Why Tom Couldn't Show You The World's Largest Artificial Sun

[@mattandtom]

I just want to repeat: thank you to all the team at Synlight! They were all lovely and this was entirely my screw-up. -- Tom

[@wierdalien1]

Matt and Tom To be fair its an amazing advert for gopro.

[@huds601]

You should have posted anyway Tom. We would have understood (and yeah, it’s a hell of an advert for GoPro!). Could have even spun it as a test of a GoPro’s prowess?

[@wierdalien1]

Daniel Hudson GoPro versus sunbulbs

[@TheRockType]

Do you want to apologise for That Image from That Video again?

[@TheEABProductions]

I didn't really understand why you didn't just post it anyway? I know it didn't look impressive, but it's still a hell of a machine.

[@tzhongyan2]

You can change your title of the video to "A GoPro can survive the world's largest artificial sun" and that's something you might not have known

[@S_P_A_C_E_DD]

Yeah but then that belittles the scale of the facility.

[@falleithani5411]

"A GoPro can survive the world's largest artificial sun if you only turn on a very small fraction of the array on for just a few seconds."

[@petermarsella6537]

Yeah but that falls into the problem that Tom mentioned. It's just anticlimactic. When you turn on the light, in person (well, you can't look at it in person for obvious reasons, but) it looks amazing. But on the GoPro it's just really anticlimactic. "GoPro can survive world's largest artificial sun" isn't news, it's not a story. It would be like "Heatwave during soccer match, nobody harmed." It's not impressive, it's just "huh"

[@ChronoCommander]

It would make for some great advertising for GoPros though.

[@michaelaj4495]

Couldn't you have just explained over exposure correction and how it works? The footage would've been perfect to explain the concept

[@Simon-nx1sc]

yes please!

[@andonivelasco8466]

Tom has to see this comment pls!!!!

[@-.---.-.-.-]

@@andonivelasco8466 2 years ago

[@maruftim]

@@-.---.-.-.- lmao

[@-.---.-.-.-]

@@maruftim 1 month ago

[@Ultracity6060]

You accidentally filmed a GoPro commercial.

[@cyrx-glg-1675]

I was going into the comment section expecting to find this comment xd

[@agustinvenegas5238]

Didn't someone put one in lava and the damn thing survived? I'm starting to think they're using the same electronics as the old-school Nokia phones

[@lasivianleandros3558]

Truth!

[@JonatasAdoM]

@@agustinvenegas5238 Tomorrow's headlines: GoPro discovered to be made out of Nokia's parts.

[@Anon-xd3cf]

"Yes I just dropped my phone. No I'm not going to pick it up. I'm in the middle of a rant." Subscribed.

[@Thumbsupurbum]

God: "Walk into the light, my son." GoPro: "What light?"

[@MatheusPratta]

777 likes, must be a sign

[@alterracorp7852]

Light: *I am brighter and hotter than the sun! Now Dow-* GoPro: **pulls out uno reverse card**

[@WarrenGarabrandt]

Go pro: THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS!

[@fivesix3868]

The gopro looks at medusa and turns HER to stone

[@SogenOkami]

That's not anti-climatic, that's freaking cool! A Gopro survived all that? Makes me wanna buy one.

[@slovakthrowback3738]

*sponsored by gopro*

[@wolfelkan8183]

Be a Hero

[@TristanBomber]

Tom, that video is plenty cool - the video isn't ruined at all, why do you think that? We don't watch your videos so we can look at a bright light, we watch them to learn! So what, it doesn't look super amazing? Post it anyway! Alternatively, just apply really heavy gamma increase. Not quite as honest, but more impressive.

[@akmedia8206]

SynthRose ok

[@wspann1967]

ok

[@jonathandellasantina7715]

ok

[@RoyDangerMoney]

Ok

[@johnhunter5247]

I personally found that really cool.

[@xzonia1]

I know, right? I don't understand what the problem is here. Nothing needs to explode for this facility's operations to still be very cool. The fact that the GoPro adjusts to bright light is also pretty cool! I wasn't expecting to get blinded anyway until Tom put the thought in my head, and when it didn't happen I thought, eh - this work is still awesome! Science doesn't need Hollywood exaggerations to be remarkable. I wish he'd done the video as an example of how science does not need to be flashy to be amazing. :)

[@firehog]

John Hunter I agree, it was a cool video. The gopro should have been filmed with a thermal camera. Done. cool... or hot...

