This was like a backstage science video. I really enjoy looking at this sort of equipment that works behind the scenes of a science facility. I had no idea there was such a thing as recycling Helium or even where it was sourced.
You can always tell when the Professor is extra excited about something and I always know it's going to be something particularly cool as a result. In this case, literally as well!
I love listening to the professor speak, he shares knowledge so easily. I will definitely look lightly on helium balloons (no pun intended) from now on.
Even though I'm not at university yet the difficulty some teachers have to say I don't know and how much they sometimes end up rambling around is annoying. To be able to say I don't know but I speculate that X is a great answer to have.
wow, why can't school be like this, I swear I have learned more about helium in this 12 minute video than I had in 10+ years of school. great video, I really enjoyed it.
This is all so interesting, stuff one would have never thought of, on-site helium recycling systems. This is why I'm going to be studying chemistry this year.
Another great video, thank you so much for producing these! I'd be interested to know what your cadre of wild-haired scientists think about making more helium via fusion. It is obviously not feasible now, but might it be someday in the not-to-distant future?
An excellent video as always, loved seeing the liquid helium factory. But I have to take issue with the idea that we're running out or the prices are high because of children's party balloons. That's just silly. The overwhelming majority of helium is used for controlled atmospheres, cryogenics, welding, and leak detection. Only 7% is used for buoyancy purposes, and then that's mostly weather balloons and blimps. The amount used for parties the world over is utterly trivial, 1-2% max.
That was awesome! Was liquid helium really light blue, or was it just the environmental lighting that made it look that way? And yes, the professor's voice DID become a little higher as he was talking around all that helium. :-)
hay Brady, my name is amir steklov and i'm a big fan of your youtube channels and a film maker my self. i think that is a good time to think abut DVD colections. and, what abut the LHC visiting in 60 symbols? looking forward to see that :)
Professor, have you considered staring in a remake of Back to the Future as Doc Brown? If not did your hair star in the original? I love these videos and your presentation of them. I feel guilty for having used those helium balloons to make funny voices after finding out how difficult it is to retrieve on earth.
The US put a low price on it in order to sell off the stockpile in the 70s. If you paid market price for heliun, one standard latex balloon would cost you over $100.
So, in theory: the earth will someday run out of helium, because it rises untill above the atmosphere, where it will be lost in space? We can't really 'make' whithout using radioactive decay, and small amounts of helium will always leak, right? Fantastic video by the way: AS ALWAYS!
Though I agree entirely that what trespire was referring to is mistaken (He2 is not the form found in balloons), dihelium has been made, but it is not a stable compound. The helium wiki has some good information in the Compounds section if you're interested.
What you heard is correct. Helium has a very small molecule (He2) so it will leak even from the tiniest gaps between sealing surfaces. There are specialized "Helium sniffer" detectors. Typically used to check high vacuum equipment.
@Jeuhann As I understand subatomic physics, the electron isn't actually moving from A to B in it's orbit, it's more like it goes from A to B without going between. Something to do with wave particle theory. In any case they share electrons and want to fill their outer valence because of the positive charge of the protons. It's similar to the way a magnet wants to connect with another magnet of opposite polarity. But that is a weak force, the forces inside of a nucleus are a strong force.
@Jeuhann At the electron level that is. It's hard to be concise with character limits in comments. The molecules in your finger are made of atoms, those atoms have electrons, those electrons repel the electrons in the atoms of the object you are pushing against. This force is quite strong. Gravity for instance is weak. Drop a ball off a roof it takes several seconds for gravity to pull it to the ground, but only an instant for the ground atoms/electrons to repel it.
@0:25 "...the reason helium is running short is because everyone is filling their party balloons with helium." That is a direct quote from the professor. Even if we all stopped using helium for party balloons it would not make much difference.
I'm curious, I've seen videos on youtube of liquid nitrogen being used to cool superconducting magnets, but the Professor places great emphasis on liquid helium for this purpose. What advantage does liquid helium have over liquid nitrogen? At least I'm fairly sure it was liquid nitrogen being used, I may be wrong.
I ran the professor's numbers and got this (putting the dollar sign at the end of the number for unit consistency in the calculations): 20,000 $ / 3000 L = 6.67 $/L. A bottle of wine is typically 750 mL, or .75L. 6.67 $/L * .75L = 5 $. So liquid helium costs about the same as cheap wine. ====The More You Know=★
Helium is also used to send radiosonde up into the atmosphere, and it's important for weather forecast. If there was shortage of helium, don't blame the meterological agencies for inaccurate forecasts.
