspaper with the
air pushing down kind of holding it in place.
Look at that.
Right in half.
That wasn't me, it was the air.

You know, Mom said never to play with your food.
So did Miss Jenkins.
But in this particular case, it's a great idea because you
could use this spoon as a catapult.
Now, there have been lots of activities out there where you
just simply take a spoon and tape it down.
We want more variables because we want to turn this into a
real science experiment.
So this notebook will be perfect because we're going to
attach the spoon to the notebook and allow this to be
able to change the angle.
And we can figure out how far it's going to go and have a
nice little hypothesis.
And believe it or not, the secret is the staple remover.
Step one, attach the spoon to the staple remover just using
some of that tape.
Perfect.
Now we've got to attach that contraption to the notebook.

This is perfect.
Now we just need ammunition and a target.
Higginsworth.

HIGGINSWORTH: Knock it off.
STEVE: Quiet.
HIGGINSWORTH: Miss Jenkins.

STEVE: God, that hurt.