Methane - Periodic Table of Videos

[@zarblitz]

My chemistry teacher in high school did the same experiment but with a pumpkin. When it exploded, it was a jack o' lantern. He had carved it before class and put the pieces back in. It was pretty great.

[@Garblegox]

My teacher did this with a Pringles can. Only he didn't warn us of anything. He continued casually talking and putting it all together. Then at the right time, stepped a few feet to the left and BANG! It sounded like a gun going off. What was most shocking to me was how violently I ducked when it blew up. Never thought I'd react like that. I think that guy lived to scare the shit out of 9th graders.

[@bullsquid42]

I wonder how many people got into chemistry just to blow stuff up

[@chuckydickens7258]

My year 10 chemistry teacher always used to play with methane bubbles. Any time he got bored, he'd bubble methane through soapy water, break up the bubble cluster, and once the bubbles started to become buoyant, he'd stand at the far end of the room and flick lit matches at them. Good Times...

[@SomeRandomFellow]

"You can belch it out or you can expel it out the other end." Cracked up so hard on that one!

[@FlyingPiper13]

2:43 SHE's INVINCIBLE!

[@sakelaine2953]

Wind from the other end is hilarious!

[@Enatbyte]

Why couldn't my chemistry teacher be this awesome?

[@MrBlaarghh]

That was probably my favourite demonstration I've seen in one of your videos, so far. Really cool.

[@drakesandate481]

When i heard him say "incandescent flame". I thought of solaire of astora.

[@Maxstate]

That was great! Could you guys do a nice video about the difference between those strange suffixes like 'ethyls' ? That would be great.

[@stardude692001]

thank you, I hope to go over there some day and it's nice to have a leg up on the the language.

[@Jason1975ism]

I got the last part. the thing you forgot is that C14 dating technique measures when the creature stopped taking in C14, ie when it died. We also use associated materials to calculate the average C14 present at that time, usually plant material. charcoal gives scewed data because of the oxidation process. Calcined and Carbonized bones have the same issues. I have uncovered thermal features with bone comprising half the contents..once a human cranial fragment with cut marks..that was cool!

[@Illuminateur]

That is an awesome molecular model of methane at 0:42

[@P00P0STER0US]

I love these demonstrations.

[@LTC3a]

The female chemist in these videos really goes all out!!! She's awesome!

[@beeble2003]

In the UK, the mains gas supply is methane. From memory, Russia and Germany just spent a huge amount of money building a natural gas pipeline so it's probably the same in Germany. On the other hand, bottled gas is normally propane or butane.

[@seanmonroe6916]

Methane in animals is made by Methanogens which are in the domain Archaea, Bacteria are in a separate Domain and are very different organisms.

[@TheArabsolga]

does methane gas go down or up when you release it in the atmosphere? example: helium goes up. does methane also go up?

[@sorrysonofa]

THis video was GREAT!!! Love those new molecule videos.

[@EzyoMusic]

Haha, I love that can experiment! A teacher once did it right before my eyes and the can just hit the ceiling full-on. It was awesome, just like your videos! Keep it up.

[@thepvporg]

What about inverting the can and lighting the other end to demonstrate the power of the explosive force? I remember at school when this experiment in to combustion was done. Still a good one today, 30 years on.

[@13someguy13]

they actually put a minuscule amount of H2S (hydrogen sulfide) into hydrocarbon fuels in order to allow us to smell them (as hydrocarbons are normally odourless) in case of gas leaks. The human nose is particularly sensitive to the scent of H2S, so it is extremely easy to pick out the smell of hydrocarbon fuels such as methane

[@AdstarAPAD]

Does methane rise in the atmosphere? Is it lighter than air?

[@theturbocow]

@Vennificus There are a dizzying amount of regional accents in England. Despite the fact that one can sound completely different than another, are you saying ALL of them are the "correct" way to speak the language? What about certain dialects from the south of England where they pronounce "th" as "f." "Fink" rather than "think," "fought" rather than "thought." Does that sound correct to you?

[@Belicose777]

That's awesome. Makes you appreciate the combustion engine even more.

[@pipsproductions15]

I love the methane molecular mode. XD wonderfull vid again guys!

