Is It Possible To Carry Water In a Sieve?

In this video I show you how to carry water in a sieve using hydrophobicity

[@MarkBowenPiano]

00:28 "And I think I know how she did it" Yep she went down the local hardware store and bought a spray can of hydrophobic coating. 😂

[@IceManD3]

I was about to comment this exact thing 😭😂

[@kurumistark4635]

wax will do i guess, or greese

[@normal8708]

@@kurumistark4635 yeah thats what i was thinking, or the basket was made of a surface water wasn't attracted to

[@davidonfim2381]

@@kurumistark4635 or Lycopodium spores

[@pamdrayer5648]

I think she got a giant sieve, cut two holes for her legs, got a jug to put the water in, and carried the water in a sieve. That might not be it, but it definitely wasn't NeverWet.

[@debrascott8775]

It was me. I went back and sprayed her seive so she could amaze generations with her water carrying ability. Tune in for the next Action Lab to see how THAT worked.

[@Broockle]

Inspiring millions today to keep their virgin powers for life.

[@Space-Shuttle-Scam]

I REMEBER THAT! i was one of the people watching.

[@nodusink-ink]

You are the reason we have forever chemicals in our bodies 😂

[@random_guy-b7h]

@@nodusink-inkgot em

[@valentinmitterbauer4196]

In my culture there is a whole folk tale about carrying water in a sieve. So there is folklore in my region about a farmer who meddled in the "dark arts" so to speak (he died decades ago, but he was a real person, although not actually magical ofc.). One anecdote about him tells, how travellers took rest on his property and he, displeased with those uninvited guests, extinguished their campfire with water, but to intimidate them, he carried that water in a sieve, showing them that he is capable of bening nature's laws. Of course they left as fast as they could.

[@melody3741]

The fire itself could provide soot to waterproof the sieve.

[@Purple0nion]

"Not actually magical" I mean as far as you know

[@claudiu7909]

Yeah, that could work. I wouldn't try it though, I still want to use sieve and soot would be very difficult/impossible to properly clean

[@valentinmitterbauer4196]

@@Purple0nion Well, his family inherited his infamous reputation. My mother worked in their farmhouse as a child and she told us, that something was just *off* with the house and its inhabitants. There were also rumors, that his hidden treasure was still hidden somewhere in the building, but nothing was ever found, even when the farm got demolished and rebuilt a few years ago.

[@ppsmission]

What is the country of origin of the tale?

[@DonnyHooterHoot]

Dear Sir, I love your videos but you left me perplexed in this one. At the beginning you said you knew how the woman carried the water. Then you proceeded to use modern hydrophilic spray. You never said how she did it way back when, wax maybe???

[@lastta1]

She used old fashioned spray, obviously

[@kurumistark4635]

wax will do i guess, or greese

[@roussin_]

Hydrophobic spray has been used by humans for centuries, it's origins go back farther than the wheel

[@itachi4634]

Plastic sheet

[@silly-yamo]

@@SquooshyShark1000why do you call them a spammer?

[@Neloish]

Wonderful video, but I wish you would have mentioned what the Virgin might have used to achieve this effect in her time.

[@kurumistark4635]

wax will do i guess, or greese

[@pamdrayer5648]

This probably never actually happened, but I could be wrong.

[@baronvonbarbeque]

you could use pollen from cattails

[@jesuschrist6878]

censored

[@atifrafique3764]

MAYbe oil

[@0Rookie0]

I don't know how you manage to keep stepping up to the plate with more fun physics stuff, you always have something new to show! Thanks for sharing! I never thought to assume that smaller bubbles have more pressure, but it totally makes sense. Fascinating!

[@tonydagostino6158]

By explaining the pressure difference proportional to bubble size you also explained why cavitation can be so destructive to things like boat propellers, pump blades, etc

[@romrixx]

Does this mean we can finally put screen doors on a submarine?

[@stevengreenberg7634]

😂😂 underrated comment

[@vineethsmail9261]

Exactly, while it's docked on surface🤣

[@irishn8]

Lmao

[@RaidLoalMulticraft_YT]

The pressure will be way too much for the screen to handle, 0.5 meters down and it’s already sinking!