[@TheAkashicTraveller]

My thoughts through this video was basically just. Eh, I don't see any problem here. It sounds like Tom had an idea in his head of what the video should be and when it didn't go like that he though he'd messed it up even though it was a good video anyway. If you think this is less interesting than insert random curio in a European village here then you've got something wrong with you.

[@sarahprunierlaw9147]

+

[@Mika_Storm]

+

[@BartholomewFlutist]

2 years late, but I just wanted to say that I am actually really impressed with the footage you hated.

[@DrawCuriosity]

Plot twist - this becomes a new advert for Go pro :p

[@SpamQGamers]

painted red though haha

[@erictaylor5462]

"The only way is to melt a GoPro..." Did you consider putting in a lower quality camera?

[@coolguyhino92]

Still the risk of exploding battery.

[@monad_tcp]

@@coolguyhino92 take out the battery and plug it in a solar panel, the facility was designed for testing them

[@egcart4957]

Probably just didn’t have another camera, and still... exploding battery

[@ByteMe619]

I really appreciate Tom's integrity. He doesn't just upload a video that he thinks wouldn't be up to standard, even if he knew it would still get a lot of views/revenue. But he still shows us the footage in case we're still interested (which we are). Thanks Tom!

[@raffaelepiccini3405]

Although I would like to see his video, where he explains stuff about the facility and shows short interviews with people, rather then a video just focused on the fact that the climax didn't look cool enough... It would have been amazing as a video, shame he didn't make it just for a small detail most people wouldn't even care about.. we are in for the informations not necessarily the visuals

[@MrsSchwapdidu]

here's why i am confused: of course the camera can't pick up how amazing it really looks because if it could do that and we could watch it exactly how it really was, then we would be blinded. so what should have happened? it is impossible that the footage is even close to the brightness of the "sun" so the shot was all it could be, and that was totally fine

[@goodname4514]

Probably could've just made the video and included this in the script

[@tiskbubbles4688]

I mean if he wanted it not to correct for overexposure or whatever, the footage would just be like a white screen, no? Or at least most of it around the lights would be white. Doesn't sound all that impressive to me. I would be more interested in just hearing about the experiments and what they do there than fussing about the video tbh.

[@Yodah97]

Yep. The most bright pixels can get is white at max brightness. That said, Tom keeps referring to security camera footage that looked cool and photos that looked cool. I don't know what he saw, but I couldn't find any photos of Synlight that looked better than his video. I'm guessing some of what he saw as simply edited, or it was some distortion caused by cheaper camera gear. Anyway, whatever he saw, that's what he was hoping the Go Pro would capture. And it didn't.

[@knightshousegames]

Tom, it looks fine. Your standards have officially gone too high. I mean the story you just told us was that these lights were so bright that a Go Pro couldn't even understand it. Finish the video, it's fine.

[@TheEpicLinkFreeman]

it was the opposite, it wasn't bright enough that the gopro couldn't understand it the goal was for it to overload the gopro and have it look crazy, but it looked like a regular light bulb with nothing special about it and he didn't like that

[@Sammie1053]

Bear in mind the Park Bench and the Amazing Places audience have clear overlap, but not all people who would have seen that video are the Park Bench kind of person, that being people who are fans of Tom and usually have some understanding of and appreciation for the work that goes into making these videos. Most of the people who would have clicked on a video titled "The World's Largest Artificial Sun" would have been there for the spectacle, not just a technical explanation and a disclaimer about video exposure. Even on an educational channel, you have to factor in the lowest common denominator of the audience.

[@tylerdolph886]

yea just upload it, it looks cool anyways

[@LostieTrekieTechie]

@@tylerdolph886 that's what this video is

[@TheManWithThePlan360]

"And on behalf of this anticlimax, from this GoPro, from this video, would like to apologize for the existence of this anticlimax, from this GoPro, from this video, and I will be careful in future when doing this again."

