Thanks for watching super nerds! HUGE thanks to my good friend Allen Pan for his help on this -- definitely go subscribe to his channel if you want more stuff like this. And I hear you: do more of these kinds of videos! I'll try my best. Sometimes it's hard to get time/money/talent to come together, but I'll get some more going for you -- kH

"77 Kelvin above absolute zero" also known as .... 77 Kelvin.

7:55 That sword used was actually a Valyrian Steel one. They cheated.

The white walkers secretly has the reverse UNO card to shatter steel swords back

*cools sword to 77 kelvin* *waves it around for several seconds in room temperature air so it warms back up a bunch*

I believe you’re missing something. If you go back to the scene you can hear the sword “singing” before shattering. This implies that what the white walker does is first lower the swords temperature to make it more brittle and then begin an vibration in the metal that builds on itself due to magically induced constructive harmonics. This drastically increases the energy the sword is absorbing and if the increase were exponential across the entire blade may even account for the blade shattering into a million little bits. Love the show!

"You gonna feel the cut of my better heat transfer rate steel....." Technically badass.

The science and jokes are balanced,it's just like a song of ice and fire

Because science is slowly become mythbusters and I love it

So, Rhaegar Targaryen is not dead... He is just making science videos.

Would Thor's hammer shatter in Hela's hands? Yes

I used to work in a freezer (-10°F). Steel was so brittle that tapping it with a pallet the wrong way could cause it to break. Also, since the freezer was inside the cooler (34°F), having the freezer door and the cooler door open, exposing it to room temperature would create snow storms in the freezer. It was pretty wild.

Hey Kyle, I wished you would have compared that to the properties of Obsidian (dragon glass) as well. Please consider it for footnotes. Best regards :)

Also consider that the S200 series of steel actually gets stronger at cryogenic temperatures, reason why it is being used for some rocket tanks

Depending on the period, medieval swords could have had slag inclusions (poor quality steel) or been pattern welded. Either option could have made them more likely to shatter. Maybe?

4:21 The Many Faces of Kyle Hill 😂

A great example of a steel that's an amazing balance is "Super Steels" such as CPM S35VN Steel that requires cryo treating in order to reach a 60+ Rockwell hardness.

This video was music to my ears. I guess you could it was a Song of Ic... *gets stabbed*

It’s not temperature but the vibrational frequency imparted from the white walker weapon to his opponent. Non valyrian steel swords have resonant frequencies which make them vulnerable to WW weapons. Think earthquakes vs non earthquake proof buildings.

Carbon steel is a modern steel. The steel that fantasy is based on was a much different material. The forges weren't hot enough and the iron was full of impurities. Real carbon steel was so rare it was legendary. Like Damascus steel.

I have a different theory about the shattering of the steel swords. They are shattering to a million pieces as you said, not just in one or two. To do that, I can think of two different ways. The first is to use the eigenfrequency of the metal. If the hit of that ice-spear used was able to create an oscillation on the metal at its eigenfrequency then the metal would shatter, as one can shatter a glass using sound, which is just another type of impact, but instead of an ice-spear is an impact with air. Maybe their ice-spears are made in such a way that they create such oscillations upon impact destroying every metal thing, not only sword. The second theory I have is that again by seeing the way these swords shatter, it is very similar to the shattering of materials that have microcracks within them. For instance like one can shatter glass with just pinching it with one of these safety pointy things. Also another example would be how a prince Rupert’s drop shatters, a small impact at the end shatters the entire nearly indestructible drop into a million pieces. So maybe the whitewalkers have a technic while making their ice weapons where it is possible to take advantage of all the microcracks of the metal. My overall thought would be a combination of these two, with the difference of valerian steel having a different eigenfrequency and possibly less microcracks, making invulnerable to the hits of the ice weapons. Also from a cryogenics point of view I don’t think that it would ever be possible, I am doing my PhD in cryogenics of helium below 2K, and although I haven’t studied the strength of metals at these temperatures, I am more than sure that even at such low temperatures metals have more than enough strength to withstand hits (we dropped a cryocooler at the lab once, thankfully it was fine 😂). So yeah if at

How about a because magic show where you explain how rockets work using magic explanations

I think white walker swords divide the opponent's sword by zero

4:29 Wait, we have magical heat sinks in real life?