[@Jason1975ism]

now that is a complete answer! thanx for responding! with no iron definition of organic I can imagine it gets very confusing. I wonder is any of the other 'carbons' could be a basis of life? somewhere I mean..

[@quietthomas]

Perhaps the thermodynamics of the convection current caused by the flame pulling up from the inside of the pressure chamber might cause a greater retention of methane in the vessel than there would otherwise be had the flame not been there (sorry for the run-on sentence).

[@utkarshsinghal5]

when the can exploded,the flame had many colors like red,green,and yellow.how can it be possible if the methane burns blue?is it that the explosion also burnt some of the metal with it?

[@SenatorPob]

"Now me and Neil have doctored it slightly..." When Pete says something like that, you know it's time to get behind the blast shield.

[@NirrumTheMad]

@SvenSign One does not criticize the English on the use of English. It is their language, and however they pronounce it is how it's supposed to be pronounced.

[@Rigo0Jancsi]

@apollo. Sure, you're right. What was a fruad again?

[@michel6]

I didn't understand why the can blew up in the end, could anyone please explain? Thank you.

[@TheOneYouDespise343]

I would love to do this in my Chemistriae class :D

[@Drag0nfoxx]

@petercourt - Because the amount of air and the amount of methane are perfect - they mix very well, and everything ignites at once, thus making it explode.

[@yiyifone]

Wow, nice one! Actually, I am currently start studying Organic Chemistry! Greetings from Hong Kon :)

[@dumbo800]

Last time I checked, Sir Humphrey Davy named the goddamned element as Aluminum. There is no reason to change it as it fits with the naming convention of other metals known at that time (contrasting the -ium metals also know) like Platinum, Tantalum, Molybdenum, etc Paperwork and ads for the primary Aluminum production method in the US used the -um spelling, thus ingraining that usage into the US lexicon. The UIPAC recognizes both spellings as proper, and equal numbers of publications use them.

[@DANGJOS]

where did that green color come from at the end??

[@MrLinux00001]

The point at where the Fuel to air mixture ratio is explosive is called stoichiometry

[@Serostern]

The professor said it. Decomposing materials on the bottom of a lake. Or in this case, the ocean, or just waaay down under ground.

[@stardude692001]

do they say Ee-thane and Mee-thanol as well?

[@AdstarAPAD]

So it would be feasible in large indoor farming facilities where they keep animals to seal the roof and extract methane out the top from the methane created by the animals.

[@Stokie09123]

I come from an area that relied upon the pottery industry for its income. When outsourcing of the pottery industry began in the late 80s, an entire generation of workers were left bereft of their trade, What are they to do? I was born after, this and was fortunate enough to be educated, go to university and get a good job in that I'm happy with, but the problem still remains for those that lost. The idea of leadership, is based wholly on a few, leading a many, so all can't be leaders.

[@nipzie]

Yeah, It'll be from contaminants. But it'll burn blue as a "working flame" when it gets complete combustion, ie oxygen in sufficient supply to get end products of H2O and CO2 from O2 + CH4. If there's a deficiency of O2 then the flame will burn yellow/orange with end products of CO (carbon monoxide) CO2 and H2O.

[@DesViper]

I'm noticing a mar in the table at 1:30, this has been a repeated experiment? ;P

[@GetMeThere1]

OK. Exploding can trick: VERY cool ! btw, as an American I own and shoot guns of various sorts. I even occasionally reload my own ammo. A similar effect is possible with mis-loaded ammo: too LITTLE powder in a cartridge allows for DETONATION rather than BURNING. A gun be destroyed by firing a cartridge with too LITTLE gunpowder.

[@itsJustinJ]

Can anyone explain to me why having equal amounts of methane and atmospheric air caused that violent explosion at the end of the vid? At 6:25 to be precise.

[@Playythis]

In Canada here, we say Meth-Ane, but my professor who is a brit says mee-thane. I love it though :) he's awesome!

[@Jaskarsis]

Nice video! Hello from Switzerland!

[@Quintinohthree]

It's actually arguably more complex, because one of its three electron pairs behaves differently from the others. In methane, all valence electrons behave exactly the same.

[@tretronthedragon]

it goes up in the air: methane is CH4, oxegenium is O2 and then you have CO2 methane weights 10 mol. O2 eights 16 mol and CO2 weights 22 mol. so methane goes up in the air because it lighter then most of the molecules in the air, but unlike helium it does not leave the earth.

