Explosive Science - with Chris Bishop

Distinguished Scientist, Ri Vice President and explosives expert Chris Bishop presents another action-packed demonstration lecture.
Following on from his explorations of Chemistry and the world of Fireworks, Professor Bishop turns his attention to the use, origins and properties of explosives.
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[@TheRoyalInstitution]

Thank you to our Dutch friend for a brand new set of subtitles! We appreciate your efforts in helping make out content more accessible for a wider audience. Dank je!

[@DhrPeniskoker]

The Royal Institution Thanks! You are welcome. Graag gedaan :-)

[@DonaldSleightholme]

The Royal Institution fire is a electromagnetic wave 😔

[@DonaldSleightholme]

if fire could break atomic bonds then wouldn’t water be flammable without needing to put electrical current through it? 🤔

[@DonaldSleightholme]

what if the shock tube was cooled with liquid nitrogen? 🤔

[@arnaud7671]

Is it possible to volunteer to translate your videos in my native language ?

[@ebhendricks]

The most interesting thing about this children's lecture is that it is age-restricted by youtube edit: wow crazy that a comment from 2 years ago has started generating replies - when I commented this it was age restricted - seems to be removed now, but still funny that years ago it was restricted while still being post for kiids

[@robbiekipping1124]

You would think they want our children ignorant

[@MrVenona]

@@robbiekipping1124 Yes - it is easier to indoctrinate the ignorant.

[@janphilipphofmann6006]

Tjrfjlm

[@schmekky]

No you're just slow.

[@ExiliaN42]

@@MrVenona It's more plausible that the KZbin algorithm is just broken. iNdOcTrInAtIoN 🥴

[@samiraperi467]

You had me at "explosive".

[@loldozer]

He captured the imagination of his audience in the lecture theatre and right here at KZbin. A quality lecture, never a dull moment, keeps you sharp even if its been 30 years since your education. This is how you turn young minds to science.

[@agnidas5816]

he doesn't even give the definitions of terms ...

[@SofaKingShit]

@Agni Das A lecture also somewhat lacking due to the unfortunate omission of any rendering of a significant nuclear explosion.

[@CKOD]

"And as you'll observe, we've surrounded the entire room in explosive more powerful than TNT" but imagine in it a Bane voice.

[@gabrielgonzalez1993]

hahahah exactly

[@psychopyro1012]

One of you have the detonator...

[@00BillyTorontoBill]

good one... I thought he should ve said 'Allahu Ackbar'

[@dusterdude238]

and follow that up with thank you for coming.... and it was nice to know you. . . . .

[@fmas1978]

@@00BillyTorontoBill yeah, I didn't want to type that myself, not to end up on the same watchlist as some :P

[@akthad]

Thank you very much for putting this on KZbin. Its great to see chemistry being taught in such an interesting way. This is the way to keep kids interested and wondering about the world around us.

[@zhynx9016]

And to reduce the number of fingers in the world.

[@raymondmyers461]

Best video on youtube.

[@NuisanceMan]

Keeps adults interested, too

[@pascalhumphrey]

i like how he explained everything. made is sound simple and easy. wish i had teacher like him.

[@experi-mentalproductions5358]

@L Train45 Good point...

[@kayleighohler9999]

yep and with a teacher like him its easy. i had one and am top in my field now, sorry you get a bad hand of cards but we can always try again in the next life

[@RicTic66]

The RI Christmas lectures, very happy memories... As English kids we didnt know how lucky we were as regards educational tv in the Christmas holidays, what better gift could our country give us than knowledge... These have run for nearly 200 years, obviously not on tv though :)

[@LeutnantJoker]

Very late response but yes indeed. These are amazing and a wonderful tradition.

[@Aengus42]

@@LeutnantJoker Add me to the list of British kids enthralled at the xmas lectures every year. After the chemistry sets and electronics kits from under the tree the Royal Institution xmas Lectures were what made my xmas. Thank you RI 😃🎄🔬⚛️

[@zzord]

We need more teachers like him to make kids interested and amazed by science. Great lecture!

[@ashabhatt887]

true

[@noirekuroraigami2270]

@@NerdyNEET what country is that??

