Can We Chop The World’s Strongest Cube In Half?

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[@b.coates]

You should sell the broken shards of obsidian.

[@howridiculous]

We collected everything so we definitely could. Anyone else interested in purchasing (prices set by Herron) fragments of the various materials we chopped? Let us know and we can put them on the store :)

[@curtisw2439]

@@howridiculousthat would be awesome

[@Mr.Brothybear]

You could Use the shards to create an Obsidian Knife just in case you ever wanna kill a Geologist

[@yahirsuxs611]

@@howridiculous I would for sure but it

[@CarelessPing]

@@howridiculous id buy one

[@ottovonbearsmark8876]

Love how fast the periodic table concept was introduced and then immediately went out the window lol

[@ThomasSawyers]

Did you watch the entire video in four minutes? 🤣

[@Volt64bolt]

They also got a lot of things wrong lol but they aren’t a science channel so who cares

[@kylemcw8301]

Obsidian:…. Required for Nether Portal! 😂

[@ottovonbearsmark8876]

@@ThomasSawyers no, but the periodic table idea went away within four minutes lol

[@Wtfplsstfu]

At plastic i was like...🙄😑

[@OurAwesomeUniverse]

I think that was silicone. I've never seen white silicon metal that deforms like rubber.

[@dannykyle7950]

I was about to say the same thing myself.

[@DonaldR]

It for sure was - 'raw' silicon is typically a crystal... Ironically obsidian, glass and quartz are mostly silicon, so they did end up chopping silicon. :D

[@guidokorber2866]

Right, silicon is a silvery metal and it would have turned into splinters as it is rather brittle.

[@DqwertyC]

The comment about "it knows what it is and knows what it isn't" was especially funny, because silicon sometimes acts as a conductor and sometimes acts as an insulator. It's like the least decisive metal out there XD

[@richbarrows3922]

Definitely was Silicone (sila - cone) a rubbery plastic material. Look how it compresses about 50% in the slowing before breaks in half like a bouncy ball. Pure Silicon (sila - cun) is silver gray and breaks like obsidian. It is a semiconductor, the base material for computer chips. Semi-insulator.

[@Mikeyman6488]

People have already said this, and they may have explained it too, but the piezoelectric "spark" phenomenon with quartz comes from the "piezo" part which means "squeez" or "pressure". Since your pressure point with the axe on a sphere was so small, there was very little if any spark action. If you had a cube and used a hammer, that would be a more ideal setup for sparky action. Additionally, you could potentially set up a high speed, high resolution voltmeter between a conductive platform the cube sat on and the hammer surface and see if you could measure a created voltage caused by the instantaneous squeezing on the quartz cube. Might be a fun video.

[@marxer007]

The "science" graphics in this episode are great. Whoever wrote that copy earned my thumbs up for this video.

[@micahdeck9553]

Pure Aluminum plates are what is commonly used on Space craft to prevent overheating. 50 BMG rounds won’t go through solid Aluminum. Amazing idea though.

[@DUKE_of_RAMBLE]

Obsidian getting... _- Required for Nether Portal_ ... was perfect! lol 😘👌

[@Fernybeme]

0:55 Silicone is made of silicon, what you have is silicone. Silicon is a hard and brittle shiny rocklike material. Also heavily used to make just about every electronic device out there.

[@MacksCurley]

Yes, silicone sealer is very different to the element Silicon.

[@dianacourt377]

Don't let the facts get in the way of a good story😂

[@peterbear4413]

Two things that would improve the quartz bit: First, do it at night, you'll actually be able to see the effect properly. Second, use a cube or something with a flat surface, and impact it with another flat surface (such as your hammer), for the greatest surface area contact. How Good to see you boys back again though, always a blast!

[@user-lk2bl7ph3b]

Led me to think

[@jurn-christianhocke2227]

But also - you can see some tiny tiny sparks in the footage - just not as massive as expected

[@BollWeevil]

Yep, mechanical pressure. As is in the "candle lighter" for spark. The hammer on the quartz! Please

[@phantomwraith1984]

And also use clear quartz

[@KingOfRedPlays]

Ah, good... I was looking to see someone get this right so I wouldn't have to explain it myself, because I would have made that concise little beauty an absolute novel. A thumbs up to you.

