Why Are 96,000,000 Black Balls on This Reservoir?
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 พ.ค. 2019
- I took a boat through 96 million black plastic balls on the Los Angeles reservoir to find out why they're there. The first time I heard about shade balls the claim was they reduce evaporation. But it turns out this isn't the reason they were introduced.
Huge thanks to LADWP for arranging this special tour for me. Next time let's put the GoPro on the submersible!
The balls are made of high density polyethylene (HDPE) which is less dense than water so they float on the surface of the reservoir even if they break apart. They are 10cm (4 inches) in diameter and contain about 210ml of water. So the main reason they are on the reservoir is to block sunlight from entering the water and triggering a chemical reaction that turns harmless bromide into carcinogenic bromate. This effect occurs with prolonged exposure to bromate so regulators insist that levels be kept below 10 microgram per liter on average over a 12 month period.
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Thanks to:
Las Virgenes Reservoir for footage of initial shade ball dump
Euro-Matic for bird into jet-engine footage
Researched and Produced by Casey Rentz
Animations by Maria Raykova
Music from epidemicsound.com "Colorful Animation 4" "Seaweed"
And from Kevin MacLeod "Marty Gots a Plan"
This is an educational video about the science of water quality.
It takes a lot of balls to do something like this
Underrated comment
around 96,000,000 to be precise!
Imagine someone who don't know Jokes just writing a fact which is technically a funny Joke
WOW! That was a really ballsy comment.
Lel
We got to 100M baby!!!!
Woohoo. Although given it's 2024, do we care about the microplastics from these shade balls? 😅
@@spk_eze we do now celebrate 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
@@spk_eze Keep yourself safe
yea we did!!!
Yeah!!!!!!
We know why we’re all here, to celebrate Derek’s fantastic achievement of a 100m video. Props to you for becoming one of the biggest science youtubers ever, you deserve it and am always impressed by the level of work you and your team put in with each video! Really hope to see what’s to come and again, congratulations! -galliums
Hear, hear!
Yes
Ils sont débiles ces mec ...
Et après ils vont en faire quoi de leurs boules ces pollueurs !!!
Yea🎉
Ay brother you here too? LESGO.
Your desmos video was fire 🔥
It took me 4 years and a community post from Derek that is super close to 100 million views and i wanted to support him so i finally gave in and watched it. You win TH-cam. I can remove it from my watch later now
me too!!
Same
Wasn't on my watch list but same
The fact that this videos has as many views as the balls in the reservoir is crazy
Hooly shiet, I didn't notice
It's true
That's crazy
A sign from the gods
@@user-fv4zl8qb6u hahah
one black ball for each black man that watched this video
CRAZY
The dude that explained how all of this worked had such an infectious energy. He absolutely was waiting a long time to talk to someone about shade balls and couldn't contain his excitement.
PrimeSuperboy I would if I had 96 million balls
No he was just asked to do an interview
shady
Yeah that guy is proud of his balls
Marty Adams, Chief Operating Officer, LADWP, made this video great! Smart, informed, articulate, and enthused. The kind of civil servant who actually serves.
100 million here we come!
"It's very rare for you to see 96 Million of anything"
Video gets 99 million views:
The fish in the water “who turn off the lights”
LMFAO
It’s drinking water tf there’s no fish dumbass did you watch the video
@@TURTLEMAN lol I am stupid
@@mrbob1675 yes
@@hypr717 how
Alright I finally watched it youtube are you happy?!
Haha they certainly pushed it hard.
No doubt....gotta say it was pretty cool though. Would like to see the data in 7 years.
ikr!!
Lol
Fcuk they got us all.
I remember getting a signed one of these in the mail. Can't believe it's been 5 years
Congrats man!!!! Your videos have always been super interesting to me and actually makes me want to learn more about things. You definitely deserve the 100 mill.
I'm a truck driver, and getting to open a container and let a million plastic balls fall out and roll down a slope into a reservoir would definitely be the most fun delivery I would ever get to do. A career high, I tell ya!
Like a GTA mission
I drive trucks too
in my dreams 😭
@@eleettabboo8673 Go live your dreams son.
