- How are you doing you wonderful nerds?
- Scott here. I am traveling again for the holidays
which means its voiceover only today.
But thanks to all the new subscribers
that we got from the collab we did over at Variant Comics.
If you haven't seen it, it's a lot of fun.
We asked if Flash could be fast enough
to deliver all the presents on Christmas like Santa.
I won't ruin it but there will be a link
in the description below. But at the end of that video,
I came to this conclusion.
Yeah, maybe the kids getting coal
are better off on this one.
And that notion actually got my gears turning a little bit.
It reminded me of all the times
we've seen in movies and cartoons
and even the comics themselves
of Superman taking coal and crushing it into diamond.
And I want to know if that was possible.
You know, just for fun,
not because I got coal for Christmas or anything.
I'm good.
So, let's say hypothetically of course
that you got coal for Christmas.
Could you count on the man of steel crushing it
into a shiny, shiny diamond?
To figure out if this is possible,
we first must understand what even is a diamond?
And I know that sounds silly.
Most of us know what a diamond is.
We've seen what it looks like.
But what is it?
The answer is very simple.
Carbon.
A diamond is just a pure carbon substance.
But, so what a lot of stuff is made up of carbon.
The graphite in your pencil for example
is also a pure carbon substance
but very clearly different from diamond.
So, how can we have these two substances
that are made up of the same stuff
and yet vastly different from one another?
The answer lies in the molecular structure
of the carbon atoms.
Carbon is capable of forming many different allotropes
that have vastly different properties.
For example, graphite again is very opaque
and brittle which makes it really great for writing
or drawing but probably not super great
for engagement rings.
I mean, you'd probably find someone who will dig it.
The structure of diamond however is this dense cubic shape
that makes it transparent and incredibly hard.
And so of course, natural diamonds are formed
deep beneath the Earth's surface.
Some hundred miles or so below.
Thanks to incredibly high pressure and temperature.
Two things that Superman easily has on lockdown.
He's got his heat vision.
Right, don't say it's laser vision.
It's heat vision everybody.
And of course his massive amounts of strength
which you know obviously fluctuates
depending on which writer
of the comic or movie or TV show.
But he's super, he's really strong guys.
He's real strong.
Look at how strong he is.
Wow! That's pretty strong.
But, there is one other major factor and that is time.
Yes, diamonds take a long time to form.
Somewhere between 100 million to even billions of years.
I don't know how patient you guys are, but I'm not.
So, not that I have coal but if I did, you know.
Can't wait that long.
Wait a minute, Scott, I hear you typing.
We're not talking about natural diamonds,
we're talking about man made diamonds
or kryptonian made diamonds.
I was getting to that, literally right now.
So scientists have been able to make diamonds
in laboratories for some time now.
One of the methods they use is called H-P-H-T
which stands for High Pressure High Temperature
because scientists are creative.
(sound effect)
As the name suggests,
this process aims to simulate the environment
that diamonds are naturally formed in.
Only you know, under more controlled circumstances
and a lot quicker.
Huge plot hole that I'm sure a lot of you guys have noticed
by this point is that neither the process
for forming natural diamonds
nor synthetic diamonds uses coal.
Diamonds created in laboratories are formed using graphite.
Again, your pencil lead.
Turns out that graphite and diamond
are actually really close to one another
both being pure carbon substances.
Coal on the other hand is far from a pure carbon substance.
Sure it has a lot of carbon, absolutely,
but it also has a ton of impurities.
Anywhere between 10% to 50% is not carbon
and that makes it a really bad substance
to try and make diamonds out of.
Coal can be traced back to dead plant matter
that is undergone biological and geological processes
over millions of years.
It could contain variable amounts of really anything
from oxygen, hydrogen, sulfer, nitrogen,
some organic matter, you name it.
But, hey! Impurities aren't always a bad thing
when it comes to diamonds.
In fact, many colored diamonds occur because of impurities.
A boron impurity for example can make a diamond blue.
Nitrogen can make them yellow.
And a lot of times, these diamonds go for way higher prices
than regular diamonds do because of how rare they are.
However, those impurities exist on a scale of about
one in every million atoms
and coal is lot worse off than that.
If you hand Superman a stocking full of coal,
best case scenario,
he can make some real low grade diamonds
that really aren't gonna fetch you much.
More realistic scenario,
he's just gonna hand you back a fistful of black powder.
The good news is if you have an aunt or a grandma
that gave you a pack of pencils for Christmas,
now we're in business.
I hope you wonderful nerds enjoyed your holiday.
I have two little things that I have to say
before this video ends if you will indulge me.
Number one is thank you.
Thank you to everyone who watched our videos
last year in 2017.
To all the new subscribers that we got.
We sure did get a lot of you guys.
All of the older subscribers who stuck with us
through some trying times, for sure.
All of the people who joined the notification squad,
who write comments as soon as videos go live.
I love you guys.
And especially all of our patrons.
We have a ton of people.
Normally, I only highlight a couple of their names
but I think I want to do something over here.
Andrew, can we get scrolling credits of everyone
who's a patron right now?
Regardless of how much they're pledging.
I just wanna highlight all these wonderful nerds.
All these beautiful people over here.
It's gonna be a lot of names
so might have to scroll fast.
So I will talk quickly.
The last thing that I wanted to talk about
was we had a big final video released just before Christmas.
It's all about the Star Wars Holiday Special.
The history behind that and alternate draft
that was kinda hidden and tucked away.
We spent a ton of time researching and editing
and writing that one.
So, it got buried because of the holidays obviously.
So, if you haven't seen it,
it'll be linked in the description down below.
Please do check it out.
We spent a ton of time on it
and if you have seen it then go share it around
with your favorite online communities.
That would be super awesome.
I think it's sitting at about 30,000 views right now.
I would love to double that within the next week
or so if possible.
Anyway, I think that's everything I have to say.
I look forward to all the great stuff
we're gonna make for you guys.
All the great stuff that you guys are gonna help us make
this year in 2018.
So, until the next video.
My name is Scott.
Reminding you to read between the panels
and grow smarter through comics.
See ya.
(calming music)