[@Handles_AreStupid]

I don't know if they will ever see this, but the reason why the copper did so well is because they have previously compressed the material. When you strike copper, you cause localised dislocations to the region, which creates stress within the material. This stress actually makes it stronger and more resistant to bending and compressing, but it makes the material more brittle. The previous hammer hits would have "work hardened" the copper, which would have given it a competitive edge that standard, annealed copper wouldn't have had. Next time you use copper, heat it with a blowtorch and dump it in water to "quench" it. In some metals (especially steel), quenching makes it harder, but with copper and brass, it makes the material MUCH softer. You should compare normal copper, work hardened copper and quenched copper to see the difference. My bet would be that the quenched copper would nearly cut clean in two...

[@seekerofthemutablebalance5228]

I was shocked that the copper survived

[@Handles_AreStupid]

@@seekerofthemutablebalance5228 Work hardening is a really powerful technique. Basically doubles the materials hardness at the expense of making it more brittle.

[@NycNinja1]

Silicon Sphere - 1:50 Obsidian Sphere - 3:10 Pykrete Block - 3:45 Glass Sphere 5:05 Quartz Sphere - 7:08 Aluminium Cube - 8:00 Fire - 8:45 Titanium Cube 9:50 Anvil - 11:20 Copper Sphere - 12:00 Tungsten Cube - 13:30

[@Destros2ndone]

thanks for that

[@jaymac7203]

Thank you! Their shouting was driving me insane.

[@minilost9981]

You forgot burger

[@NycNinja1]

@@minilost9981 ??

[@eric1138]

So they did silicon four times.

[@RedBeardReaper]

There are many types of quartz, AKA borosilicate. You went with a muddy blue quartz, to view piezoelectric properties. It's best to go with pure clear quartz Also that was a ball of silicone- that was not silicon in its base form

[@roblittle7428]

Borosilicate is glass not quartz. I made Borosilicate glass in a glass founder here in pa called jeannette specialty glass till it closed in 2019

[@PsylomeAlpha]

@@roblittle7428 yeah, quartz is silicon and oxygen, not silicon and boron (as the name borosilicate implies)

[@tobiwonkanogy2975]

when the silicon was struck it did revert to dull silver in color . perhaps we were seeing an oxidized ball.

[@statementleaver8095]

F knows I'm from the UK and have only ever seen *White Quartz* = Train track chippings

[@Mr_Bondi]

​@@tobiwonkanogy2975​​​No, unfortunately. See, silicon is not floppy and rubbery. Look up silicon, you'll see it's a hard, brittle, metalloid, which is also a semiconductor. Edit note* silicone rubber does contain silicon, but in it's dioxide form, aka silica.

[@ranndomundead9112]

having shards of obsidian floating around in this field seems like a nightmare

[@The_Keeper]

Yup. Imagine walking barefoot in that field... O_o

[@elisha1984]

There’s no getting all that out either. Shards everywhere.

[@Doctor_Zucchini]

I’ve always wondered that about all the obsidian cube videos on KZbin. Some people have cheese graters for fields

[@Kualinar]

Glass shards are about as bad. There are also glass shards in that field.

[@bhseigel]

its not real obsidian. Obsidian is opaque, thats some sort of synthetic glass

[@logansarver6767]

I love how they included info from each material, however pykrete warships (carriers in particular I believe) were considered as WW2 steel replacements as America was running low on steel, one of the reasons it wasn’t used was because it required more steel to make the freezer then it would take to make a warship.

[@robijakus6860]

0:24 cuz as we all know plastic is definitely on the periodic table

[@sashacohen3911]

So that looks a lot more like "silicone" than the actual element silicon (Si), which is a dark, reflective, and brittle material. Silicone is rubber-like (as evidenced by the glorious chop) and made of complex polymer molecules. Unfortunately, silicone is not an element of the period table.

[@DonaldR]

That obsidian ball was mostly silicon though, so... they were just off by one hit :)

[@scottydu81]

Your mom is an element on the periodic table

[@dfgaJK]

A bot a stolen all your up votes.

[@vitocortison]

Yes this is clearly not a silicon sphere but a silicone one. DonaldR the obsidian sphere looks like obsidian to me, not like silicon. Obsidian is basically just dark glass, so mostly silicon dioxide, so the main components here are oxygen and silicon.

