Time Warp (2008) s01e12 Episode Script

You want to try putting your finger in there? NARRATOR: What happens when table saw meets finger? Okay, crew, let's get behind the table, please.
NARRATOR: When bullet meets water? This thing is loaded and live.
NARRATOR: And nail gun meets chicken? Boom.
NARRATOR: What happens? "Time Warp.
" Uh-oh.
[Laughter.]
NARRATOR: Take two guys whose slow-mo cameras can stop the world in its tracks Starts out pretty asymmetric.
It has to move the mass of this thing out of the way.
Joseph, I need the widest-angle lens we have.
I'm gonna shoot this landing right here.
NARRATOR: add a high-tech laboratory, where anything can and will happen and some of the world's wildest talents.
What happens? Here is a good rule of thumb, or potential lack thereof.
Table saws can bite.
A quick demonstration.
Wood.
T-bone steak.
Wood.
Steak.
Wood.
Steak.
Are we clear on this? Good.
Yeah, there's about 60,000 medically treated accidents on table saws every year.
About 3,000 people take their fingers off.
-About 10 a day.
-Ugh! 10 a day? NARRATOR: Steve Gass, a lifelong woodworker, is trying to bring that number 10 down to zero.
He has developed a system that stops the blade of a saw if it comes in contact with your finger.
He calls it SawStop.
The system can tell the difference between your finger and the wood.
So, when you're cutting wood, if you accidentally run your hand into the blade, it'll stop it so quickly that you just get a little nick instead of maybe taking some fingers off.
NARRATOR: The blade has a sensor that detects electrical conductivity.
A piece of wood is not very conductive, so the saw goes right through it.
A salty, wet finger is conductive.
Well, it's a lot like a touch lamp.
There's a small electrical signal on there.
It conducts that signal into my body.
My body absorbs some of the signal.
That triggers the system.
It'll detect that in less than .
001 of a second.
NARRATOR: Any volunteers? Hey, over there in the fridge.
Yeah.
You.
Yes.
We're going to use a salty, wet, conductive, all-beef frank.
GASS: And so I'll hold it just like it was my thumb.
[Click.]
You got to be kidding me.
LIEBERMAN: Let's see it.
There's nothing.
That is amazing.
That really -- I mean, that's It's like nothing ever happened.
NARRATOR: The blade is rotating at about 5,000 rpm.
It's forced to stop in .
001 of a second.
It saves a finger but mangles the machine.
You know, you have so much momentum in here.
You're decelerating something at like 1,000 G's.
You know, 1,000 times the acceleration of gravity.
NARRATOR: Now we get warped.
Machine stops on a dime or, in this case, a frank.
Machine is not happy about this fact.
LIEBERMAN: Any way that this asymmetrically hits the weight, it's just gonna put huge torques.
You're slowing this thing down at 1,000 G's.
We just have no human reference to what that means.
That's like driving a car and hitting a wall.
GASS: A concrete wall.
LIEBERMAN: It's just flapping like it's a piece of paper.
NARRATOR: The energy has to go somewhere when it stops, so it's transferred to the SawStop module, which acts like the crumple zone in a car.
The module and saw blade are now officially trashed.
But, hey, at a cost of about $60, better to pay that than with a finger.
It's an amazing idea, and it's implemented in a way where you're using energy for its own stop.
NARRATOR: Steve Gass is a true believer in his design, which brings us to our next demonstration.
Steve is going to put his own finger into the table-saw blade.
How you feeling about this? A little nervous.
[Laughs.]
NARRATOR: Yes, you knew we had to go for it.
GASS: I don't much like doing it, but it is such a unique opportunity.
Let's do it.
NARRATOR: There's not going to be a take two here.
Having everything set right is crucial.
As if you need a reminder, this is with SawStop.
This is without.
With.
Without.
That mask Steve is about to put on isn't a protection from spurting blood.
It's to protect his eyes from the bright lights needed by our high-speed cameras.
Now, you want to try putting your finger in there? NARRATOR: But you are never going to try this at home, right? Right? Finally, lights, camera.
Conductivity.
[Blade whirs.]
[Click.]
You all right? Yep.
There's no blood.
There's nothing.
Nope.
Didn't hurt.
Whew.
[Blade whirring.]
[Click.]
NARRATOR: This is a man who has faith in his creation.
