Can You See Cosmic Rays on Hot Drinks?

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[@jamie7472]

You always find the most random but interesting experiments

[@-TAPnRACK-]

That's what we needs do lol

[@lincolnsiebelink6628]

and i love it

[@kj_H65f]

Its amazing, hes been doing it for so long and yet he always finds some new phenomenon that we can show through experimentation. And makes it fun to watch! I'm honestly in awe.

[@IAmRacc]

He’s the new bill

[@reinux]

They've gotten better as the channel got older too

[@wlockuz4467]

Your ability to find the most mind blowing things in the most mundane things in life is amazing.

[@robo3644]

Thats the best part of this channel

[@TheTubejunky]

You do know all of this science is found in books and science papers. He doesn't "INVENT". If you go looking for answers to everything you will find a lot more questions

[@Corbald]

Maybe it's more accurate to say that _nothing_ is truly mundane?

[@osprey_8864]

He likely got the idea from Posy's video on this called "Hot Water Colors"

[@TheBackyardScientist]

that's pretty cool, I cant believe i never noticed that before!

[@acartwright10]

@TheBackdoorScientist I think we need a new Safety Third guest!

[@MemesNick]

Hello there, mate

[@licencetoswill]

it's the backdoor scientist !

[@eugenetswong]

Honestly, I'm not surprised that you and we never noticed. I could be misunderstanding what he is saying, but it seems that we need to look at it with that lighting angle, which is almost impossible for most people, because that lighting and position is not useful.

[@L17_8]

Jesus loves you ❤️Please turn to him and repent and receive Salvation before it's too late. The end times written about in the Bible are already happening in the world. Jesus is the son of God and he died for our sins on the cross and God raised him from the dead on the third day. Jesus is waiting for you with open arms but time is running out. Please repent and turn to him before it is too late. Accept Jesus into your heart and invite him to be Lord and saviour of your life and confess and believe that Jesus is Lord, that he died for your sins on the cross and that God raised him from the dead. Confess that you are a sinner in need of God's Grace and ask God to forgive you for all your sins through Jesus. Time is running out.

[@steadfasttherenowned2460]

Looks like this is a great idea for the slow mo guys to film

[@zachhoy]

omg omg omg YES, this comment needs to be highlighted and shared to Slow Mo guys!

[@pluto9000]

I would watch that.

[@DrDeuteron]

Slow mo cosmic rays are pretty fast mo. Upper limit is 1000 ft per frame at 1,000,000 fps.

[@zachhoy]

well I think you'd be capturing the propagation of the lines more than the cosmic ray@@DrDeuteron

[@DrDeuteron]

@@zachhoy if the lines are from cosmic rays, they propagating that fast.

[@stanleydenning]

Thanks. Now my friends think I'm weird. "Why do you keep staring at your hot chocolate? "

[@SeekPlush_]

Lmao 😂

[@OlliDolli]

I tried explaining it to my parents, they just called my therapist…

[@user-bt2lx4gy7h]

Don't worry, they already do.

[@terenceokane]

It's ok! When they say something you just have to... blow up a balloon and rub it on your head and then walk towards their mug. Totally normal XD

[@stanleydenning]

@@user-bt2lx4gy7h How did you know?

[@heyspookyboogie644]

It’s nice when people present things as “first described”, “first explained”, etc instead of first discovered for things like this.

[@elinope4745]

I agree, also I highly suspect that boats were used long before western history gives credit for. To a lesser extent I expect the same with hot air balloons.

[@sirrathersplendid4825]

“Described” suggests the conscious putting down on paper or clay tablet, so is closely tied to the recording of history. It’s rather like the Schrödinger’s Cat dilemma. Before being described the event is in a meta-state of being known/unknown. But we may later discover someone who looked at the cat earlier and noted down it’s state of health.