[@vancer.8886]

Scott, you forgot one important fact about cast iron. It has a tendency to fall from great heights.

[@PlanetSidewinder]

And it breaks pretty quick when you enchant tools and armor or decide you want to name your pet llama 🦙

[@ericarsenault9891]

Just like Russians from a window.

[@MyRegardsToTheDodo]

... and whenever a coyote uses it to stop a roadrunner, it normally hits the coyote instead.

[@electricminecrafter]

2:00 most people think silicon is green but motherboards are dyed green, I don't know why. pure undyed silicon can range from slightly blue to white to slightly grey

[@jubuttib]

Also motherboards are made out of fiberglass usually, you'd need to find a chip to see some silicon. =) Which is also clearly not what the video showed, since silicon is really hard and brittle, not rubbery like what the video showed.

[@electricminecrafter]

9:28 maybe the quartz was a sphere and not a cube so no flat surface and the titanium was

[@kimbleryan7150]

And a copping thing not a smashing

[@peterosmanski7466]

Jack's snarky comments on the fact sheet were hilarious. Loved Gaunson's explanation of how the Egyptians widened the Nile with quartz (not courts) shovels discovered by Horace Benutus.

[@anonst]

So non members can reply to members comments ?

[@HunterTag]

love how straight to the point you guys are. Straight into the video!

[@charlcoetzee93]

The description of silicon was almost entirely opposite of it's actual characteristics 😂

[@FuzzyCollieDoggo]

Jack is one of the best editor's ever! I fell over for the burger bit! 8:40

[@sacah2]

Had to rewind and pause, wasn't sure I'd seen something flash up.

[@crewrangergaming9582]

timestamp or didnt happen

[@420trippyhippie]

You guys should do a night video in this format and then smash through the quartz for sparkage. In fact, a night video where you smash/chop various sparky materials actually sounds awesome!

[@nickmcginley4570]

Chop some flint! Whoever guesses the worst about what happens, has to speak, for the rest of the video, in a "flinty" voice!

[@2011Scarecrow]

The downside to this idea is that the slowies will be harder to get because the high-speed cameras need a lot of light to get a quality picture

[@420trippyhippie]

@@2011Scarecrow very good point

[@DJBEAST821]

Love the tidbit about the Nether portal, great little wink there. Also great timing how he said "we smashed a cube of it" and right on cube is when the bullet point popped up lol

[@Michael-bs5pz]

The last tungsten at the end it wasn't sparks it was molten steel separating from the axe which I find very cool because alot of heat and energy must have been generated for that steel to melt like that ... brilliant video

[@PrinceofWalesisland]

Aluminum can oxidize, they use aluminum oxide as an abrasive. All bare aluminum you see has a thin oxide layer on it

[@richbarrows3922]

Aluminum oxidizes or rusts almost instantly.

[@RyanW1019]

There are a couple things they could mean when they say it “doesn’t rust”: 1. It doesn’t turn red/orange when it oxidizes. The oxide is still silvery. 2. It doesn’t disintegrate to nothing as it oxidizes. With iron, the oxide is less dense than the original metal, so when it forms it expands and flakes off, revealing new metal to oxidize until the whole thing is gone. With aluminum, the oxide forms a thin surface layer that protects the inside from oxidizing.

[@XtreeM_FaiL]

Rust is iron oxide, so if it ain't Fe it can't rust.

[@PrinceofWalesisland]

@@XtreeM_FaiL So whats the point of saying it doesn't rust? I'm sure they meant oxidize considering they were talking about aluminum...

[@XtreeM_FaiL]

@@PrinceofWalesisland The point probably is that aluminium oxide create protective layer. When iron rust, it will rust untill there are no free iron left.

[@tomholroyd7519]

I love the detailed sciencey descriptions of the things you destroy

[@Thehuntergamer64]

Very fun video hahaha Just a little mistake about glass: it's not a perfectly elastic material, otherwise it would always return to its original shape after being deformed. In our case, the glass doesn't deform and breaks immediately. - Perfectly elastic body: A body which regains its original configuration immediately and completely after the removal of deforming force from it, is called perfectly elastic body. Quartz and phosphor bronze are the examples of nearly perfectly elastic bodies. - Perfectly plastic body: A body which does not regain its original configuration at all on the removal of deforming force, howsoever small the deforming force may be, is called perfectly plastic body. So glass is perfectly plastic ;)

[@fey9al]

Scott delivered an all time great with that quartz talk

[@MyRegardsToTheDodo]

He was actually right that the ancient Egypts used it for jewelry.