Now we bet you've never seen this before, a finger being shoved into a table saw.
At least we hope you aren't one of those unlucky 10.
We know the machine stopped, and we know nobody got hurt, but we got to say it.
Ouch! It felt a little like a buzz or a tickle almost.
You're talking about your finger in a table saw, and you're talking about a buzz and a tickle.
NARRATOR: We've done a lot of bizarre things in our lab, but, somehow, this demonstration of a man's faith in technology is one of the coolest.
That was unbelievable thing to do, and you've proven your point.
[Click.]
NARRATOR: The dance has long been a social custom, a means to meet and romance others, even a way to amuse bored bystanders.
But cue up some sweet riffs, and dancing exposes its raw underpinnings to Newtonian physics.
Enough, it seems, to make even the science types rock out.
[Rapping.]
♫ Boom-boom, boom-boom ♫ ♫ Boom-boom, boom-boom, ahh ♫ NARRATOR: So, "Time Warp" felt obliged to turn the corridors of science -- our lab -- into a dance hall with a couple of b-boys.
Jonathan, a.
k.
a.
"Excel," and Tony, a.
k.
a.
"TBA," leave no head, back, leg, shoulder, or other body part unturned.
Totally sick.
NARRATOR: Now Jeff, a.
k.
a.
, uh, Jeff, helps turn light fun into hard science.
LIEBERMAN: It's really interesting.
From a physics perspective, this is an amazingly complicated process.
And the way that you build up speed here is by pumping yourself up and down.
So you give yourself this gravitational potential energy, and then you let it fall in a non-centered way to rotate you faster.
Right in the center of your mass is what they, you know, call the center of mass, and that thing is always staying there, and you're all spinning around that.
That's what keeps you stable.
NARRATOR: Note how Jonathan's center steadies his fluid movement, like a planet in sync with the satellites around it.
That's amazing.
Tony, it's your turn.
NARRATOR: Tony's body looks as if he's being spun in high winds, yet he's in perfect control of his movements.
Legs, hands, and torso flowing together as one.
LIEBERMAN: Your hand is actually not underneath any part of your body, but since your body is actually curved around it, the center of mass is right where your hand is.
But what you guys are doing is really taking advantage of dynamic stability, which is a really amazing thing.
NARRATOR: There's yet another force of nature at work here, the deejay.
[Record scratches.]
In our lucky case, D.
J.
Reason.
Now, that's a tag old Newton himself would appreciate.
♫ Juss pump it ♫ NARRATOR: Looks like Jeff might be reaching critical mass himself.
Oh, yeah.
I'm feeling it! I'm feeling it.
Aren't you feeling it? KEARNEY: Vinyl is still awesome.
There's still something to be said for old-school grooves.
Absolutely.
The only problem [Record scratches.]
That.
NARRATOR: Well, where some see a problem, others hear music to their ears.
Let's see if we can close this gap.
So, you use regular audio phonographs.
Do you call them phonographs, still? -I call them records, man.
-All right, records.
Yeah.
I'm stuck in 1870 still.
All right, so you use regular records but also these digital records that cue your computer.
Yeah, exactly.
These digital records don't actually have music on them.
They have time code that tells the computer when to play an audio file.
NARRATOR: One more time on this.
These aren't real records like the kind you find moldering in garage sales across the country.
These are encoded digital replicas that control a computer.
The world's flattest mouse, if you will.
When you play, can you actually see the vibrations coming into the needle? Well, I think, if you look close enough, you probably could.
-Funny you should say that.
-Funny I should.
NARRATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, the secret life of a digital vinyl hybrid.
D.
J.
REASON: You can see the needle riding in the groove.
You can actually see it going back and forth with the bass.
NARRATOR: So, that's what goes on down in all those tiny grooves? Amazingly small vibration, and it's happening up to, you know, a second.
Yep.
- [Record scratches.]
-I need my music.
NARRATOR: And now, lest we forget, a whole new category of "don't try this at home.
" Are you ready? NARRATOR: Not because you might get hurt, but because you will look like this.
♫ Girl, I'm better on the side ♫ ♫ I'm not an appetizer ♫ ♫ Feelin' it like Pfizer ♫ [Record scratches.]
Now, good old Newton must be spinning, too.
In his grave.
[Laughs.]