[@tomasspace4819]

You should release it anyway. Biggest artificial sun and god damn blessed gopro. Or write gopro im sure they will want this as promotion material. :D

[@eihples]

My thoughts exactly, this is great advertising for GoPro, you could squeeze out a spon probably :D

[@maxximumb]

Yes that ^. GoPro might even send you a new shiny one to try to abuse in other interesting places.

[@LynxSnowCat]

So on the upside, these scientists now have another camera option for their research.

[@eihples]

The battery is still gonna melt :/

[@LynxSnowCat]

Batteries can be substituted for by an an external power supply, much like their existing fixed cameras use.

[@DIYPerks]

Wouldn't it be possible to power the gopro externally? That way the battery or power source etc could be protected. Looked pretty cool to me anyway!

[@ganon8835]

power it up by solar power and use the lights to power it. unlimited power!

[@OrangeC7]

@@ganon8835 UNLIMITED POWAAAAAH

[@jearlblah5169]

@@ganon8835 no but actually I am pretty sure solar panels can do bad things when subjected to that much light

[@TylerMarkRichardson]

@@jearlblah5169 it was a place designed for solar panels

[@daveboy2000]

@@TylerMarkRichardson solar collectors, not solar panels. VERY different things, actually.

[@MatthiasYReich]

Honestly, i think it would have been (still is?) worth making a video out of it... The explanation would suffice if you ask me...

[@chrisharrison763]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that what you've just watched?

[@lukjad007]

I think he meant on the main channel.

[@AntigonePoss]

There are people who don't watch this channel but they do watch the main channel.

[@LeoMRogers]

Quite a lot of people in fact. The main channel has 10 times more subscribers.

[@TheCheekyPotato]

to be honest Tom, I watch your videos to find out about interesting places. I did enjoy watching that, and would have been happy to see it! Release it!

[@vylbird8014]

I believe the 'ka-clunk' of lighting is just a dated expectation. Modern lights do not make that noise - but they once did, in very large installations like warehouses or floodlights. It is the sound of a mechanical time-delay contactor. Incandescent bulbs draw a surge current when turned on - if you turned all the lights in a large installation simultaneously the surge current would blow fuses. The solution was a device that just turns them on in stages, a few seconds apart. That's still done today, but using silent solid-state electronics. Hollywood just kept the sound effect because it sounds cool.

[@ChristopherMeadors]

I went to a very old elementary school, its cafeteria/stage the only place I've ever heard lights make that noise. The noise would come from the back-stage area, not anywhere near the light switch, or the light bulbs.

[@caracaes]

Carbon arc lamps also made a characteristic noise when they turned on, but it was more of a buzz noise than a Ka-clunk. A carbon arc with the delayed contactor would do both noises.

[@bbgun061]

Vyl Bird -Turning the lights on at the hangar where I work, there is a kachunk noise, but it's actually produced by the relays

[@AndyLundell]

There may actually have been some relays controlling those lights that would make that sound. If he'd known ahead of time that he needed it, it would have been a funny to mic the relays and produce the sequence as Hollywood would, .. and then do a reveal where Tom says "Actually, that noise comes from this metal box in a completely different room from the lights themselves."

[@SonicWizards]

In Hollywood sounds are added to make it “larger than life”, but also to translate the feeling of the situation rather than the fact of the situation. In the sense of what we experience as real, rather than what actually is real, the added sound is actually more true than the absence of the sound. This counts more for things like punches and stuff, than lights turning on, though. But still...

[@blisles7626]

When we had a fight choreographer in for a show I was doing he taught us the difference between a sxene that was napped (where you make the noises of punches colliding etc) and one where you don't. If the sound is not there it doesn't come across properly to the audience and looks dead weird.

[@Valkyrien04]

Should have had thermal cameras pointed at it, seeing the thermal spike would have been amazing

[@trickytreyperfected1482]

Surely those would be way too expensive to risk that.

[@RAY30050]

@@trickytreyperfected1482 oh look someone else from 2020. I would think that the facility would have the equipment to masure the temperature. So once the second take with the gopro "failed" Tom could've recorded the change of temperature on the next go around.

[@trickytreyperfected1482]

@@RAY30050 I'm also stupid because I misread your comment. I assume that you meant to have a thermal camera in the focus point, not somewhere else pointed either at the lights or at the focal point.