Dude, awesome job ^-^ The steel we produce today is of pretty superb quality and uniformity, even when buying a sword on the cheap end. Thanks to the variety of options to us now, developing steel is much simpler, and consistent in it's production. GoT is usually accepted to be roughly based on the mid 1400's, which means medieval quality steel. That's extremely poor quality. If you'd want a more trustworthy lab test, smelting your own steel is the best option, using the poor quality materials n methods that'd have been used.

What if they cooled it to absolute zero? I know we can't really test that, but we can hypothesize!!

9:08 - Wrong. Dragon fire wasn't used for Oathkeeper and Widow's Wail, the swords "forged" from Ned Stark's sword, Ice.

Kyle is my favorite science communicator. That is all

Dude, your whole episode was like a Song I’d Ice and Fire! You’re Fire my friend, keep up with the great episodes!

On my authority, as the Galactically feared, Globally reviled, and Universally despised. I demand Kyle to knight Allen Pan as Sir Allen of Science. Sir Allen's contributions demand the highest honors.

The craziest thing about this show is that I've been taking college physics this semester and it seems like almost every episode comes out with something I'm learning in that class at that time. Thank you Because Science for teaching me more physics than my actual physics class! You are truly the keeper of my 4.0

Hey, Kyle, love the show! I was recently rewatching GOT and thought 'I'd love to see a Because Science episode on how white walkers shatter weapons', and here it is. One thing I do miss about your show is how you used to focus more on what must be different about a situation to create the results we see in movies and TV shows, instead of just confirming or debunking them. I loved how that could recontextualize what we saw and make it even more awesome, instead of just saying, "yeah, that wouldn't actually happen." Still, don't ever stop making these because they are excellent and informative and fun, and because science.

Maybe the white walkers are flash freezing the swords the exposing them to high temperatures wry quickly to create a thermal shock effect.

Keep on rocking! I am forever indebted to you for all the inspiration these videos create. You are my son's hero (and mine too)

I just love the background music. Pretty simple but if paid closed attention the simple two notes of melody it progresses and at some point it sounds like an epic super hero theme . LOVE IT

Love the collaboration. Please do more of them.

I imagine the localized freezing matters; get some heat strain on a bit at the same place that's being stressed

Hey Kyle, I have a quest about the shatter test. Would the force double if the attacker and the defenser would swing their weapons at the same time? Love your show mate

Thank you kyle for all you do....your show is informative and fun to watch.....glad we are all getting smarter together

Kyle, you have just been blowing it out of the park lately. All your videos have such incredible comedic timing and production value. It really is turning into a more numbers based mythbusters (and yes please do take that compliment). Keep it up man👍

Wildlings may not have access to the same quality steel as down south. Perhaps they were using pure iron?

Just seen it pop on my phone and I was already on KZfaq

You and Allen work really well together. Glad to see him featured outside the MK stuff! Definitely going to check his channel out now!

Another intersting place where these kind of extreme temperature variations are found in our modern times is space rocket things. For the next gen space rocket thing SpaceX is building right now (called Starship) the engineers had to consider these things for the material to use for the hull of the spacecraft. As the Metal used for that would experience very low temperatures because of the cryogenic propellants used, as well as the extremely high temperatures of reentry the material has to withstand a crazy amount of temperature variation. Usually rockets used Aluminium or sometimes carbon composites for hull but these Rockets often weren't reuseable. The Space Shuttle used heat shield tiles which were lightwheigt but they had to be individually checked after every flight which took a lot of manhours. So what the Spacex engineers ended up settling on was regular old Stainless steel, which is heavier than aluminium but considering the heat gradient they would have had to use so much aluminium that it would have endet up heavier than when using steel. The kind of steel they chose has a very interesting temperature/toughness curve because as it gets hotter it (at least up to a point) gets stronger before becoming too ductile and at some point melting. All that is to say that I don't know what point I was trying to make but rockets are cool i guess.

