this chemistry experiment is more cursed than it looks

Рет қаралды 298,703

Жыл бұрын

The "gold penny experiment" seems to be in violation of the laws of physics!!
This experiment is a favorite of chemistry teachers, and there are several videos of the demo online. However, info on how it actually works is nearly impossible to find. In this video, I set out to demystify this awesome reaction once and for all.
main channel: / styropyro
instagram: / styro.drake
patreon: / styropyro
backup channel and b-side videos: / @drakeanthony1155
discord: / discord
It's funny because I learned a lot of chemistry by doing silly experiments like this when I was younger. However, this was one of the only times I was left more confused than when I started. It wasn't until after getting my chemistry degree that I decided to look into it again, and even then I had trouble finding info! However, I finally came across this great paper that covers the experiment in nearly every way possible: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ed07...
As for why I've been absent on my main channel, I've been in the process of building my new lab and I don't yet have a setup where I can build crazy stuff right now. Most of my tools and parts are packed away in boxes at the moment, and I've been doing construction work nearly nonstop for several months now. The lab is nearly finished though, so a bunch of crazy content will soon be released! Stay tuned!

Пікірлер: 672

@harperreese264 Жыл бұрын

when he said “it’s free energy” he sounded like a legit supervillain

@Xadov Жыл бұрын

He should team up with the “Free Real Estate!” guy

@nyeti7759 Жыл бұрын

Are you implying he *isn't* a legit supervillain?

@rapier992 Жыл бұрын

*ElectroBoom sweating*

@AliFareedMC Жыл бұрын

@@rapier992 LOL

@livedandletdie Жыл бұрын

When does Styropyro not sound like a supervillain...

@Nathan-kk6lb Жыл бұрын

1:41 I think he’s really just looking for excuses to reuse the “attacking a battery with a sword” clip in as many videos as possible at this point.

@JakeInaitor5000 Жыл бұрын

I'm fine with that cause that bit is great

@dynamicworlds1 Жыл бұрын

Wouldn't you?

@gyrozeppeli4862 Жыл бұрын

I can't blame him in ANY way

@tremolo312 Жыл бұрын

styropyro: "How do I show people that a battery wouldn't work?" styropyro: ahh yes 1:41 should get the message across

@Nathan-kk6lb Жыл бұрын

I think he’s really just looking for excuses to reuse the “attacking a battery with a sword” clip in as many videos as possible at this point.

@notchs0son Жыл бұрын

@@Nathan-kk6lb it’s a good clip XD It’s got that nice Swing swoosh

@gangstertechnology Жыл бұрын

this man is a menace

@nickbaylander6320 Жыл бұрын

A battery would work if you charged it with separate current but still low amp. Us less battery. I make batteries all the time just by experimenting. If love to meet styro. I bet I could show him some things. As well as he's shown me

@cyqry Жыл бұрын

Thank god for KZfaq's new "most replayed" feature confirming to Styro that we all like to watch batteries get abused.

@bruhmoment23123 Жыл бұрын

2:23 Lmafo the coin drawing

@skjoldogvennerne4152 Жыл бұрын

@Abdullah bruh your name is abdullah you should know what it means

@CloudHater Жыл бұрын

in terms of meaning it's almost a direct translation as well xD

@farheenafroz1028 Жыл бұрын

@Abdullah styropyro

@bruhmoment23123 Жыл бұрын

@@farheenafroz1028 no

@farheenafroz1028 Жыл бұрын

In original coin it is written 'in God we trust, liberty 2020' And in his drawing he wrote 'Allah hu Akbar, liberty 2022 '.

@JakeInaitor5000 Жыл бұрын

As someone who recently graduated with a bachelors in chemistry, this was definitely weird but once you showed/talked about the paper it made total sense, lattice energies are kinda weird to think about sometimes especially when it looked like it was a homogenous layer of zinc that was forming

@UltimateBread48 Жыл бұрын

Well if you are a chemist, what did he say before zinc dust? I’m trying to re do this experiment but I don’t know what he said

@thesweeney80 Жыл бұрын

@@UltimateBread48 I'm not a chemist but he said "Lye".