[@kevinkoger5749]

Tom looks like he’s perpetually stuck between a man and a child, both in the face and his appeal. It’s more amazing than your awesome dedication to learning and teaching. Have you aged since you graduated university? Keep crushing and God bless.

[@dberzins]

Why does a gopro adjusting the brightness spoil the video about an interesting thing? The information about what the artificial sun is and what it does is still quite interesting to see. You do not have to film a Mars rover from the surface of Mars for the piece about it to be interesting.

[@calaphos]

I absolutely agree. There is more background to it than melting a gopro

[@lukediggle7639]

Ollyweg 0 the thing is he can't, it's in a vacuum chamber so no oxygen to fuel the fire.

[@GameFreak7744]

Melt a chocolate bunny?

[@dakat5131]

ikr? it still made a nice piece. it might not have been as impressive as in person, but displays typically(and thankfully) don't reproduce that much brightness anyway, so it was going to get squashed or flat even if the camera didn't think it was doing the right thing by adapting.

[@pyrioncelendil]

It's because standard dynamic range cameras can't even come close to reproducing the effect of staring straight into the sun, and this video was recorded in basically the same era as the one about the "pinkest pink" that can't be reproduced on SDR displays for much the same reason: there just isn't enough gamut available in eight bits per pixel. I'd really be interested in Tom doing followups to videos that don't work for the same underlying reason if he were ever to start using HDR-capable recording equipment, seeing as KZbin supports HDR videos just fine if watching on a HDR display.

[@whitcwa]

The way to capture how bright it was is to lock the exposure at the brightest setting and showing how dark normal room lighting is at that setting. Video has a quite limited dynamic range. The white of your screen can't be made any brighter by a content creator, so making other things darker is the way to go.

[@Yodah97]

That's pretty damn smart actually. Good thinking.

[@MariusSchar]

Honestly, I thought that video would've been pretty good. Even just the numbers are very impressive and spectacular.

[@DiGatsby]

Also changing the script so that you would tell the numbers during the demonstration might've made up for it. "It might not look in the video visually as impressive but each of these lights are producing - -"

[@purplegill10]

Vili-Robert that's actually a genius idea

[@Nik6644]

This could’ve been the perfect GoPro placement 😂 „The GoPro - How good does it deal with bright lights? Well let’s say you wanted to film the sun...“

[@JimCullen]

You could just put the video up with the explicit disclaimer "sound effects added for dramatic effect" :P

[@dard1515]

That would be a very Tom Scott-ish thing to do.

[@TheAkashicTraveller]

I thought that they sounded out of place anyway.

[@foobar201]

And then afterwards, as an kind of asterisk, 'and here's how they really sounded... *tink*'

[@greenmumm]

They just needed to be a little quieter

[@happily_cj]

I only saw this after suggesting the same thing. Several people coming up with this --> this might actually be worth a shot :)

[@the_alex_ellis_channel6923]

You gave me an idea for a Citation Needed prize: A tall structure used to collate sunlight for electricity, run by a swearing New Zealand news presenter. A Patrick Gower Solar Power Tower.

[@vertxxyz]

I think this is fine. Spectacle isn't everything, I don't know about others but I watch your videos to find out that these things exist. Not to see bright lights? It's never going to look THAT cool, it's a bright light.

[@robsmithracing]

Not relevant I know, but i drove past you recording this. I was driving for local hospitals at the time. If you look carefully you can see me going past in an ambulance ferrying patients around! I remember seeing you both sitting on that park bench recording this!

[@hive_indicator318]

DutchBlackMantha has a comment about the timing of you driving by!

[@Loki-]

​@@hive_indicator318I find it hilarious that OP slightly annoyed me for not linking the timestamp, and then more annoying when you put in the effort of remembering and writing down someone who wrote the timestamp, but you didn't also write the timestamp. Also, funnily enough I found the time to complain about both of these funny and annoying experiences, but I didn't find the time to find the timestamp comment or the moment in the video.

[@I_Love_Learning]

@@Loki- I think it was 0:38 I just watched that video 3 times. Have a good rest of your day.

