Science of Stupid (2014) s08e02 Episode Script

1
DALLAS (off-screen): This
is the Science of Stupid.
DALLAS (off-screen): Yes,
this is the show that subtracts the science from the stupid.
Observe as amateur researchers
fight the laws of physics
head on and
invariably lose.
We'll explain what went
wrong and why with the help of scientific principles
such as traction,
terminal velocity
and our old friend gravity.
Watch it but don't
copy it because this is the Science of Stupid.
DALLAS (off-screen): In this
episode we'll be studying how physics can improve your
catch, how a smaller
surface area improves entry
and we learn that humans
aren't the only animals
(screams).
DALLAS (off-screen):
With chemical weapons.
But first this.
DALLAS: The unofficial
motto of Speedway racing is go fast, turn left
and you can see why.
DALLAS (off-screen):
Left, left, left, left, left, not left enough.
DALLAS: Really it should
be "Go fast, turn left and try not to crash",
a feat made trickier because
Speedway bikes have absolutely no brakes.
For the purpose of
self-preservation that is not at all helpful but for the
study of centrifugal
force it's fantastic.
DALLAS (off-screen): The key
to Speedway is power sliding.
When riders approach a corner
they increase the torque at
the back wheel until it loses
traction and slides sideways.
This allows some of the
propulsive force from the
rear wheel to counteract
centrifugal force but if
a bike collides with another
bike it'll transfer some of
that momentum onto that
bike with potentially dirt-eating consequences.
DALLAS: And with these bikes
capable of hitting 60 miles an hour in three seconds,
as fast as some Formula 1
cars, that's a lot of transferred momentum.
Fortunately all of our
racers have carefully studied the science.
DALLAS (off-screen):
That rider could write a book on centrifugal force.
That rider needs to read one.
Back wheel hits wall, slows
bike, jolted rider succumb to centrifugal force.
At least the bike
hasn't given up.
Thankfully these riders are
keeping well away from the wall
but not each other.
Bikes touch, bike at the
back transfers some of its momentum to the other bike,
other bike goes airborne
but not quite as far as this guy thought.
I've no idea why this
rider fell off but even without him his bike
generates plenty of
momentum to transfer.
You know, maybe brakes
would have been a good idea.
DALLAS: And now we briefly
turn our attention from people getting it spectacularly wrong
to someone getting it
extraordinarily right.
Now, the science of falling
dictates that the quicker you stop the harder the landing,
so if I were to jump from
a height I'd be better off landing on something that
brings me to a slow
gradual stop, like deep water but probably not
a child's paddling
pool, if I'm honest.
DALLAS (off-screen):
Meet Professor Splash.
He's aiming to break
the world record for the highest shallow dive,
by leaping from this 37.4
foot high platform into this
tiny pool which has about
a foot of water in it.
Professor, are you okay?
You little trickster.
You just got yourself
a new world record.
DALLAS: Now, did I mention
how dangerous that was?
Seriously do not try this
at home or anywhere else.
DALLAS (off-screen):
And that includes here.
Oh, there'll be sore
heads in the morning.
DALLAS: There's just too much
science to get wrong, stuff
like hydrodynamic drag
and angular momentum, all of which luckily
can be demonstrated with
objects that don't feel pain.
DALLAS (off-screen): Our diver
must gain just enough angular momentum to land horizontally
because the larger the
surface area that hits the water the more hydrodynamic
drag he experiences,
and the quicker he stops.
Too much angular momentum
and he will over rotate,
meaning less surface
area hitting the water,
so less hydrodynamic
drag and he won't slow down
fast enough to avoid
hitting the bottom.
DALLAS: Alright, so knowing
the science we now understand
why Professor Splash chose to
use the belly flop technique,
but as we all know the belly
flop has a serious flaw.
It really hurts, which makes
it odd that some people
appear intent on trying
to break the Prof's record.
DALLAS (off-screen):
This chap is starting with a low level approach,
just as well really.
His initial jump gives him too
much angular momentum and he enters at too steep an angle,
giving him limited
hydrodynamic drag.
He was okay but that could
have ended up a lot worse.
DALLAS: Alright, let's put the
shallow water to one side and focus on those fast stops,
AKA belly flops.
Now, just bearing in mind the
larger your surface area the more water molecules that are
to catch you and so
the more drag there is.
DALLAS (off-screen):
And the quicker.
You stop, which feels
a bit more like that.
MAN: Oh.
DALLAS (off-screen): You see,
liquid water, solid ground.
It's all just
bunched up molecules.
MAN: Don't dive,
just do it with a twist.
DALLAS (off-screen): You mean
angular momentum but watch out because the higher
you fall the more
ground like it feels.
And did you know that some
of the energy you transfer to the water becomes sound?
The slap and some
of it becomes heat.
The sting.
DALLAS: Which is another
reason why this dangerous stunt should only be attempted
by an experience expert
with iron clad abdominals, like Professor Splash.
DALLAS (off-screen):
And not her.
