Chemistry life hacks.
McGuyver Meets Mendeleev
in these everyday, chemistry inspired tricks
to make your life a little easier, with all
the evidence you need to back it up.
Now let's get started.
Quick Cold One
Doggone it, company’s going to be here
in 30 minutes and the brews
are sitting still in the garage.
You want to be a good host,
so here’s a quick tip to get those beers
down to blissful frosty goodness
in no time at all.
Take a bucket and fill it with water.
Then, add a whole bunch of salt.
Go ahead, just twist the lid off
the salt-shaker and dump it all in there.
Then, when the salt is dissolved in the water,
add a whole lot of ice.
Swish it around, stick your beers in there
and they’ll be chilled in under 20 minutes.
When salt molecules are dissolved in water,
they have the ability to significantly
reduce its freezing point.
Normally, when water freezes at 0°C, its
molecules begin to crystalize and form ice.
Salt molecules interrupt this development,
which means the water will cool lower
than its normal freezing point.
With beer cans fully submerged,
the entire surface area is covered
by freezing cold water, which means it
will cool faster than just being on ice.
Gnat a Problem
Fruit flies have been buzzing around the kitchen
and you’ve come to realize that there are
few and far things in this life as annoying.
It’s time to make a change and move on
to a fruit fly free existence.
Here’s what you do.
Take a small dish and pour a little bit
of apple cider vinegar in it.
Then, add a couple drops of dish soap.
Put the dish near the fruit fly fiasco,
and wrap the top tightly with saran wrap.
The final step is to poke several holes
in the saran wrap lid, to keep the flies
from flying out when they enter.
Those little guys are very much
attracted to the scent of vinegar.
This is because their larvae feed on
bacteria that grow in fermenting environments.
Then that addition of dish soap breaks
the surface tension of the vinegar.
So in other words, when a fly steps into
the trap and checks out the vinegar,
it falls right in, rather than being propped up
by the surface tension of the vinegar.
Holy Burgers
You want to be the grill master of year,
but you can’t seem to get your burgers right.
Either they’re too pink in the middle,
or you’ve gone overboard and burnt them to a crisp.
Good news for you, we’ve got a technique
for the prefect burger, without any health risks.
When you squish your patties together,
poke a quarter-sized hole right in the middle.
When you grill this style of patty,
it will cook evenly throughout.
Every tiny bit of ground beef in that patty may
have potentially been exposed to germ and bacteria.
So when cooked, you got to get everything
up to a safe 160 degrees fahrenheit.
As your grilling your burgers the browning
patties are going through a tasty chemical
transformation known as a maillard reactions.
When food is heated a reaction occurs between
sugars and amino acids that gives cooked food
its color and its excellent flavor.
So by poking those holes in the patties,
you open up the center of the burger
for more equally spread heat, which means
that they’ll cook faster inside,
without the unnecessary charring outside.
And the best part, is the hole will
close up when it’s fully cooked.
Stink Sponge Syndrome
There’s no doubt about it,
you’ve gotta keep those dishes clean,
but half the time you wonder to yourself
what’s the point when your kitchen sink
smells like mildew all the time.
That sponge of yours reeks, and
it’s time to do something about it!
Here’s a quick fix. Double up your sponges.
Use one for the first half of the day,
and the other for the second half.
After every time you use a sponge,
it’s important to thoroughly rinse
it with water and let it dry before future use.
With two sponges, you can always be certain
to start with a dry sponge.
You see, when your sponge stinks, it’s due
to certain odorous chemicals that are produced
by bacteria that thrive in wet environments.
If you do your best to keep the sponge dry,
chances are high that you won’t suffer
from Stinky Sponge Syndrome any longer.
Big shout out to Jim Hasak for the
Stinky Sponge Syndrome lifehack.
If you have any other chemistry life hacks
of your own, post them down there in
the comments and we’ll try to work them
into future Chemistry Life Hacks videos.
Thanks for watching folks!
We’ll see you again soon.