@UltimateBread48 Жыл бұрын

@@thesweeney80 ok thanks

@aryabiss9445 Жыл бұрын

@@UltimateBread48 also known a NaOH, or sodium hydroxide

@spacecowboy2k Жыл бұрын

When I was in 8th grade, I submitted an electroplating experiment for the end of the year, but my battery and wire setup didn't seem to work after a while, so I gave my teacher the penny in the water & zinc sulfate solution that I had found in an old chemistry set. It sat on his desk for a couple weeks, and one day he pulled the penny out and showed me that somehow, it had ended up plated even without the electrical current XD I think this is exactly what happened!

@artiction Жыл бұрын

Now I need to see Cody to do his intro with 03:56

@snail1635 Жыл бұрын

Yes

@cpu_1292 Жыл бұрын

Take my upvote

@thelastwoltzer Жыл бұрын

For sure

@Metal_Master_YT Жыл бұрын

that's exactly what it looks like, xD

@Herobrine100x Жыл бұрын

@@cpu_1292 reddit moment

@Adamisgood24 Жыл бұрын

The significant voltage read out "hell" upsidedown.

@sarun37823 Жыл бұрын

2:36 for the context

@malijaffri Жыл бұрын

It says "SEll" before settling at "hEll"

@jankcitycustoms Жыл бұрын

a future powered by penny batteries is not one I'd write home about.

@U20E0 Жыл бұрын

missed opportunity for “literal coin batteries”

@Blackflame305 Жыл бұрын

Fun fact! Pennies used to be made out of pure copper, then added a thin core zinc in 1962. However, starting in 1982, pennies switched to copper PLATING on a zinc base (97.5% zinc). This means that modern pennies can be turned into brass without bothering with the initial zinc plating! It will, however, produce a slightly duller brass than a plated penny (Note: be careful not to overheat the penny if trying this. Because zinc has a much lower melting point than copper, it's easy to liquefy the inside of the penny and leave a fragile "shell" of copper. When the copper inevitably breaks or melts, molten zinc will spill everywhere, risking serious injury)

@Blackflame305 Жыл бұрын

Further notes: The penny actually stopped being fully copper in 1837. From 1837-1857, it was actually a brass alloy of 95% copper and 5% tin and zinc. In 1857 they switched back to copper with a 12% nickel core, and then switched to the now-standard zinc core in 1962, starting with only 5% zinc

@drunkenhobo5039 Жыл бұрын

In the UK it's similar, except it took us until 1992 to make the change and we chose steel as opposed to zinc for the bulk of the coin. That means you can easily separate old and new copper coins by using a magnet. Same applies to the 2 pence coin and they were both changed as the value of copper in the coin exceeded the value of the coin.

@chaos.corner 5 ай бұрын

@@drunkenhobo5039 I worked in a lab with a small MRI magnet and would sometimes stack pennies in a pyramid on their edges sideways (if you can visualize that) when I was bored.

@kriegh94 Жыл бұрын

I don't know much about the subject, but it looks like a neat method to keep in mind when making custom coins, like for LARPing, historical recreation, micronations, etc.

@doomyboi Жыл бұрын

Getting free energy from pennies wouldn't make any cents anyway

@iceyr4053 Жыл бұрын

1:41 that made me laugh harder than it should have

@timteecvhn Жыл бұрын

Same here lol. I just love it whenever he does sudden and random things like that for absolutely no reason.

@robokid20001 Жыл бұрын

That's from the video where he was harvesting carbon rods out of batteries lol.

@xthee_0nly_1x11 Жыл бұрын

It’s made me realize how much I need a machete.

@hoodiedude4204 Жыл бұрын

he and nilered do this so often

@Snailman1999 Жыл бұрын

@@xthee_0nly_1x11 they are pretty great tools and come in an amazing variety of practical, specialized, and not so practical designs

@schnizzyfizz7832 Жыл бұрын

I got three minutes into this. Then I went and spent my life savings on constructing a free energy penny/zink powered reactor to save humanity and win one of those cool Nobel prizes. I eventually ran out of both pennies and dollars though...

