Today we test our science knowledge against a middle-school standard.
Let's talk about that.
♪ (theme music) ♪
- Good Mythical Morning! - Thank your for making us a part
- of your daily routine. - We recently finished listening
to the book "What If: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions"
as part of the first ever Good Mythical Morning Book Club, thanks to our friends
over at audible.com. All you had to do was listen to the book, and one of the
- things I picked up on… - By the way, the book club continues.
- We're gonna talk about more of that… - Right.
- at the end. We're picking a new book... - Next book.
that you can listen to along with us and discuss along with us in Good
Mythical More, like we're gonna do with this book in today's Good Mythical More.
Right. But one of the things that I learned when I was reading this book
that had a lot of, uh… you know...
- Science. Physics. - …advanced science in it was that
I don't remember much of the science that I learned growing up.
Yeah, I mean, we both have engineering degrees. At least, we have, like, plaques
- somewhere in some box. - Diplomas.
- We have diplomas. - Yeah.
But did we retain any of that knowledge? Eh... (exhales) no.
- Did we retain any of the knowledge... - Some.
- ...from high school, or even... - Some!
- …middle school? Probably not. - Little bit!
So we thought, "Wouldn't it be fun to devise a test for each other to see
how much rudimentary science knowledge we've still retained.
Stuff that kids are learning now and lots of kids will know.
And you know how in a lot of these questions, uh...
in school, they'll try to make them interesting by adding context...
- Yes. - …to the questions? So it's
interesting and grips your attention?
- Well, we also did that today. - We've done that.
We have prepared four questions for each other. We'll be going back and forth
as we play...
- ♪ (intense music) ♪ - (Rhett's voice, reverb) "Stuff That We
Probably Should Still Know About Science That We Probably Don't Remember."
Okay, Link. Here's what we're playing for. If you get three out of four of the
questions that I ask you correct, you get a "Wacky Lab," where you, like this little
- child on the back, can make a volcano. - You know how much I like wacky stuff
and science. And if you get three out of four right, Rhett, I got you a special
- "Deluxe Science Kit", which is obviously - Woo!
- for adults! - Hey, is it deluxe?
It's deluxe, for adults only.
We'll see how lux-key you can be.
All right, you wanna hear my first question? You wanna answer first?
- Yeah, I do. - Jim's grandmother was complaining
- of always being cold. - Oh, yeah.
(Link) So to apease her chilly knees,
he built her a spaceship using tractor parts and rocked her to hottest planet
in our solar system. Where is Jim's meemaw now?
Where is Jim's meemaw now?
- The hottest planet in our solar system. - Jim called her "meemaw."
- Meemaw. I knew a meemaw. - Yep.
- He can work wonders with tractor parts. - Are there multiple choices?
- Oh, yeah. - 'Cause I need those.
A: Mercury, B: Venus, C: Jupiter, or D: the Death Star,
which, when fully operational, has a giant laser that can destroy
- whole planets. - Now, if I recall, in the model of the
solar system that I keep on my brain at all times...
- (Link) Mhm. - …Mercury is the closest planet
- to the sun. But I know... - Are you sure?
…there is a runaway greenhouse effect on Venus which may cause it to be hotter.
But I'm just gonna go with the one that's closer is the one that's hotter.
- My answer is Mercury. - Are you sure?
(Link) Do you really wanna get that deluxe set?
- All right, final answer? Mercury? - (Rhett) Yeah.
Closer? (incorrect buzzer) Nope. The correct answer is the afterlife.
(Link) Meemaw is now in the afterlife. She died.
But I would've accepted Venus, which is the hottest planet, with a surface
temperature of 450 degrees Celsius, 842 degrees Fahrenheit.
- But Mercury is closer, right? - (Link) You're right, it is...
But I was right about my logic. I was wrong about my guess.
- Yeah… right. - (Rhett) So I don't feel too stupid.
- You just feel stu-- - The runaway greenhouse effect
- is something that exists. - You should just -- I don't care --
you just just feel stupid for not listening to yourself.
How about this? My uncle Lonald wanted to be more like George Washington.
So he pulled all his teeth out and was planning to fashion some wooden
ones out of driftwood, but couldn't because he lost his whittling knife
- while jet skiing in Myrtle Beach. - Highly likely.
How many teeth did Uncle Jed pull? A: 42, B: 30, C: 32,
D: One giant tooth made to look like a bunch of teeth.
Lonald… he's weird. 32 is what I'm gonna guess.
- Okay. Link, you are... - 32 teeth.
- I don't wanna take the time to count. - …CORRECT! (correct ding)
- Oh, okay! You just educated me. - (stammering) Did you do a...
I didn't instantaneously count. All right, so I'm goin' ahead here.
I've gotta get all three right to get that deluxe scientist's kit.
