Pole vaulting - physics, material science, miracle

One of my students in chemistry recently picked up my copy of Materials in Sports Equipment (vol 1) by Jenkins (speaking of which, three questions...one, does anybody know if a Vol 2 ever came out? And did you know an updated edition just came out in May 2019? Does anybody know how different the updated version is?)

He skimmed the first few pages and came to me with questions about the energy transfer in pole vaulting. That sent me looking for videos about the energy transfer in - and the material science of - pole vaulting.

The first video I found - the above one - goes through the energy transfers spectacularly, explaining via stick figure drawings just how the energy changes forms in the course of the run up and eventual vault itself.

That, then, sent me looking some more for videos about the materials of the vault pole.




I couldn't find a corny joke either at the beginning or end of the How It's Made video, so that was a little disappointing. But I did notice that some of the How It's Made footage was in the LSU video up top.



...but I will say the production value on the "How It's Made" video is higher than this less fancy video showing how Gill makes pole vaults.



Then I started to go further down the rabbit hole and found just how steam is involved in the production of vault poles, something that clearly the American Boiler Manufacturer Association must care about deeply.

And I'm really curious about the Essx pole video which seems to show some materials above and beyond fiberglass - possibly carbon fiber and what seems to look like saran wrap (?). I kind of wish their video wasn't entirely wordless.




...and because I figure somebody came here to see this, I'll include a compilation of pole vault breaks. Heads up, though, that nobody in this video gets seriously injured.

Making Uranium Glass

I hope this goes without saying this time, but do NOT try this at home.

Today's video shows YouTuber NileRed making uranium glass. He first has to refine the uranium from uranyl nitrate into sodium diuranate (mostly a simple reaction with sodium hydroxide solution), then he has to dry the powder product, and then he has to make glass.

Making the glass is actually the most straight-forward task in that it's just melting silicon dioxide, boric acid, and soda ash together. We do that in our material science course, but we add in something to color the glass: copper (II) oxide, manganese dioxide, or chromium oxide.

NileRed adds in sodium diuranate, a uranium compound that makes a gorgeous yellow glass that fluoresces a brilliant green under UV light.

He then gets to figure out how to anneal his glass because it keeps shattering on him.

And he never tells us - as he mentions at 10:30 and a couple more times - what the heck 'special waste container' he has that makes it okay for him to dispose of uranium waste.

I feel like we might be getting into radioactive boy scout territory here, NileRed.

How It's made - Aluminum cans

The top comment on the video (at least when I checked in on it) said the following "I watched this whole video to see how the pull tabs were assembled on the top of the can–sincerely disappointed."

So, I'll warn you in advance that this video stops with the cans assembled - except for the top of the can being attached, something that happens after the can is filled with liquid. If that means you don't want to watch the video, move along.

The main reason I watched the video was to find out how the polymer liner is put into the can. Thankfully, that part was included - the polymer liner is sprayed in as a 'varnish' (but take that with a grain of salt because the whole video uses British language such as aluminIum) at about 3:40.

Alfred University 90's Ad: Ceramics Engineering

Just how 90's can one video get?

Let me count the ways

• 0:15 - dutch angles shifting back and forth (repeats at 0:31...and 0:53...and so many times) just to make things 'exciting' 
• 0:25 - flickering font on screen
• 0:37 - jumping footage, eliminating some frames to make the motion 'edgier'
• 0:40 - the good doctor's duster coat
• 0:46 - repeated, slightly closer footage of the same hammer hitting a window
• 0:49 - animation repeating quickly again and again
• 1:24 - science lab lit with green, orange, and purple lights
• 1:53 - slow motion glass jar drop
• 2:24 - unnecessary sound effect
• 2:50 - glass falling footage repeated from earlier
• 2:53 - racing footage stretched and tilted as it plays
• 3:09 - washed-out airplane footage tilting back and forth to a rock score

Ok, I quit...the cliches are just too numerous for me to note for the full fifteen minute run time of the video.

It's like the Bill Nye Show has come alive all over again.

I will recap the content, however...

• hardening tempered glass
• space shuttle tiles
• ceramic engineering lab footage
• basic ceramic properties
• possibilities of ceramic engines in cars
• catalytic converters
• superconductivity
• piezoelectric crystals
• liquid crystal window coatings
• fiber optics
• bioceramics

The animation at 2:03 - showing ion exchange to harden the surface a glass (similar to the production of Gorilla Glass) isn't necessarily a 90's cliche, but it is really well explained.

In case you're curious, Alfred University still hosts the New York State College of Ceramics. Looks like it might be fun to visit. Plus it looks like Alix (now Alexis) Clare is still there.

Flamethrower vs Aerogel

They killed that poor kid's flamethrower.

That sucks.

Dr Derek got himself some big sheets of aerogel and stood behind them while a makeshift flamethrower went full bore at the sheet from barely a feet or two away.

I think aerogel might be a pretty good insulating material.

I may need to get myself some of that stuff...and not to let Rebecca get ahold of it.

To me, the demonstration after the blow torch - around 6:20 or so - is more impressive. Dr Derek touches a piece of metal that is mostly coated with a 1mm thick layer of aerogel. The coating is at 125 C, hot enough to boil water. Dr Derek then rests his hand on the aerogel coating without harming himself - because the aerogel does such a spectacular job of not allowing the thermal energy to be transferred to his fingers.

He also shows a few other commercial uses of aerogel to keep really cold things really cold - like pipes carrying liquid natural gas in industrial settings...and deep undersea insulating oil pipelines.

My closing take-away is that this stuff is miraculous.

The Toxic Pit With A $3 Admission Fee

Hey, I've been there!

And I've written about it, too.

Berkeley Pit is fascinating as a legacy of the environmental consequences of mining - particularly of open pit mining - and a roadside attraction that you can see for a scant $3 admission fee.

Tom Scott - whose YouTube channel is mostly fascinating explorations of Tom's many interests (languages, computer technology, "Things You Might Not Know", and a couple of 'shows' that I should probably check out) - makes a stop at The Pit in the above video and gets a lot closer to the water than I was ever allowed to go - or than I really tried to go, honestly.

He visits the propane cannon used to scare off birds, sees the high-powered rifles used for the same, and sees one of the world's largest water treatment plants - only to be fully online once the water level within The Pit equalizes with the water table outside The Pit and the toxic, sulfuric-acidic water begins to leave The Pit.

I did fact check one detail of the video -  at 0:29 when Tom says "and so deep you could fit the new One World Trade Center standing upright in it."

According to Wikipedia (citation needed), the approximate depth of The Pit (I really like capitalizing both words there) is 1780 feet. According to Wikipedia again, One World Trade Center's architectural height is 1776 feet, but the height to the tip of the antenna on top is 1792 feet.

So, looks like Tom is approximately right, but the tip might extend just a bit above the surface.

I wonder what the water (pH~2.4) would do to the building?

How NASA Reinvented The Wheel - Shape Memory Alloys

Was the Mars Rover really lowered down by flying platform and hooks and winches?

That's kind of awesome!

We get to see the reveal of the memory metal 'tire' at 4:10 in the above video, a mesh tire made of what looks like a chain mail of nitinol. Then there's a great explanation of why nitinol is a super-elastic material (using our old friend, the stress-strain curve) and some nice atomic-level diagrams.

Then we get a bunch of close-up video of the wheel deforming and returning to its original shape.

It's a brilliant idea.