[@superdau]

@eirikstran: Don't know where you got that from. Methane is much lighter than air. 0,72 g/l vs. 1,29 g/l (at sea level, 0°C)

[@Sentinalh]

When it comes to methane and GW, the biggest issue right now is the massive amounts of it trapped in the Arctic permafrost. If that melts it will release a huge amount of methane into the atmosphere.

[@AmenTeaspoonHunk]

The ratio is called a stoichiometric ratio. Stoiciometry is the branch of chemistry that deals with those ratios.

[@alsmoviebarn]

@gredangeo Depends where you're from. It's mee-thane in Britain, meth-ane in US and Canada, not sure about other places.

[@douro20]

Methane is the largest component of natural gas, but there are several other light hydrocarbons which are contained in natural gas, including propane and butane.

[@laserfloyd]

So, now to do the can trick in super slow motion right? :)

[@tripy666]

you can belch it out or expell it as wind through the other end. im sorry but i laughed pretty damn hard when you said this, love this chemist, if only they could make copies of you to teach the world with your brilliant yet funny methods

[@darkdjo]

Big flame in the hand ! Waoh ! Great video :)

[@Rigo0Jancsi]

@taofledermaus: Internalization of costs. Currently you drive an SUV and eat beef, and everbody has to pay for the results of climate change, e.g. people in Polynesia. When you tax those processes that create much CO2 or methane, then you allocate the costs to the originator and the real costs of something become visible. Not just 10.99 for a pound of beef but 20.99 for the beef and to share the costs of higher dikes in the Netherlands.

[@RFC3514]

For some reason he always reminds me of Professor Denzil Dexter, from The Fast Show.

[@Legolaaa]

Haha I love the can experiment, I've seen it with a much smaller can.. Pretty cool!!! I hope you make a good detailed video for Water... I think Water deserves something special! :)

[@IchigoCandy1]

and this is why hairspray + lighter flamethrowers are particularly dangerous, as once the fuel is in a more spread out and particulate manner, it will increase the reaction rate to an explosive amount, and boom, you have no hands.

[@Roddyoneeye]

The blue tub reminds me too much of my (and my father's) gut! Now how did the methane get so deep under ground? Dramatic in cows? You Never Met My Dad !!! Would a fine wire mesh have prevented the heat from entering the can? Did I see the sides of the can contract just prior to the explosion?

[@quiesty99]

if you put a few cows in a closed system with two small openings at either end then light one end does that mean eventually it will explod. SHOW ME!

[@beeble2003]

Cattle are much more dispensable than you think. You have to grow huge amounts of food to feed a cow and, in the US, a large proportion of that is soy or corn: it would be much more efficient to just feed that to humans. Granted, beef tastes way better than soy or corn... As for other species, well, by total weight of all individuals, cattle are probably the second-biggest species on the planet, after Antarctic krill. That's a big contribution to the total.

[@jnthnbush]

@Nashy119 so you know if it is leaking uncontroled

[@Quintinohthree]

Quite improbable. They are all relatively simple and can't create much more complex compounds. However, it's not at all impossible or even improbable that out there somewhere there is life based on other biochemistries which still involve a lot of carbon, or based on other elements entirely like nitrogen or silicon.

[@Rigo0Jancsi]

@taoflattermann: Sorry that you took the "you" personally. It was meant generally, like "one". I don't understand what your comment about the things I have worked for has to do with the topic, only that I agree on useful measures to stop global warming to keep safe all the things I've worked for. But I hope, you understood the idea of internalized costs, which I was trying to explain.

[@beeble2003]

Actually, cattle farming produces over a third of human-caused methane emissions, which is a pretty significant contribution. Cattle are among the largest herbivores and, thanks to us, there are about 1.3 billion of them on the planet. Livestock farming causes a significant fraction of animal methane emission.

[@gummel82]

@FXrubiP who were you talking to then?

[@nipzie]

Almost all, I "think" cyanide is not...and it's CN...but it's been a while. Someone can confirm or deny this. Carbon 14 is just an isotope of carbon that is used for dating since it decays at a known rate. A living organism will have a ration of carbon 14 that is consistent with levels known to be in existence now in a sample of carbon, so by calculating the known half life of that isotope for the ratio found in the archaeological sample gives an approximate timeline.