[@Konarcoffee]

I'm always impressed by how novel your videos are

[@erendripaeger9875]

Exactly

[@jenbanim]

Every time I see one of his thumbnails I'm like "oh I know about cloud chambers. Eh, might as well click anyway in case there's good footage". And then it turns out to be far more interesting and not at all what I expected. I really should have learned by now

[@themachine5647]

I've been watching for years thinking "Any day now this guy's going to run out of weird shit to show." nope, it just increases. I am happy to have found this channel. He's so odd but so cool at the same time.

[@mattmmilli8287]

Yeah a lot of them seem like dumb experiments at first glance but sometimes find some unknown phenomena

[@hedwig7s]

Love how he's just calmly speaking while his geiger counter is losing it Edit: God yall have no sense of humour

[@pykapuka]

You probably mean giggidy counter

[@resblix]

lmao @@pykapuka

[@lewisevans4580]

As a German I can tell, calling him "Giger" is really funny

[@spwan10]

Why would he talk differently?

[@the_frog_army]

ameriseeium

[@1.4142]

The power of observation

[@darkshark9]

THIS is the content I love from you. Seriously please do more of this. You're taking something that is genuinely interesting and doing some actual science to figure out what the heck is going on. One of your best videos to date.

[@Metal_Master_YT]

yeah exactly!

[@PosyMusic]

Very cool experiment! I also suspected that the levitation is caused by a tiny electric charge :)

[@First_Grafter]

Hello checkmark person! Nah I'm kidding it's cool to randomly see you Posy, love your videos :)

[@sopphi]

​@@First_Grafter less random in this case because he also made a video about this phenomenon

[@First_Grafter]

@@sopphi OMG I totally hadn't seen that before, makes a lot more sence then.

[@pluto9000]

Hi Posy. 🥴

[@SBImNotWritingMyNameHere]

Love you man Hope to see your new music on Spotify soon

[@charlesblithfield6182]

Your curiosity is infectious and your ability to relate complex scientific ideas to everyday life is unique.

[@trentgraham465]

It would be neat to try this in a really shallow container. That should suppress convection and you could see if crack patterns still formed.

[@vp5392]

Highly recommend youtuber Posy who did a video on this called 'Hot water colors'!

[@runcycleskixc]

"These are blocked by the platsic...." The Geiger counter starts screaming. XD

[@ferrumignis]

He means the alpha particles from the primary decay are blocked, but was surprised that some gamma radiation was being produced as well (which isn't blocked by plastic).

[@runcycleskixc]

@@ferrumignisYeah, explained well what he meant, it still was funny. Also, efficiency of detection of gamma is not the same for all Geiger counters, there could be more. I did not realize that there was so much secondary gamma produced.

[@salil5476]

​@@ferrumignisplatsic*

[@wbeaty]

Get out your Radiacode, and find that the smoke alarm is spewing x-rays. "Gamma rays," but they're around 30KeV, less photon energy than dental x-ray tubes.

[@mdsoyab1731]

This is just a guess , but may be the reason water droplet form on top and just doesn't mix with rest because , water droplet are pure water while rest is mixture (tea or cocoa). Which result in difference in composition, thus slower rate of diffusion.

[@Rapt0rham]

Interesting guess but the droplets are fully levitating, they don't make contact with the water at all until a micro-ripple bumps into them and then they're instantly consumed.

[@vakusdrake3224]

This effect works with just water

[@DrDeuteron]

Surface tension

[@user-zj4rg9kn1c]

​@@DrDeuteronthat's what I was thinking. But surely they must've disproved that somehow if it wasn't mentioned as a theory.

[@GuillaumeLT]

You have one of the best science channels. Always coming up with original and random topics that are both fascinating and educational. Keep up the great work!

[@letstalk2820]

You always came with a unique idea. Thanks for teaching us. ❤

[@Canetoady]

Your profile picture

[@fly_away_haha]

bzzzzz@@Canetoady

[@Tayken9127]

I went through this *exact* thought process when observing this very effect on the surface of my morning coffee. Ended up concluding that the convection processes would dominate any movement compared to the relatively weak effects of any possible cosmic rays. I'd love to see you repeat this experiment with an alpha and beta ray source to be sure though!