[@yaitz3313]

The ambulance drove past in the video literally as I looked up from this comment. Nice. It's 10:29, by the way.

[@tatianatub]

i was not expecting that face at the end i demand an apology

[@Peter-pp6kj]

An apology by combat!

[@Alex-my6me]

In video format?

[@DutchBlackMantha]

10:25 They talk about melting a GoPro. An ambulace drives by.

[@DSSlocksmiths]

Clearly, Surry/London(?) ambulance service gets nervous when there's a video being recorded by Matt and Tom, regardless of content, and were circling just in case.

[@kingpopaul]

So you scraped an educational/science/tech video just because it didn't LOOK impressive enough?? FFS TOM, WE DON'T WANT A MICHAEL BAY MOVIE, JUST INTERESTING STUFF.

[@Denuhm]

kingpopaul right?!

[@xtzyshuadog]

Scrapped.

[@coolfred9083]

Yeah I was going to say, it wasn't anywhere near as bad as Tom made it out to be. It would've made a great video regardless.

[@trouty7947]

Ah but we get *this* video explaining it. And these are pretty cool as you learn more about the cinematography trade

[@adranirdoradrie4922]

"This isn't the Wendlestrom ? -I BEG your pardon ?" I don't know why but this made me laugh

[@martinhill7304]

Run it as a video on how awesome cameras are at not getting destroyed in super bright light instead? featuring science machines

[@martinhill7304]

Also start with the seemingly domestic lights being switched on, then go for the shiny shiny kit?

[@pierre-yvestardieu6834]

Berakh Hvar yes I think that could be a good solution, there may be things to learn about CCD sensors and how they cope with bright light.

[@LynxSnowCat]

Automatic gain control for the win?

[@RainaRamsay]

THIS. How tf is GoPro capable of this? What kind of technology have we developed such that the camera brand known for "cheap" and "sketchy" is capable of handling this? Talk about how automatic gain control works, and then, as proof, show that a GoPro is capable of handling the brightest thing humans can produce. *THAT'S* impressive.

[@RainaRamsay]

But if you don't want to use this footage, please at least talk about how automatic gain control works, because I really want to know.

[@_Niels__]

The 3-countries point in with the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany is really quite interesting actually. It was a 4-countries point at some time due to some disagreement between Belgium and Germany about materials in the ground. Could have been an interesting story...

[@QuotePilgrim]

Point a GoPro straight at the Sun and do a comparison with that. That may or may not work, but it's worth a shot.

[@tylerpeterson4726]

In my experience, the master power to stage lights makes an impressive noise. It's a big heavy clunk. If you go to the lighting board before turning on power to the array and push all the switches up, then you get a clunk paired with blinding light. But that switch is for providing power to the entire lighting array, not each individual bulb.

[@heddafh5766]

I was NOT prepared for that image from that video. I think you might owe us another apology.

[@Grimsace]

You mean this solar array? From this image? From this video?

[@Luuk3333]

Hedda Holtung Just call [phone].

[@hansolavtalg4560]

Please schedule regular apology videos

[@ZMYaro]

I, for one, am skeptical that That Image from That Video actually made that sound; I think Tom just added it in afterward¡

[@katherineyan4955]

"1.5 speed... because I have a tiny attention span" Me: is watching this at 2.5x speed...

[@vedvod]

but the cap is 2x speed...

[@katherineyan4955]

@@vedvod You can set it to higher with the javascript console

[@tinkersdinkers]

@@katherineyan4955 whoaa wait fr? how?? 🥺

[@daWinzig]

@@tinkersdinkers document.getElementsByTagName('video')[0].playbackRate = 2.5 but there are some extensions that can do this in a more user-friendly way

[@flashbaggins427]

I think you should apologise for the very very end I am traumatised. Wherever I go... I see that face

[@Spiritwonder420]

Flash Baggins from that picture from that video :p

[@Dzeroed]

Flash Baggins Looks like Ethan from H3H3

[@connoroud4248]

Here, have a listen to this. I suggest using VLC for it. mega.nz/#!FokzVA5T!QZZxnQJY-ASjgCMMFV-XSjAKbfuxvy_Ljsd2PhzJQs8

[@Skyliner_369]

"okay so the Go Pro decided to give up on exposing for the lights and capture the detail for the rest. But here is a simulation of what it would look like."