@DrEggman_24 Жыл бұрын

I remember the silver pennies being one of the earliest chemistry demos I've seen! Always great to see it again 👍

@Cornish_Co Жыл бұрын

2:23 FBI Watch List: Leveled up

@hiddenguy67 9 ай бұрын

Allah akbar

@keatoncampbell820 Жыл бұрын

Loved the penny rendering you made, also love the way you get angry at things defying thermodynamics. It's like, why did learn this stuff if it isn't true?! Oh. It is !

@AlexanderTzalumen Жыл бұрын

I did not know that high zinc brass made such a nice silver-grey steel ish product... That gives me a great idea for creating a polished steel- finish on copper plated plastic...

@imgonnacry8516 Жыл бұрын

2:25 damn that coin

@kornflakes420 Жыл бұрын

Good to see you still making content, you're one of my favorites that still exist. You always do a great job at unveiling the mind.

@jareda8943 Жыл бұрын

this is pretty awesome. Found you through YT shorts but enjoy this long content as well!

@joshuadouglass8225 Жыл бұрын

Check out his main channel if you like his longer videos, he’s got lots of stuff

@papawheely3627 Жыл бұрын

Every time he asks "Pretty cool, right?" I feel the need to correct him. No, it's not pretty cool. It's REALLY h€cking cool!

@MrSzautner Жыл бұрын

This was incredibly cool, and I'd take it one step further and say your content is some of the most interesting on this website. thank you.

@DaimyoD0 Жыл бұрын

I presume that the "Allahu Akbar" was just a friendly play on "In God We Trust?"

@octanitrocubane Жыл бұрын

2:30 Yeah, the good old Allahu Akbar penny

@hiddenguy67 9 ай бұрын

real

@basicallyvideos9779 Жыл бұрын

What if someone does this with tungsten coins? He could fool people into thinking it's gold

@anaveragegigachad39 Жыл бұрын

It would be pretty expensive to get so many tungsten coins

@GRBtutorials Жыл бұрын

@@anaveragegigachad39 Still not nearly as expensive as gold, though, only about $300/kg for finished products, vs. $60000/kg for good.

@Leadvest Жыл бұрын

Considering that Tungsten metal is basically always in high demand. You'd have to order Ammonium Paratungstate by the ton overseas, set up a Molybdenum Disilicide heating element vacuum muffle furnace, and develop a method for making the coins from scratch. All just to commit one of the dumbest forms of fraud imaginable.

@CATASTEROID934 Жыл бұрын

I'm no expert and I may be overthinking this so correct me if I'm wrong, but I can forsee a few minor teething issues in your scheme; in this fun demonstration the zinc does wander into the surface of the copper/bronze layer of the coin but it doesn't go very deep and it's not exactly a thick layer of brass formed, you can scratch it off fairly easily. Even if you place a tungsten disc inside a thicker body of brass there's also the issue that destructive testing, things like touchstones/abrasive surfaces are used to test for gold, it's alloys and other precious metals by abrading small quantities of powder from the surface of the soft metal/alloy then applying acid of several known concentrations and seeing which react with the powder formed and the brass isn't nearly as soft as gold and the tungsten definately isn't and is gonna resist that abrasion without breaking a sweat, and chemical separation/purification procedures are going to dissolve the zinc alloy and leave behind a few naked pellets of tungsten swimming in the bottom of the container. Also if the mark decides to do the old fashioned test of biting it to deform it they're going to break their teeth which is going to indicate that something isn't quite right. Even past all that if you can't get pre-made tungsten pellets in the correct dimensions then I don't even want to think about how you'd go about getting the plant to do so and procure the materials without telling the world you're working with tungsten. I dunno man it's a lot of startup capital and effort to commit fraud in a manner that wouldn't be very well hidden.

@tsm688 Жыл бұрын

tungsten is nowhere near dense enough.

@Rizzob17 Жыл бұрын

Glad to see a longer form video. Can’t wait to see the new setup!