NARRATOR: By now, you know "Time Warp" loves anything that blows, bangs, or bursts! So, naturally, we love bullets.
From a scientific perspective, that is.
This is actually less than an inch thick, and it can stop a bullet.
NARRATOR: As many an old movie has demonstrated, a properly aimed bullet fired through the air will generally hit its mark.
But bullets fired in water almost never do.
We'll never catch them now.
That was a clever trick.
NARRATOR: But why does this trick always work? [Gunshots.]
And not just in movies? We're testing a new bullet.
We've actually machined some new bullets here.
And we're gonna take these bullets, and we're gonna shoot them into our tank.
NARRATOR: Underwater, bullets twist and turn off course.
Here at MIT, they're trying to find out why and how to correct it.
LIEBERMAN: This is not your normal fish tank.
This is 1-inch-thick, bulletproof Lexan.
It is indeed.
NARRATOR: This could make it a whole lot easier to shoot fish in a barrel.
No fish.
NARRATOR: Researchers know why bullets miss their mark.
When a bullet enters water, it creates a low-pressure air cavity, or chamber, around it, and that throws off the trajectory.
And that's a problem.
You have to solve the problem of what's gonna create, basically, a cavity that lets this bullet go in the air underwater.
NARRATOR: Researchers are trying to discover the ideal air cavity that stops a bullet from veering off course.
Okay, crew, let's get behind the tables, please.
NARRATOR: They begin with a standard aluminum, non-lead, .
22-caliber short bullet.
Twoone.
Fire.
[Gunshot.]
TECHET: Oh, that looks great.
It totally does.
It tumbles.
LIEBERMAN: It totally does.
TECHET: Oh, look.
It comes right out of the water, sideways.
That's great.
NARRATOR: The shortcomings of the standard .
22-caliber short are obvious.
It just goes overtop of itself.
- [Gunshots.]
- [Neighs.]
NARRATOR: And dang it if them varmints don't get away again.
Next up, an MIT special edition elongated bullet.
Supplies currently not available at your local gun shop.
Fire! [Gunshot.]
NARRATOR: Eureka! -Aw, man! This looks so good! -That's really nice.
- [Gunshot.]
-TRUSCOTT: It's a slight vacuum.
It's pulling in vapor off of that surface.
NARRATOR: The flat tip of this bullet pushes the water away so fast, it allows the bullet to travel relatively stable and straight within the air cavity.
It's much longer in comparison to its width, so it doesn't tumble.
And there's something else going on here.
Flying inside the air chamber, the bullet actually skips and planes against the inner surface of the cavity.
There again, as it makes contact.
And again.
The contacts realign the bullet and maintain its forward, kinetic energy.
Twoone.
Fire! [Gunshot.]
NARRATOR: And the revelations just keep coming.
TRUSCOTT: Whoa! TECHET: Oh, that is -- Oh, the double cavity! -That is beautiful! -So, what is that? I don't know! I've never seen it before! NARRATOR: Well, thanks to our they are seeing a rare cavity within a cavity, likely caused by the back of the bullet hydroplaning on the surface.
[Laughter.]
-That's awesome.
-I'm serious.
NARRATOR: Everyone is having too much fun here.
Last call! My final wish today would be able to get this shot where the bullet comes at you.
You see the cavity.
It's very distinct.
You see the bullet coming at you.
You maybe even can see the cavity form around the bullet.
NARRATOR: Okay, this is where we fall back on the classics, smoke and mirrors.
Lock that.
We'll just fix it here.
NARRATOR: They'll be shooting at the mirror, and we will be shooting off it.
Threetwoone.
[Gunshot.]
-LIEBERMAN: Yes! -TECHET: Oh, yes! NARRATOR: The mirror and the reflection of the surface create a double image.
But what's really happening here? You know, what I'm really happy about is how symmetric it is.
We had a hunch that the back end was skipping, but I think this combined with the other stuff makes it, yeah, very clear that that's what's happening.
NARRATOR: As we leave our happy researchers to gather up more data for their studies, it's easy to forget that what we're seeing here is a deadly bullet traveling at 500 miles per hour, headed straight for an underwater target.
We really appreciate you guys coming.
We would have never gotten this kind of a shot if you guys hadn't have come.
NARRATOR: So, we've shown you what happens when bullet meets water.
