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Wow Mr. Wizard!
Ever wonder what scientists do when they get bored?
1 On the Effectiveness of Aluminium Foil Helmets: An Empirical Study
These guys really did their research, putting $250,000 worth of testing apparatus to work documenting the effectiveness of all three types of aluminum helmets.
It seems I've been using the wrong design all of these years...
2 Strawberry Pop-Tart Blow-Torches
Once you get past the horror of wasting a delicious Pop-Tart, this is actually pretty interesting. Amazingly, it's only the strawberry Pop-Tarts that get a good flame. Further research was promised, but has not been done to date.
Pop-Tarts don't last long enough in my house for any kind of research.
3 Popping a Water Balloon in Space
They didn't do this on the space shuttle, they did it in a DC-9 flying parabolic loops to simulate micro-gravity. Lots of very cool video with no practical applications that I can see, unless we're arming the troops with water balloons.
4 Lighting a BBQ grill with LOX
This man is my personal hero. Click on the link and you can see a video of him lighting a grill with liquid oxygen. He starts with 60 lbs of charcoal, burning 40 lbs of it in 3 seconds. The grill was ready to cook in that time.
Don't worry, I'm not going to attempt it. Three seconds isn't enough time to enjoy the beer.
Wow! A little knowledge really IS a dangerous thing.
~Easy
Dave Barry, the humor columnist, has been documenting the flaming pop-tart
for years! He has performed the experiment at his own home to see if it
really works. All you do is make sure the pop-tart gets stuck in the
toaster and viola, pop-tart flambe! Kids, don't try this at home.
Scientists with a sense of humor. Yes a little knowledge is a dangerous
thing. Thanks for a good laugh. It is a very silly world we live in.
Ah, this is awesome. I want to be a scientist. I want to play with the
water balloon in micro gravity, that must be so awesome.
I refuse to kill an innocent Pop-Tart!
Funny stuff! I've been using the wrong kind of tinfoil, it seems.
I support this kind of science because the testing, while seemingly
frivolous, won't yield obvious results. That's what I consider to be a
waste.
this may be a stupid question, but what are you supposed to do with the
poptart blowtorch once achieved besides burn down your kitchen? lol
Aw the joys of popular science...