Haha lol
I was just sitting here thinking about what I need to do to get that job haha!
I wanna start my own reservoir but I don't have the balls to do that.
This comment deserves more likes.
are you a middle aged dad
🤣😆
Amen! 🤣🤣🤣👍👍👍
You're wendy's yes you have the balls. A savage and a rich company
100M!!!!! Congrats Vertasium! You are worth every single view you get and much more!
Congrats on 100 million views! Your channel has been super important for me, great job
I love how pumped the guy was while explaining the shade balls. Man loves his job.
ikr i loved his energy
Who wouldn't want to talk about balls
@@man-qx2lx especially black ones
He has really nice balls!
I think it was the mayor or something.
“Shade balls. What are they for?!”
..
Shade.
..
I kid. That was interesting!
Exactly.
Lol true though
Could be potentially one of the trick questions asked in an interview. Lol
I know it's not meant to reduce evapotranspiration, but wouldn't it be a good idea to use the same technology for this purpose in other reservoirs in arid countries?
the balls for shade would be white for maximum albedo and not black.not sure though😀
100m veiws! Deserved for such an amazing channel!
The first 100M video! Thank you for doing all the things that you, Derek, share with us. You made huge and small changes to each and every of our lifes. And in the end, a lot of videos have 42-nd element in them - Veritasium - and we appreciate that :)
“It’s very rare to see 96 million of anything.”
Deserts:
Didn't think of that, damn
Most beaches easily have more than 96million grains of sand.
Also... just look at your hand. There is millions if not billions of atoms...
Chandler P Wilson but can you see them?
@@OneLegendo you can see your hands cant you?
We all know their real purpose... to stop Mr. Incredible.
LukeFili 😂
Mr Incredible's weakness is *Black* *Balls* ???
@@SethiestSeth have you seen the first movie?
@@SethiestSeth I guess thats why he hangs out with frozone so much....if you know what I mean. 😏
@@THE______TRUTH xddddd
Congratulations on your first 100M Veritasium. 👏🏻🎉
Congratulations on your 1st 100M video.
Here's to many more 🎉
“Bromate” sounds like what a British frat guy would call his favorite dude
Woah it's my favourite youtuber
U wot Brom8
i hope this means a dress made of shade balls video is coming
as somebody who lives in england i can confirm
True. Very true.
That's the nicest, enthusiastic and knowledgeable Executive i've seen in a company.
Im.Puk cuz he’s being filmed to be featured on a TH-cam channel with 5m subs
He's the spokesperson of the water district.
Must not have seen Elon musk then
@@dominicg2456 yup, I believe it's a publicly-controlled department. You really don't want water utilities to be privately run.
@@jjdank4475 ofc i know about Musk. It's just that this was not expected of this guy.
Who’s here to check if they made it to 100M views
We made it, boys!
Much respect for the poor seagul that gave it's life for the making of this video. We will never forget your sacrifice.
nobiggeridiot homage will be payed in the comment section of every video I watch from now on.
Id get it
Where?
What seagul?
@@lostmic during the plane scene..poor thing got sucked in the turbines.
They used these balls to trap Mr. Incredible.
Gamer Awesome45630 dudeeee
LMAOO
Whole of The Incredibles family actually.
You actually made me laugh out loud.
XD YES
I was here for 100,000,000
This guy explaining bromate is fantastic...why can't we have more public servants and politicians like him...he is serious, concerned and engaging all in one...fantastic!!!!
You scared me there, I thought you meant 'explaining that bromate is fantastic'
I am so glad I'm not the only one who thought that guy did a great job of explaining everything! Very unusual for sure
Meanwhile that politician is getting richer from the income tax you pay every week with every one of your pay checks while you get more poor every year as he keeps raising your income tax percentage
William Mulholland was like that too
Yeah, really interesting to listen to.
Bromate. How can such a friendly sounding chemical be so deadly.
When you mix a college aged American guy and a college aged British guy: What's up Bromate!!!!
Bro...
@@conniescurse7325 This explains everything
cuz its gay
lolllll true
we did it guys
I'm a 100,000,000 mil viewer..just saying
The guy in the suit is so excited love his enthusiasm.