[@smorrow]

I think Sudbury, and unschooling (and everyday experience of kids younger than school age, if you think that's different from unschooling) prove you don't need to "make" kids do _anything._

[@sirgalah561]

My science teacher was boring.. She gave us nothing but dictation.. No experiments at all.. Ive learned more about chemistry watching this one video than her three years as my science teacher in high school..

[@5Andysalive]

the problem is, in school you can't just make impressive presentations you also have to deliver the theory. So teachers have a toughrer job.

[@alanweiman1521]

Watched this demonstration so many times. I can't imagine children not being obsessed with science after veiwing this. Explinations were very simple and clear.

[@DaytakTV]

Better than any lecture I have had in school so far!!! Great work thanks for sharing!

[@gabewrsewell]

^nah m8^

[@gabewrsewell]

Yeas*

[@Inviting1word]

+Mr. Stars There, Their, kids. Sorry just had to jump in on this.

[@josephbrennan4622]

That was Brilliant i'm 68 and still love the sciences.

[@JoyoSnooze]

One of my favourite videos on KZbin. Wonderfully presented and wonderfully informative. And you know, it also serves to remind me just how fortunate I am, throughout all of history, to be alive and aware in a reality where we can explore these incredible components of the universe, and teach the next generation about them. Thank you Prof. Bishop, Chris Braxton, and the Royal Institution!

[@michaelbeardmore3653]

after 55yrs of watching these this man is bye FAR the best most entertaining and informative speaker iv ever seen, BRILLIANT SERIES,.

[@Jesse272m]

I experienced a physics lecture where there was some liquid nitrogen in an old school thermos bottle. One of the students absent mindlessly screwed the lid onto the thermos. The physics teacher saw this, went OMG and tried to unscrew the lid, which neatly unscrewed the mercury glass bottle from the metal base, but didn't budge the lid. He pelted to his tiny, crammed office next door to the classroom and left at speed, closing the door after him. Shortly there was a "poof" noise. The glass container and its mercury disintegrated into an incredibly fine dust over every surface of his office. It was a heck of a mess to clean up. Today it would have required hazmat suits, but back then we just used rubber gloves and shop towels.

[@rogerscottcathey]

no doubt lots of sulphur powder too.

[@trinkladd]

I was ther

[@Peter_Scheen]

That was science you will never forget. Thanks for sharing.

[@robertheal5137]

Fake story ! "thermos bottles", including those used in labs, are not made with mercury.

[@vakeyy9874]

Jesse Meyer 😂

[@Xhopp3r]

What a fine teacher and superb lesson. Every subject should be taught in this manner. I can't understand why anyone would give a thumbs down.

[@vibe3d]

I never knew light can be used to detonate stuff. Well, you learn something new every day.

[@TheWireEDM]

+Steve Johnson Which has nothing to do with light as being the initiator.

[@franzmeier4472]

I think that that experiment was a bit misleading actually, since it wasn't a demonstration of just "using enough energy" to go past the activation energy. If it's enough energy you need, why not simply increase the intensity of the red light? If you took a red light bulb with a high enough wattage (the brightness would increase, but the colour is the same) it should go off as well, shouldn't it? It's more energy after all. A concentrated beam of read light should do the trick as well (so just a red laser pointer for example). But it wouldn't. What's the deciding factor is the wavelenght. The shorter the wavelenght, the higher the energy of the photons. The higher the intensity of the light (bulb with higher wattage, or more concentrated beam of light), the higher the overall energy of the macroscopic beam. The detonation that's dependent on a short enough wavelenght and conversely photons with high enough energy, is an example of quantum physics. It doesn't matter how strong the intensity of the light is, the energy of the macroscopic beam. What matters is the the energy of the microscopic light particles, the photons.

[@dash8brj]

@@franzmeier4472 I wonder if a high powered red or green laser would set off the chlorine and hydrogen mixture - they used a slide projector. Lasers pack more photons into the same beam profile. I've used mine (stupidly) to set off flash powder at a reasonable distance from the laser.

[@DrCrispycross]

It’s all about the energy per photon. If you don’t have enough, then no number of lower-energy photons can produce the same effect. Unless, of course, you have such an intense beam that a given molecule in the target can get hit by two photons at precisely the same time so their energies can add together.. Some high-powered lasers can do that with very short pulses but your laser pointer almost certainly can’t. Sorry.

