Mythbusters: Escape from Alcatraz Part 3

This is Part 3, where they actually "escape". Enjoy!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNvvPQcw9vg

Mythbusters: Escape from Alcatraz Part 2

Here's Part 2! Part 1 was mostly about the history behind the myth and how Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers actually started smuggling the materials and found a way out of their cells to store the materials. It also showed about the Mythbusters testing the direction the currents would carry the raft. Part 2 is about the Mythbusters building the raft, at the same time cracking jokes about it. Enjoy!




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILu5Ug0lPjk

Mythbusters: Escape from Alcatraz Part 1

This is a Mythbusters special. The myth says that there were three convicts on Alcatraz, Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers, and they built an inflatable raft from over 50 rubber raincoats.

The authorities say that they were headed for Angel Island and some of their personal belongings ended up near there. They were assumed to have drowned.

However, the Mythbusters tested their belief, which was that the inmates were smart enough to have used the tides to get to the Marin Headlands instead.

This is somewhat relevant to Physics as it plays on the principles of wind speed and direction, not to mention density. Admittedly it does not really have much to do with electricity. For that one, I am tracking down the Benjamin Franklin myth.

This is Part 1. I shall post Part 2 and 3 separately. Enjoy!




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythBusters_(2003_season)#Escape_From_Alcatraz

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZI76hEkZRE

Between Physics and Chemistry

Most people know about the famous coke and mentos issue. However, do you know why? This Mythbusters video explains in detail. Unfortunately, I could not embed it here due to company policies of Discovery Channel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMXPOqovSBs

Basically, this is what happens:

The ingredients required to create the sensational explosion is as follows.

1. CO2 gas found in soft drinks

2. Artificial Sweetener (which is why diet coke is better than normal coke)

3. Gum Arabic

4. Gelatin

5. The process of Nucleation. Mentos surface is full of tiny craters, and during this process the aforementioned ingredients interact with each other, causing the CO2 to escape to the surface. This is evident from the fact that non-mint mentos, with a waxed surface, reacts very slowly or not at all as the wax covers the craters.

This is also linked to Ms. Liang's post on the discussion forum. Ms. Liang posted on the discussion forum about a Pepsi and Necco wafer experiment. According to the video, Necco wafers release the hydrogen component from hydrogen hydroxide, which is a fancy name for water. Hydrogen is highly flammable, thus fire can form on the surface of the glass.

Necco wafers consist of: sugar, corn syrup, gelatin, gum, colorings and flavorings. From the ingredients, you can tell that Necco wafers are more of powdery candy than wafers as there is no flour in it. I think this would be an interesting experiment to try. However, Necco wafers are manufactured in the USA, so it would be hard to obtain them here in Singapore. Thus, to try this experiment, one could just add gum and gelatin to Pepsi as the other ingredients are redundant. These are pics of necco wafers below.

I think I will try this when I have the time an post more about it.

Links:

http://www.necco.com/OurBrands/Default.asp?BrandID=7

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMXPOqovSBs

http://www.maniacworld.com/pepsi-and-necco-wafers.html