I too love how happy he is about what he’s doing.
Good to see passionate people doing what they love
Everyone should be this excited about their job, better mentality makes your live better.
No a scheme... Got it 🤭
Recognize his type immediately, it's called 'giddy scientist'. Bless him 😁
the guy talking about the balls is so wholesome, he clearly is passionate about it all.
LOL
That's double meaning but ok
100% right guy for the job
oh 😏
This is the massacre of black ppl and got Ripped
And why are they black!
634 LEFT!!!!
Wow, these things seem perfect. It’s crazy how such a small thing can cause such massive improvements, and the majority of them were entirely unintended
- Prevents a harmful chemical from being formed
- Prevents bird from contaminating the water
- Drastically reduces evaporation
- Prevents the growth of algae, thus removing the need for Chlorine, which is ironically the reason why these balls were added in the first place
- Cheap
- Easy to implement to any source of water
- Recyclable
This is an amazing invocation.
“Hard to see 96 million of anything”
Salt grains: ok...
Grass, leaves, idiots in Texas, sand etc
I thought stars lol
Sand grains: *(._.)*
Atoms : ಠ_ಠ
molecules: .-.
Anyone else wants them to add 4M more shade balls?
So it's a perfect 100M shade balls
Reduce it to 69,000,000
@@rovnn 😂😂😂 FUNNY STUFF!!! :DDD
No
nope. if it was 99M then i MAYBE would have the urge to agree
96000000 is a round enough figure, AND its an even number and a multiple of 5.
I love how passionate that guy is about shade balls
100 million!!! You did it!!!
We did it!!!
So. It reduces amount of dangerous chemicals and up to 80-90% evaporation. Also stops birds from getting near it and possibly decontaminating it and on top of that it is food safe. All you lose is a beautiful view of a lake. Idk, quite worth it if you're doing it with reservoirs.
You mean contaminating………
@@operationsearchgate3072 Just say "shitting on it"
Thank you for saving me 12 min
@@trillination been recommended this in 2021 aswell? lol
thanks for saving my time
"Bromate" is the most friendly word I've heard. How can it give you cancer?
That's how it lures you in.
You're going places not college but places
That makes too much sense.
bromate kinda sounds like a fratboy from england
@@skyluke9476 That's very on the nose.
5k left
Congratulations Derek!!
I can’t stop thinking about that Scene when the black balls cover up mr incredible
For a security system, to me those balls are perfect, but I can only speak for myself.
That effect always creeped the hell out of me, it's become a fear of mine to be engulfed in expanding gelatinous balls
Ikr
SAME
Literally the only reason i clicked on this video lmaooo
Bromate - great name for a gym app.
I'm on it
particularly in Australia
Male room mates that tell everyone they're straight, but have lived together 25 years.
Don't taze me, bromate.
just did it
I'm doing my part, onward to 100M!
Same here
Goodluck for the 100mil. You deserve it champ ❤
The guy in the suit was super clear and informative! Seemed like a nice guy too
Kevin Chang Too bad he had shares in the company they ordered from no doubt lol..
@@FanaticDrummer ok yeah maybe but I like to think he was just a nice guy
Boring tho.
ColoniaAgrippinaRex not when he reminds you of dr Steve brule
Super
"It's very rare for you to see 96 millions of anything"
Atoms and molecules: why are we still here, just to suffer
well you don't really "see" them.
There are trillions of drops of water they’re boating on
The key words are to see,dumb dumb.
...
96 million stars in the sky
You got 100m!
Congrats on 100m!!!🎉🎉🎉
The spokesman has a really fun person to listen to. He is an excellent speaker.
Agreed!
That’s exactly what I was thinking. Bravo to him
My thoughts exactly!
i wish i could be more like that guy
I also love how open he is.
Like... No way for me to know for sure, but he sounds like he cares.
Sounds like they did proper research on top of just savvy business decisions, it just all sounds spot on.
Bravo.
The spokesman for the water district did a great job. Animated and informative.
I think the animation was done after
It’s almost like informed, intelligent people make the best leaders.
