Friday, March 13, 2009

Cannonball In Mercury

72 comments:

  1. Anonymous3:23 pm

    Mercury can't be -- what?

    Sounds like he's saying "mercury can't be short."

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  2. The "mercury COLUMN is short"

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  3. "Because the mercury column is short" is what he's saying.

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  4. "Because the mercury column is short" is what he's saying.

    I guess this is part of a longer item about Toricelli barometers which use a column of mercury - mercury is used because its density allows the column to be a manageable length. If you used water it'd be around 30 feet long instead of 30 inches.

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  5. He is referring to using mercury in a barometer. Because of the density of mercury the column can be short (shorter than using a less dense medium like later which would need .75 meters or 30-something inches). We don't get the meaning because this clip is excerpted from a longer segment. Do a web-search for the name he mentions along with mercury.

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  6. Anonymous8:18 pm

    I think he's saying "the mercury column is short."

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  7. Anonymous8:36 pm

    the mercury column is short -- mercury column, i.e. in a barometer.

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  8. Anonymous8:51 pm

    "It's portable, because the mercury column is short"

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  9. Anonymous9:31 pm

    He's saying "the mercury COLUMN is short".

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  10. He's not saying "...mercury can't be..." he's saying "...because mercury column is short". He doesnt use an article in front of the word "mercury", which is either him mispeaking, being lazy, or a Brittish thing.

    He's talking about the Torricelli Experiment which involves creating a vacuum with a column of mercury.

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  11. Anonymous11:07 pm

    "A Mercury column is short..."

    If you use a column of water to determine atmospheric pressure it would not be short.

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  12. Karmic Whale11:19 pm

    Mercury can't be shot. Because it's so dense, the bullets don't go through, but stay on top and float around.

    I think.

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  13. He is saying the Torricelli experiment is repeatable because the "Mercury column can be short"

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  14. He's saying Mercury can be short, as in a short column of Mercury in a barometer. Sure, it's 30 inches, give or take (erm 75ish cm), because of its density.

    Torricelli's experiment was that you could put a liquid (preferrably a heavy one) in a column that's sealed at the bottom, turn it upside-down, and place it in a further container of mercury as the liquid draws down from the top, a space with a vacuum is created at the top. Doing so struck a blow to the existing thought that nature abhors a vacuum.

    I'm not sure if the barometric propeties of Torricelli's apparatus were obvious, but they must've become obvious as people around the world measures different heights of the mercury.

    As for Mercury being short and portable, it's true-- you can hold something 30" tall in your hands. To do the same thing with water requires 33 feet, or about 10 meters.

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  15. Evil Klown: he's saying "because the mercury column is short." You can use a vertical tube filled with mercury to measure air pressure, and it's portable because the tube can be pretty short. If you used a lighter material like water, the tube would have to be 33 feet tall, which is not very portable.

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  16. "It's portable because the mercury column is short."

    He means when compared to a column of water.

    See this video (click "experiment"). That shows to do a column of water it is over 10m tall.

    I just found that site myself trying to figure it out. ;)

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  17. Alejo Hausner3:53 am

    He's saying the mercury column is short (he must have been talking about barometers just before this clip began). A classic barometer is a tube full of water or mercury, held up by the atmosphere's air pressure. Because mercury is denser than water, the height of a mercury barometer will be shorter than the height of a water barometer.

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  18. Aren't mercury fumes poisonous? Why isn't he wearing any protection?!

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  19. Anonymous3:10 pm

    I think he says, "...the mercury column is short."

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  20. Not can't, but column.
    "Mercury COLUMN is short", he's talking about Torricelli's barometer experiments.

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  21. Anonymous6:44 pm

    He's saying mercury can't be short. SHORT. Where's the misunderstanding in this?

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  22. The Mercury column is short, the Mercury column is short, etc, etc, blah, blah, blah. Geeze - don't any of you read the comments before you reply??

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  23. Anonymous7:50 pm

    He's saying the mercury...

    Jesus people, are you that simple. It's been said 20 times already!

    Move along!

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  24. Anonymous10:31 pm

    what is he saying? it sounds like "the mercury column is short"???

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  25. Anonymous10:38 pm

    >>Aren't mercury fumes poisonous? Why isn't he wearing any protection?!

    I think it is only dangerous as part of a gas. He isn't heating the mercury...thus no gas.

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  26. I'm not sure, but I think he's saying "the mercury is short."

    Short compared to what? Damned Brits!

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  27. Anonymous11:30 pm

    I think he's saying "the mercury column is short."

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  28. Anonymous12:14 am

    I think he says, "...the mercury column is short."

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  29. Anonymous12:47 am

    Dude musta collected a LOT of thermometers to make that giant pool of mercury. Beats the tar out of my tiny baby food jar full o' the stuff.