[@dale116dot7]

Light (and x-rays) is used to transfer energy from the primary fission weapon to the secondary fusion stage. That ends up being a very large explosion.

[@jordanhubbard]

That was just great. A very well presented lecture using a well-chosen set of examples, e.g. not just "a series of things that went bang" but a lot of different *kinds* of bangs, each illustrating a slightly different set of physical principles and really getting the audience to think about the material. I know that I was left with a series of questions, such as "I've never even heard of Silane. Why *is* it pyrophoric, anyway?" so of course I had to go look that up and now I have even *more* questions, which of course is the goal of all good science, right? :) As a former (very young) chemistry student myself, I'd love it if we taught this kind of material in American schools again.

[@frederickwbickford2986]

+qrrrrrrr Deere a dad was d's ddqdqqqq see qqqqqqqqqqq

[@Wilfoe]

Never stop asking questions :)

[@gnarthdarkanen7464]

ALL the way back to high school chemistry class... where I stashed an electrolosis device for a weekend and then shouted "HYDROGEN TEST" as I struck a cigarette lighter to the thing... We were taught "question everything"... AND I still love it! Hope you're having fun questioning everything, too. ;o)

[@annemarietobias]

I worked in the semiconductor industry in the 80s, and Silane was used to deposit pure silicon on existing silicon substrate, and by introducing impurities you can make P or N type materials to create printed transistors on a silicon wafer. Silicon is very stable, and wants to just be silicon... making Silane extremely unstable, and the simple presence of oxygen is enough to cause combustion, and a smoke of fine sand will be produced by that reaction. An even more frightening compound is Arsane, where the central atom is Arsenic. The white smoke of that spontaneous combustion is every bit as lethal as it sounds. This is another dangerous gas that was used at the time in doping silicon for semiconductors. We had to helium vacuum check the plumbing used to carry dangerous gases including these and phosphine (a gas that is toxic at levels of 5-10 PPM.) Needless to say, gas leaks from these substances are to be avoided at all costs.

[@arthurhunt642]

Your experiences are interesting for sure. My knowledge of electronics only goes as far as reckoning speakers, silk screening and etching circuit boards, and vacuum tubes. So I'm hopelessly lost in the dark ages of the 1940' to 1960's.

[@MrJFuk]

Those kids will go away with a wonderful new love of science. Thank you Chris Bishop, we need more teachers like you.

[@meinbherpieg4723]

I'm ten years late to this party but thank you RI. This was amazing, entertaining, and insightful.

[@Bjarmid]

This lecture is extremely effective at explaining the happenings behind these physical effects. This really deserves more views, it's simply brilliant in it's helpfulness.

[@Alexegrus]

Amazing and so interesting... wish our teachers at the school were so creative to connect theories with practical experiments

[@michrain5872]

OMG this channel is pure gold. A true vein of precious knowledge.

[@Raz.C]

I love that the Royal Institute and the Royal Society have been doing these public lectures and spreading the seeds of scientific knowledge to the general public, for hundreds of years!! I hope they continue to do so for hundreds more!

[@dexterrius]

very solid video, very rare on youtube, all my admiration. i just wish professor Bishop had more such public educative videos, keep on going!

[@762gunr]

Wonderfully done. Thank you for posting this.

[@AERSKALFA_]

This video lecture is so good that you stayed up with it for more than one hour and still feels like it’s been just 15 minutes.

[@mosesnjau1619]

Teaching what you learnt and read and love. ..what crazy profession. ...am envious

[@Williambeene]

Very good teacher. I enjoyed watching the demonstration.

[@Danny-dl7mn]

What a classic video 10/10 would watch again.

[@Andy81ish]

Fantastic job. I've used some of that stuff as a sapper while I was at uni and still learned something from this lecture. I know how hard and costly that lecture was so you can't do it all the time, excellent to see it recorded on video so over 1.6 Million people could view it and learn something from it (at the time I wright this).

[@cobygrillo]

What a great professor! Had me engaged the entire time and wanted to learn more. Thank you Chris Bishop and Chris Braxton .