@bcikablam3578 Жыл бұрын

I love that I can actually understand his explanations and how weird the reaction is now that I've had HS chemistry

@Murasame13 Жыл бұрын

Same but college/university chem

@aSpyIntheHaus Жыл бұрын

You have just solved a problem I was having with using copper tube and fuel containing nitro-methane. The problem is nitro an copper can be unfriendly in certain situations, so much that I had avoided using it for some small fuel lines. In the meantime I made some out of Stainless. It is way too hard to swage (bulge) the ends easily though so I'm not happy with them either. Now I know this is a thing I can make copper tubes with the bulges on each end easy then turn them into brass that doesn't misbehave with the fuel!

@guerrillaradio9953 Жыл бұрын

Ahhh, mixing chemistry with RC projects.... that's always a good day.

@TheCuteZombie Жыл бұрын

wouldn't brass also react with the nitro, since it still have copper in there? The zinc in the copper will still turn to brass over time. The heating only make it faster. A better option would be to nickel plate the final copper set up. just a battery and nickel solution would be enough and have as much chemical resistance as stainless steel.

@aSpyIntheHaus Жыл бұрын

@@TheCuteZombie That is also really good option that I have considered. I use electroless nickel plating solution as it is better at getting into tubes and plating the insides. One reason I haven't done this is I was never really sure how well it coats the insides. That said though, I do have a Mill so I can easily enough plate it in Nickel and then mill it in half and check. I just saw this and it immediately made me think I the issue I had at the time with using copper tubes. I could actually go out and just buy Brass tube. But this can still split when I'm swaging it to flare the ends. Copper is ideal because its nice and soft and flares really well. Long story short, I'm going to try both zinc-ing them and I'll try your suggestion and Nickel plating them then opening them up to check the insides.

@TheCuteZombie Жыл бұрын

@@aSpyIntheHaus the question really is if zinc will protect against nitro. It will inevitable turn to brass due to zin dissolving into copper. The heating, like I said, only make it faster. I have done this experiment in the past using zinc from batteries, and after a day or two the silver turn to the gold color of brass. That is why i sugest nickel, since it also stick very well to copper (chromated pieces are copper, nickel and chrome plated) and nickel is basically inert to most substances.

@aSpyIntheHaus Жыл бұрын

@@TheCuteZombie So brass works fine with Nitro fuels. The issue is only with copper and only occurs in really particular situations like if the fuel is left to dry over a long period of time creating a compound which can decompose violently if subjected to shock. So brass doesn't have this issue and its not the zinc coating that I'm chasing it is it converting to brass that I want. I still think I nickel plate them but it was just that I hadn't thought of it at the time. I'm still waiting for my zinc powder to arrive.

@JoeOnTheGo Жыл бұрын

I just love all your stuff. It’s so fascinating and the information presented finely

@NoblePineapples Жыл бұрын

I remember NurdRage posting a video on this some years back. Good memories, thank you for posting this!

@zaxolotl Жыл бұрын

i like the idea of short videos that don't fit as full videos on the main channel but are still a bit substantial over on this one! :)

@johnrobholmes Жыл бұрын

Brilliant sir! I love your content.

@sterling5052 6 ай бұрын

that **is** pretty cool, dayum, thank you for that wholesome piece of knowledge, love what you do, I constantly learn lots from you

@DonCarlione973 5 ай бұрын

I absolutely love this channel! He's a cool ass smarty pants. I usually learn something by the end of each video. Very consistent content! 👌🏼✌🏼

@CoteMoretz Жыл бұрын

Years ago I found a dime that appeared gold, it got me curious and it lead me to finding about things like this, so glad you made a video about it too.

@VICTORYOVERNEPTUNE Жыл бұрын

your content just gets better and better

@soft.nd.golden Жыл бұрын

Love your channel!

@MrLamf2939sh Жыл бұрын

We need more content! Lol always a pleasure

@HidekiRyugaxx Жыл бұрын

huh thats a new format of the vid from this channel.. I like it! its nice to learn something new

@aboudi0507 Жыл бұрын

3:43 good.. now electroboom wouldn’t raid your house with Tesla coil tasers

@r04te 6 ай бұрын

i hated chemistry because i could never understand it. thanks styro, i've started liking the subject because you do experiments & show the observations first before backing it up with theory. i always hated teacher's throwing a bunch of random reactions at me & expecting me to figure it out :)

@oliver3339 Жыл бұрын

Imagine doing this in front of someone in like the 1700's

@PetCactusA_HarmlessLittlePrick Жыл бұрын

While babbling an incoherent incantation.