[@njwcagle]

This makes me want to watch Posy's video on this effect. He does a great job capturing the droplets with a macro lens. It'd be cool to see y'all do a collab on something.

[@1495978707]

1:05 Well the droplets are incredibly light, light enough to float around in wind. And the droplets have to touch the bulk liquid, but air is in the way. Regular water will also float around on regular water in some conditions

[@westonding8953]

Suddenly a magical world appears!

[@dhammalama]

Man, you come up with the most awesome videos and examples. So often so simple, but so incredible and insightful. Thanks for so many years of intrigue!

[@0Keene0]

Hot chocolate made with water....how gross

[@First_Grafter]

It was the first thing I noticed… yuck!

[@isaacdavidchavarriazamora7779]

First of all, the latin americans started to drink chocolate with this method of cacao and water.

[@RealUlrichLeland]

Some powdered hot chocolates already contain powdered milk

[@choma83]

Agree

[@mats1975]

They make it like that in the US, it's nasty

[@fagan4119]

7 minutes in and I realise I'm not watching a short.

[@dranorter]

Posy has a fantastic video on this if you want to see good close-up footage of the levitating dots.

[@Enn-]

I've been wondering about this for some time now. Thank you for covering it!

[@anderskallberg7969]

Found this a couple of years ago while looking at my tea and couldn't find anything online (was hard to search properly). So cool to see an explanation!!

[@truestopguardatruestop164]

4:23 “but these are blocked by the plastic” Proceeds to beep crazily

[@NoahSpurrier]

Tritium illumination sights also emit secondary gamma. It’s not much, but it’s detectable. I wouldn’t worry about Tritium illuminated watches, Gun sights, and keychains.

[@DavidCardonaESM]

This is so well done!, Thanks for the quality production! it feels in another level

[@salmiac-3105]

Holy moly i was just thinking about this and playing around with it yesterday while I was daydreaming around my coffee cup. Insanely convenient timing!

[@IrocZIV]

Do the bubbles actually levitate, or is it just surface tension? Could it be a kind of reverse Leidenfrost effect?

[@dr_jaymz]

It's got to be because they are charged, they space out from each other but also the main liquid. Eventually the charge leaks till they touch.

[@koji.o]

When he first mentioned about the droplets above, surface tension immediately went into my head. I wonder why he didn't mention that. He could've mentioned that it is or it is not surface tension.

[@renedekker9806]

I doubt it could be because they are charged. The droplets can stay away from each other because they are charged, and be pushed back into the surface because you hold a similarly charged object above them. But the water itself conducts electricity, especially when flowing like that. So the droplets should attract the opposite charge in the water, and be attracted to that. The water would have to be charged a lot to prevent that from happening. I would guess as well, that the droplets are floating on the water vapour coming off the surface. It would be interesting to see how the behaviour changes when the cup is charged. Or when an oppositely charged object is held above them.

[@aalert]

Or is there a layer of fat from the cocoa on top...

[@MariaMartinez-researcher]

@@aalert The composition of the liquid is relevant. However, the first observation of the phenomenon as shown in the video was on tea; traditionally, the Japanese drink their tea without milk. The cocoa in the video was mixed with water, and powdered cocoa is defatted; I have seen fat *globules* in the British brand Cadbury's only. So, no, in this case, the composition of the liquid appears to be irrelevant. Question is, would this phenomenon happen in pure hot water? Distilled water?

[@WiReDApe]

I feel the convection draws air down at certain points which the drag on the water particles overcomes their electrostatic repulsion to the point where they collapse in on each other like an electrostatic lightning bolt.

[@SpydersByte]

someone else said its probably micro-ripples in the fluid that are bumping into the bubbles and consuming them, it makes sense that those convection currents could be causing tiny tiny waves on the surface

[@rsmonge]

@@SpydersByte also possible that at the convection lines, the temperature is different. causing different surface behaviors.

[@makeit4less]

I saw this phenomenon once while enjoying some coffee and always wondered what caused it! Thanks for the awesome and informative video!