[@boooksareamazing]

Science with Gaunson, ladies and gentlemen.

[@masterwelch9720]

Hear me out here guys build a ramp at the bottom of the dam and drop bowling balls from the top the furthest wins??

[@sm1dg392]

12:38 wouldn't that just be netherite then?

[@VHS_Serenity]

you can't go to hell to mine the scraps for it

[@SynthhInHD]

Obsidian is "volcanic glass." It is formed when lava is cooled instantly, hence the glassy appearance. The instant cooling means the lava has no time to form into bigger crystals. A characteristic feature of obsidian (and flint, for that matter) is its fracture pattern. The rounded texture when fractured is called conchoidal fracturing. Also, for all intents and purposes, that quartz ball was essentially just a glass ball. The chemical formula for quartz is SiO2. Beach sand is often mostly quartz since it's one of the hardest minerals and it can withstand a lot more weathering than minerals like mica. The sand used to make glass is quartz. So... you've got three types of glass ball there.

[@jopo7996]

This was better than I thought. I figured the periodic table was out of your element.

[@dannop2562]

Yeah, I assumed that geology would be out of the fellas’ element…

[@markiangooley]

I’m told that Australians are the world experts in making spheres of very precise sizes. There was an attempt to use an Australian sphere of silicon-28 to define the kilogram, I believe, as a fairly exact number of atoms (I suspect that I’m slightly wrong and will get a correction here).

[@AlexLR]

We just told you that to keep you busy and off the streets

[@cillianwilliamson16]

Veritasium has a video. The roundest object on earth.

[@grandadmiralthrawn92]

Huh, is that because of certain manufacturing techniques that exist only in Australia?

[@Generic_661]

​@grandadmiralthrawn92 it's just because they're a convict colony, so they've got time to spare

[@MyRegardsToTheDodo]

@@grandadmiralthrawn92 It's because you can only make a perfect sphere when you're upside down. That's why the Aussies are so good at it. Whenever they come to Europe they totally lose that ability.

[@Im_Aeros]

You guys should make a Swedish torch (large log you drill two holes into and burn the log from the inside out) to smash. It would send embers shooting everywhere and probably flames and smoke as well if its burning enough. Would just have to do it somewhere without risk of brush fire or wet the nearby area before hand.

[@justing5228]

My summary of how ridiculous (watching since 2015): Gaunson: Hilarious, could do stand up if he learned how to improvise 😅 Stanford: Hair gets longer every video Herron: Loves a good pair of jocks, what about greeney Editor Jack: Chill dude Such an underrated channel, seeing an upload from them just makes my day better immediately

[@LilithLonelyHeart]

on no sparks from quartz, I think the axe just pushed the quartz away from the blade too fast to generate enough friction to cause sparks, in flint and steel you need to drag the steel along the flint quite a bit to make sparks P.S. Here are fun facts for the copper section they forgot about 1: it's 2nd most conductive metal after silver, the reason why it's the most common material for wires in electronics 2: when mixed with tin into alloy we get bronze, a metal that was so popular in use we had entire age named after it

[@glennbigelow8386]

It's because that wasn't quartz

[@mattp422]

I guess in Australia, elemental silicon is white (?) and is not brittle. And the Aussie Periodic Table apparently contains plastic, glass, obsidian (which I guess is also glass, kind of) and Pykrete? They’re just not the same as the rest of us.

[@JohnBainbridge0]

10:47 Cast Iron does not contain "Truck Loads of Carbon." Cast Iron is between 95% to 98% Iron. The other percents are Carbon and/or Silicon. That's at most 4%ish Carbon. That's not what I'd call "Truck Loads." Truck Loads of Iron? Yes. Truck Loads of Carbon? Yeah, nah.

[@ManadaCan]

That last shot is arguably the best slowie you’ve ever had, boys. Great shots throughout. 🤘🏻

[@metamorphicorder]

Choco eggs are the best, fight me.