Watching this I was like 'thats because its so light it floats out of the atmosphere into space', oh I know, 'helium comes from natural gas exploration as a biproduct of radioactive decay". Then the professor said the same things a few minutes later.....I think I'm a geek because I already understood this before the professor said it.
Great video! I wonder why there isn't full employment of high temperature superconductors? Those can be cooled with liquid nitrogen which we'll never run out of.
Yes, I had heard about the frivolous use of helium becoming a potential future problem several years ago. The basis of that issue was there might not be enough helium available for use with super-cooled communication cables that could be invented eventually. This video is concerning indeed as now it seems the future has caught up with the present (or vice-versa).
@techhungry1 That's what the video I gave was supposed to be about because covalent bonding was what Jeuhann asked about... That's why the little @Jeuhann was there at the top of my comment. It was a comment to him, not a general comment about the video. Next time, don't jump into a conversation you don't belong in. Context: It's important.
@Jeuhann if you want a good explanation of that, you need to go into quantum states and wave functions, which i guess would be more fitting for 60 symbols. If you just want the bonding types and orbitals it would probably fit Periodic Videos.
@Jeuhann Think of the valence electron field as a magnet in search of another magnet, and once it gets it, the attractive force is equalized and will not attract any more electrons. The actual force is the electromagnetic force, and it works both ways, those electrons also repel other electrons they are not bonded with. When you push against something solid, you aren't actually touching it. The electromagnetic force in your finger is repelled by the force of the object you are pushing.
@Jeuhann The electrons don't sit still, but when a bond forms, the orbitals change. The easiest example is two hydrogen atoms. Alone, there's a relatively spherical orbital around the nucleus called an s orbital. As H2, the two spheres kind of compress and overlap to form a one elongated orbital around both H nuclei. It's more complex with the addition of p orbitals and hybridized orbitals, but the short version is that orbitals overlap to form the bond and form a new electron configuration.
The white vapor coming from the He hose at about 09:30 is actually mostly water vapor condensing at the low temperature, and maybe a little oxygen and nitrogen too.
![BABYMONSTER - 'DRIP' M/V REACTION [WAS NOT EXPECTING THIS!!!]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/t0Lpgr1jo3Y/mqdefault.jpg)
Hydrogen party balloons, now that sounds like some real fun! :D
I wonder if the professor uses a Van de Graaff generator to do his hair in the morning.
wait hydrogen balloons explode?... why the hell do we not use that instead of helium! much more fun for parties!
This was like a backstage science video. I really enjoy looking at this sort of equipment that works behind the scenes of a science facility.
I had no idea there was such a thing as recycling Helium or even where it was sourced.
"Well, you could fill balloons with hydrogen" BANG "but then they explode, "
Hydrogen it is then. Exploding balloons sounds like an awesome party to me!
if you use hydrogen balloons, your party will be a blast! haha
You can always tell when the Professor is extra excited about something and I always know it's going to be something particularly cool as a result. In this case, literally as well!
Holy crap, that machine uses an 1/8 of a megawatt!
Excellent Video. I enjoy seeing the Mechanics behind Chemistry.
I love listening to the professor speak, he shares knowledge so easily. I will definitely look lightly on helium balloons (no pun intended) from now on.
Even though I'm not at university yet the difficulty some teachers have to say I don't know and how much they sometimes end up rambling around is annoying. To be able to say I don't know but I speculate that X is a great answer to have.
These videos really are educational and interesting, I've been studying Chemistry, and these videos have saved on tests in more than one occasion.
what im going to do on my birthday is fill a balloon with hydrogen, use a fuse as the string, light the fuse, enjoy.
Why don't we make the Earth's atmosphere heavier, so we can use our current atmosphere for balloons?
I want to go to the professor's parties! Exploding hydrogen balloons sound much more fun that helium ones!
AWESOME COMBINATION OF CHEMISTRY, PHYSICS, AND ENGINEERING OF EQUIPMENT!!!!! LOVE IT! ONE OF YOUR BEST VIDEOS.
Great in-depth technology tour. Do more of these.
wow, why can't school be like this, I swear I have learned more about helium in this 12 minute video than I had in 10+ years of school. great video, I really enjoyed it.
i never realized that helium is so valuable! Thank you for this video = )
That was a REALLY good video!!! Loved every minute of it!!!
I'LL HAVE A *REALLY* GOOD TIME WITH HYDROGEN BALLOONS!!!
This is all so interesting, stuff one would have never thought of, on-site helium recycling systems.
