( music playing )
Marques: The original Walkman has been
an outdated piece of tech for a while now,
but the movie "Guardians of the Galaxy"
released in 2014,
sort of brought the nostalgia
of the original Walkman back.
In that film, Chris Pratt's character Peter Quill
had one cassette tape in one Walkman
through 26 years in space.
It can be as low as 455 degrees below zero Fahrenheit
in the coldest parts of space.
That seems like it would be problematic for the Walkman.
So today I want to try to answer the question
would that Walkman and that cassette
and that pair of headphones
have lasted for those 26 years?
So, to test it, out I've brought a tub of liquid nitrogen.
But I'm not exactly qualified to handle liquid nitrogen,
- so, of course we have our safety instructor. - Hi. Nice to see you.
So, liquid nitrogen. It's super, super cold.
So, to protect Cryo-Apron, gloves,
and some safety glasses.
All right, I feel really safe. How do I look?
- A little high school science-y, but that's okay. - Perfect.
So, I'm gonna grab the liquid nitrogen.
( music playing )
And it looks just like water.
It's just an awful lot colder.
It boils at about minus 300 and some odd degrees Fahrenheit.
So I'm gonna start off with the cassette tape.
So, let's pretend this is "Awesome Mix Vol. 1."
And we'll go ahead and see
if it would've survived the cold.
( clicking )
That's a strange sound.
All right, so we've frozen the cassette tape.
Headphones next.
( crackling )
Liquid nitrogen, meet battery.
One more for good measure.
And what you're seeing off the outside of that battery
is all of the moisture in the air,
just like a cloud in the sky.
So, the entire Walkman is the only thing left.
- ( crackling ) - I can hear a lot of things happening.
Okay, see what happened to the Walkman.
Still physically intact. You know what didn't survive
is this little window here. Brittle enough to break off.
So, this is the moment of truth
to find out if it keeps working.
- ( screeching ) -
Okay, that's not "Awesome Mix Vol. 1."
Fast-forward a little.
- ( screeching ) - You guys are--
You're hearing this, right? This is pretty loud.
But the wheels aren't spinning.
Something about the motor
is not quite getting enough power
to move the cassette tape.
Take something down that cold, you're gonna have problems.
I'll say "Awesome Mix Vol. 1"
would probably not have actually played in space.
A Walkman is still awesome, but maybe--
maybe don't believe everything you see in the movies.