This one's complicated. If a train leaving Philadelphia traveling at
50 miles per hour leaves at 2 P.M. and a train leaving Boston travelling
at 60 miles per hour leaves at 4 P.M., what is a plasma membrane?
(both laughing)
I kinda knew I shouldn't be listening to the details.
- A: Is a plasma res-mem-rane… - "A plasa-resmane."
The part of a cell separating it from its environment, B: Is it part of a cell that
replicates DNA, C: Is it the part of a cell that shapes the nucleus,
or D: Is it a rejected virtual reality ride at Action Park, New Jersey.
Wow, these are not easy. You next one is super easy.
- (Rhett) I'm giving you the heads up. - Okay.
Um, I thought this was stuff I was supposed to know?
- (Link) Plasma membrane. - The cell membrane is what separates
the cell from the outside. (stammering) Is the plasma membrane another name
for that? Or is there a membrane around the nucleus? I didn't know about this
plasma membrane. Last time I went with my instincts, and that was to just assume
that the plasma membrane is the same thing as a cell membrane, but I was wrong
when I did that. I'm gonna go with that again. Nope, I'm not.
I'm gonna say… It's not called-- it's called a cell membrane.
I'm gonna say the plasma membrane separates the nucleus.
Nope, I made that up. (incorrect buzzer)
It's the part of the cell that separates it from the environment.
- It is the cell membrane. - That's called the cell membrane.
It's also called a plasma membrane.
- Really? - (Link) Yeah. You learned something
- today, Rhett! - I've lost, by the way. Already.
- You want this? You want this deluxe set? - I want it.
- (Link) Get the next two right. - I want it really bad.
- It's deluxe. If it was just premium… - I'll give you everything except
- …I wouldn't enjoy it. - for the scales.
- Everything bu the scales. - Okay.
- I get to keep the scales. - After winning an all-expense-paid
trip to Australia in a suntan lotion eating contest, Gary Boogly
decided to ride with the dolphins. His new, underwater, mammalian friends
took him in as one of their own and pulled him out to sea to their secret,
underwater castle, which also happens to be located in the world's largest
living structure. What is is called? A: The Great Coral Sea,
B: The Great Barrier Reef, C: The Giant Coral Reef,
D: The Magic Coral Castle in the undersea land of Dolphimania.
- Oh, this is a tough one. - (laughing)
Thanks for going easy on me. The Great Barrier Reef.
- Oh, really? That's incorrect. - Yeah. Is it?
- It's the Great Coral Reef. - AHH, really?
- I'm joking. Of course… - (laughing) (correct dinging)
- Of course it's the Great Barrier Reef. - Okay, good!
- You scared me for a second. - Okay, what do you got for me?
- There is no coral reef. - There isn't.
- But it is. It's just called a - I mean, there probably is, somewhere.
- barrier reef. - It's called a barrier reef.
Burt and Martha were walking to the store during a thunderstorm.
- Oh, yeah. Because that's what people do. - Because they fear nothing and live
- on the edge. - Oh.
Burt was suddenly struck by lightning that melted his shoes into the pavement
and made his hair fall out. Martha isn't into bald guys, so they broke up.
How hot was the lightning that struck Burt are ruined their relationship?
(through laughter) Oh, everybody knows this!
(Rhett) Is "Great Barrier Reef" one of my options?
- Uh, A: Great Barrier Reef… - (laughing)
B: Is it 120,000 degrees Fahrenheit, C: 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit, eh?
- Or D: So hot it became cold again. - So it's 54 or 120?
- Yeah. You have a 50/50 chance. - Is it hotter than Venus?
Probably. Definitely. Definitely hotter than Venus. Is that a choice?
- Both of these are hotter than Venus. - Uh… 54,000.
- That's right! - Yeah! (correct dinging)
- You knew that, right, Rhett? - Yeah, 'cause I learned that a
- long time ago. - I don't know that either.
Kyle the chemist was riding on a train to the Central Carolina Community
- College Chemistry Competition... - Alliteration.
…making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The train was a pretty
bumpy ride, and he accidentally dropped the jelly on the floor.
The jelly inspired him to name the sticky, semi-fluid material found inside
cells. What did he name that fluid? A: Nucleus, B: Cytoplasm,
C: Endoplasm, or D: Craptofactory Smellishium.
(laughing)
I think "craptofactory mellishium" was already taken.
- Yeah. - I wanna say cytoplasm.
- You want to? - Yeah. I'm gonna say cytoplasm.
- Correct! - (dinging) Okay, i just...
I don't know what endoplasm is, you know. Nothing?
- I… I don't know. - This has a lot of your passions in it.
- (Rhett) Okay. - A boy and an alligator...
- Mm. - ..started a Scottish pirate-metal band,
- called "Gnarligator." - Gnarligator.