[@alis.2]

1) levitation: caused by electrostatic + rotation-based magnetic charging during updraft vortex friction which is dependent on temperature. It is not non-coalescence of droplets due to air cushioning as there is a huge gap of levitation much higher than the cushion mechanism as volume-to-gap ratio. It is also not a hockey-like mechanism as evaporation strength can not be that homogenous as the variance of the levitation height is similar. 2) cascade: the droplets are clearly protected during an updraft. The updraft, as stated above, is an inductive mechanism of the levitation as it charges and also hurls the droplets on the surface, adding more droplets carried and vortexed with the updraft vacuum. It is during the lack of updraft when the crack cascade happens. the updraft vortex feeds itself by its flow speed causing extra vacuum. moreover the most important part is the perpendicular air hitting the surface created by the prior vertical vortex before it is moved due to turbulence. Turbulence causes the normally vertical vortices to be parallel or diagonal to the surface. Thus their updraft is not up but left or right for a finite amount of time. That horizontal pressure causes perpendicular droplets to crush on the surface. The creation of the droplets require vertical vortexes as it is caused by evaporation itself. Vertical vortexes causes horizontal spin on droplets and horizontal vortexes cause vertical spin. Thus differing magnetic axis. When two differing axis crushes, they are disturbed and lose their levitation. The disturbance caused by the perpendicular collision which disrupt the innate rotational axis of the droplet, during vertical vortexes. Vertical vortexes makes all the rotational axis of the droplets parallel and horizontal to each other. But when a turbulence changes the locations of the vortex-forming nucleation points, a non-veritcal, parallel to surface vortexes or drafts happen for a short amount of time containing vertical rotational droplets. When vertical rotational droplets collide with horizontal rotational droplets, electromagnetic disturbance is created. As you know negative charged turning droplet creates magnetic poles. The reason why the cascade can start at the same time parallel to each other is proving the idea of short-term parallel drafts or vortexes who touch the surface at the same time like a horizontal pipe. You can see the cascade velocity is very similar to the air updraft and air vortex velocity.

[@tophatvideosinc.5858]

☝️🤓

[@and_I_am_Life_the_fixer_of_all]

here let me help you sir: Levitation in fluid dynamics isn't just about air cushioning; it's about electrostatic and magnetic forces during updraft vortices, influenced by temperature. Cascade happens when updrafts change direction due to turbulence, causing droplets to collide and disrupt their magnetic alignment. This shift from vertical to horizontal forces creates the stunning cascade effect we see. is that what you ment?

[@bobdenton1]

Levitation is also what witches can supposedly do. Entire covens are no mean feat. Some previous managers over me can also freeze helium with a single glance.

[@alis.2]

@@bobdenton1 those witches should induce insane amount of pressures along with lowering temperature by just glancing helium. which is weird since those powers are far from witchcraft. and generally witches dont use inert gases, they prefer active ones.

[@alis.2]

@@and_I_am_Life_the_fixer_of_all thank you sir. I wrote my answer in two separate times, then can not select one over the other and merged them in the end caused unnecessarily long message.

[@far06c]

This man made an entire interesting video on the steam above a cup. Give this man his award, please.

[@WikiSnapper]

I noticed this before, and failed utterly at looking up how it works. I haven't come up with a good experiment for testing it. So I really appreciate your video. Thank you!

[@chir0pter]

Really well done video, great observation & solid science TAL! I would be interested in hearing more about this for sure

[@okman9684]

Action lab never disappoints 👍

[@TechyBen]

Wait... did you just create ball lightning? (A small spark/ember from a strike, floating around, but under charge and thus causing a mist "ball" around it?)