So, the void also gives you immortality? Or are you undead? Or the Lord of light loves you? Love the show, always learning.

Could Magneto lift Thor's hammer? (prior to Ragnarok)

Allen's reaction was my favorite thing

This reminds me of how ceramic bits from a spark plug shatters glass in an instant, could be the same principle in the show but obviously with differed materials lol

Hey how do Gundam's Beam Weapons work( except beam sabers that's old territory).

"Crappy carbon steel" 🅱oi! A good sword is supposed to be made of out high carbon or spring steel.

What if both people were swinging at each other with full force? Allen seemingly swung somewhat weak since it was really cold of course and also to be safe in case it *did* shatter, plus the "white walker" didn't swing at all.

So glad to see more of Allen Pan here, I hope he becomes a regular fixture on this show, he's fantastic and deserves it.

Lol just found this Chanel and my name is Kyle hill XD and I have the same color hair kinda this is amazing

. . . Have I been saying "ductile" wrong for years? Ps. I need more almost swearing, please. It's hilarious

What if it is not the impact that shatters the steel swords but maybe the sword’s rapid decline in temperature that shatters it? Maybe like a kind of thermal shock.

Just learned about a lot of this metallurgy in welding school two weeks ago, pretty cool!

Have you thought about doin a episode/series on my hero academia? I feel like you could get some great content from that

Well can’t think of much to say other then great episode, and I love the channel. Keep up the great work.

Im surprised that you didnt mention vibration. If you vibrate it at a specific frequency it might be able to break it especially if it was colder and more brittle. This would also account for the high pitched sound you hear before they shatter in the show.

The steel used for modern swords is "spring metal", flexible and hardy (they can witstand a lot of punishment); back in times like the medieval age (the time that GoT takes inspiration from) steel wasn't of that much quality, it's somethin people tend to forget, the steel we use ain't the steel our ancestors used, their steel was more frail, less pure and with other problematics, and that's why folding and differential tempering existed (that's why katanas have that that weird wavy thing).

Excellent format 👍

Such a musical sound in the slowmo part when the cold sword is being hit against that metal rail or whatever it is

Kyle, I could smell your Song of Ice and Fire joke since you started talking about forging steel.... you did not disappoint me.

Interesting episode. I like sword science. Looking forward to more Because Science stuff relating to swords.

That weapon shattering scene reminds me the ice axe from your science of mortal kombat

“Oh come on, you knew I wouldn’t stay dead” Me: “GOD DANMIT”

Allen was great Kyle! Thanks for another wonderful episode!

Allen is really great! Glad to have him onboard.

Kyle can never die because he gains his power from the void, especially when in the void

Hi Kyle! Love you and love the show. The only sauce that I can have on this particular subject is that the normal swords that people used are more akin to iron and that Valerian Steel is actual steel alloy. Iron reacts more dramatically to cold temperatures which could be why Valerian steel does not break but a regular sword will

that look between the Other and Jon. fucking priceless

Though I missed the reasoning why Kyle kept getting stabbed in the back with a thrown sword, I laughed everytime. It just didn't get old!

Love this channel so much

Idea for the next Footnotes episode: Explain to the layman how cryogenically treating metals causes them to be stronger (or last longer), when you stated that the colder they get, the more brittle they become!

This is easy one of the best videos. I've learn and laugh so much. Thanks.

Kyle, you really do make science fun! Another great video. Going to check out Allen's channel. Thanks for all your hard work & dedication. You have a wonderful sense of humor. Wish my high school science teachers were like you (way back in the days of the awful 80's!). 😄

It's like a real song of ice and fire

If you wanna retry this I've been a blacksmith since I was 15 and know a bit about metallurgy. I've had spring steel shatter at room temperature due to not properly heat treating after an initial quencher

i congratulate u on this impeccably impressive video

It should also be mentioned that a sword would be much more vulnerable to a strike on the flat of the blade as opposed to the edge. Given that some historic sword fighting forms encourage blocking with the flat, perhaps this could be a more likely scenario for the "shatter."