[@ellenorbjornsdottir1166]

Fancy seeing you here! :-D

[@CanOzmaden]

Just a small addition to the video: the Triland point (DE-NL-BE) is near the town of Aachen which is approx. an hour drive away from Cologne. And the facility where this artificial sun is located is called the Jülich Research Center. Source: I live in Aachen and study at the Rwth University which also has close ties to the said research center. A pity it didn't make the cut!

[@j.anonym5605]

Ich lebe auch in Aachen, aber ich hab noch nie davon gehört 😂

[@leackedimp7169]

U should just upload it with an explanation of why the GoPro makes it look more mundane

[@PoliticRevolutionnaire]

There was an old lady called Wright who could travel much faster than light. She departed one day in a relative way and returned on the previous night. (Not mine originally just really cool)

[@konstantinkh]

What is this? Relativity limericks? There once was a fencer named Fisk Whose thrust was incredibly brisk So fast was his action That Lorentz contraction Has turned his rapier into disk

[@thenorup]

This limerick is printed in my special relativity textbook :)

[@deathman1687]

I just got this video recommended to me and for two minutes I thought Matt is blind. I'm excited to see the other videos.

[@Heimbasteln]

I think the video would have worked just like this. Its still a cool thing, just because you cant completely show it doesnt mean it isnt awesome.

[@jpe1]

Some lights in some circumstances do make that sound. I worked lighting for a 2200 seat theatre that had fluorescent house lights (roughly 200 4 foot fixtures). On the lighting control board was a tiny toggle switch to turn them on or off. When turning on there was a sound almost exactly like your sound effect as the relays and starters and ballasts energized. It was loud, impressive, and when you heard it you knew something had happened.

[@YCbCr]

The large and echoey PE hall in school had some overhead sodium lamps fixed to the roof beams, made a lovely deep energetic racket and as they warmed up, all the hum and buzz slowly turned into light. Shivers. It ain't the same with LEDs :)

[@firebird9594]

You could've also pointed a thermal camera at the GoPro and shown how hot it was getting

[@handiman5001]

Just one question "What did you expect would happen?" a go pro explosion? I found it very interesting -- the fact that the go-pro didn't explode was interesting enough -- now we can try to guess why it didn't

[@GameRevo]

You could've made it a double-purpose video, looking at the artificial sun and the surprising build-quality of the GoPro! Regardless, I'm glad we got to see it. It's still really interesting.

[@Vibinator]

Dont you mean Sony :) (Its their sensors)

[@sidewinder15599]

Some of the arc lamps I've worked on make a VERY similar sound, especially the older ones that are close to failing. Listening to the sounds they make is actually part of how I troubleshoot them.

[@GamesFromSpace]

Meanwhile I get migraines if I don't have sunglasses on an overcast day.

[@HaloInverse]

Well, now I know what brand of camera to bring on a trip to Mercury.

[@varana]

That's really unfortunate that that didn't work. OTOH, maybe send the video to the GoPro people, they might have use for it in their marketing. :D P.S. Reading the title, I also immediately thought this was about the Wendelstein reactor.

[@caracaes]

Wait, this isn't a GoPro advertise?

[@seanm9306]

“The disused one that’s now a theme park.” Foreshadowing

[@idkhowtoplay7747]

so I see you have a new outro?

[@Zero8600]

I spat my drink laughing when i saw that at the end again xD

[@natedunn51]

I love how it didn't make the cut, but matt and tom channel, it's more than great.

[@CuleChick11]

Rant Mode: "Yes, I just dropped my phone on the floor! No, I'm not going to pick it up!"

[@jeim376]

Matt laughs like The Count from Sesame Street 12:45

[@Razoreas]

Who cares if the gopro didnt melt or malfunction in any way, its still interesting as f**k.

[@Night_Hawk_475]

Honestly it's still a really cool project to learn about. The title definitely had me thinking you were going to talk about fusion reactors. I had no idea there were test facilities like this! Thanks for still sharing what you had, honestly I do kind of agree with one of the top comments, it still would have been fine footage, it was more the over-hyping beforehand than bad footage from inside the chamber (which I don't think needed to be included in a video then)

[@anxplodinturtle7928]

I just about lost it when *this face* came on screen 😂😂😂

[@homomculus]

From this video?

