[Captions by Y Translator]
In today's video, we are going to make some
Prince Rupert's Drops, and after that, we're going to see if
we can make some in liquid nitrogen, and if there's any difference. [Music] Guys, I'm Nate. I'm Calli. Today, we are going to be learning
a little bit about Prince Rupert's Drops, and Calli has done quite a bit of
practicing and researching about those. So she's going to be sharing
what she has learned with us. So here's the basic idea. We're going to take molten glass, and drip it into water to see if we can
make some Prince Rupert's drops. If we can succeed, we're going
to put those through a series of tests to test
strength and durability. After that, we'll try the same
process with liquid nitrogen. To start us off,
what is a Prince Rupert's Drop? So a Prince Rupert's drop is
something that's kind of been interesting scientists
for hundreds of years now. By taking a piece of molten glass
and dripping it into cool water, what happens is the outside
of the glass cools faster than the inside, causing an incredible internal pressure. What that means is that
the head of this drop that looks like a tadpole
is incredibly strong, and can actually even survive bullet blast. But one flick of the tail, and
the entire thing shatters into dust. So to get started,
it's actually pretty simple. This is a torch. It is MAPP gas. So this is something that you can
pick up at a local hardware store. But of course, adult supervision. MAPP gas burns hotter
than propane or butane, and that's why we're using it here. We really want to be able
to heat up the glass really well, and keep it at that temperature until right when it goes into the water. We have some glass rods here. Also, very simple to find it a craft store, lampworking glass
for bead making, and then, a pitcher of water. We also have some Dollar Store glass,
just because we wanted to test it. So the best results
that I found so far, while there are many
types of glass in the world, is going to be soda-lime glass, which is the most common,
and usually used in lampworking, bead making, and glass blowing. Let's start with a pretty clear piece, just
make it as easy on ourselves as we can. So don't let your tank touch the water. If you do when you move this, it can cause ripples, and those ripples
can also disturb the tail. You disturb the tail while it's cooling, the whole thing will shatter. Focus the heat on the
bead of your glass, not the tail. And there we go. Our first drop of the day. In your experience trying
to make so many of these, what is your approximate
success percentage? So I don't want to discourage anyone, but it's usually about 3 out of 10
when it comes to the colored glasses, and what I think that might be is
from the impurities from the metal oxides that are involved. When it comes to the clear ones,
almost an 80% success rate. As another warning, Prince Rupert's drop are,
as we said, highly explosive. Now, that sounds a little extreme, but they do sometimes
combust just on their own. So I like to keep them in
a container at least with walls. That way, say if one does decide to
break on us while we're making others, your cleanup isn't so bad. So you'll notice with the
larger Prince Rupert's drops, the tails are much more rigid. With these ones, you can kind of even see that it's got
some bounce to it, some flexibility, but down in this area,
where it starts to get very rigid, you snap that,
this whole thing's gone. [Music] All right, so I've got five, which should
be enough for some experiments. Nate, you want to make some? So, a couple of things
to note while we're doing this. I have Nate with his leg out to stabilize
the glass rod as he's working. The reason why is as the drop falls, we don't want that tail
disturbed as it hits the water. Do not disturb the water. Do not disturb the water. If you do decide to try
and make these at home, if you hear a very slight noise
as it hits the water, like a hiss but nothing else, it probably didn't take. What you really want is
a very awful popping noise as soon as it hits the water, that's usually the signal that
you have a successful drop. [Music] It's super full of bubbles right now. So that's the problem I was having with
anything that was a red or gold color. I don't think it likes the gold oxide. Two successful,
and more than two unsuccessful, but those shattered so badly that
they don't even have tails coming out. But hey, you did it. Okay, the glass rods, we got
some pretty good results with. These are all probably real
Prince Rupert's drops. We have a little bit of this glass we got
from the dollar store. Does this work? So far, I have not got
Dollar Store glass to work. I'm not sure if it's because
it's full of other impurities, or if it's a different type of glass. Or a silicates in particular, which is normally you're cooking
ware in your kitchen tends to shatter. You can make a drop, but usually it won't
break when you break the tail. So it's not a true Prince Rupert's drop, but I'm curious to see if we can
at least try to make one with these. So the first thing that we're going to do
is get rid of this base here. Now, in the past
when I've attempted this, it tends to shatter. So we're going to do it over the fire pit. [Music] Maximum power! Aha! It's melting. No break is this time. Good. I want to set of wine glasses
that looks like that. Modern Art made easy. Is that not very very hot? No. If you get it hot, I might be
able to just cut right through it. There you go. [Music] Yeah. Well, it's not much to work with,
but let's try. So the first thing that I'm noticing is this is not reacting
like our glass rods from before. I'm not sure if this isn't soda-lime glass, or if it's just really impure. This is acting more like, I would
assume a borosilicate would. [Music] Nope, not at all. Just shattered on impact. We've now had many successful
Prince Rupert's drops just in the water, but I know a ton of you
want to see what happens if we try and make them in liquid nitrogen. So we've got liquid nitrogen. We're going to see if we can make some
Prince Rupert's drops in liquid nitrogen, if they form the same way,
if they look the same, and if they behave the same
way after they're formed. If we can even get them to form at all. Now, this is the piece of glass that we've
had the most success with so far. I'm pretty sure again that because of the
lack of impurities in it. So that's what we're going to try first to hopefully make a successful
Prince Rupert's drop in the liquid nitrogen. [Music] I yanked it. [Music] Moment of truth. Yes. Woo! It's actually looks like it's shattered,
but stayed in place. So I don't think this one's
gonna work very well. But this is interesting. I've seen videos online where people have
dropped molten glass into liquid nitrogen. The main difference that you see
when you drip molten glass into the water is that it forms a
small bubble on the inside. Normally, when they drop
into liquid nitrogen, you don't get that. Now this one looks like it's full of bubbles. So as Calli was handing this to me, the tail broke off,
kind of right where we were saying, it looked like a separated. But it didn't explode. If that happens to
a real Prince Rupert's drop, I wouldn't be holding anything. Or if I was holding anything,
it would just be a pile of glass dust. In this case, the tail broke off. So clearly not a Prince Rupert's drop, but we got something
formed in liquid nitrogen. Let's try a few more times. [Music] The winds picked up
and that changes everything. No! No! We have a few. Some failures. This tail has nothing attached to it. This was cool. These were Cobalt a minute ago, but you can actually
watch the frost as it forms. I don't know what is going on here. I think one dripped and touch the other tails. I think it did. I think this was the last one, and it's probably still like
warm or something. >> Yep. It's still warm.