[@FlashFizz]

How about some videos about propane and butane?

[@WildChildDos]

No blow out preventer???

[@beeble2003]

I'm not talking about subsistence farmers but about people who grow crops such as coffee or cocoa to sell to the west when they have barely enough food for themselves. And if you want to reinstate the freer markets of the past, look up the Robber Baron industrialists first. Then, the recent results of deregulation ("freeing") the financial markets.

[@cpovey1]

In the States, we say it more like METH-ane, with the meth part sort-of rhyming with mess (as in mess hall, or you room is a mess). If you watch any US crime shows, like 'Law and Order', they talk about 'Meth labs', and the 'meth' parts are pronounced the same.

[@Quintinohthree]

Why'd you think that? If you'd replace carbon for silicon in an organism, besides becoming a little heavier and having different biochemistry than the original organism (in other words, dead), it wouldn't really be any different.

[@petercourt]

Could someone please explain why it becomes explosive?

[@eikegebr6011]

At 1:30 it looks like the bunsen brenner wouldn't have any connection to a Methane source - They're burning air! :D

[@masacatior]

Methane is lighter than air.

[@paramount8000]

To remember that the tap is open i guess. I would have forgotten about it myself, several times in school if it weren't for the smell. If you forget, accidents can happen.

[@Nashy119]

Americans tend to say the name of vowels as the letters themselves, rather than the sounds they make. I think the "ee" sound is actually just the saying of the letter 'E', like the sound of 'I' in vitamins.

[@billymole958]

Yes, it very much is.

[@HRHooChicken]

Oooh this was uploaded on my birthday

[@Werwutz]

there is not enough oxygen in the can. The oxygen is entering the can with the air, when the methane starts to burn. To form a mixture that is able to explode a certain amount of oxygen is needed, So it takes the time the methane needs to burn, so there is enough space for this amount of oxygen. Hope it doesn't sound too confusing, i'm no native english speaker.

[@ChaosDivides]

My science teacher used to that, but he got told off for blowing a hole in the celing but it didnt stop him was a fun experment

[@Quintinohthree]

Most compounds of carbon are organic, but there are also a lot that aren't. Oxides of carbon, cyanides, cyanates, thiocyanates, fulminates, carbonates, bicarbonates and their acids are usually not considered organic, although all have corresponding organic functional groups and oxides often straddle the border between organic and anorganic. There really isn't a strict definition of what constitutes an organic compound.

[@utkarshsinghal5]

thanks for the answer!

[@Stokie09123]

What an utterly polarised view. The NHS has been an absolute bedrock of British society since 1948, it has helped millions of people, free of charge other than national insurance tax. One may even say,look at the state of it now, but the fact is, it remains on the whole a fantastic service. The Welfare state can be abused, but this is more of a reflection of the people rather than the welfare itself. Without welfare, my Grandfather many would struggle to make ends meet.

[@nipzie]

Organic compounds are called organic due to their use of carbon, not that it necessarily comes from a life source.

[@naominekomimi]

Wow. What's with all of the hate on these videos? I seriously would've expected more mature fans...

[@sketchesofpayne]

I was hoping the can would take off like a rocket. >w< Still an awesome reaction.

[@wendighoul]

@Vennificus oops, I mean any "two" not any "to"

[@bherkert]

way to tease with it and keep it til the end!

[@CyberPsyLen]

very cool demonstration - explosion!

[@Cickarn]

Hi there! how long does it takes for the exploision? thanks!

[@KareemOWheat737]

I'll concede to that point, arguing on correct pronunciation when it comes to English of all languages is a bad move. I still think the British pronunciation sounds a bit silly, as apposed to the Brit pronunciation of Z, which is awesome!

[@superdau]

No, that's no requirement. There are theories about how stars and planets formed. Nobody ever repeated this "experiment" either. Science is a way to explain nature through observation or experimentation and be able to make useful predictions. One prediction of climate change actually is more precipitation due to more water vapor in the atmosphere due to warmer oceans. So more snow is a validation of predictions. No scientist claimed that the first sign of climate change is "green" winters.

[@TemplarLucas]

You realize that the reason they did it in the first place is that a fan sent it in as a suggestion, right?