[@ohpurpled]

Jess Kay as show in that video about that face in that picture from that video being used as a thumbnail in that video

[@Powershelley]

you could add an exposure adjustment slider to the video, so that you know how impressive the gopro dealing with it is and explain that, I mean you can see the massive adjustment. You could also maybe ask them for the security camera footage, that lightbeam on the half cut-off screen at 8:43 looks incredible. the video as is is pretty good already, but maybe re-record the explaining part into something that doesn't sound like an apology and more of an explanation?

[@brunoais]

13:00 Oh?? That was it? I thought it was the sound of relays switching on/off

[@Mergatroid]

Coming back to this video years later, and I have an AV job now and I work with a lightning system that DOES make that noise. Just a bunch of relays flicking at once is enough to make the cool “BIG LIGHTS TURNING ON” sound.

[@marcgro4111]

Hey Tom, considering this video is almost 4 years old, I realize someone might have already pointed it out, but I think, you should revist the "Drielandenpunt" as the Dutch call it, I think there actually is enough there for a couple of reasons: 1. It is not only a tripoint, it is also the highest point of the (continental or European part) of the Netherlands. Having been there and knowing that is actually not that high says a lot about just how flat that country is. 2. It has been a quad-point (hope that is the right term), since once there was an area that was disputed between I think the Netherlands and Prussia and so that area was somehow considered to belong to neither and being neutral. 3. In a way it still is a quad-point, as Belgium is separated in a Dutch-speaking, a French-speaking and a tiny German-speaking community (I think, I remember you mentioning that in a different video too) and the border of the German-speaking community with one of the other two also runs up to that point. 4. Last but not least: You can jump up and down by around 2 meters just by crossing the border...not literally of course, but apparently Belgium uses a different reference for their hight above sea level than the Netherlands and Germany do, so even though it's totally flat the Belgian part of that point is 2 meters higher than the German and Dutch part...of course that would be true for any point on the Belgian-Dutch and Belgian-German border, but I know you care about that as little as I do as long as it makes a good a story and you can nitpick yourself for it afterwards. ;)

[@Hyraethian]

I'm glad you didn't totally toss this video. I had no idea this facility existed, very interesting.

[@NotMeInc]

Actually, the three countries point used to be a four countries point at one time in history en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutral_Moresnet

[@pyroslavx7922]

You never heard old contactors of cinema projector HID light startup circuitry, they go BANG, discharging a huge capacitor bank into a bulb to "kickstart" it?

[@MadMedicineMan]

Just a thought - as Matt mentioned the Wendelstein: It would be lovely to have something on this :D And Greifswald is a nice coastal town with this wonderful reactor prototype :D

[@shadowhenge7118]

GoPro... the camera you take when you absolutely must capture your extreme trip to Mercury. I dunno. This is a good ad for GoPro.

[@3lapsed]

THERE ARE FIVE LIGHTS!

[@BoHolbo]

3lapsed :-D Not to be pedantic here, but cpt. Picard actually yelled "there are four lights" But the reference still works;)

[@BoHolbo]

No, wait. I'm not shure anymore...

[@izzieb]

Bo Holbo Rasmussen No, you're right. He was being told to say there were 5.

[@DerVagabundli]

On the plus side: you did show how bloody good modern camera technology is, that is a great twist in itself.

[@swunt10]

so you only want to show videos that are visually impressive? well that will be a limitation. lots of cool things are visually underwhelming.

[@dgodfrey9189]

Tom's made plenty of videos about things that aren't actually that visually stunning- the borders inside borders inside borders one is just him walking on a street, and there's one about little twiddly knobs underneath crossing signals. In this case they were expecting something to be much more visually impressive than it turned out to be. If they'd used his phone, rather than the gopro maybe it would have been.

[@Firecul]

dgodfrey9189 Or the sideways river, that looks pathetic.

[@cybercat1531]

Seriosuly, Tom if you read this. Upload it anyway and send the video to GoPro too. The Camera that looked into the sun and lived.

