Can You Solve this Ice Diamond Riddle? ft. Michael Stevens
Season 3 Episode 18 | 4m 7sVideo has Closed Captions
Physics Girl asks Michael Stevens from Vsauce to solve some challenging physics riddles.
Dianna Cowern from Physics Girl asks Michael Stevens from Vsauce to solve some challenging physics riddles. Can you solve the ice diamond riddle?
Can You Solve this Ice Diamond Riddle? ft. Michael Stevens
Season 3 Episode 18 | 4m 7sVideo has Closed Captions
Dianna Cowern from Physics Girl asks Michael Stevens from Vsauce to solve some challenging physics riddles. Can you solve the ice diamond riddle?
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipOh yeah.
CREW: Oh yeah.
Yeah?
CREW: Yeah.
Do you know what I'm talking about?
CREW: [INAUDIBLE] go faster and faster.
Yeah, I've seen people do this before.
But you've never done this before?
No.
Michael, when did you grow up?
The '90s.
We're, like, pretty close.
The 1790s.
Hand-clapping hadn't been invented yet.
Can you tell us-- MICHAEL: Robert Clap-- - -the history?
Robert Clap, one day he was like, that was amazing.
And everyone was like, do that again.
He was like-- Are you serious right now?
I'm totally serious.
This is the actual history?
Yeah, I tell the truth at all times.
I 80% believed Michael until I realized, Michael Stevens didn't grow up in the 1790s.
Can't fool me.
But that's not why you're here.
You're here because you want to see me challenge our guest to some physics, puzzles, and riddles.
And I better introduce him because you might not know who he is, despite the fact that he has a channel name across his chest and because he has the most viewed science YouTube channel on the platform.
So better get do it.
Hey, I'm Dianna.
You're watching "Physics Girl".
I'm here at the "Vsauce" warehouse with Michael Stevens, the host of "Vsauce".
You agreed to be asked some puzzles and riddles, logic, physics, that kind of stuff.
I didn't just agree.
I insisted.
You did.
I love puzzles because I'm not that great at them, but afterwards I always feel like a better person because I've learned something.
Should we get to it?
Let's do it.
We're going to start with some warm-ups.
Then I hope the warm-ups are easy because you're calling them warm-ups like I'm supposed to just squish them.
But they're still riddles and they're still puzzles.
They're just the ones that are like, you either get the concept or you don't.
OK. OK.
I have a ping-pong ball, and I think that I can throw it such I have a ping-pong ball, and I think that I can throw it such that it will suddenly stop and turn around and come that it will suddenly stop and turn around and come right back at me.
How could I do that?
How could you do that?
You know the drill.
Pause the video here if you want to think about it for yourself before we continue on with the answer.
So here's the question again.
How could I throw a ball so that after a bit it stops, turns around, and comes right back at me.
And it's not bouncing off of anything.
Nope, not bouncing on anything.
Right-- right.
I'm assuming it has to do with, like, the spin of the ball.
At some point it will have slowed At some point it will have slowed down enough that its spin becomes the major component down enough that its spin becomes the major component of its motion.
That's a good guess.
I'm going to do it such that no matter my technique, no matter my skills, I can always get it to come right back at me.
Ah, so just throw it straight up.
Yeah.
Got it, yeah.
See, yeah, that's one of those great ones where you're like, oh, I think of throwing as been a horizontal action.
As being horizontal.
The weird thing about this whole situation is that when you throw a ball straight up in the air, it'll stop instantaneously at the top.
But that means that right before and right after, like a millisecond, a microsecond before and a microsecond after it'll be moving up and then it'll be moving down.
How is it possible that a ball is only stopped for an instant?
Such is the nature of continuous motion.
Is this one of those situations where I'm like, this is so weird and everybody else is like, no it's not.
That's just how the world works.
Moving on.
Next.
DIANNA: Next one.
Michael, you've got a glass of water.
And over here, imagine that you have an ice cube.
And inside the ice cube it looks normal because it looks like everything is clear, but inside of it it's got a little diamond frozen in the middle.
Got it?
MICHAEL: Great, beautiful.
DIANNA: Yeah.
And then you drop the ice cube into the glass of water.
Now, when the ice cube melts and the diamond falls to the bottom of the glass-- because carbon in diamond form is more dense than water-- does the water level go down, go up, does the water level go down, go up, or stay the same from the level it was at when the ice or stay the same from the level it was at when the ice cube is first placed in there?
Very good question.
All right, so let's work through this.
So-- And that's where we're going to cut because I know you love being on the edge of your seat because it's so good for your brain juice to have to wait just one more day to think about the answer to the riddle until you get a video with the answer and maybe a bonus riddle And that's it.
Happy physicsing.