- Yeah, I'm familiar with them. - They needed some hard-hitting vocals
to cut through their thrashing instrumentation, so they hired the
world's loudest animal vocalist. What animal now fronts Gnarligator?
- The loudest animal on earth? - The loudest animal vocalist.
A: The howler monkey, B: The blue whale, C: The tiger pistol shrimp,
or D: My mother-in-law. She taught grade-school for many years,
- so she has a tendency to yell. - (Rhett) She's very loud.
- (yelling) She talks like this... - (Link) Constantly yelling, "Kids!"
- …when she just talks to you. - It's like she's talking to kids that
don't listen all the time (normal voice) but she's talking to her brother
- on the phone. - A blue whale is the largest animal.
That doesn't it's the loudest.
I mean, they make a loud noise, but does it travel a really long ways?
- I've never heard of the shrimp. - If not a blue whale, is it the tiger
- pistol shrimp or the howler money? - Uh. I'm going to go with a howler monkey.
Um, ironically enough, I would've accepted two answers for this one,
and that's neither one of them. (incorrect buzzer) The correct answer is
the blue whale: 188 decibels. It has the loudest vocals. But the animal -- I was
- fascinated to find this out -- - Really?
The tiger pistol shrimp produces the loudest sound that any animal produces.
It's not a vocalization, however. Get this: the large claw shoots jets
of water so fast that it creates an air bubble that, when it implodes, creates
a shockwave that is louder than a but whale's call. It can kill other
shrimp and fish up to two meters away, but it doesn't hurt our ears as humans.
But you can hold it up to your ear and get wax out, right? At least we can do that.
The sonic snap emits tiny flashes of light which monetarily cause temerature
inside of the bubble to reach near that of the sun.
I wanna talk about Sir Spanky McMillan, cause he consumed beans...
- (laughing) - …every day for 32 years without passing
- gas. On his thirty-third birthday... - Mm.
- Sounds painful. - …his body could not hold in the pressure
any longer and he laid the biggest fart ever recorded,
- (laughing) - which shot him into the sky,
making him the first human to break the sound barrier.
How fast was he going when he broke the sound barrier, Link?
- Oh, gosh. Sound barrier. - 832 miles per hour.
- Fart barrier. - 567 miles per hour.
768 miles per hour. A new measurement of travel known as "the speed of fart:
- 4000 miles per hour." - 768 miles per hour.
Link, you went four for four. You're a genius.
(correct dinging) BOOM! I was guessing on that, too.
- Really? - But I'll gladly take...
- ♪ (brass fanfare) ♪ - Yeah, I just knew it wasn't...
- Will you share that volcano with me? - ...500.
(stammering) I'll let you watch me play with this.
- I got one. - And then whenever I start playing with
- this, you can't. You can't watch. - Ugh. Okay.
I'll look into buying a tiger shrimp for you.
Uh, yeah. I would like to get one of those. Okay, now we want to announce
the new book for the Good Mythical Morning Book Club. And, first of all,
the way that you join the Good Mythical Morning Book Club is just by going to
audible.com/gmm and signing up. Basically, you get your first book free.
If you already got last month's free, well, you're part of the club. You've
gotta pay for this one, but you can do that...
- But so do we. And it's worth it. - …and you should do that. Yeah.
It's "As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride,"
written by Cary Elwes, the guy who played Westley, the lead actor in that.
- You chose this. - Once of the best movies of all time.
One of my favorite movies. Lots of people have seen it. If you haven't seen
The Princess Bride, you need to watch it. But even if you haven't seen it, I'm sure
you're going to enjoy this book that features different cast members
telling stories and just all kinds of stuff that went down on the set
of The Princess Bride, one of the best movies of all time.
- (Rhett) Remember, you can get a free audiobook and a 30-day trial at
audible.com/gmm, where they have over 150,000 titles to choose from.
- The link is in the description. - Thanks for liking and commenting
- on this video. - You know what time it is.
Hi, I'm [Amber], and I live from California. It's time to spin
The Wheel of Mythicality!
Remember, listen along with us as part of the Good Mythical Morning
- Book Club! audible.com/gmm. - click through to Good Mythical More,
where we discuss the last book that we listened to together, "What If:
Absurd Hypothetical…" eugh… "Serious Scientific Answers to…"
- That. - "…Absurd Hypothetical Questions."
I can't even say the title. But we can discuss it.
- "Shout out to potatoes." - Shout out to you, po-ta-toes.
(Rhett) You're 80% water and 20% solids.
(Link) Thomas Jefferson introduced you in french fry form in the Americas
- at the White House. - (Rhett) The largest one of you that
was ever grown was seven pounds and once ounces, which is what I weighed
- at birth. - And if you put you in water,
you start to grow like this sprout stuff and start to look like a weird
- kinda Sputnik thing. - Gross.
[Captioned by Kevin: GMM Captioning Team]