[@u1zha]

The "floating around" part is missing, here the charged ball is held on a stick. The very mysterious part about ball lightning is what *is* capable of floating around and maintaining large charge and how St Elmo's fire is maybe more closely related to this. Charge on a stick, when pointy enough, does not just do things to the mist but actually ionizes air so it's shining

[@adamosburn754]

The drops are where the water is vaporizing and condensing pretty much instantaneously. Water heats up, vaporizes, then loses heat to either air particles or other vapor particles even, but it causes condensation under the wall of steam (count the steam as a ceiling and the air gap beneath as a cooler system). The faster particles brush by and slow their momentum enough that they lose thermal energy and cool down just below the temperature, but, they cool so close to the surface temperature that the heat difference is extremely small, so heat transfers slower. This keeps it as approximate condensing temperature, but bouncing just above and below this temperature for a time. But, once the convection currents reach a cooler state, more particles can fit into that cooled state, absorb heat and fluctuate also. I suspect it is the heat that gets trapped in that space (the difference between the lower interaction and the upper interaction being minimal), so that, when enough particles get there, their activity becomes excited, pushing more vapor around and allowing for cooler air to be exposed, which allows more water to evaporate. The electric charge accelerates the water molecules as a diamagnetic substance and the added motion equals added heat (so more steam, as it takes longer to fill the "heat vacuum" left behind so more particles can evaporate due to the added energy to the system). But that's just how I see it.

[@Mr_Sim]

I made a reddit post in r/sciences a month ago where I asked about this phenomenon, I'm happy to see a video that goes through all the theories and questions we had on this subject. Thanks a lot !

[@AkiGames093]

I was just wondering what this was the other day

[@Dane565]

It's kinda like reading the cocoa 😂

[@dogdooish]

In the Aussie desert, the dust bowls are, or used to be before they sealed the road HUGE. If on a dead still VERY hot summer day , back in 1958 I noticed this! Get down really close to the dust, there is a mist of the finest dust partials over the surface, as I remember it was about a centimeter thick, thin enough to see through it but you could actually see the partials dancing in the sunlight!

[@MrPhitos]

Fascinating subject ! Can't wait for my next cup of coffee to look at the effect myself

[@kinomora-gaming]

Wonderful explanation but please stop making hot chocolate this way 😭

[@stephenmilton9998]

❤

[@indyginc]

this is how you make hot chocolate . drinking milk when you are not baby enymore , is like suckin on mothers breast when you are grown up , grose

[@freedomHK1]

I think the pattern that the drops makes is like a lightning 🌩 effect 🤔

[@daneydasing4276]

We love you and your great content bro! ❤️❤️❤️ THANK YOU

[@jamesmihalcik1310]

I had always thought it was surface tension and the oil content of the beverage. Pretty interesting stuff! Glad to see many people observing their beverage.

[@ExploringNew1]

Posy will be proud of you

[@ScienceBeCurious]

answer at 7:49

[@cho4d]

this is so much more fascinating than expected

[@goge-]

Holy thing.. Im almost 50 and I wondered what are these lines from being child. And yes I know of bubble chamber.

[@SystemsPlanet]

The drops are cause by the electromotive force generated by the Ether acting on the fFlat eEarth.

[@ZhouMama69420]

The sad part is that I can no longer tell if this is truly satire or not. Probably is but can't be sure anymore

[@paulwarren9927]

🤣🤣🤣

[@partydogg0]

A KZbinr called "Posy" made a beautiful video (Hot Water Colors is the title) about this. Don't think he went into the science part, but he made amazing footage with this!

[@partydogg0]

Yea I would highly suggest to watch that video. It is beautiful!

[@___echo___]

@@partydogg0posy did go into the science part a little bit in his video, I think he read the same paper that describes the droplets having a charge, nad linked the paper in his description

[@Geenimetsuri]

Amazing stuff. Need to take a closer look on my morning coffee tomorrow!

[@trombonetortoise3406]

Exactly this kind of curiosity is what got me into science and I love it!!!

[@weinihao3632]

6:00 Experimenting with charged nails in a chamber filled with an air/alcohol vapor mix sounds like a marvelous idea! More of that, please!