[@jameszd4470]

I suspect the sparks were actually the metals knocking off tiny bits of the steel blade which oxidize super quickly creating heat (like how you light a fire with flint and steel). Super cool slowy!

[@lesliemoiseauthor]

To get quartz to spark you have to strike two pieces of quartz together. Also: quartz is clear. There are other types of rock that can be blue and are related to quartz, but that was not quartz.

[@lifewithben5472]

They should drop some quartz onto quartz then

[@lesliemoiseauthor]

@@lifewithben5472 YES

[@sundryhoards8390]

That quartz sphere looks like slag glass.

[@fireaza]

Here's another fun fact about aluminium! Although it's the most abundant metal, a cost-effective way of producing it took a LONG time to develop. It was originally more precious than gold, and the wealthy would have cutlery made from it.

[@Warrobotgod69]

14:03 tungsten cube is unfazed yet again! Indestructible

[@imeleventeen]

Please, do a series shooting cannonballs at things.

[@ssu7653]

7:40 to be fair the only thing that CAN rust is iron, rust is litterally iron oxidation...

[@RaidLoalMulticraft_YT]

Copper: am I a joke to you Statue of Liberty: 🗽 is not green right

[@LiamBushrod]

Gaunson's quartz lesson was one of the finest science with gaunson episodes yet 🤣

[@robijakus6860]

10:23 this slowy was probably even better than the last one with the thungstan

[@VHS_Serenity]

"tungstan" lmao

[@BunnyKins1970]

Chaps, if you want to see quartz sparking, you need to use the hammer on it. At night. It creates an electic flash - you can try it with 2 bits of quartz by being in a dark room and hitting them together. 💚🐇🐴💚

[@jacobpigott7653]

Huge props to the editor. They did a fantastic job. Very funny!

[@Scratchisthebestsitethat-zf6vk]

Editor? For the stuff?

[@Stoneyboy28]

i haven't watched yall in a year and seeing rexy again put a smile on my face, good to know yall still got him around:)

[@wulfrickackerman9453]

Another fact for Copper and Tungsten: Copper has the second best electric conductivity of all metals. Only inferior to silver in that regard. Wolfram is a really bad conductor, but was used in the first lightbulbs ever made since it could withstand the current while starting to glow red hot, creating light and immense heat.

[@csbrown9322]

I'm glad that I live in a time when building a 7 story tall axe in order to chop a campfire in half is normal and right

[@bomafett]

The sparks are most likely coming from the steel ax, not the metal being struck. The harder metals are scraping some of the steel off of the blade. Those small bits of steel are very hot from the force of the blow, which causes them to oxidize very quickly (basically, they are rusting instantaneously), emitting light and heat - aka sparks.

[@GodBidoof]

No, titanium is flammable.

[@mackebest1995]

@@GodBidoof yes titanium is making the sparks a big reason anything made out of titanium is expensive is that it is very hard and expensive to make or work on because when it is heated up it reacts with the oxygen in the air this is basic knowledge for anyone in a job involving welding or any form of metal working even if its not the material you work with you where more than likely told about it in education

[@GodBidoof]

⁠​⁠​⁠@@mackebest1995the forces applied by the axe probably just sent tiny flakes of incredibly hot titanium metal flying, which then caught fire.

[@White000Crow]

@@GodBidoof couldn’t it be the steel sparking for the same reason? Titanium should have a white spark.

[@twistdtomato6231]

Gaunson looking extra happy on this one 😮😂

[@allibayne]

Yup! Hahaha

[@StoneTitan]

Hmm no expert but given the color of the sparks at 9:53 isn't that from the Axe rather than the Titanium? as far as I recall hearing Titanium should burn bright not sure if that's bright enough

[@HeisenbergFam]

6:05 "we found it as jewelry in ancient Egypt" kudos to the boys for inventing time machine & going to ancient Egypt

[@yurypierre-louis7482]

Congratulations on 18 million subscribers. This is an incredible achievement and I can’t wait to see you at 20 million

[@andrewvelonis5940]

The precision is amazing, considering the size of the equipment.