Hi smart man Kyle! Loved the video. A quick point though. A better quality sword with more of a hardened edge may be more likely to shear or shatter than a low quality sword with a lower quality of steel. Additional side note that sword wasn't tested against an I beam strictly speaking, it looked more like a box section of steel. Further depending on the grade of steel you are testing against you may be better testing against iron rather than a mild steel, due to the reduced ductility of the material. Really love the show keep up the hard work in educating and entertaining us 😊

Gosh, the editing and scripting on these are just friggin' genius. xD

Well, that steel beam wasn't ice cold, nor was the surrounding room. I'm guessing that the temperature beyond the wall is at least -10°C. I think it'd impact the shatterability of the sword.

ever since someone pointed out in the footnotes that you say "tempature," I haven't been able to unhear it

Great to see Alan on this!

The iceberg that sunk the Titanic was an example of how steel can become brittle under cool temperatures. The ship would have likely been fine in warmer waters if it hit something similar in size and hardness. Something else to keep in mind is the quality of the steel based on what impurities are added and how evenly they are distributed throughout a steel. The content control of steel is much better today even in the cheapest things we can buy than it would have been 500 years ago in the most expensive things available at that time. Heat treatment is done at really high and specific temperatures in a controlled atmosphere to prevent carbon from leeching out of the material, and the amount of time it is held there depends on how large the object is. To restore some ductility it is reheated at lower temperature and held there for a much longer time in process called "drawing back" which doesn't usually need to be done in a controlled atmosphere. Typically you will find steels such as S7, D2, and A2 treated in this manner, which are commonly used to produce things like hand tools and high quality locks. To get the best of both worlds case hardening is employed using processes such as carburization or nitriding. This is good for keeping the core of the object ductile while making the surface extremely hard and wear resistant. 8620 is really good steel I like to use when designing machine components such as gears which must maintain their shape while enduring contact over long periods of time and many sudden changes in the force applied to them.

Two things: 1.Allen Pan should have used a sharp object( like another sword)as the White Walker's weapon, so that it decreases the area of contact and therefore creating more force into the brittle sword. 2. Game of Thrones is set in medieval times where the technology of forging good swords are not there and often there are a lot of slag in the swords. therefore the swords in Game of Thrones have a higher chance to break than your modern carbon-steel sword

Best editing on that episode! Hilarious!

Kyle this episode was amazing. I never knew that our swords were this durable but I did know about the tempering process. I feel like I learned a lot and added on to some info that I had already retained. you could say it was a real song of Ice and Fire :D

Hey Kyle, how would dragonglass/obsidian respond to withe walker magic? Would it shatter or could u stab a walker full Sam style with it?

Hey, Kyle. Great episode as always, I only have one question though that is why didn't you consider the physical strength or the force at which the white walker hits Jon?

Kyle, I loved today's topic and I also enjoyed the exerpiment that was conducted outside of the "void", but I feel the experiment wasn't handled correctly. Your associate for whom I cannot remember his name (don't take offense) made several mistakes during his testing. His first one was where he removed the sword from the container of liquid nitrogen and then proceeded to talk. While that is happening, the sword his rising in temperature very quickly decreasing its chances for a shatter. Secondly, his swing was incorrect. He should have planted himself firmly and swung confidently. I mean not a dramatic overhand swing or swinging so hard he over extends himself. I refer to some standard HEMA swings. Lastly he reacted to the cross guard breaking which is a standard occurrence from online bought cheap swords. All this being said I believe the outcome would have been the same. I appreciate everything you do and I love this channel. Thank you

Hey Kyle, nice video as always (You should wear some back protection against all those backstappings ;) ) One comment though, in the opening video you can see the white-walker shatter an axe (I believe with wooden handle) instantly. Isn't this just some GoT magic anyway as the wood would probably explode by the sudden freezing of the water within it, while the metal would only crumble... Keep up the good work, like the channel :)