[@sprolyborn2554]

You've got a lot to learn. Research LELs and UELs. The alcohol present in a cloud chamber can only make clouds if the concentration far, far exceeds the UEL of the alcohol. Also temperature matters and cloud chambers need things to be rather cold. Even further hampering explosiveness. If it had a chance of doing what you think it will, it would have the second he put current to the nail. but I guess you're just mentally blocking out what you just witnessed to try and sound smart.

[@AnalogDude_]

There is channel that's dedicated to cloud chambers.

[@weinihao3632]

@@sprolyborn2554 Thank you for your critique. While my original post was not ment to be taken 100% serious, I beg to differ with your standpoint: 1) the over-saturated alcohol/air layer in a continuous cloud chamber is located very close to the cooled bottom (there is a large temperature gradient in the chamber, as you can also see in the video), not further up, where he placed the nail. 2) He doesn't apply a current to the nail, but a voltage, as this is an open circuit. Applying a high potential to an isolated nail does not create a spark, thus nothing would happen the second he put it on, even if it could. But it provides a dangerous environment if something conductive is located close enough to the nail so that the atmosphere can ionize, especially if he opens/closes the top of the chamber to change samples or the setup. 3) The stuff with the mental blocking I didn't understand.

[@zzubra]

The thumbnail is rather misleading, saying “cosmic rays” with no question mark. Very interesting video otherwise.

[@lancefielden]

Fussing over the thumbnail? 🙄

[@broli123]

You truly have become my most favorite "Science" youtuber. Showing illustrations and math is fine but few do the hands on, and sometimes dirty, experiments you should deserve more success.

[@universemaps]

The takes on the effect are amazing

[@Maximum_777]

The video Posy did on this is much more well shot than this is, in his video, he has a macro lens on a slow motion camera that's capable of literally seeing what's happening, you can see droplets floating above their own reflections.

[@anzaklaynimation]

“Hershey” sucks man! 😂 0:44

[@Gilmar.Oliveira]

That's why he's wasting it for experiences only hahaha

[@anzaklaynimation]

@@Gilmar.Oliveira For experiments not “experiences”.

[@themachine5647]

It's just raw, unsweetened cocoa. You need a dark background so even food dye would probably work for the sake of the experiment. (and taste better than that hershey poop)

[@victordanielhaussmannlopez3610]

I've always wanted to know the explanation of this phenomenon. Great video as always!

[@hherpdderp]

Years ago i did work experience in a factory. There was machine that moulded plastic lids for syringes. If you turned off the anti static device these plastic lids would begin assembling into a structure , like these droplets, along the wall of their container. When they reached the top they would start exiting the container.

[@piccalillipit9211]

*IN 2018 I WAS IN MY SOUTH FACING APARTMENT* sat on the sofa opposite the big window when I got a REALLY bright flash in my right eye. About 2 hours later it happened again. This happened maybe 6 times over 3 days and in both eyes - but ONLY sat opposite the window at about 5pm. I mentioned it online and a few people from other countries said they TOO had been seeing these strange bright flashes. I can only assume they were some high energy particle from some event in space - never happened again. ---> It was very noticeable at the back of the eye - it was not a flash you were seeing in front of you - it was inside your eye at the back.

[@Bc232klm]

That's not cosmic rays.

[@ChosenPree]

That’s super cool, thank u for sharing!!!

[@djdjukic]

Some kid playing with a laser.

[@renedekker9806]

I have seen something similar as well. In my case it was sunlight reflected in a window of the opposite apartment building while it was being closed/opened.

[@Squashypigeon]

That's likely to be a retinal tear or detachment. Go see an ophthalmologist soon.

[@awdturbopowah773]

Lovely video! 👍 If you think this effect is mesmerizing to watch, I HIGHLY encourage you to look up the video “hot water colors” by Posy (one of the best under the radar creators on YT). The macro shots he got of this effect are truly mind blowing. Great work and can’t wait for the next video!

[@AnneMarcyandsashaVlog-md9ev]

I find this really interesting! Thanks for letting me know!