[@rohithk.m.3573]

A wonderful demo on how interesting chemistry can be! Outstanding work by the Professor and Ri.

[@peterfenwick2540]

Of course I knew all of this but it was presented in a way that was entertaining that made me feel like a student again. We desperately need more of this for kids, its wonderfully educational!

[@NotoriousPyro]

This guy is one of the best science teachers I've ever seen, he's one of the teachers you could really really listen to in school, and even as an adult. Really brilliant.

[@SMOBY44]

Thank you for getting the kids involved in this! They are our future, teach them well.

[@TiborRoussou]

I really enjoyed the scope of this lecture. I will be visiting the Royal Institution to see what other informative lectures I can find! Thanks for sharing :)

[@martinchiang737]

I am learning about explosives and this video showed me 60 or maybe 70% of what Ive read in the last 2 weeks. What a great lecture! Practical and very interesting! Two thumbs up!

[@StephenLowe]

Always loved the Ri lectures ever since I was a kid. Now I’m in my 60s so these educational lectures have exciting my love of science for years.

[@dlanska]

One of the best public demoinstrations of science I have ever watched. Extremely well-prepared and well-presented. Nicely involved audience members in a safe manner. You can tell how engaged the in-person audience was: nervous giggles, exclamations of surprise, lots of oo's and ah's.

[@judith8161]

This is the most beautiful chemistry lecture I've ever seen, and it's not like my chem teachers at school didn't try.

[@dh32]

Every time he says "ear defenders" you HAVE to take a drink.

[@manfredschulze5776]

@@josephastier7421:-$O:-)O:-)(+O:-):-$

[@yosefmacgruber1920]

I do not drink, and I have no desire to become that tipsy.

[@joker-qg1pb]

@@yosefmacgruber1920 what about water you don't know what he was talking about

[@yosefmacgruber1920]

@@joker-qg1pb Why would you take a drink of water every time? Who even does that?

[@Statist0815]

Great idea !

[@brucehutchinson9527]

What a wonderful series of chemistry lectures. Would be so wonderful if they were available and used when I was in high school an undergraduate school late 1950s to the middle 1960s.

[@scrappydoo7887]

This is easily the best lecture on explosives I have seen on KZbin 👍 excellent work and thank you

[@rabidchipmunkgaming]

Explosive Science, Brought to you by Ear Defenders

[@RoyalMountedAnkleBiters]

🙉 🍺

[@tibs7095]

This is the kind of stuff I would've loved to go to as a kid.

[@kevinsullivan8133]

Well worth an hour of anyone’s time - what an excellent lecture - thank you for sharing on KZbin - I thoroughly enjoyed the presentation and even learned a bit into the bargain - thanks to Chris Bishop and the people who made it happen.

[@icwarhol1]

Thank you, most appreciated and well done ALL.

[@TheSzamotulak]

Just great: the speech is amazingly simple, the experiments are unbelievably effective. Enjoyed this hour a lot :]

[@dash8brj]

I loved when he was doing the round the theatre demo of the shock tubing when he said "I hope your happy, your surrounded by 800m of tubing that contains an explosive 70 times more powerful than TNT" haha :)

[@JorryGT]

This was absolutely brilliant. Amazing lecture, so much information and it all makes sense now. Thank you so much and I'll be looking into more material.

[@tigress63]

These are the types of lessons we should have in our schools. Easy to understand, dynamic and leave a student wanting to learn more about the subject!

[@1A.....]

Thanks professor you made chemistry very interesting 💯 Your presentation was awesome thanks

[@pietikke5598]

Great lecture.

[@rajendraphd]

I am a professor in India, i did not get the opportunity to study in Royal Istt but enjoyed every moment here and learned how to teach.

[@faustobartra8898]

this is the best of science.. I hope to see more of these shows... thank you

[@kevinkraft5480]

Best video on youtube.