I don't know! I've never seen it before! NARRATOR: And scientist hits dance floor.
[Rapping.]
♫ Boom-boom boom-boom, ahh ♫ NARRATOR: And who can forget our new classic, "finger meets power saw"? There's no blood.
There's nothing.
NARRATOR: Well, thusly inspired, we decided to have some more fun with power tools.
Why? We're good.
We're connected.
NARRATOR: Why not? Our star this time, the nail gun.
Assisting us is "Time Warp's" own art department head, Robin, someone who knows her way around a nail gun.
- [Clack.]
-Boom.
I assume you've seen a lot more injuries with something like this than a hammer.
Definitely.
The injuries come mostly from inattentiveness, carelessness, fatigue, because, you know, pneumatic tools allow for really speedy nailing, and, so, oftentimes, people will forget where their hands are placed and accidentally tack the webbing of their fingers to their workpiece.
- [Clack.]
-NARRATOR: Ouch! All right, Matt, let's get the camera in here and set this up.
Just gonna put one through the bottom? NARRATOR: Okay, our first victim for the nail gun, the 2x4.
[Clack.]
[Clack.]
-Pretty fast.
-Very fast.
If it's going that in .
001 of a second, then that thing's going almost 1,000 feet per second.
This is a speeding bullet.
Just happens to be through wood.
NARRATOR: For some perspective, the bullet from a .
38 Special travels 600 feet per second.
But at 1,000 feet per second, our nail gun really is a gun.
[Clack.]
We're gonna need to see this again.
Yeah, I think we're gonna have to take the safety and do exactly what it's intended to not do.
NARRATOR: Normally, the tool needs to be in contact with wood in order to fire, but we've modified the safety catch for our demo.
Pretty much a textbook case of power-tool irresponsibility.
And you know where this leads, right? This thing is loaded and live.
NARRATOR: Don't try this at home.
-As far away as possible.
-ROBIN: Really, far away.
NARRATOR: Experiment number one, suspended apple.
ROBIN: Here we go.
[Clack.]
Hello, nail! Oh, nice! LIEBERMAN: That's great! Lift-off.
ROBIN: It deflected off of something.
NARRATOR: Wrong, Robin.
Look again.
Anyone have an idea of why it deflected? [Record scratches.]
No? Leave it to Jeff to supply the answer.
LIEBERMAN: It has this gigantic, flat head on the back.
It's the least aerodynamic thing in the world once, so it's just gonna, like, waver anywhere.
It lost like 95% of its speed in 3 inches.
So, this gets me a little worried to hit things that are much harder than this.
I think we can go with a thin piece of chicken.
♫ If I had a hammer, I'd hammer on a chicken ♫ ♫ I'd hammer on a chicken ♫ ROBIN: Ready? NARRATOR: Sorry about that.
Goodbye, chicken.
- [Clack.]
-Oh! KEARNEY: Wow.
ROBIN: Oh, that's a really clean entry.
LIEBERMAN: It's amazing how different that is from an apple.
This goes through this like it's nothing.
ROBIN: Yes.
It's definitely an accurate representation of what would happen to you if you were to mess up with this gun.
LIEBERMAN: If this hits your arm or your thigh, as long as there's no bone, you're gonna have a whole big piercing.
Time for some protective wear? NARRATOR: Which naturally leads us to our third test, suspended work boots.
First up, a non-steel-toed, leather work boot.
[Clack.]
KEARNEY: Ouch! It sticks into the leather.
LIEBERMAN: The shock wave is still going into the boot.
NARRATOR: That's got to hurt! Next, a steel-toed boot.
[Clack.]
It works so well, it actually bends the nail.
Look closely.
So, scientific history has been made.
To recap, apple.
Chicken.
Regular boot, bad.
Steel-toed work boot, good.
Our final conclusion If you have to shoot yourself in the foot on the jobsite, make sure you've got steel-toed boots.
NARRATOR: Who says television is not an educational medium? -ROBIN: What? - [Record scratches.]
What? [Laughing.]
It went through.
I got lucky with the nail gun.
NARRATOR: And while we hunt for some more things to shoot, a reminder.
If there is something you want to see warped, check us out on the Discovery Channel Website, discovery.
com/timewarp.
And the warp you see just might be your own.
[Laughter.]