[@JohnClulow]

Nice analytic example, formulation and testing of hypotheses

[@gdclemo]

Lost interest at the sponsored section. Please don't promote such an extremely unethical company who have been found guilty of selling their customers' data even after saying they wouldn't do that.

[@origaminoob1037]

But that doesn’t relate to the physics lesson

[@iamslf]

you’re currently using youtube, owned by alphabet which makes most of their money via your data. in this day and age, you have to assume everyone is selling your data, and the best you can do is keep tabs on your sensitive information. with the tools and services available online, i guarantee someone can find more info on you than you expect just by your username. data sales is pretty much low hanging fruit when it comes to unethical practices. actually, it’s more like rotting fruit on the ground at this point.

[@Foolishem]

@@iamslfyou live in a society yet you partake in it, I am very clever and intelligent

[@moustafamohsen]

Why is it unethical?

[@leoholanda4992]

You are living in capitalism. You are going to have a hard time living ethically. What you are trying do to is just a illusion of fighting something wrong. Wanna make things right? Fight for capitalism end.

[@luxinvictus9018]

Every like represents a century that humanity will thrive.

[@_Super_Hans_]

Stop begging for likes.

[@luxinvictus9018]

Lol no

[@custos3249]

Every like on this comments represents how many times people like this should be k(redacted due to KZbin's "fashist" censorship) in the h(redacted due to KZbin's "fashist" censorship).

[@custos3249]

Every like on this comments represents how many times people like this should be k(redacted due to KZbin's "fashest" censorship) in the h(redacted due to KZbin's "fashest" censorship).

[@custos3249]

Every like on this comments represents how many times people like this should be (redacted due to KZbin's ironic "fashest" censorship).

[@TerryBollinger]

Thank you for this excellent example of good experimentation and analysis! One hypothesis that crossed my mind for the rapid formation of narrow linear clearings is some kind of slow electrical discharge. You mentioned that the small drops appear to be charged. If so, they may behave a bit like two-dimensional clouds that build up electrical charge due to the convection going on beneath them. After the charge builds up to a certain level, these “clouds” may discharge their electrical buildup back into the fluid. If that hypothesis is correct, it would make your lines an extremely slow-motion form of lightning. Fun! That hypothesis should be testable. Incidentally, a university professor and I once spent a couple of hours experimenting with the small flashes of light that occur in a glass beaker of mercury if you (carefully!) swirl the Mercury around in a dark room. Papers from decades before speculated that these flashes might be a form of cavitation sonoluminescence. What we discovered, though, was that the flashes were due to a buildup of induced static charge on the inner wall of the beaker. Swirling would induce the charge, which eventually built up until an entire section of the beaker wall would discharge instantly back into the Mercury, focusing all of the discharge onto a single tiny point. It was the lightning like flash at this point of charge re-entry that people had seen for decades looked as a small point of light. We uncovered what it really was by doing nothing more than staying in the dark room until our eyes fully adjusted to the dark. Once we did that, we could see a beautiful web of lightning like flashes converging on the point where the brightness was greatest. Earlier experimenters had not noticed the surrounding flash network because it's too dim to see until your eyes are fully dark adapted. Once you can see it, however, it's quite beautiful. Some mysterious phenomena have straightforward explanations that are very different from the ones postulated. The structure of the mercury discharge flashes is still fascinating, but in a different way from cavitation. How, for example, can charge build up on a glass surface that is an intimate contact with highly conductive metallic mercury? Clearly there are still mysteries in this phenomenon. Unless the professor did it, we never published these results. We probably should have!

[@MrOvipare]

Funny enough I had a moment wondering about this at work. My first guess was cosmic rays (cloud chamber style) but my senior collegue rheologist's wisdom pointed more towards convection cells. Brilliant video!

[@meurtri9312]

the charge rod was surprising

[@fabien654684]

Love this one, thx !

[@MrAstrojensen]

I noticed the "surface mist" in my teacup many years ago, but never could find an explanation as to why it was happening. It appears no one else could, either! Fascinating!