[@FUNANIMATION101]

Minecraft door

[@planktonfun1]

you can also use wax, it does the same

[@JonTheMiniBeastHadden]

Which is most likely what she used, since I don't think they had spray cans of never wet in the 3rd century BC haha.

[@kevinb1594]

wouldn't wax literally block the holes instead of relying on water tension?

[@jesuschrist6878]

censored

[@nayyarrashid4661]

​@@kevinb1594Might have been the case. But wax she used might have been applied so minutely that it was practically transparent.

[@jtadevich]

@@nayyarrashid4661 the channel nighthawkinlight did it with a 1:1 mixture of paraffin wax and mineral oil. He applied it to clothing to make it water proof. It was impressively easy. I don't necessarily think the virgin used mineral oil, but maybe she used another oil, or perhaps just beef fat only.

[@imacomputer1234]

1) What happened to the fish net? You never showed it being used! 2) How did the lady do it? She had a can of never wet?

[@Based-wn9jg]

she probably smeared some kind of oil or fat on the sieve, oils and fats are hydrophobic

[@Jeremy-yp8eh]

Well she was never supposed to be wet considering her vow of chastity ayooooooo

[@RaidLoalMulticraft_YT]

Yes ofcourse! It was long invented in the 16 hundreds

[@montialarson]

​@@Based-wn9jg THANK YOU! It's insane how people are like "this guy is so dumb, hydrophobic spray didn't exist." 🤦🏼‍♀️ Like you said, fat and oil are hydrophobic. I guess all of these people think humans invented bees wax, animal fat, oil, 😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@xannamarzx]

@@RaidLoalMulticraft_YT Yeah

[@marjon1703]

The most effective way to demonstrate a physics/chemistry interaction I've ever seen.

[@jtadevich]

I've learned with action lab, that no matter what the thumbnail looks like to me, the science in the video is great. It's always interesting and new to me, and I've been in science for a long time.

[@scotty3114]

Before the fifties, they used to have a water filter in the fuel line of a car. These consisted of fuel being pumped into a glass jar, the exit was through a small brass screen at the top for the fuel to proceed to carburator. The idea was water would sink to bottom of the jar, but with rough roads, you could not count on it staying unmixed. The brass screen was a small enough mesh that the gas would pass thru, but not the water. Proper car maintenance includes emptying the jar occasionally. You could also buy funnels with this mesh in them so you could filter water out of your gas as you filled the tank. I do not remember the size of this mesh, but I remember that the wire the mesh was made from seemed large. I'm assuming to increase the effects of surface tension.

[@Nudnik1]

We still use water separator on trucks heavy equipment boats . A special filter shuts off all fuel if water is in it Prevents damage .

[@KNOWS_BG.]

This is actually so cool i love your videos it helps me to boost my love for science and engineering

[@sailaab]

It is so amazing that the said person/lady had access to such spray canisters.. thousands or hundreds of years back

[@freesaxon6835]

Yep, but what did she use?

[@dismayer666]

Obviously, she used metal mesh sieve, and that hydrophobic spray, all of which were commonly available in 300 BC.

[@n-hexane8271]

magic

[@kurumistark4635]

wax will do i guess, or greese

[@kurumistark4635]

@@dismayer666 wax will do i guess, or greese

[@kurumistark4635]

@@SquooshyShark1000 so all the people are asking the same question are spammers

[@Ajaxify]

I think this may be helpful for some future Taskmaster contestants. I feel like I see someone try to move water in a sieve almost once a season/series.

[@DavidJWoodbury]

You got all the coolest party tricks!

[@sadkat9162]

where'd she gets the hydrophobic spray bruh

[@Tearintime]

Probably the internet or something

[@MrBrick-vb3xh]

ebay

[@ebbamb]

She drove down to walmart

[@sadkat9162]

@@brigittecooper8473 the story this video references mentions some old timey magic woman or whatever

[@hinge8626]

Everybody knows hydrophobic sprays were sold during the 3rd century bc

[@Retired_Detective51]

Now he’s answering the questions no one is asking.

[@TC-bz9dz]

you never told us how she carried the water....did she also have spray?????

[@jacksonyan7346]

Of course it was her magical vestal virgin powers, duh.

[@nodusink-ink]

Yes 😂

[@theYoutubeHandle]

she has the power of never wet, just like every girl I hit on.