[@MrFrostburner]

I think it's that the go pro didn't accurately portray the subject. The really thing is super bright, blindingly bright, but in the video it just looks like a normal spotlight.

[@SpotTiger]

Mar Right? Example: How insanely, incomprehensibly amazing is a modern smartphone? The engineering and history of "That doesn't work. How do we fix that?" is incredible. But, from the outside? Iz'just a plastic brick, innit?

[@grig8310]

When life doesn’t give you lemons, You make a video about not getting lemons...

[@DeserdiVerimas]

In any case, good on your scientific conscience for not faking any of the results!

[@stmicoll]

Tom, you're being way overcritical about it! This would have been a great video. I'm glad you did share it, even dripping with self-deprecation. The place is awesome, the setup was indeed well done, and you didn't anticipate that a GoPro was as badass as it is. That would've been a lovely aside - "we tried to film this from inside, but the GoPro compensated so well, it's not super impressive. Still, here's what this incredible facility can do..."

[@McJaews]

Solution: "Hello. Today, we're going to visit a place with some very bright lights. Unfortunately, there's no way your screen can show how bright they are, so this video will begin with a massive ANTICLIMAX WARNING! Now, let's visit these guys and ask them what their deal is, and why they can't just use a regular torch."

[@alleny2971]

Tom’s new meta: Videos about things of which there are no footage. (Snowden, virtual suns, the Loch Ness monster…)

[@Throckmorpheus]

No I'm not gonna pick it up, I'm in the middle of a rant

[@arfyness]

I seriously think you should post it. It's a cool facility that I am not alone in wanting to learn more about. You can probably even work out a GoPro sponsorship deal for it.

[@wiiza4ever]

You probably should have set up more than one camera for the takes of the artificial sun. One with a fixed brightness setting or aperture, or however the hell that thing works.

[@TheBailingling]

It's a cool idea. A real shame it didn't work out. Especially seeing as the set up was perfect! Well, thanks for sharing it here at least!

[@dragos7puri]

I would have liked the video. Science doesn't have to be spectacular in order to be interesting.

[@Karol-cj9fy]

My YT feed showed me the video with the shortened title "Why Tom Couldn't Show You The World's Largest..." and I assumed this was the actual title and was intrigued.

[@collinscody57]

Lights never made that noise it was the solenoids use to switch on and off the massive amount of electricity they used that did. They has to move extremely fast so they can disconnect/reconnect power without arcing inside the switch

[@debries1553]

There are a whole bunch of people not subscribed to this channel, that are subscribed to your main one. I think they would still love to see this video. With or without the edit, they would want to see it.

[@n0ffk3]

Go Pro 1, Tom Scott 0 Also amazing advertising for Go Pro

[@lexiel920]

“I have the speed set to 1.5 because I have a tiny attention span” I feel called out

[@potatoonastick2239]

you should still upload it.

[@Mikeliest]

I think you could still upload it, like there's plenty of videos you've done where the actual visuals aren't super interesting (like the Harald Bluetooth video) but the story behind it is. I think just knowing those lights are so intense and knowing the cool facts about them, and even just seeing the array itself when it isn't switched on is very cool. I don't know, I wouldn't have thought twice about it if you had uploaded it.

[@MrNordi999]

10:35 matt just died randomly ^^

[@rikwisselink-bijker]

Actually, the tripoint The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany used to be a 4-point. There used to be a super small country called something like "Neutral Moresnet". The road into the point (I believe from the Belgian side) is still called the four-country-road.

[@Nicksanders99]

"It looked great from the viewing gallery" So why not film from there?

[@TheMsLourdes]

I loved every part of this. Both the subject matter originally and especially the backend commentary :)

[@jamesmilburn4442]

why wouldn't you just add a some white frames in post with a note saying something like "this is a representation of how it would look if you were here" and then go on to show the real footage as a sort of "behind the scenes kind of thing? that would probably get the effect you were looking for, and it would let you use the real footage in a sort of 'what is really going on' angle.

[@TopherIsATribble]

-hears Tom call himself out for watching at 1.5x speed for a tiny attention span- -looks at the settings where he's watching this video at 2x speed- -feels called out-