Or anyone else.
I think the Professor's
record is safe for now.
WOMAN: Keep it down.
1-2-3.
Keep it on the ground.
DALLAS (off-screen): Can you
guess which scientific principle these revolving
friends are demonstrating?
WOMAN: Keep it down.
1-2-3. Keep it on the ground.
DALLAS (off-screen): Did you
guess the science this spinny game would lead to?
It's a tough one as you
may have been looking at the wrong spinner,
so not him but him.
WOMAN: Oh.
DALLAS (off-screen): And it's
the vestibular system which tells our brain about motion.
When we spin a liquid in our
inner ear sloshes around that the brain uses to aid balance.
Stop spinning and the liquid
temporarily keeps sloshing,
so the brain thinks
we're still spinning.
WOMAN: Oh.
DALLAS (off-screen): And
that is terribly confusing.
DALLAS: Long-time friend of
the show Charles Darwin knows a thing or two when it comes
to natural selection and
survival of the fittest, like the need to be able to defend
yourself from a
physical attack.
(screams).
DALLAS (off-screen):
Or a verbal assault.
MAN: He's got me.
DALLAS (off-screen):
Still going.
DALLAS: Animals have three
main forms of adaptation to help them defend themselves,
physiological,
structural and behavioral.
DALLAS (off-screen):
Physiological are internal features,
like an octopus's ability
to change color and help him turn himself into something
less tasty, like a rock.
Other animals use structural
defenses, like armor or teeth and claws,
and the final technique is
behavioral defense where the animal reacts in a special way
to protect itself
from a perceived threat.
Tabby take down.
(cat meows)
DALLAS: Right, physiological,
structural and behavioral.
With so many weapons to choose
from it is amazing anything gets eaten at all,
although it's not just
about fending off predators.
DALLAS (off-screen): Take this
guy, minding his own business, enjoying nature's beauty,
though not the
guy on the bike.
The bull
guarding his territory.
This is both a structural
defense, his horns and heavy skull and a behavioral
defense, charging the threat,
but you don't have to be that
big when you can
make yourself big.
(screams).
DALLAS (off-screen): Spreading
his frills out our tiny annoyed frilled neck
lizard displays his
structural defense.
Sure, he's not velociraptor
but he's more than a match for homo-flip-flopias.
A useful physiological
defense is the good old fashion stinger where animal
bodies create a chemical
cocktail which is painful,
as our friend here finds
out whilst trying to
remove a wasp's nest.
DALLAS (off-screen): Some wasp
species use their stingers for defense and for hunting prey
but hopefully he's
not on the menu.
WOMAN: I'm sorry.
DALLAS (off-screen):
Yeah, you don't sound sorry.
Ah, now this fella's copied my
own personal defense strategy.
(screams).
DALLAS (off-screen):
Nope, not the rooster.
WOMAN: No, don't run, don't run.
DALLAS (off-screen): The kid.
We homo sapiens wouldn't be
where we are today without running away from stuff.
DALLAS:
Bobsleigh, luge, skeleton.
Without doubt some
of the scariest events at the Winter Olympics.
DALLAS (off-screen):
These sleds can hurtle down frozen tracks at speeds
in excess of 80 miles an hour,
so should only be done
by trained athletes and even
then still quite dodgy.
DALLAS: Knowing the high
velocity risks it would seem an unwise decision
to attempt to carve out
your own homespun track, well it would to me anyway.
MAN: Go, go, go.
GIRL: Oh.
DALLAS (off-screen):
But not to Dad.
DALLAS: As you can see gentle
viewers, this is dangerous stuff but a little scientific
learning might help
with damage limitation, emphasis on 'might'.
DALLAS (off-screen): The
ultimate DIY track needs a lot of compacted snow for a smooth
low friction surface and a
slope with banked sides keeps him on track whilst gravity
does its stuff and
pulls the sled down, gaining linear momentum.
Large bumps are not
ideal because if he ends up airborne any angular momentum
gained on take-off will
cause him to rotate.
DALLAS: A proper Olympic
track will be meticulously engineered with just the right
gradient to ensure good
gravity assisted momentum, plus a uniformly smooth
surface for
consistently low friction.
DALLAS (off-screen):
This snowy gulley has got gravity covered
but it's not so
snowy at the bottom.
So, when a bump throws
him off his linear momentum is quickly reduced by the
high friction of the dirt.
Well, at least he's
got a free lunch.
Okay, this kid's
remembered the snow, shame about the bump.
(laughter).
DALLAS (off-screen): The
linear momentum was good but he then overly minimized
friction through air flight
and used his face to add unnecessary angular momentum.
(screams).
DALLAS (off-screen):
This could be it.
Prepare to be ama
DALLAS (off-screen):
Zingly disappointed, yeah.
Once again a bump has sent our
researcher airborne but this time she has picked up angular
momentum,
rotating her in the air.
Luckily Dad is here with
some soothing laughter.