[@mkL37R]

Always the best content! 👏

[@noweebatall5520]

This cam Quality is insane man

[@MikaelTh]

I have noticed this many times on my morning tea and it looks like the traces in the surface layer are formed by the edges of the uprising steam "flames", they seem to get the same form as the steam flames.

[@Randomstuff77654]

That was fascinating! I had no idea this was happening

[@uncleweirdbeard86]

I've tried this experiment several times with my coffee, but I keep getting an odd result. I brew the coffee, set it down, then when I prepare the tests, the coffee is gone. I also notice the more I try, the more wired and awake I feel

[@rodneymiller3979]

Love this channel its so interesting and educational

[@sadge0]

SO THIS IS WHAT IT WAS. This is beautiful tbh, I always look at this when I have hot drinks at night

[@prestonburton8504]

My God - i have seen this! but didn't stop to understand why thank you - i have students that i prepare cloud chambers for - but its so hard to repeat good results (quick enough for those youth that need fast examples before they drift away to their phones sadly) this is a perfect fast experiment to capture them, so they, a standard Wilson cloud chamber can be observed! Thank you!

[@SteffDev]

Did you try bringing the other rod close to the droplets, since it has the opposite charge, maybe it will have a different effect...

[@johndeaux8815]

I just noticed this when I put cling film over my bowl of noodles. The droplets were bigger than the surface ones here, but they randomly coalesced, and I could significantly slow the rate at which the larger droplets coalesced by placing my hand over the bowl.

[@shadeydave]

Dude, I like this approach! It's simple, and everyday, but layers deep. If you went down a rabbit hole on the similarity of convective currents at micro to cosmic scales, and looked at the boundary lines between galactic super clusters, and the chemical charge dispersal of a kitchen sink full of foam, I would have lost my mind! Meh, different strokes. ;) You're killing it.

[@Danchell]

You are such a great scientist and are able to explain things to the budding scientist. Thanks.

[@Youtuber-ku4nk]

How would you recommend to heat up my cocoa powder? Should I wet the water before I mix it?

[@The_Ascension]

Possibly, the oils in Cocca are non polar so they create long chains such as Hydrocarbons, and oils will float on top of water also giving that scattered light rainbow effect? The cracks one sees could be due to convection current bringing sections of oils together coming to the surface then resurfacing?

[@lashamartashvili]

I always wandered why would my radio always start picking thunderstorm noises when I was going to drink my cacao.

[@jamessever8936]

He never ceases to show such novel interesting things!

[@Celler2]

It happens on the top of a transparent plastic dome that goes over a Rotissory Chichken. When it is just separated from the stack of domes and just placed over the chicken the steam builds up and the moment you nearly touch it anywhere on the surface these lightning patters appear and start to spread leaving the area clear of seam build up on the inside.

[@Ultrapwner45]

Thing that surprised me the most was how radioactive the smoke detector was. I knew they were, just that is more than I'd have expected.

[@wbeaty]

To see it BY EYE, aim your light at the hot surface, then glance around the edge of the light. (You want to see retroreflection, where the light hits the suspended droplets, then reflects and returns to the light source ...but some of it spreads, so it just misses your flashlight. With a small flashlight, hold it between your eyes, aimed at the dark hot liquid.) With a heat-bath, with ink-dyed water, I found it worked best at a bit above 80C. Some of the "tracks" are actually the centers of little tornadoes, where hot rising air will swirl. But those tracks are slow, and only give single dark lines, not branches or wide regions.

[@kirillsukhomlin3036]

Cool. I noticed that effect before, but never experimented nor had a good idea why it’s so.

[@dogprowilhelm7630]

Nice experiment. It's called a 'electric sweeping field' from the Wimshurst machine in a condensation chamber for particle detection.

[@ulrichraymond8372]

Looks like there seems to be a temperature at which the surface tension breaks and a droplet forms on the surface which quickly gains its surface tension since droplet has a higher surface area and hence the temperature of the droplet quickly falls. It is possible that temperature and surface tension are inversely related/proportional.