[@bluelance8605]

Wax

[@keroppib4ptista]

Virgin Power

[@ElderSteak5]

Reasons why I love science: COOL SHIT LIKE THIS

[@AlistairFrayne-yn5eo]

This is the type of question that would just pop into your head in the middle of the night and immediately need to be Googled lol

[@illesizs]

I never knew I needed this in my life, but now I do.

[@ColdSig]

You seem really relaxed in this one. Good vid

[@countzero2405]

For all of you wondering where the woman from the story would get some hydroponic coating, oil is hydroponic. I just tried it with some sunflower oil and it doesn't work as well as it does in the video, but it does work! If I used one of those spray bottles filled with oil you usually use to coat your frying pan, it would have worked even better probably.

[@iyoutome]

Awesome, the smaller the space the larger the capacity... thanks for the education!.. ❤🙏

[@aceventura4521]

Subscribe before video played.... this guy knows something

[@pedrocruz4409]

These are the questions that keep me up at night! 😬😱🤯

[@jannegrey]

I did some experiments on this decades ago, because it fascinated me. And also because we had a sieve that was made from long flat strips of plastic, and talking to my grandmother she told me that her mother had similar one that was made from some organic material (I don't know/remember the details, sorry). This plastic sieve already retained some water (which is why we usually used it to sieve powders rather than liquids), but if you either used some fat to coat it from inside (and outside for better measure IIRC) you could use it to carry water. You just had to be careful to not move it vertically too fast. Also if the water was dirty with something that gave it more surface tension you could have achieved the same result. I do wonder if old sieves that I assume weren't made from metal or plastic (no tech for plastic, making small thin rods from metal would be very difficult) but rather some natural fiber - could be susceptible to similar trick? Though the sieve from legend wouldn't be the size that was shown in the picture. Because that much water (especially in height) would be a lot of pressure. And the volume would mean that it would weigh a lot too. Apologies, I let myself speculate, but it is interesting that there is a video that mirrors a bit experiments that I did myself due to weird circumstance of me having that old, weird sieve.

[@anzaklaynimation]

Old concept but a new idea. Fantastic

[@alexp4y]

1 minute ago no way

[@magnustheidamey4924]

Old as time

[@jesuschrist6878]

censored

[@JohnnyWednesday]

Concepts are ideas you muppet

[@120bpm_music]

If pressure get extremely large in small bubbles, can they remain liquid in a vacuum?

[@TheAlchaemist]

I'm surprised no comments say the most obvious answer to the question... just use ice.

[@mcv2178]

I thought that too! (Same answer as to how I walk on water:)

[@partikkumawat4989]

You can use the soot to coat the both side of the seive because soot is also gives you a hydrophobic surface. You can get soot from from burning oil, wood, wax, candle's elc.

[@twang5446]

I kinda predicted how he's going to do it but still got really impressed seeing it in action

[@ed.puckett]

Thank you for your excellent channel! I usually learn something new, and the episodes are always thought provoking. Like, I never knew about the large pressure inside of small bubbles....

[@samabz4605]

i like to see you uploaded a new video about James Webb new discoveries

[@kevinerbs2778]

I love this water tensions because it can lead to cavitation from the micro/nano bubbles.

[@DANGJOS]

This was fascinating! Definitely learned a few things, thanks!

[@clumsy_archives]

I love this video it just completely altered what I knew about the world

[@WouterVerbruggen]

You could also get a really, really fine sieve ;)

[@davynolan182]

I love your videos, been watching you since I was a kid. I was getting ready to say how do you know that the never wet polymer didn’t bridge the gap but you silenced me before I could. What I’m wondering now is could you trap liquids between a overlapping piece of fabric. What if you could create a diaphragm material that was made of a net with fluid trapped in its gaps. That pumped air until you applied too much pressure allowing air through. Such a neat solution to over heating in compression. Five second thought, haven’t thought it through but these are the kind of ideas you spark in me. I asked a a question a bunch of times but if you see this comment… how do you go about narrowing down academic papers worth your time reading, this is my biggest issue, I just can’t seem to get into academic reading because it’s too convoluted with stuff I’m not interested in. I’m referring to Google scholar, where should I go?

