Hi
episode of "Hey Alexia, What's Trending?"
Get your notebook and pen out, because in this episode,
we're taking it to science class.
♪ [theme]
I don't know if you've noticed, but in some parts of the world,
it's been pretty cold lately.
While some people might want to just stay indoors,
kick back, watch a movie, relax,
others are getting creative with their content outside.
You might have heard of the polar vortex challenge,
the boiling water challenge, hot water challenge,
whatever you want to call it.
Basically, you go outdoors when it's
super cold and I mean super cold,
you take a cup of boiling water and throw it up in the air,
causing a really cool reaction.
When the hot water meets the cold temperature,
it creates almost like an instant snow.
Not gonna lie, it's the aesthetic for me.
But there's going to be two things
that you want to keep in mind.
Number one, make sure your water is boiling.
And number two, you want it to be cold outside.
That sweet spot between negative 25 Celsius and negative 35.
You know, the temperature
that makes you lose feeling in your face.
♪ I can't feel my face when I'm with you ♪
Obviously, Canadians have been jumping on this trend
because cold is kind of our thing.
Here in Calgary we got hit by a polar vortex the other week.
So, you know your girl had to give it a try.
First of all, I was freezing.
I remember being scared to throw it above my head.
I was like, "Oh, I don't want to do this".
What exactly makes that instant snow result possible?
Class... is in session.
Jason Zackowski is a high school science teacher.
He actually has a podcast
called
He knows all about what makes this experiment work.
And to be honest, I kind of wish he was my science teacher.
And sit.
Good boy. High five for science.
High five for science.
I think it goes for me bio, chemistry,
and then physics is like below. You can't even see it.
This experiment, sadly, is more physics than it is
any of the other three sciences.
Could you kind of like explain what happens
when you throw the hot water in the air and why it happens.
When water is really, really hot, like boiling hot,
and the molecules are
in between a liquid and a gaseous state.
Right? They're still liquid but some of them are evaporating.
And the energy that the liquid has is like [shudders]
like it's just freaking out. It's like [clenches] vibrating.
When you chuck it into the air it does two things.
The first one is, is the water as it goes into the air,
it has -- it starts to evaporate.
You've spread out the particles
and they go from that boiling liquid into a gas.
You might see that in the videos is the cloud that forms.
The more interesting part is the snow,
the quote unquote snow that comes down from throwing the
boiling water into the air.
Some of that evaporates, but the rest of it can't.
Really cold air is at the maximum
amount of water that it can hold.
And it turns quickly from a liquid into a solid.
We can't see it but in the air
there are microscopic ice crystals.
So the water droplets that are now really spread out
grab onto those ice crystals and turn
into themselves a crystal.
That's called the nucleation event and it
kind of just propagates from there.
So that makes that nice kind of rain of snow
when people huck it up into the air.
Alexia:
Jason:
So cold water doesn't have the initial
energy that hot water has. So you need that evaporation.
Also needs to have that quick, rapid spread out in the air.
Cold water just doesn't have that.
It doesn't have that same kind of like loss of energy.
You need that initial steam
that won't go into the air
and then it comes back out as ice crystals.
This is kind of like a science experiment
that kids can do at home.
So what are some safety precautions that you think
kids should take and kind of the steps they should take
to perform this experiment?
People have been really badly burned by trying this,
so there are some safety concerns.
People have tried it when it's not cold enough
and it really needs to be minus 25 Celsius or colder.
It works really, really good at minus 35 or minus 40.
Or doing this as a kid or
somebody who's never done it before,
start with a small like
Just kind of like chuck it in front of you, right?
Yeah. That's kind of what I did.
And then I did the over the head.
I got a little bit of water but it was already cold
by the time it got down to me.
The idea is if you're going to do it overhead
is to arc it, like have it -- not just chuck it straight up,
because when you arc it you create like a massive amount
of surface area and that surface area increases the nucleation.
The little water droplets have more ice crystals to grab.
I would stay away from like a big pot.
That's super dangerous, like chucking a giant pot,
like a spaghetti pot of water above your head.
Don't do that.
Do you have any suggestions for kids at home
for any other cool, like winter DIY experiments?
In the winter I love making a bubble solution
and freezing bubbles.
You need one part corn syrup
to about one point five parts dish soap and six parts water.
And then you need to put some sugar into your bubble solution.
The corn syrup gives the bubble solution some strength.
And then the sugar starts the crystals forming.
Normal bubble solution probably won't work great.
You need to beef it up with a little bit of science.
I guess the next time your parent or your teacher
tells you to get off your phone, you could just say,
"I'm looking at science things on
Don't at me if it doesn't work out. OK?
Class dismissed.
The bell doesn't dismiss you. I do.
♪ [theme]