>> Yeah don't. Yeah. It was in liquid nitrogen. That's how hot molten glasses. So you want to be really careful
when you're making these. That was in liquid nitrogen, still hot. So at a glance, you can already see. This is the drop that we put into water, and there are a few tiny
little bubbles in there. But this is the drop that
we put into liquid nitrogen. No bubbles to be seen, and it's
actually more of a uniform shape. So here's another difference that I'm seeing. This is one that we dripped into water, and you can actually
see again that deformation, that's pretty common in Prince Rupert's drops. But this one, although it did shatter on
impact in the liquid nitrogen, it held together. One of the defining characteristics
of a Prince Rupert's drop is that it's very tough on the head, but if you clip the tail anywhere where it's not flexible, it will shatter, and it doesn't just break into pieces, it turns like to dust
and almost instantaneously. So that's what I'm going to do on this one. [Music] That went everywhere. I think that shot glass dust for like 20 feet. That shot the gazebo. I felt it just like a shower
of glass powder hitting my face. So, and that happens so so quickly. So now let's try Prince Rupert's drop
from the liquid nitrogen, and if you take a look at it, absolutely no imperfections
and no bubbles. Clipping off the tail. [Music] Nothing. The tail broke. Try closer. [Music] So we have a drop of glass. Yes, but we definitely don't
have a Prince Rupert's drop. It cooled down,
it kept its drop shape and it's neat. But with the real Prince Rupert's drops, you clip the tail,
they explode into dust. The liquid nitrogen drops, they just break
wherever you break them. I still want to know how this is
going to handle a hammer blow. >>Ready?
>> Yep. So that was a pretty light hit, and it didn't shatter the whole thing. But it broke a lot of pieces off of it. I would say that this is
probably regular glass, maybe like a marble honestly. This should be a real true
Prince Rupert's drop. There you go. It explode so we much. Okay, this little piece came
from the liquid nitrogen so... [Music] Harder. You broke it. So the problem with this is that there's actually only 10%
of this drop that is incredibly strong. Other than that, there are these little tiny bubbles
really close to the surface, and these are the ones we dropped
into water, so they are stronger. [Music] Did not absorb all the impact. Tail still got crushed. But you can see how fine
of a dust that turns into. It really caught most of the thing as it exploded. We've tried smashing these
with a hammer a few times, and we've gotten some
good hammer strikes, but in the end there keeps being
too much vibration on the tails. So let's try putting these in our vice. [Music] You're so scared, aren't you? I am terrified of this. [Music] Did it dent the vice? I think it did, like the knurling on it. I think that right there. I mean, I'm sorry about the vice, but that makes me so happy
that they're that strong. I also wonder
if you had it a little bit lower. So it was close to
the tip as you can get it, because that's where
that 10% strength is. [Music] Okay. I'm gonna like hang off of it. [Music] So you'll actually see that
I've managed to dent the knurling. Now, these are actually
exploding fairly quickly, and my only thought
on that is it's probably because there isn't
even pressure all the time. So I think that probably has
something to do with the fact these are shattering the way they are. So what we've seen here
with the bench vice is that we can put as much
pressure on these as possible. I'm actually hanging off of this thing. There's a couple of shots where
we've got me like all of my weight, and I'm hanging off of it. But as soon as I let up the pressure, not move it but let up the pressure, that's when we're getting the... It's not really a flashpoint,
that's just when it starts to combust. It just explodes as soon
as the pressure changes on it. That might be because there's
lower pressure on it suddenly. It might be that the inside of this vice
has some sort of jagged knurling, and as we let up on the pressure, it shifts slightly until
you know, a point is kind of digging into the glass
or scraping it sideways. But it is interesting because while we're
putting constant pressure on it, it pretty much doesn't explode until we let go or try
and release the pressure. And if anybody's making this
at home and wants to break them, we've already got scratches
on our glasses, and a couple of nicks on our face. So wear protection if you're doing this, like be really really careful. These things,
when they shatter, they shatter hard. Hey guys, you've probably noticed that since we introduced Calli
in our Captain America shield video, every new video has had
secret codes, and graphic glitches, and other secret elements hidden into it. Keep track of what you see,
and the timestamps of when you see it. We've got some big prizes to give away, and finding the codes
might make you our next winner.