But every now and then our
science dads get it right, but let's be honest,
no one likes a show-off.
That counts for you too kids.
DALLAS: There's nothing
I like more than getting away from the hustle
and bustle of city life, jumping
on a boat and going net fishing,
but then of course I am an
expert, much like this guy.
DALLAS (off-screen):
Err, actually I was thinking of someone else.
DALLAS: The thing about
casting a net is it looks much easier than it is.
There's actually a large
amount of science involved, like our old friend
conservation of momentum and
its touchy acquaintance, friction.
DALLAS (off-screen): She
rotates her body to give the
net plenty of momentum and so
time to spread out in the air
but conservation of momentum
means that as the net
gains forward momentum
she gains backwards momentum
and so applies a backward
force to the boat via her feet,
therefore she must also ensure
that there is good friction
between her feet and the
boat to avoid slipping.
DALLAS: And it's that
backwards force where most of the problems come from.
To investigate this phenomena
we've sent a crack team of scientists out into the field
and by 'field' I mean 'lake'.
DALLAS (off-screen):
Calm conditions, check.
WOMAN: Nice, stand up.
WOMAN 2: I'm not too confident.
DALLAS (off-screen):
Properly prepared net, check.
WOMAN: That's alright,
I believe in you.
DALLAS (off-screen): So do
I believe you've demonstrated
exactly how not to do it.
Conservation of momentum means
that as she swings the net she gains backwards momentum,
causing her feet to apply a
backwards force to the kayak.
Due to the low resistance to
movement on water the kayak moves backwards,
causing her to lose balance
and hence the early bath.
This young fisherman
has poise, balance
and slippery feet.
Those wet feet apply a
backwards force to the kayak
that overcomes the friction,
sticking him to it.
Oh, for a sensible
pair of deck shoes.
Look, so long as you remember
conservation of momentum
and friction
you should be fine.
Oh, that's more than fine.
He generates the perfect
amount of momentum for a decent net spread and his boat
is big enough to withstand
the backwards force his feet apply to it.
Nice grippy footwear too.
(screams).
DALLAS (off-screen):
Unfortunately he missed the fish completely but it could
be worse, you could be
fishing with this chap.
At least he caught
something but I'm not sure you can eat that.
DALLAS: Now then,
cheerleaders bring a little bit of razzmatazz
and a whole lot of pompoms
to any sporting event
but luckily for us they
also bring the science.
DALLAS (off-screen): And
one of their most famous
and hardest experiments is
the one-man stunt where one
of the cheerleaders raises the
other cheerleader into the air
and then acts like a platform
for the raised cheerleader to
perform acrobatic stunts.
To perfect the move it
takes hours of practice
and maybe a few
more hours than that.
Hey, don't forget about the guy
who caught you with his face.
DALLAS: The beauty of this
move is the coordination between the flier,
the person being thrown in the
air, and the base, the person that needs to do all the
catching when it all goes
wrong but here's how it works when it goes right.
DALLAS (off-screen): On
launching the flier jumps and the base pushes upwards,
transferring some of his
momentum onto the flier allowing her to jump higher.
The flier tucks in her
arms and legs closer to her center of mass,
reducing her moment
of inertia so she can complete her rotation.
In order to remain stable the
flier's center of mass must
stay within her base
of support, her feet.
DALLAS: Moment of
inertia, it's a curious thing.
It's basically how a mass,
i.e our body will rotate faster the more tucked
in it is and slower
the more spread out it is.
It's one way of controlling
how you fly through the air
and more importantly
how you fall.
Other than that pretty simple.
Push, spin, land.
DALLAS (off-screen):
Push, spin, nearly land.
WOMAN: Oh my God.
Oh, oh God.
DALLAS (off-screen): She
hasn't tucked in enough so her
moment of inertia is too high,
so she under rotates.
The catcher leans backwards to
compensate but misses one of
her feet, causing her
to lose her balance.
WOMAN: Oh my God.
Oh, oh God.
DALLAS (off-screen): And
almost the rest of her day.
Yeah, it's not a great start.
Will it get any better?
Err, no.
Not only was it an awful
launch but the flier failed
to keep her center of mass
within her base of support.
Gravity can't help but
to act on her posterior,
giving her a crash
course on impact force.
Okay, this looks promising.
Good balance, she's keeping
her center of mass inside her base of support,
just the
dismount to go and
needs work.
She didn't land evenly between
the two catchers, thankfully for
her this guy absorbed some
of her momentum with his nose.
So, your best bet is to
start practicing young.
DALLAS (off-screen):
And then give up before you really hurt yourself.
GIRL: Oh, we got
that on video.
DALLAS: And that's your lot.
Please do not attempt
any of the dangerous stuff you've just seen.
As author Arthur
C. Clarke once said,
"I'm sure the universe is
full of intelligent life,
it's just been too
intelligent to come here",
and judging by
this lot he's probably right.
(music plays through credits)
♪
MAN: He's got me.
Captioned by Cotter
Captioning Services.