- [Narrator] Ordinary Household objects aren't the most
interesting things in life. However, some of the most
innocuous ones have some amazing practical uses you'd
never have thought of. Here's some seriously wacky
uses for random objects you'll have lying around the house. Number ten: Pencil Torch. Here's a really useful,
cool and unexpected use for a very common household
object - a pencil. You can use a pencil lead
to generate a bright light using a powerful battery,
like a car battery, so if you break down in the
dark and you have no light, you can use this technique to have a look at your car's engine. You simply strip the pencil
so you have just the raw lead and then split that into four parts, each containing three to
five minutes of light. Using a wire, like speaker
wires from your car, attach the lead to the
terminals of your car battery and tie them to the lead, one at each end. The lead will begin to glow brightly as it acts as a filament. Graphite is a poor conductor, so its resistance to the
current causes it to light up it's exactly the same
principle that produces light in the metal filament of a light bulb. The thinner the diameter,
the more resistance, and the faster it will heat and the brighter it will light up. More batteries would also
increase the brightness as more electricity would
flow through the lead. It goes without saying, try this only if you
know what you're doing. Playing with electricity and extremely hot graphite is dangerous. Number nine: Exploding Bottle. Mixing certain things within a bottle can easily produce enough
pressure for an explosion. Of course, you're essentially
making a bomb when doing this so I certainly don't
recommend actually trying it. Seriously, do not try this. The first method is to
use bathroom cleaners containing hydrochloric acid
along with aluminium foil. The most common cleaner
used is "The Works", hence why this is often
called a "Works Bomb". Mix the cleaners with
aluminium foil inside a bottle and give it a good shake
to begin the countdown. Aluminium foil is coated
in wax and the acid from the toilet cleaner strips
this first before reacting with the foil to create aluminium
chloride and hydrogen gas. This expands the bottle very quickly, eventually causing it to
explode with some serious force. It can blow your fingers off or blind you. It's serious stuff and
making any sort of bomb containing caustic substances
is illegal in most countries. You could also just try
the old Coke Mentos trick, but another better version of this exists which you can try at home. It's done by mixing
baking soda with vinegar, which are both harmless. This creates carbon dioxide
which forms bubbles, forcing foam out of the rim of a bottle in a glorious fountain. If you seal the bottle, you
make what could be considered a bomb, which is dangerous, but if you seal a smaller
container with a looser seal, like an old camera film
case then you can make a harmless grenade which
pops up when you throw it, just watch out for your eyes. Number eight: Harness
plasma ball electricity. Plasma balls are pretty rad. They're based on the Tesla
coil and use noble gases like neon to discharge a
high-frequency alternating voltage to an insulated glass exterior. The arcs of plasma are
stunning and plasma balls actually have an array
of other quirky uses. You can power a fluorescent
tube placed near one without actually hooking it
up to anything, for example. Another exciting hidden
use of a plasma ball is achieved by using
a penny as a conductor placed on the outside of the plasma ball. It fills with electrons which
are passed through the glass by the plasma ball, so
you're essentially harnessing electricity from the plasma ball. Once there's sufficient electrons,
they'll jump to something you place near the penny and discharge. If you place a piece
of paper over the coin, then the electrons will burn through it and there will be a visible spark. The coin is acting as a capacitor by storing electrons in an electric field which can be discharged. Number seven: Grow Soap in a Microwave. Soap comes in many shapes and sizes, with so many brands extending over decades since the modern bar form
was created in the 1870s. Of all the different
types of soap available, only a few float in water, including bars produced
by the brand, Ivory. Why does a solid object
like soap float in water? It must be less dense than
the water itself to do so. You can find out how it
achieves this low density by putting it in a microwave and heating it for a short time. If you heat Ivory soap for a few minutes then the air pockets
inside expand dramatically, expanding the soap to a much larger size, making it almost look like a souffle. Most other soaps simply melt. If you break open the bar though, you can't see any obvious air pockets like you can in an Aero chocolate bar. This is because the air bubbles are whipped into the mixture
during its manufacture. This was discovered by accident and was found to be a favorable quality and thus, Ivory coined the
slogan "The Soap that Floats". Number six: Playing Card Throwing Knives. We all have a pack of playing
cards around the house. There's a slightly more
dangerous game you can play with them than card games, though. Playing cards can actually
be wielded as ninja stars, or throwing knives and can
be propelled at speeds of 100 miles per hour plus by
skilled individuals. This is easily fast enough
to penetrate fruits, cut bananas in half or cut paper, so it can cut skin, or
even take out an eye. It goes without saying, don't