This is why I'm going to be studying chemistry this year.
He never went there before... and still knows the places of every single machine... how amazing
Another great video, thank you so much for producing these!
I'd be interested to know what your cadre of wild-haired scientists think about making more helium via fusion. It is obviously not feasible now, but might it be someday in the not-to-distant future?
4:25 *great* editing, hahaha! :D
Hello professor or Brady, love the vidoes. Can you make a video explaining how compressors work?
Which university is this ? I want to go there!
An excellent video as always, loved seeing the liquid helium factory. But I have to take issue with the idea that we're running out or the prices are high because of children's party balloons. That's just silly. The overwhelming majority of helium is used for controlled atmospheres, cryogenics, welding, and leak detection. Only 7% is used for buoyancy purposes, and then that's mostly weather balloons and blimps. The amount used for parties the world over is utterly trivial, 1-2% max.
I totally agree XD
The best pickup lines always have something to do with van der Waals interactions xD
What an interesting video about a topic i never even knew existed or had an idea about its extensive uses. I love this channel
These videos are fantastic. Love the physics hair.
heavy duty talk on a light gas
Your necktie. It's gorgeous.
nice video i always learn so much from you guys...thanks again.
That was awesome! Was liquid helium really light blue, or was it just the environmental lighting that made it look that way?
And yes, the professor's voice DID become a little higher as he was talking around all that helium. :-)
I think this is the best video I have ever seen.
always happy to see a Linde Tank, after spending a work placement there :P
the professor's voice at 9:41 was adorable!! X3
@6:45 "the air would freeze and block everything up"... the whole idea of air turning into a solid is rather mind blowing
Yes, but spreading the word about the shortage of helium will probably save more than 120 balloons worth of helium
hay Brady, my name is amir steklov
and i'm a big fan of your youtube channels
and a film maker my self.
i think that is a good time to think
abut DVD colections.
and, what abut the LHC visiting in 60 symbols?
looking forward to see that :)
Professor, have you considered staring in a remake of Back to the Future as Doc Brown? If not did your hair star in the original? I love these videos and your presentation of them. I feel guilty for having used those helium balloons to make funny voices after finding out how difficult it is to retrieve on earth.
Got to love his periodic table-tie!
The US put a low price on it in order to sell off the stockpile in the 70s. If you paid market price for heliun, one standard latex balloon would cost you over $100.
I think the "Term" your looking for is Mylar...
I will never fill balloons with helium again. Thanks for letting me know how I can help save science professor! (and Brady too of course)
So, in theory: the earth will someday run out of helium, because it rises untill above the atmosphere, where it will be lost in space? We can't really 'make' whithout using radioactive decay, and small amounts of helium will always leak, right?
Fantastic video by the way: AS ALWAYS!
Though I agree entirely that what trespire was referring to is mistaken (He2 is not the form found in balloons), dihelium has been made, but it is not a stable compound. The helium wiki has some good information in the Compounds section if you're interested.
What you heard is correct. Helium has a very small molecule (He2) so it will leak even from the tiniest gaps between sealing surfaces.
There are specialized "Helium sniffer" detectors. Typically used to check high vacuum equipment.
Why can't we do methane or hydrogen balloons?
you should do a video on 2,4-Dinitrophenylhydrazine, as it's also known as Brady's reagent
If helium is so hard to get, and so important for science, why is it so common and widely used just for nothing (filling balloons)?
Excellent! Helium recycling is incredibly interesting and responsible.
I simply cant get enough of the helium voice!
@Jeuhann As I understand subatomic physics, the electron isn't actually moving from A to B in it's orbit, it's more like it goes from A to B without going between. Something to do with wave particle theory. In any case they share electrons and want to fill their outer valence because of the positive charge of the protons. It's similar to the way a magnet wants to connect with another magnet of opposite polarity. But that is a weak force, the forces inside of a nucleus are a strong force.
I like his hair, i want him to flip a switch and laugh maniacally
1000th like from me. Love your videos, keep up the good work :)
@Jeuhann At the electron level that is. It's hard to be concise with character limits in comments. The molecules in your finger are made of atoms, those atoms have electrons, those electrons repel the electrons in the atoms of the object you are pushing against. This force is quite strong. Gravity for instance is weak. Drop a ball off a roof it takes several seconds for gravity to pull it to the ground, but only an instant for the ground atoms/electrons to repel it.
aaaaah! man.... i love this channel. :D
You have one Amazing Tie!
use hydrogen for party balloons, it floats, and you can light them on fire too! my kind of party
You make a really good argument.
