Drag

October 15, 2008 5:17 AM

SLYT: Professor Savage shows how the density of various gases will affect your voice in different ways... the fun way (by inhaling them).

Who knew that Sulphur Hexafluoride was so much fun?

See also: Brainiac's 47-second Science.

posted by chuckdarwin (51 comments total)

Whoa. I was just coming in here to piss all over this, but that was actually fairly nifty.
posted by Jofus at 5:33 AM on October 15, 2008

Yeah, I watched his bit with Sulphur Hexafluoride on Mythbusters. When I started to turn my head to glance over at my wife, she said, "no."

*shakes fist*
posted by empyrean at 6:00 AM on October 15, 2008 [8 favorites]

By the way, that's pretty much how every episode of Mythbusters plays out when I watch it with her.
posted by empyrean at 6:01 AM on October 15, 2008 [12 favorites]

So now a 39 second fragment of a regular TV show is metafilter worthy?
posted by DreamerFi at 6:07 AM on October 15, 2008

When your FPP is a single link to a 39-second video clip you really don't need to put the other two links as a "more inside."
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 6:22 AM on October 15, 2008

DreamerFi: I'm going to go with, "Yes"

"LUUUUKE!"
posted by leotrotsky at 6:24 AM on October 15, 2008

This is what happens when some of those zany radio hosts get hold of the gas.
posted by viama at 6:25 AM on October 15, 2008

Just remember to do a handstand after breathing the sulfur hexaflouride, otherwise it pools in your lungs, getting in the way of the stuff you really need to breathe.
posted by leapfrog at 6:34 AM on October 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

So now a 39 second fragment of a regular TV show is metafilter worthy?


FPPs are not a finite resource, and this is awesome. And I don't have a TV, so am glad it was posted.
posted by Happy Dave at 6:37 AM on October 15, 2008

Is this how they film those "anonymous source" things for shows like 60 minutes and Inside Edition?
posted by Pollomacho at 6:47 AM on October 15, 2008

I remember my "graduation ceremony" from the D.A.R.E. program in 8th grade. As everything was being set up, i grabbed a helium balloon with a friend of mine, and we made our voices high, as i had done plenty of times before at birthday parties. The D.A.R.E. teacher, who i think might actually have been a policewoman, came up behind us and told us that if we didn't stop doing that right now, we wouldn't get to graduate from D.A.R.E. We were stunned:
"Why not?" we asked.
"What's the definition of a drug?" she asked. We recited the (overly broad) definition we had been taught:
"A substance, other than food, that alters the functions of the body."
"And what is the helium doing right now?" she asked.
"Oh," we said, our ears burning with embarrasment.
Damn, i was a drug abuser and i didn't even know it!
posted by TechnoLustLuddite at 6:48 AM on October 15, 2008 [8 favorites]

Is this how they film those "anonymous source" things for shows like 60 minutes and Inside Edition?

Wait, maybe I'm on to something!! Maybe Adam IS the anonymous source for 60 Minutes!?!
posted by Pollomacho at 6:49 AM on October 15, 2008

If you thought that was awesome, you need to watch MythBusters. You don't even need a TV to do so.
posted by DU at 6:49 AM on October 15, 2008 [2 favorites]

They left out xenon, which has the added benefit of affecting you much like nitrous oxide (laughing gas). Unfortunately it costs about $10/liter, so it is not a cheap high.
posted by TedW at 6:56 AM on October 15, 2008

i grabbed a helium balloon with a friend of mine, and we made our voices high, as i had done plenty of times before at birthday parties

Helium is a gateway drug. First it's just a little fun with helium at a birthday party. Then it's a balloon of nitrous at a Phish concert. Then it's shooting heroin into your eyeballs and freebasing crack. D.A.R.E. saved you from a very slippery slope.
posted by burnmp3s at 6:59 AM on October 15, 2008 [8 favorites]

Damn, i was a drug abuser and i didn't even know it!

She left out refined sugar, caffeine, aspirin, etc. You were a JUNKIE, DUDE.
posted by chuckdarwin at 7:24 AM on October 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

Helium is a gateway drug. First it's just a little fun with helium at a birthday party. Then it's a balloon of nitrous at a Phish concert.