throw cards towards people. Taking this to the next level, credit cards are much stronger, and thus, make for an even more powerful version. They can easily penetrate soda cans. Deadly. Number five: Toothpick
Center of Gravity Trick. A cool party trick, this
exploits a kitchen utensil's center of gravity to balance
it seamlessly impossibly on the edge of a glass
using just a toothpick. Push two forks together
with their prong ends and place a toothpick between each. Then place the structure
on the rim of a glass before adjusting it until it's balanced. You can then actually burn
away the excess toothpick to leave the structure unaltered and still held in perfect balance. Remember those balancing bird toys you could balance on
the tip of your finger? The same principle applies here. Number four: Smoke Waterfalls. You can easily create smokey waterfalls using just household items
and they sure look beautiful, almost ethereal in form. Smoke usually floats straight up but when it's allowed to
cool before being exposed to the open air, it sinks
due to its increased density versus the air. By rolling up sticky
notes or Post-It notes and tilting them at an angle, we can force smoke down
the tube whilst giving it a chance to cool down sufficiently to continue its downwards descent. By lighting the end of the tube, you initiate the smokey descent and by the time the smoke exits the tube, it's cool enough to float
downwards instead of up. Not magic, just smoke and mirrors. Number three: Milk Stone
and Sawdust Body Armor. Milk can be used to create
a hard stone-like substance in just a few easy steps. This substance, commonly
known as milk stone, is actually a plastic. Milk contains molecules
of a protein called casein This can be extracted and
molded and when it dries, it forms a real plastic. Milk stone has actually
been used throughout history to make ornaments, buttons and jewellery. Milk stone jewelery was even created for Queen Mary of England. You just need hot milk and vinegar. Mix the two and stir until
solid clumpy chunks appear these chunks are the casein. Once you've got a chunky
mixture, drain away the liquid and then shape the
chunks whilst drying them between pieces of kitchen towels. When it completely dries over two days, you'll be left with a
hard rock-like substance that is hard to break by hand. Milk isn't the only household substance that creates solid structures. Pykrete is a bizarre
composite material that people discovered around World War
Two and is created from sawdust and water, which is then frozen solid. It's incredibly strong
and can absorb the shock of a bullet easily. It also takes a long time to
melt, so can be used to build long-lasting structures
in cold environments, like this dome in Eindhoven. In fact, people even
thought you could build aircraft carriers out of
Pykrete in the 1940's. Number two: use a Lemon as a Battery. Using lemons to power small
lights or LEDs is a well known science experiment that
you can try at home. Lemons are pretty strong fruits, that's obvious when you taste them. They're very acidic and very sour. This flavor is caused by citric acid, which is found in all citrus fruits but is found in a higher
concentration in lemons. We can use a lemon as a battery
by inserting two metals, like a copper coin and a
zinc nail into the fruit and attaching wires to each terminal with a light between them. The light will light up as electricity begins to flow from the lemon. This happens because a
lemon contains electrolytes which can carry electricity. It's the same process as
that in a normal battery as you are converting chemical energy into an electrical current. It's called a redox
reaction, where one metal gets reduced and gains electrons and one gets oxidized and loses electrons. This creates a flow of
electrons through the lemon, resulting in an electrical charge that can be drawn through a wire. One lemon can light a
small bulb as it produces around one volt, but using many more could potentially power an
array of electronic items. So, if life gives you lemons,
use them as batteries. Before I reveal the most
outrageous example in this list, I'd like to remind you to
subscribe to Be Amazed. We upload amazing fact
filled videos every day, so don't miss out on learning
some amazing new information. Also, hit that bell icon for notifications on more amazing fact filled videos. Number one: Orange Peel Flamethrower. The wonders of citrus
fruits extend far beyond their tastiness and
healthy characteristics and even beyond their ability
to create electricity. Here, orange peel can actually be used to create a small flamethrower. Okay, it's not exactly a huge
jet of flames and is actually a rather small and harmless puff of flame, so it's something you can try
at home if you're careful. It's simple too, you simply
cut a small slice of orange and heat it gently with a lighter or candle flame for about a minute. This expands small pockets of
air and oils within the peel. Once adequately heated, pinch
the peel next to the lighter and observe a small explosion as a jet of flame bursts from the peel. The high-pressure
compartments of air and oils combust in the flame,
creating a small flamethrower. It's ideal for cocktails
as it's a cool trick for entertainment, and
releases flavor into any drink that requires orange essence. When life gives you oranges,
create flamethrowers. Which trick did you think
was the most awesome? Let me know in the comments
section down below. Thanks for watching. (hypnotic instrumental music)
