People do some crazy things. Or, crazy things happen to some people. This article will take a look at both. Do NOT try these yourself…except for #8.
1. Hot Lava
20 miles below your feet is magma—2400°F liquid rock. If it breaks through the Earth’s crust, it cools to 1600°F and its name changes to lava. Watch somebody stick their foot in it!
2. Stepping On Hot Lava
On Kilauea in Hawaii, a tour guide showed his group what happens when you step on hot lava. He pressed his booted-foot onto the slowly-rolling lava, showing its viscosity. When he pulled his foot away, the lava let loose an angry burst of fire. See the video next. (Do not try this.)
3. Watch The Video
Would this happen if an iPhone was placed in lava? Read on…
4. iPhone Vs. Lava
Somebody with too much time and money on his hands decided to drop his iPhone 6S into molten lava. (Do not try this.)
5. Bye-Bye iPhone
The front edge of the rolling lava flipped the phone and began to fully engulf the $255 device. Somebody pried it out with a stick and guess what happened?
6. Watch The Video
Next, see what happens when you microwave a bar of soap. It’s unreal!
7. Microwaving Soap
Ivory soap is manufactured with pockets of air. Not only do these air pockets allow the soap to float in water, they make for an interesting experiment with a microwave.
8. Poof
As the oven heats the soap, the pockets of air expand. This is the result. Use a new bar of soap and heat it for 60-90 seconds. You also might want to heat only ⅓ or ½ the bar. See the video in the next slide.
9. Watch The Video
What happens if somebody puts their head into an active particle accelerator?
10. Particle Accelerator
A particle accelerator propels protons and electrons through a circular pipe at almost the speed of light. An object is placed in their path to collect data on what happens when the particles collide with the object. What if a human head became the object?
11. Peeking Inside
On July 13, 1978, Soviet scientist, Anatoli Bugorski stuck his head inside a particle accelerator to locate a malfunction. Wouldn’t you know that just at that moment, a safety feature also malfunctioned. The machine activated…
12. Uh-Oh
Bugorski’s face got slammed with a beam of up to 76 billion electron volts travelling close to the speed of light. According to an interview in Wired magazine in 1997, Bugorski said he felt no pain but saw a flash of light “brighter than a thousand suns.”
13. Years Later
He went to the hospital where he was expected to die. Instead, his hair and skin temporarily burned away showing the path of the beam, and he lived on with half of his face not wrinkling with age. Unfortunately, he began suffering grand mal seizures, but he did go on to complete his PhD.
[Featured Image Credit: doc.babylonjs.com]