@@jama211 Oh no, America could never accept THAT!!! :-D
He's just a salesman for their product they are selling to the state of california
I’m just here to help my guy get to 100M on this video. Mission accomplished. I did it😮
Nope you were late.
Who's here after 100 million views 🎉🔥💥
2:17
"Did you think they were nuts?"
- No, but they had balls.
Shape balls specially.
200 likes in 3 hours wtf
I think they should reshoot this whole thing just to get that line in.
@@Joe-wd7px says to you profile pic wtf
@@ihatemylifebutnotreallybut2851 hahaha
Everyone’s talking about the 96 million figure, but nobody’s talking about how nice these people were
I agree
That lake has some balls
Ya they even withstood their cringe talk in the end. If I was the guy handling the boat, I would have landed a nice punch on that lady offsetting her balance enough to fall into the ball pit water.
th-cam.com/video/fAXNf7wwIdE/w-d-xo.html
People rather talk about balls, they are more interesting. LOL
Congratulations on your views. Love your content and passion so much
100M WOOOO
0:40
Him: its very rare to see 96000000 of any thing
Sand: am I a joke to you
Bacteria?????
@@austinbrown6340 you can't SEE bacteria.
@@EyeballAnimations you technically are seeing it
It's just so small that it doesn't seem visible in the human eye
@@anushka1063 but you are only aware that there are billions of them, you don't actually see them all in a single place
@@austinbrown6340 u just contradicted yourself 😂😂😂
Bald dude with glasses is awesome. 10/10 would listen to him again
Ikr, he was so knowledgeable.
Yeah Vsauce is pretty cool
he can sell me anything i would buy
that's the sound of one satisfied politician.
agree
Congrats on 100M - well deserved!
Congrats on the 100 Mill 🎉🎈
the guy explaining everything wearing a suit was very informative and detailed.. good interview
He seems to be the rare case of a leading official actually understanding their job, its really refreshing to see
@6 of 10 I do I think, I also feel like the guy in the boat with the shirt probably earns a penny on the dollar for what the rest of them get.
Can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic😂
They should of had him on the boat for the tour of the reservoir. The personalities of the interviewer and the city works employees clashed and created an awfully awkward chemistry. I bet they were on the lake for an hour and every word spoken made the final cut.🤐🤐🤐. 😂🤣
He's reminds me of one of those fun science teachers.
I can't believe he never asked what would happen if you fell into the reservoir without a life jacket.
I dont think it would be good..
Like an iced lake I guess -- doomed
I figure through the video, the ball parte is kinda shallow.
Can't deal with the fact there's no footage of ppl diving it, though..
You'll sink and the balls would close up before you could surface
You'd drown and then just float there covered by the balls. There are probably thousands of dead people in that reservoir that you can't see while people happily sail by joking about bobo tea.
Before 100 million ❤
96 million shade balls ❌ 100 million views✅
I think it's really cool how you can see patches on the surface where the balls have aligned in perfect lattice structure, much like atoms and molecules does in crystals.
#metoo
You can also see shear lines, which is neat.
Funny, I watched a yt vid about that just a day or two ago. ‘3000 ball bearings show crystal defects’ should get you there if interested.
Looks like metal grains
@@br6768 Yeah! Metals are usually formed into crystal structures so you aren't wrong.
the spokesman knows his stuff so well and is so passionate. love it. very well explained
Just what I was noticing too. Dude's face is all lit up 'splainin all about that black ball he's holding.
$3 per ball TIMES how many balls?
You'd be smiling too! DUH
Barbara Maj Listen closer... he said they got 3 balls per dollar, so roughly $0.33 per ball.
@@barbaramaj1919
It's 3 for one dollar...
I felt that too, love listening to people who are passionate about their job.
100M 🎉
100M views. Congrats, man! Love your content!
That bald guy is super excited about his job and I love it.
Noerdy that could be true because he has a really unique job or he knew this video was going to be seen by a million people and it will be something to brag about
What can I say, the man loves black balls
Yeah, I love enthusiastic workers~
It is awesome when an administrator of public services really enjoys his job and tries to go above and beyond to do the right thing and even doing that, he finds the time to explain a random youtuber all the details - and enjoy that even more because this youtuber is geniunly interested in any and all details. I think the workers will be very happy and pride to work there when they see this video.
