Swimming-pool science fun with 25 million toy water balls
Watch YouTubers light fireworks, toss in dry ice and conduct other action-packed science experiments in a pool full of tiny water beads.
Filling a swimming pool with tiny water balls known as Orbeez can be a colorful way to conduct science experiments. YouTubers Mark Rober and the Backyard Scientist teamed up to do just that in their latest videos.
Rober made the video "25 million Orbeez in a pool - Do you sink or float?" so he "could settle an argument about how far you sink if you jump in." The results are surprising, and it's all due to buoyancy. This means if you jump in a pool full of Orbeez, you will sink in Orbeez until you've displaced your weight in them.
If that wasn't interesting enough, the Backyard Scientist also posted a video of his experiments using the same pool full of Orbeez -- that's 1,600 pounds of water balls made of sodium polyacrylate, which is both nontoxic and biodegradable.
In additional experiments, the duo throw in a plastic bottle full of dry ice and light fireworks into the pool of Orbeez -- with mixed results. The biggest experiment, however, might have been getting rid of the millions of Orbeez before the parents arrived home to see their pool filled to the brim.