[@slo3337]

I want you to do a video on extremely precise flat surfaces that stick together with no glue or magnets. Put it in a vacuum and see if it still sticks since one theory is the atmosphere pressure is what holds them together.

[@gustavgnoettgen]

I saw this happen with a net I used for frying fat. Thin coatings of oil, wax, staniol and any paraffin should work too.

[@MinecraftStone19796]

This guy is the best scientist to me

[@iamthemaninde]

LOVE THIS CHANNEL 👍🏻 Always cool content. Keep up the good work

[@anandarunakumar6819]

Wow! What was the hydrophobic material the ancient civilization had discovered? Amazing demos.

[@anandarunakumar6819]

I read wax as a possible coating that was used, plausible answer. Back then there was no electricity, people would have creatively used wax or serendipitously discovered hydrophobic properties. Wise idea.

[@dinitroacetylen]

Oil. Any kind of fat, really.

[@kaenterkin]

Wax or linseed oil.

[@maximkhan-magomedov431]

Oh, I have some of such solution. That's a great idea for education and entertaining for my kid as a live demo.

[@shade5554]

How did they have access to hydrophobic spray in 3rd Century BC?

[@atacstringer8573]

This translates to probably the coolest party trick I've ever seen

[@ChewyTwee]

Interesting primary source analysis for the viewer: What are some hydrophobic materials that occur naturally? Alkanes are hydrophobic, and an incredibly common source of alkanes is paraffin wax. Could that wax be obtained at the time of the Virgin's story? Yeah! So she probably coated the sieve in paraffin wax which would make sense. In case you think the holes would get plugged by sticky wax, paraffin wax has a much lower surface tension than water (which btw, waters surface tension is pretty high, of all commonly occurring liquids it's second only to *mercury* remember that viscosity isn't the same as surface tension, even honey has less than water), which gets even lower as it's heated and melted. Really hot wax would form a suuuuper thin layer, you could probably try this at home really easily with a sieve and some candle wax on the stove.

[@Bystander333]

This was really cool, if the net is totally submerged does it restrict still? Or does the water/air boundary matter?

[@Rikaisan]

So she DID in fact have some super powers, being able to summon modern products!

[@dinitroacetylen]

Finally, the hydrophobic spray coating is actually useful for something.

[@Angelvmr17]

This is a good way to use as a visual quantum mechanic explenation

[@SILVERF0X13]

You can get a hydrophobic coating from certain kinds of soot, so more realistically, the person could have held the sieve over a candle until the inside was black and that may have been enough to carry the water

[@LordEmilous]

Do you think this could have a purposeful use? Like making certain tasks easier making previously impossible things possible to do? It could be cool as a patent.

[@Soap_MC]

I saw you at the Springville parade today!

[@tratkotratkov126]

Aaaa I seee - the virgin used a hydrophobic spray to prove her innocence.

[@AmmoGus1]

A thousand other people already made that comment, so actually, you don't need to as well

I see this every time I wash the lint filter of my dryer: I guess the dryer sheets or some residue from the clothes makes the surface of the filter hydrophobic. After washing it with soap the effect disappears.

[@Thelnir]

I called the hydrophobic trick before I even watched the video. I didn't know the physics behind it, but I predicted the hydrophobic coating strategy the second I saw the title.

[@David_Mash]

Don't think of it as a higher pressure inside, it's actually that there is less pressure outside. The pressure from the outside being constant is less affective as surface area grows. It all happens together until the bubble membrane gets stretched beyond its limits

[@Wastupboy]

I love watching your videos

[@7415_Gamer]

Finally, i can fetch water in a basket.

[@andrewcastiglia9548]

This is the same physics inkjet printers use. They use a teeny tiny electrical actuator to depress a diaphragm behind the nozzle which extrudes a very consistent and repeatable droplet of ink in part due to the interaction of the fluid and the nozzle.

[@Angrychemist666]

😂 oh joy! Thank you for this! Im going to get even with my wife now😂😂😂😂

[@UnicronCharieee]

Use soot. E.g. from an oil candle, which are very smokey.🎉❤

[@CeanStrauss]

Love the shirt. 😁👍

[@Mohammad-nv4qn]

if you spray that stuff on a toilet paper and let it dry is it gonna keep water in it too?