Finally an episode where I can something correct :-) the "sword", well better said the steel club, is way thicker than a usual medieval manufactured sword. A typical longsword usually weighs 1,7 to max. 2 kg. It also is important if the sword was meant to be used for battle fields or duell fights, not even mentioning the period it was made. So called Viking sword are shorter and have more rounder top, gothic longsword are very very pointy and thin at the top. But lets stay in the late 15th century... there you have two different type of longsword, and Longclaw is a longsword, you have battle field longsword (like Longclaw) and you have duelling longswords (like Gandalfs Glamdring or Narsil). If you would use a "longsword for duells, you want them to be light and fast, because only have to last for a couple of strikes - the COG (center of gravity) is around 50-65mm before the cross guard and the weight is around 1,5-1,7 kg. The COP (center of percussion) is around a third behind the point. This way you have a very agile and flexible weapon, but of course not the sturdiest one. If you use a battle field longsword, you want to be heavier and sturdier. I said heavier NOT heavy - you never want a heavy sword. With heavier I mean weapon which weighs around 2 kgs at a length between 1300-1400 mm - so it is still not really heavy at all, but the COG is now at around 110 mm before the cross guard and the COP is only a quarter of the blade length behind the point. So the weapon is much more useable for blows and not so much for thrusts anymore. So depending on which sword are will use you have to choose the time for how long the sword must be in the liquid nitrogen to really freeze through and through. The battle field longsword most probably will never shatter, at least not with liquid nitrogen, but the duelling longsword which way thinner at the point will break easily. You also must not forget the reduction of the notch impact strength when two sharpened object do collide and cut into each other. all in all the test of Mr. Penn was quite useless - wrong steel, wrong sword, too short in the liquid nitrogen and not properly sharpened. Never the less - waiting for you shows has become a weekly routine for me. Please continue - you and your team are awesome! thx for all amusement and information. cheers from Vienna (the real one in Austria, not one of your fake ones in the US ;-) ). Harry btw. Sauzechn means literally translated "pig toe" ;-)

First of all, an awesome episode as always, love your show and watched all your episodes. How many are there? At least, a few hundred and they're all so good. But the real magic here is that Kyle has risen several times. Or is it the void that makes him practically immortal? Maybe time will tell. Keep it up! Greetings from Germany! P.S. Times zones break my heart once a week every Friday. Kyle, do you really charge sleep time? I have to stay awake until midnight to be able to watch your live streams. Thank God, I can have a lie-in at the weekend then. Otherwise, I would quickly be sleep deprived because of you. ;)

The Best episode so far ! ofc all episodes r good ! :D

Blades can fracture in the quenching process due to thermal shock (high stresses induced by varying rates of expansion/contraction due to changes in temperature). This effect could be responsible for greater damage to a blade than changes to ductility alone. If white walkers were inducing high thermal stresses while embrittleing a sword, this might be enough to cause the shattering depicted.

I appreciate the shirt change... As for being technically accurate, well technically, metal could be considered 'cold' relative to let's say...the sun. You also brought up this topic of heat transference during the GOW axe episode, except you used the difference between a tile floor, and a carpeted floor, when stepping out of a shower.

At 3:48 Just a quick note, if you're tempering after hardening , the blade is not usually quenched. The rate of cooling is what determines the atomic structure of the iron and carbon atoms of the final product. When the blade is heated to the temperature where it is non-magnetic, the atoms line up in a crystalline structure. Quenching cools the blade quickly, preserving that hard but brittle structure. Tempering after hardening in still air then slowly cools the blade, allowing it to become more ductile and less brittle, making it a "tougher" blade that won't shatter, but it is also more likely to bend. The skill of the bladesmith is to balance these two qualities, like Goldilocks (getting it "just right", not too brittle, but also not too bendy)

I always assumed the shattering was due to the rapid cooling, as opposed to the temperature it actually reaches. In real life, swords which are folded or pattern welded can crack when quenched due to defects in the joins. If the white walkers cause extremely rapid cooling to cryogenic temperatures, they might be able to cause a similar but more extreme effect.