[@malkimilroy5751]

Thank you for the lectures it was amazing actually I do like chemistry

[@K0ester]

I saw this lecture many years ago, ive always loved science and chemistry. Really pushed me to learn on my own, ive built an amateur lab and have stocked it with all id need to synthesize energetic compounds to "play" around with them. Its been alot of fun. Always safe, sub gram amounts of these compounds. Its alot of fun

[@ptb101255]

its the loving energy of the universe and the compassion for that love ! glad to hear your healing ! youll need to plan on coming to southeast Alaska to go surfing !

[@Fokos123]

If lectures like this happened when I was a student, maybe I could actually get interested in science. Well done!

[@picramide]

Absolutely brilliant lecture! I particularly loved the demo of shock tubing and the adroit use of an antique DuPont blasting machine by the brave young volunteers. Showing things as they really are defuses the ridiculous notions which swirl about us.

[@josevalenzuela7610]

what a great show. I don't think I have seen anything like it before .

[@foreverpinkf.7603]

That's the way chemistry and physics should be taught. I love this channel and how Mr. Bishop keeps the heritage of Mr. Szydlo alive. I know, I know, way to expensive for the modern system of education.

[@YamiTheDark]

Random KZbin Streak once again, but this time landed here on one realy awesome video :-D

[@warywolfen]

Once, when I was working as a substitute teacher, I mentioned to the class that I had a degree in chemical engineering. One of the students asked me if I could make him a bomb. I replied that "I could," but "I won't!" By the way, there are many other substances, like organophosphorus compounds, that one can make...;)

[@MarcusBie]

Loved every second of this presentation

[@blcdad]

One of the best presented lectures and presentations I've ever seen!

[@daltonrademacher3879]

Ive never heard of them as ear defenders but now they shall be known as nothing less

[@dbeierl]

That's UK usage...

[@MmeHyraelle]

Do their car mufflers are "noise and exhaust defender" ?

[@michaeldicker4839]

@@MmeHyraelle haha, no,vehicle exhaust mufflers in the UK are known as "silencers"

[@SheffieldRock]

Brilliant demo...no better way to recruit future scientists than this...

[@trev6511]

I've watched 2 of these hour long lectures, start to finish, and they are quite interesting and full of fun.

[@TheWeirdSide1]

Mr. Bishop for the win! A flawless and exciting presentation!

[@dh32]

soundwave vs. shock, deflagration vs. det, engaging kids, lol! Very well done.

[@RustyShackleford66]

Nice to see a class taught by a real expert with an enthusiasm for what he is teaching, rather than the clueless teaching assistants (aka mums who took the job because it fits in with the hours they need, and got the job because they are cheaper than time served qualified teachers) that have infested my childs school.

[@darylmorse]

That was fabulous! Thank you Professor Bishop for making such an engaging presentation of this interesting topic.

[@kermitefrog64]

Fascinating program and excellent collage lecture. Thank you for sharing. My Grandfather worked in heavy construction and when they needed to move a lot of earth in a quick hurry they would dig holes along a line put dynamite in the middle of the hold and pack around it fertilizer. They would use the dynamite as a blasting cap to set off the more powerful explosion caused by the fertilizer. He said they could move a huge amount of earth and then come in with equipment to remove it afterward.

[@SheffieldRock]

This is lovely, elegant but old stuff. It actually is possible to make, rather than burn, oxygen as ozone with a bang only -without heat, flames, smoke or light.

[@jsdennis90]

Welcome to the watch list

[@ricardof.garcia5227]

Excelent ! I wish this kind of lectures in my country.- Thank you !!

[@MrLibbyloulou]

How i wish this was around when i was a kid......still watching now and nearly 60.....Brilliant, at least i can direct the grand kids here....

[@MegaFklm]

Idk why I watch this, Im not so good in english... But I want to learn about science

[@khairowensullivan7489]

You can learn English the same way you're watching this. Read books, watch more english videos with english subtitles. It's not a difficult language.

[@paulroberts5677]

Great, that was really wonderful. Lots of great support from the technicians too who, if they get the same as school science technicians, about £6.15 per hour. End slave labour in school science.

[@bobfeeney9294]

Back in graduate school, I was part of a team of chemistry grad students giving presentations on "chemical magic", and we did the range of reactions from color changes to to combustion to synthesis to phase changes to explosive reactions. These were presented to college students in chemistry, engineering and physics classes, so we included a nice amount of very technical detail during the demos. Naturally, the explosive demos effectively reduced very intelligent science students to children in awe - these demos, when well done, are always fun to watch...