@0:25 "...the reason helium is running short is because everyone is filling their party balloons with helium." That is a direct quote from the professor. Even if we all stopped using helium for party balloons it would not make much difference.
I'm curious, I've seen videos on youtube of liquid nitrogen being used to cool superconducting magnets, but the Professor places great emphasis on liquid helium for this purpose. What advantage does liquid helium have over liquid nitrogen?
At least I'm fairly sure it was liquid nitrogen being used, I may be wrong.
will it ever be illegal to fill balloons with helium?
What an awesome tie.
Is anyone else getting random PeriodicVideos videos from months ago in their subscription box again?
I ran the professor's numbers and got this (putting the dollar sign at the end of the number for unit consistency in the calculations):
20,000 $ / 3000 L = 6.67 $/L.
A bottle of wine is typically 750 mL, or .75L.
6.67 $/L * .75L = 5 $.
So liquid helium costs about the same as cheap wine. ====The More You Know=★
9:42 Lol at Prof's chipmunk imitation
"Scientists can party just as well as other people"
As a physics student, I would take this with a pinch of salt...
Helium is also used to send radiosonde up into the atmosphere, and it's important for weather forecast. If there was shortage of helium, don't blame the meterological agencies for inaccurate forecasts.
Watching this I was like 'thats because its so light it floats out of the atmosphere into space', oh I know, 'helium comes from natural gas exploration as a biproduct of radioactive decay". Then the professor said the same things a few minutes later.....I think I'm a geek because I already understood this before the professor said it.
This video makes me want to buy as much helium as I possibly can and donate it to science.
I really enjoyed this video, good job!
:)
03:40 That tie is actually a periodic table-patterned tie! He is nerdier than Sheldon Cooper.
did not know that helium was in short supply. Very interesting about how helium gas is recycled.
If you think party balloons are a waste of helium, you have not seen a mri magnet quench!
Carl
Great video!
I wonder why there isn't full employment of high temperature superconductors? Those can be cooled with liquid nitrogen which we'll never run out of.
Love the tie man!!!!
Very interesting video, nice to see some infrastructure in the universatiy
Very cool video of helium recycler thank you!
time for a new Brady Haran channel for bad chemistry puns: "As Xenon TH-cam"?
Yes, I had heard about the frivolous use of helium becoming a potential future problem several years ago. The basis of that issue was there might not be enough helium available for use with super-cooled communication cables that could be invented eventually. This video is concerning indeed as now it seems the future has caught up with the present (or vice-versa).
Great video! Important message! Now let's go party.....
Great stuff!
The professor's voice didn't change when he breathed in helium because it is his natural atmosphere.
NICE tie!
@techhungry1
That's what the video I gave was supposed to be about because covalent bonding was what Jeuhann asked about... That's why the little @Jeuhann was there at the top of my comment. It was a comment to him, not a general comment about the video.
Next time, don't jump into a conversation you don't belong in.
Context: It's important.
@Jeuhann if you want a good explanation of that, you need to go into quantum states and wave functions, which i guess would be more fitting for 60 symbols. If you just want the bonding types and orbitals it would probably fit Periodic Videos.
@Jeuhann Think of the valence electron field as a magnet in search of another magnet, and once it gets it, the attractive force is equalized and will not attract any more electrons. The actual force is the electromagnetic force, and it works both ways, those electrons also repel other electrons they are not bonded with. When you push against something solid, you aren't actually touching it. The electromagnetic force in your finger is repelled by the force of the object you are pushing.
This man must have worked all his life to grow the perfect scientist hair.
@Jeuhann
The electrons don't sit still, but when a bond forms, the orbitals change. The easiest example is two hydrogen atoms. Alone, there's a relatively spherical orbital around the nucleus called an s orbital. As H2, the two spheres kind of compress and overlap to form a one elongated orbital around both H nuclei. It's more complex with the addition of p orbitals and hybridized orbitals, but the short version is that orbitals overlap to form the bond and form a new electron configuration.
I'll be sure to set up my electrolyzer to fill up my next party bombs! :D
cool videos you making guys i love it
The white vapor coming from the He hose at about 09:30 is actually mostly water vapor condensing at the low temperature, and maybe a little oxygen and nitrogen too.
Exploding Hydrogen balloons at your child's 5th birthday party...
at first i volatile to this joke, but i have transitioned into liking this
One day the professor will invent the flux capacitor and create a time machine out of a Delorean.
Do you guys use the professors head to clean out the big test tubes?