[@JohnBainbridge0]

Fun Fact: Silicon is the most abundant mineral on Earth. Silicon Dioxide (SiO2) is the chemical formula for Quartz. It's also the chemical formula for Glass. Most sand on Earth is Quartz dust. Sandstone and Granite are rocks made of mostly silicate minerals. Smoky Quartz is SiO2 with Iron. Golden Quartz is SiO2 with Iron that's heated. Amethyst is SiO2 with Iron that's irradiated. Citrine is SiO2 with Iron that's been irradiated, then heated. Obsidian (AKA Volcanic Glass) is Quartz that's been heated with Hydrogen and Aluminum. Silicon is so many things!

[@actuallyrichie]

Another excellent video. I'd love to see a tour of the warehouse where all of these big props are kept after you use them.

[@hannahr5997]

What a wonderful way to cook while watching you guys and enjoying the fun! Thanks for making my kitchen a fun place :)

[@MattH-wg7ou]

That Obsidian sphere was beautiful. Also the glass. And the quarts. Actually almost all of them were quite pretty.

[@fionadakitsuneko]

8:42 no wonder firemen carry axes, they use them to put out fires!

[@billb.5183]

It's always fun to hear them say "al-you-minium". 😀

[@tristansheehan1453]

You mean like how its supposed to be pronounced ;)

[@heathergarnham9555]

As opposed to the incorrect way of pronouncing it?

[@billb.5183]

I never said they were wrong. I just think it sounds great. 😀

[@keithwoods266]

I love how safety went out the window in this one😂😂😂 9:43

[@jordanyeager395]

The editing of the facts on the screen was amazing. I applaud editor Jack. “Strong? Heck no” 😂😂

[@drewnorth3816]

I'm glad you gave a shout out to Horus Benutus, well-deserved recognition for his quartz discovery.

[@TheTyler714]

I'm impressed with the camera's shock absorbance or luck stricken ability to stand back up during the Quartz smash lol that thing gets air and settles right back down!

[@TheRealPurpleHand]

Was highly impressed with Al hitting so far above it's weight class. Thought Cu would have dented a lot more than it did, so very surprised. W was exactly as expected, though that spark halo was really wild!

[@daneroberts3741]

if you want sparks its better to go with a glancing blow which is kinda what happened with the titanium) as the sparks are formed when the quartz scrapes bits of metal off of the blade, which become sparks, which is how a flint and steel work.

[@AgentNemitzSports]

Great video as always, you guys make me laugh so much every video! 😂❤

[@leighhargreaves4104]

I'd speculate that the plastic cube (~1 g/cm^3) was HDPE plastic. High Density Polyethylene. The density of about right, and that's a very common plastic to get a hold of (it's typically used for cutting boards).

[@bobibiboo]

It could totally be HDPE, but it is more likely UHMW. UHMW is often sold in big white cubes like this for machining.

[@leighhargreaves4104]

@@bobibiboo Dammit, that was totally gonna be my second guess! You're right though. UHMW is easier to buy in that sort of quantity, so it's probably more likely.

[@jonathankreamer]

I'm 99.999% certain that was silicone, not silicon. Silicon forms brittle crystals that don't show massive elastic deformation before being sliced in half....

[@ThePineapSkis]

That plastic cube slowing was so satisfying 😊

[@CJ-hw4zc]

Guys what you had there was actually silicone with an "e"... Silicon however is an element that is shiny like a metal and very brittle.

[@TheRealMikeHood]

In frames ( 9:28 - 9:29 ) you can see a couple of sparks from the left side of the axe blade on the quartz. Very few compared to the titanium but it did produce a few!

[@P4tyY]

8:51 now that’s sick 😂

[@pietervandermerwe9977]

That spark with the tungsten cube was from the steel heating up inside the axe due to the enormous pressure it excerpted on an unmovable, or in this case, unmorphable object. In all it is a rather spectacular display!

[@C.j-Upside3]

Brett at 8:07 "Aluminum is strong" But it sounds like he said Our Aluminum Is Strong, with his accent lol To my southern American ear it really sounded like "Our Aluminum"

[@VHS_Serenity]

he said aluminium

[@C.j-Upside3]

@@VHS_Serenity I know but with his accent to my American ear it sounded like that's what he said.

[@VHS_Serenity]

@cjthurston5053 that's fine :D

[@CG-ee5jd]

“Not to be confused with the food court” Absolutely killed me 😂😂

[@SaulTink]

Surprised Gaunson didn't mention that Quartz is used in clocks and watches to keep the timing of the hands!