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  30. Anonymous2:52 am

    Mercury COLUMN is short.
    Just clearing that up.

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  31. Anonymous3:17 am

    Careful man! A terminator will come out of that pool!

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  32. Anonymous3:24 am

    Something about a short mercury column?

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  33. Anonymous4:19 am

    Is he going to get some sort of mercury poisoning from that splash of mercury!?

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  34. Dude that is so cool. Wheer did they get all that Mercury I wonder??

    R
    www.Privacy-Center.net

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  35. Anonymous5:33 am

    So, what you're all saying is that he's saying "the mercury column is short".

    Right?

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  36. the mercury is short a column.

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  37. Anonymous6:14 am

    Should he be dropping a ball into mercury like that? It... splashes, and it's terribly poisonous. That seems unnecessarily dangerous.

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  38. Anonymous6:25 am

    Fake, Mercury would melt his arms off and even if it was real mercury it would have cooled by the time it came to earth.

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  39. I'm sorry, but the cannonball floating seemed obvious to me. Didn't everybody's grandpa have jars of mercury he'd let you float some coins in as a child? "Push them down. See? They won't sink in mercury." -Grandpa

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  40. Anonymous6:56 am

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  41. Anonymous7:35 am

    i jus wanna know y if that was actually mercury....he isnt wearing a mask...and he jus like chunks the cannon ball into it where it like splashes everywhere....jus a thought..

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  42. Anonymous8:33 am

    I think he says, "...the mercury column is short."

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  43. Expat8:55 am

    It's "Mercy! Callin' the shots!"

    Apparently, he has just been told he is to direct the next show.

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  44. He's talking about the Torricelli Experiment

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  45. Anonymous11:29 am

    short is the mercury column

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  46. Anonymous2:17 pm

    Spoiler Alert!




    The mercury column is short.

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  47. Anonymous2:29 pm

    I think he said "Because the mercury column is short"

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  48. He is saying "mercury column is not long".

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  49. "Mercury columns wear shorts."

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  50. Anonymous3:33 pm

    What does he mean "the mercury column is shot?" I don't get it.

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  51. Anonymous3:59 pm

    Zalgo

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  52. Anonymous4:29 pm

    I can't believe no one's answered Evil Klown's question yet. Let's try to be more helpful, OK?

    Evil Klown: He's actually saying "A mercury column is short," referring to the fact that mercury barometers are much shorter than barometers of other, lighter liquids.

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  53. Anonymous5:15 pm

    OMFGWTF!

    THE MERCURY COLUMN HAS BEEN SHOT!

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  54. El Gringo6:21 pm

    I thought he said somethin' about Martin Short, what about him? Does he also float?

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  55. I'm sure he said The mercury column can be SHORT. Call me crazy, I know nobody else will agree, but that's gotta be it.

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  56. Anonymous7:13 pm

    i think he says the Mercury column is a sport

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  57. why is every comment about what he's saying?

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  58. Anonymous9:19 pm

    He said the "mercury column is sex"

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  59. Maybe he means that the mercury's shorts are like columns...

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  60. "why is every comment about what he's saying?"

    Because there was only the first post when about 20 of us responded, but then after moderation it looks like we are all repeating idiots. ;)

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  61. When I was a little kid, my dad had a little jar of mercury that he would show us. We called it quicksilver. I loved letting a small bead of mercury roll around on my hand. Those were good times. I wonder where I can get some these days?

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  62. Anonymous11:49 pm

    @Andrew

    Because he's saying the Mercury Column is short.

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  63. Anonymous12:46 am

    Duh!... He is saying, 'The mickery column is snort'

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  64. Anonymous1:40 am

    I tried to make a column out of mercury once. Man, that stuff is hard to stack. That was the shortest column I ever saw.
    It seemed almost pointless to put the mercury roof on it.

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  65. Anonymous8:05 am

    you tards.

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  66. "The mercenary Gollum wears shorts"

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  67. Anonymous8:10 pm

    Sorry if this has been answered before... but what the heck is he mumbling about?

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  68. Let me answer that for you...
    I think he says, "because the mercury column is short". I'm so sorry no one else was willing to help you until now... Mean people!

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  69. Anonymous6:03 am

    He saying that water is potable, or drinkable, because it is short of mercury. If you have mercury in your water, it is not potable because mercury is a poisonous heavy metal.

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  70. Anonymous3:30 pm

    WHO CARES!!!!!!!!

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  71. Anonymous8:00 pm

    That is awesome!

    Melvin Durable
    melvindurable@gmail.com

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  72. Yakov Smirnoff1:34 am

    In Soviet Russia, column mercury you!!!

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