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CLASSIC: The Old 'Sealed Bottle Of Liquid Nitrogen In A Trashcan Full Of Ping Pong Balls' Experiment

September 20, 2012 / boom shake shake shake the room, experiment, god i love science, holy smokes, i broke my thumb shooting ping pong balls out of my mouth at my babysitter true story, i love liquid nitrogen!, i love ping pong balls, learning by looking, now do the one where you put a rubber ball in there and then pull it out and shatter it on the floor like mr. wizard did that one time!, science

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This is a video of Plymouth University professor Roy Lowry placing a bottle of sealed liquid nitrogen in a trashcan, then covering the bottle with 1,500 ping-pong balls. What happens next? Nothing I ever got to witness in any of my lame-ass science classes, I can tell you that. Although one time a professor did break audible wind during a test and told us he'd give us all A's if we promised not to write about it on social media. I LIED HARD.

Hit the jump, but skip to 3:30 unless you actually want to learn something.

Thanks to Smurf, who once had his/her mushroom house destroyed when it rained ping pong balls.

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There are Comments

  • That is a cool experiment! It's like shaking a soda can then popping out the lid. We also did that when I was in High School That was so fun!
    http://www.trashcansunlimited....

  • protozoider

    Science has been removed by the user. Now I'm sad.

  • ZomBBombeR

    That was pretty badass looking, and sounding, that was loud as hell lol but I didn't see any scientific significance to the experiment, I mean most people with no sciency type backround would have known what was gonna happen there and he didn't even explain it that in depth anyway.

  • Konstantin

    Isn't law fantastic? Exactly same thing done with dry ice instead of liquid nitrogen, potentially less dangerous setup, would be a violation of federal laws as a destructive device.

  • Liang Li

    Is this sort of like a Robin Williams sort of professor that's totally going to inspire all these kids into science? And aren't lyrics just poetry set to music? Id want to transfer after seeingthis, personally

  • Zequi P

    Oh ping pong balls! My pong balls!

  • Adam M.

    First. Cant imagine the janitor was too happy when he came into work that day...

  • BillGatesIsYourDaddy

    I'm sure Scruffy is going to have a few words on this.

  • Adam M.

    Lol that was my first "first". Ever. *facepalm*

  • Great janitor comment. But the lame "First" ruin it all for me.

  • Adam M.

    Do you mean ruined?

  • GKM

    I'm conflicted. I want to vote your down for your "First", but I like the comment about the Janitor... what to do?

  • Adam M.

    I'm conflicted too! I didn't even know I owned a down, and if I did, I wouldn't have a sweet clue what it looks like. As far as what you should do... Jump?

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