[@Novastar.SaberCombat]

That was pretty awesome. 🙂

[@Warhammerdude299]

New sieve/water tech just dropped. The old Witch will have no trouble catching up to Teeny Tiny and his brothers now!

[@azrobbins01]

Will you ever be able to use the sieve again?

[@MathewSan_]

Great video 👍

[@mattduncil]

This is using a modern sieve but what was a sieve made of back then, also what would have been an alternative method she could have used that was available at the time.

[@themeek351]

Ok, I have a couple of requests! First, can you apply an electric charge to the metal seive in order to repel the water from falling through without the hydrophobic spray! Second, can small bubbles from a falling mist under a higher atmospheric pressure still create a rainbow when light passes through? Will the refractive angle change eliminating the possibility of creating a rainbow? Thanks!

[@adrielburned6924]

You never disappoint ❤

[@Knusperfunk]

Now the intense pressure required for making espresso suddenly makes sense.

[@GabrielKnightz]

Dear Action Lab, If i have a photosensitive object is it better to keep in a white or black plastic/glass container?

[@fano72]

That's awesome, but isn't it necessary to use toxic PFAS to achieve such effect?

[@cheydinal5401]

Did the vestil virgin have the Neverwet spray as well?

[@llllllllll463]

you are the best😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊

[@Martin_McFryy]

can you try to put sparkeling water into the sieve? My guess is, that you can put in as much as you did with normal water, because the water is always erosive of all the co2 bubbles

[@CYXXYC]

what did she use tho? wax? soap?

[@nschlaak]

Someone from the future brought her a spray can of NeverWet.

[@kurumistark4635]

or grease

[@kurumistark4635]

@@SquooshyShark1000 how long it would take before this idxxt deletes his spam?

[@saiprasad8078]

Oil

[@FTATF]

Very interesting. You could create the next gortex

[@JohnnyWednesday]

"She was about to be buried alive as punishment" - god loooveeeesss yoooouuuu

[@mcv2178]

Which god? They Had scores of 'em! : )

[@92hazard]

Is it because of the higher pressure in the smaller bubbles that when we boil the water, it sounds louder at the beginning when the bubbles are smaller, and at the end it's quieter when the bubbles are large?

[@lupedozier762]

Very interesting experiment!!!!

[@PumpkinDude314]

i didnt realise that never wet existed back then

[@Simplemusicalbharat9548]

Sir it is also applicable for balloons as well

[@ulexite-tv]

Wait, what was the Never Wet hydrophobic spray made out of? How could a vestal virgin make something equivalent with lare classical technology? (I assumed she used tallow or wax...) Why didn't you carry through with the fish net experiment and just substitute a sieve for the net?

[@Cyco-Dude]

OK, now for part 2: how small do the sieve holes need to be in order for a non-treated sieve to hold water? And for part 3: how thick does the water have to be in order for a standard, non-treated sieve to contain it?

[@LeviathantheMighty]

"Have you ever tried to carry water in a sieve?" He he he he.

[@UmaROMC]

My man, just freeze the water, EZ. ;) Gonna watch the video now... EDIT: IS that water being forced through, though, or is it staying in place due to inertia, and are you pullling the sieve through it like a knife?

[@wiggles7976]

I try to strain my coffee grounds and water in a sieve and this shit happens without all the effort. I wish I could not carry water in a sieve.

[@booradley4237]

What happened to the fish net?

[@thatbostix2]

This is what I questioned myself at night sometimes 😂😂

[@adeebhumayun3229]

Well I saw this video 2 months ago although I came back now to drop a comment on my recent finding.. even Fat can be something which isn't clearly visible ( also taking into account water did not use to be very filtered back then ) and fat can block water from passing through a sieve. I discovered it as my sieve used to filter milk tea got blocked over time even though it's clean and clear.

[@jlfqam]

have you tried the same experiment inside one of your vacuum chambers?

[@shadowversatile689]

I don't know if this is the right place to ask this question but I've been contemplating stuff related to the 4th dimension lately, and I was curious about how light travels/behaves in it. can you make a video about that? or maybe just direct me to a better source? pretty please

[@donmccallan3788]

So how did the vestal virgin keep the water in the sieve without having The hydrophobic spray?

[@mcv2178]

As a magical virgin, SHE was Never Wet (smirk).