Corey's Kitchen Time - here comes the science
posted by phirleh at 7:33 AM on October 15, 2008

By the way, that's pretty much how every episode of Mythbusters plays out when I watch it with her.

Wait, you forgot the part where she says, "that's not a Myth, that's just stuff they do in movies."

Yeah, so? Did you see how big that explosion was?
posted by Pollomacho at 7:35 AM on October 15, 2008

"A substance, other than food, that alters the functions of the body."
"And what is the helium doing right now?" she asked.

Answer: Not altering the function of the body. Just being a different medium in which the normal, unaltered functions of the body take place.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:43 AM on October 15, 2008 [9 favorites]

How am I just finding out about this Sulphur Hexafluoride now and not fifteen years ago when I when I had lots of acid?
posted by The Straightener at 8:02 AM on October 15, 2008

And that's why we don't have an ozone layer, kids!
posted by Sys Rq at 8:06 AM on October 15, 2008

ROWSDOWER!
posted by The Whelk at 8:16 AM on October 15, 2008 [5 favorites]

Don't forget the ever-popular Floating Boat demonstration with SF6!
posted by Demogorgon at 8:35 AM on October 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

DU wrote: If you thought that was awesome, you need to watch MythBusters. You don't even need a TV to do so.

Because it will inevitably be posted to MetaFilter.

I'm sure it's great telly and everything, but I'm bored of Mythbusters, despite never having watched a full episode, because of the all the fawning over it here.
posted by jack_mo at 8:54 AM on October 15, 2008

"And what is the helium doing right now?" she asked.

Answer: Not altering the function of the body. Just being a different medium in which the normal, unaltered functions of the body take place.

Hmm... good point.
Wait, you mean i was fed FALSE information about drugs in school???? And not all cops are scientists???? I feel so betrayed!
posted by TechnoLustLuddite at 8:54 AM on October 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

Just remember to do a handstand after breathing the sulfur hexaflouride, otherwise it pools in your lungs, getting in the way of the stuff you really need to breathe.

"Incidentally, it is a myth that you have to bend over to expel the dense sulfur hexafluoride gas. Your lungs are more than capable of breathing it out without any exotic posturing. Neither helium nor sulfur hexafluoride is toxic, but both can make you lightheaded from breathing them instead of air with oxygen, so use common sense. Don't keep breathing either gas. Exhale after breathing them, then take a deep breath of regular air. Have fun, but be safe!" [via]

posted by TechnoLustLuddite at 9:00 AM on October 15, 2008

Just remember to do a handstand after breathing the sulfur hexaflouride, otherwise it pools in your lungs, getting in the way of the stuff you really need to breathe.

One of my chem professors used to tell a story about one of the denser noble gases where he and his labmates had to flip a dude upside down who was playing around with it in the lab. Dude nearly asphyxiated. It was probably either denser than sulfur hexaflouride or he breathed in too much of it. Or both.

Possibly he was making it up. But I don't think so.
posted by Tehanu at 9:10 AM on October 15, 2008

I'm sure it's great telly and everything, but I'm bored of Mythbusters, despite never having watched a full episode, because of the all the fawning over it here.

Backlash on principle, the mark of a jaded hipster.
posted by smackfu at 9:16 AM on October 15, 2008 [8 favorites]

i worked for a high voltage equipment manufacturer, and we had a big tank of sulfur hexaflouride. good stuff.

it's a shame it breaks down into REALLY BAD STUFF if you treat it badly.
posted by rmd1023 at 9:18 AM on October 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

I'm sure it's great telly and everything, but I'm bored of Mythbusters, despite never having watched a full episode, because of the all the fawning over it here.

Oh gosh! If you get tired of MeFites constantly harping on something, you'd better not let them know you're a hipster.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 9:20 AM on October 15, 2008

I could swear this is at least partially a double.
posted by shakespeherian at 9:32 AM on October 15, 2008

I'm sure it's great telly and everything, but I'm bored of Mythbusters, despite never having watched a full episode, because of the all the fawning over it here.

Anything you can hate, I can hate better!
I can hate anything better than youuuuu!

(sulfur hexaflouride voice) No you can't!
(helium voice) Yes I can!
(sulfur hexaflouride voice) No you can't!
(helium voice) Yes I can!
(sulfur hexaflouride voice) No you can't!
(helium voice) Yes I can! Yes I caaaaaaaan!!!!
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 9:34 AM on October 15, 2008 [31 favorites]

How am I just finding out about this Sulphur Hexafluoride now and not fifteen years ago when I when I had lots of acid?