@@sarowie Supports the sentiment that it's better to have a job you love and for you to do some good for the world..
I have never seen a video on TH-cam so openly talk about black balls with no age restriction.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Lol
😂😂😂😂
😜😜😜😜😜😜🤣❗
Oml u nasty 😂
We did it boys 🫡🫡🫡
Let's get that 100m views!!!
3:28 "bromide becomes bromate, and bromates are carcinogenic" ... when bros become foes, you start throwing shade balls
I read your comment at the exact time he was saying it 😂
THIS WAS HILARIOUS LMAO amazing joke😂😂😂
Wolfgang Von Zubaz ... narrate my life please
Tony Sparks pointless the journey
🙂
Who else was just wanting him to jump in and see if he sank the whole time?
Me
Me too
Me
@@joshbyrd7596 ME
I soo wanted that
Congrats on 100 million views legend!!!!
And we’re at 100 million views!
The look on that professor's face is priceless as he's explaining things; he's so happy when he's talking about such a niche thing that's awesome
Sunny Gandhi I agree and I find it very interesting. 😀😀😀
It's so wholesome
Edgar Teh yes very wholesome
5:51
damn that bird got obliterated
LMFAO
Good eye
WTF I did not notice
:(
LOL
Congratulations for the 100 million views! 🎉🎉
OK. I'll watch it again 😊
"It's very rare to see 96 million of anything"
My only brain cell: Yes. Yes it is.
Underrated
Lol
100th like bruh
💸💸
Soo underrated man😂😂
That dude's enthusiasm when talking about water was intoxicating.
Daniel Duncan without it you wouldn’t be here. 🤔👈🏻
Maybe he's excited that shitty Cali might get some better tasting tap water in the future
@@kellyshea92 The taste, good, bad or otherwise, of tap water today is less and less dependant upon city filtration.
For example, we have a water filtration system installed on our house. And an increasing amount of homeowners are opting for this option.
Err, refreshing?
Thats why he is a well paid executive in that very specific field.
100,000,000 congrats
This video has more views than balls in that reservoir
Top comment from veritasiums Post aye
Shade balls manufacturer: "I'm so broke, nobody needs my balls, I'm going to have to close my company and sell my house"
LA: "We need 96,000,000 of your products".
That would be 96 balls. About $30. Big spender!
96 reversed is 69 (nice)
also, “balls” (insert lenny face)
alteragnostik wow!
tas the cookie wholesome chungus 100 sexs number ahahah
It's cali. Apparently, everything is full of carcinogens including, of all things, their drinking water. Who's telling them this? Ask the guy who wants to sell their taxpayers 96 million plastic balls at 10 bucks a pop.
"It's really rare for you to see 96 million of anything!"
Grass: o7 ;(
did u mean 96 million pairs?
96 million air
Oxygen
Dark matter
Grass
Water
Fire
Land
Light
Grain of sand
Atoms
Blood cells
And matter
@@Theostar33 96 million grain of sand
96 million atoms
Came for the 100 mil, stayed for the knowledge
You now have over the 100.million. Congrats.
Australian 1: Is that your friend?
Australian 2: Yeah that's my bromate
I'm not your buddy, friend.
He's not your friend, guy.
I'm not your guy, buddy.
@@dokestheamazing I'm not your mate, pal.
He's not your bro, mate.
it took me 3:30 to understand this joke
Australian 2 - Do you have any water?
Australian 1- No, but my Bromide.
7:27 guy behind realizing he's about to walk straight into an interview and changed trajectory immediately
Oh yeah lol.
i know its you
Lmao please someone caption this!
Lol 😂😂
@@NarutoUzumaki-pl4bu me when I see a teacher in public
100 million 🎉
100 MILLION 🔥
the balls that are following your boat are actually pissed that you disturbed them. Collectively they have developed sentience
Haha checkmate creationists!
Emergence at work.
Who's gonna be laughing when their collective intelligence decides to cover all bodies of water in the world‽
Hahahahahaah
Yoink