[@laser8389]

Aluminum doesn't "rust" because "rust" is iron oxide. Aluminum does oxidize very readily, though, and that's part of the reason that, although it is the most abundant metal on earth, it wasn't chemically produced from aluminum oxide until 1825/1827 (depending on whose claim you believe) and for some time was considered a "precious metal" like gold or silver because of its cost to produce.

[@ASharkNamedWaffle]

7:46. I love how he just throws the cube and it kind of stands on its edge in the ground

[@jdj90]

Imagine dropping a twenty foot long, 10 inch thick, tungsten rod from orbit.

[@bomafett]

The US military attempted to develop a weapons system based on this principle. Veritasium did a video about it.

[@PureVikingPowers]

I could stop it with my abs

[@jdj90]

@@bomafett Yup, Project Thor, orbital kinetic bombardment. It would be the most powerful non-nuclear weapon. The 11-ton rods would be able to penetrate and destroy even the most deep hardened bunkers, falling at a projected velocity of about Mach 10.

[@josiahgosyne6495]

Our boy Jack continues to out do himself :’)

[@ryanoverton6624]

Gents, as a middle school science teacher, i dont think i could tell you the value of a super cut of Science with Scott Gaunson. You've just got to do it. You'd be changing lives, fulfilling dreams, boosting morale.

[@Wotun]

So, here's some material science: Obsidian is a type of impure glass formes in volcanoes, which means that you've smashed glass twice in this video The main component in glass is silicon, which quarts is also mainly made out of, so that means that you've done silicon 4 times in this video

[@mythicalswiggy7408]

Bro got his degree from the back of a Walmart 💀

[@dannop2562]

I think they’ve got K-Marts down under… But yeah, it was probably a Blue-Light special.

[@user-xf1ij5wg3f]

Always great content fellas. Never seen tungsten splinter like that.. Our boy Jack continues to out do himself :’).

[@johnmanzo1147]

I am pretty sure that was a piece of the hammer that splintered off

[@borey123xx9]

Thats was a piece of the axe. Tungsten cube is ductile and caved in slightly

[@derikkahl103]

Definitely need an episode of only explosive/flammable items!!

[@tomhossain2099]

So, that question “what about when you heat it up” is actually an excellent question from a material science point of view.

[@preferablynopepper9530]

New idea: drop two giant axes on each other and see which one wins

[@CanadianBakin42O]

No

[@soranuareane]

The sparks at the end are most certainly molten steel from the axe blade. Rather than compress the steel, I think a large fraction of it blew off in those molten chunks.

[@Pieces93]

Na not molten steel, the sparks generated as the atoms in the steel and tungsten were gifted extra electrons through the kinetic force of the impact, the sparks are the extra electrons being discharged. Much like when you put a fork in a microwave, the fork is receiving energy and picks up extra electrons, the sparking is the repayment of said electrons…

[@Pieces93]

Saying this, if you could impact something fast enough with enough energy you could melt things, problem is that usually results in nuclear fusion, much like when a large asteroid hits the earth, it generates enough energy to melt things but then fuses the atoms of said material.

[@rbhe357]

Aluminum does rust. Where iron oxide "rust" is usually red/orange and, given time, deteriorates the entire base metal, aluminum oxide is similar color to aluminum and actually protects the base metal from further damage from oxygen.

[@dylanhargus2609]

9:24 its because it isnt quartz, youll notice how it cracked like glass, thats because it probably is, quartz, unlike glass, has a crystalline structure, therefore, if you smacked it with the axe, it would look different upon cracking, also quartz cant natually look like that lol

[@micha0001]

It happens at 13:30

[@zebraneighbor6383]

I love that this video has a legitimately educational installment of Science with Guanson lol

[@Funnystuff-qm1cc]

12:04 funni noise!

[@Mango_Slice]

The axe stands strong!!

[@LoveHandle4890]

Still an easier challenge than solving a Rubik’s Cube.

[@thekitkatshuffler]

Which is almost as difficult as solving a Rubik's Cube.

[@Liamguy999]

@@thekitkatshufflerwhich is almost as difficult as folding laundry blindfolded

[@ATSaale]

I'm confident you could learn to solve one in less than a day, it's not all that difficult to learn a simple beginner's method.

[@andramarquardt]

No.