Nitrous does also make your voice deeper as well as make you trip even more balls when mixed with acid.

You can also blow the nitrous out through a lit cigarette for a cool white flame, but that's probably rather dangerous. Also cigarettes are bad for you.
posted by Sockpuppet For Naughty Things at 9:45 AM on October 15, 2008

Has there been a run on this stuff in the Heavy Metal community?
posted by ericthegardener at 10:06 AM on October 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

Why hasn't asavage appeared here yet? If that FPP wasn't an all-out "Summon Savage" card, what is?
posted by caution live frogs at 10:30 AM on October 15, 2008

So if helium makes your voice higher, and Sulphur Hexafluoride is denser than air and makes your voice lower, if you inhaled both of them at the same time, 1.) would you voice stay the same, 2.) how intoxicated would you get, and 3.) what super-powers would you suddenly be endowed with?

I'm asking purely for the purposes of Science! and not because I'm totally going to try this.
posted by quin at 10:34 AM on October 15, 2008

Why hasn't asavage appeared here yet? If that FPP wasn't an all-out "Summon Savage" card, what is?

He's probably still geeking hard on his Hellboy props. Don't you read AskMe?
posted by chuckdarwin at 10:39 AM on October 15, 2008

That was great. Thanks for posting it.
posted by 517 at 10:40 AM on October 15, 2008

Fuzzy Skinner has just won metafilter for today.
posted by chuckdarwin at 10:40 AM on October 15, 2008

It was one of Wired's amazing physics videos, as featured here previously.

I particularly enjoyed the laugh at the end. Not sure that this merited an FPP though.
posted by knapah at 10:48 AM on October 15, 2008

Nitrous does also make your voice deeper as well as make you trip even more balls when mixed with acid.

I was thinking more along the lines of an extended sing along.
posted by The Straightener at 11:05 AM on October 15, 2008

Looks like you can buy it here, though you'd have to call for the cost of one tank.
posted by now i'm piste at 11:13 AM on October 15, 2008

Backlash on principle, the mark of a jaded hipster.

More of a frontlash, really, or whatever the reverse of a backlash is. But, yeah, it's silly to be pre-bored by something just because people coo about it so much it gets on my wick, so I will download an episode and make my mind up. (I do sort of hope it's not too good, though - far from being jaded I tend to gush with wild over-enthusiasm about stuff, and it would be a bit embarrassing if I started whooping about how cool Mythbusters is after this.)
posted by jack_mo at 11:37 AM on October 15, 2008

Fuzzy Skinner has just won metafilter for today.
posted by chuckdarwin

Yayyy me!!!!! I can finally quit!

Thanks, chuckdarwin!
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 12:41 PM on October 15, 2008

Why hasn't asavage appeared here yet?

Who wants to talk about their job while they're goofing off on the internet?
posted by nanojath at 1:17 PM on October 15, 2008

Why hasn't asavage appeared here yet?

Who wants to talk about their job while they're goofing off on the internet?

Um, gee, I dunno...most of MetaFilter's user-base?

(I KEED because I LOVE)
posted by retronic at 1:41 PM on October 15, 2008

I think asavage says something when he has something to say. He does have a job y'know, one that probably requires a lot less sitting-at-a-compy than most of us.

(I can't help but note his "don't try this at home" warning for this one, by the way.)
posted by JHarris at 2:44 PM on October 15, 2008

No, for real! I've been thinking for a long time that I ought to make a Sulphur Hexafluoride FPP! Don't miss the boat-floating video that Demogorgon posted above, it's quite amazing.
posted by springload at 3:10 PM on October 15, 2008

The sulfur hexafluoride makes Adam sound like Penn Jillette!
posted by SteelyDuran at 4:15 PM on October 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

The sulfur hexafluoride makes Adam sound like Penn Jillette!

But the real question is: what would it make Penn Jillette sound like??
posted by bwg at 6:10 AM on October 16, 2008

The sulfur hexafluoride makes Adam sound like Penn Jillette!
---
But the real question is: what would it make Penn Jillette sound like??

Teller.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 8:57 PM on October 17, 2008 [1 favorite]