[@Dunbardoddy]

My dad was a "Dynamite Doc" (JMC Thompson) working in R&D for ICI Nobel division in the 1950s, 60s and retired in 1972. I fondly remember helping him to make fireworks for bonfire night every November... The chemistry practical demonstrations at the local secondary school (Adrossan Academy) could be a challenge for the chemistry teachers of the top sets since more than half the class were the sons and daughters of high explosive chemists...

[@trespire]

That cute kid Issac needs to watch some Road Runner

[@davidstrudwick6970]

I thought the same thing.

[@snowydaysalways5937]

i alread knew all this thanks to CodysLab

[@Lasersplitter]

Yeah, there were really big overlaps. With the difference that Cody shows you how you could theoretically make this stuff yourself

[@MrYoyojuan]

It's sad that a lot of people say something like this, but rarely say school.

[@tinfoilhat4408]

Schools prioritise obedience over education unfortunately.

[@KeepSpamUnderControl]

Where were these professors when I was in school. This was a great lecture, very well done!

[@wijedasabadraperera1953]

great lecture . the lecturer is extraordinary. His voice and the style of presentation were the keys. thank you

[@Exascale]

you would never see this in a US school. This is why our school system sucks, we dont get kids excited about science.

[@ElTurbinado]

Exascale i saw a nice explosives lecture in my high school in pennsylvania. does that count as a us school? we were all pretty excited about science.

[@RicTic66]

+ElTurbinado these have been available to English children, this is a kids lecture; every Christmas for nearly 200 years. There should be loads on youtube, enjoy :)

[@ElTurbinado]

RicTic66 what?

[@Mark-mw7xd]

+Exascale We also dont do anything like this in Hungary. When i was in secondory school we did only two test. boiling water, making caramel from sugar :/ The teacher hated the childrens....

[@landon9560]

+ElTurbinado It really just depends on your teacher, because at times we would hear that the other science teacher for our grade had done a cool experiment, and we would never do it. or our teacher would, and the other class never did. Some teachers really like to have a fun class, and have a hands on example, like for almost no reason what-so-ever, my bio teacher took us outside and put some potassium in water.

[@connordow7366]

where is the c4 im watching this for the c4 good video tho

[@ZeedijkMike]

Brilliant lecture. Good demonstrations. I got intertained and educated at the same time. Who can ask for more?

[@Alexandria197]

The best lecture I have ever seen. I took college Chemistry many years ago and they never had these good of demonstrations.

[@moshazad123]

what is combustion reacion of Ammonium Perchlorate and Polyvinyl chloride??

[@aidensmith6277]

Mohd shahzad Uhh... a reaction?? Im clueless

[@kurtbjorn]

Probably a decent deflagration... burning. Sounds like a solid rocket fuel if I'm not mistaken. Products of combustion? No idea, a handful of ammonia and chlorine ompounds.

[@treatb09]

ear defenders…

[@CTimmerman]

Defenders of the Ears! (Defenders!) kzbin.info/www/bejne/a6mvfK2prtOna6s

[@stevenl7878]

The best indoor explosives demonstration and lecture that I have ever seen!

[@jamesbekurs4683]

These are the types of teachers who inspire children to enter into the STEM field. Bravo, sir.

[@googleiscensorship34]

Why didn't he demonstrate a thermo-nuclear explosion?

[@matthewbragonje9333]

Google+ is Censorship I wonder...

[@24680kong]

Too expensive. Blame the lack of gov't funding.

[@dennismitchell5276]

Forgot to bring a thermos...

[@allenshepard7992]

Watching the sun is free and easy. This stuff is hard to get :)

[@prashanths5723]

Lol

[@ferntheyoutuber9960]

Defend them ears.

[@Mr6Sinner]

And drink those fizzies

[@mmssmm58]

Its wonderful lecture with live demonstration of different explosives.

[@mattski1979]

Great teachers hook you from the jump. I fast forward skip ahead through 98% of KZbin suggestions. You're the 2. Great teacher. Great video. Great sunny Wednesday afternoon. Thank you.