@spiderpile464 Жыл бұрын

love you posting:)

@ninjatakes4321 Жыл бұрын

love u bro you should make more videos

@keeganlafferty1395 Жыл бұрын

imagine doing this so you can use these "gold" and "silver" pennies alongside the normal copper looking pennies in a DnD LARP

@karmakazi219 Жыл бұрын

I really miss your longer videos. 😭

@franshendrix7186 Жыл бұрын

Ive been anoyed by this for years thank you

@StevesCraziness Жыл бұрын

At 2:37 you can see its cursed with "hell" upside down in the multimeter. Lol

@among-us-99999 6 ай бұрын

Glad to see some shorter videos that aren’t using the shorts player!

@TheAstroG Жыл бұрын

Mad scientist is back!

@Metal_Master_YT Жыл бұрын

I resonate with this video xD I always found thermodynamics, energy and entropy quite interesting, and I keep on trying to find ways around it, and loopholes against entropy, but of course, I never succeed, *entropy is inevitable.*

@Blakearmin Жыл бұрын

That drawn penny was hilarious.

@_vla Жыл бұрын

2:26 THE COIN THOUGH

@slimsackett6199 Жыл бұрын

If this guy and NileRed did a collab, they’d probably take over the world.

@guicky_ Жыл бұрын

styropyro and ex&f would scare me more

@roop-a-loop Жыл бұрын

this is an outstanding video

@joe8108 Жыл бұрын

upload a video silly guy, we've been waiting

@Wineman3383 Жыл бұрын

Awesome video brother!!!!🖐️

@JoTheVeteran 6 ай бұрын

I actually made this as prop for my dnd games. The silver step doesn't stick. The adherence isn't strong, and when hitting other pennies and handling it it slowly flakes away. You need to apply heat to make them permanent. But that way you only get "gold" ones, not gold, silver, copper they use in dnd. And where's the platinum too?

@ebert8756 4 ай бұрын

I've been wondering about how this works for a long time (coming from just knowing the activity series). Still not sure i get it, but I will watch again 😄

@ebert8756 4 ай бұрын

so the driving force is the formation of brass! okay now i think i might got it.

@El-Burrito Жыл бұрын

love your videos

@bubaks2 Жыл бұрын

Pretty cool. Love ur animated penny lmfao

@audreyb3171 Жыл бұрын

Please never stop making videos

@Nocare89 Жыл бұрын

I need to go spend like $20 so I can have a chest of gold pennies now... Thanks XD

@Gunbudder Жыл бұрын

i still have some coins that i changed the color of about 20 years ago in school lol. that's where my love for chemistry started. too bad i'm awful at chemistry! i can still enjoy it as a hobby though

@Auroral_Anomaly 8 ай бұрын

Bro almost broke physics.💀

@Slowly_Going_Mad Жыл бұрын

Actually is a fantastic bit that I would never had really looked any further into than the basic gold penny trick.

@justinbanks2380 Жыл бұрын

This is really cool! Had never even seen this reaction. Great explanation! How dangerous is the process? I know heating or welding anything with zinc is something you don't generally want to because of zinc fumes.

@stucknousernames Жыл бұрын

Just don't huf the stuff it's not asbestos.

@fabianbuki7679 Жыл бұрын

Why does this guy look kind of insane? Rocking back and forth, barely blinking and grinning sinisterly.

@woosix7735 Жыл бұрын

On my exam there was a question about a one of the first ever batteries that was just zinc electrode, copper electrode, and an ionic solution in the midle

@Anar10n Жыл бұрын

I love you, please do more

@volcano.mitchell Жыл бұрын

Make more long vids please I miss them you make good content

@Pearl-rr1op Жыл бұрын

You are so frikin cool and also ty for making wanna do science :)

@CaseyRedDragon 8 ай бұрын

Like the silver tarnish remover recipe that works like a battery

@christopherkarr1872 5 ай бұрын

Big props on the 1.134 reading on the multimeter. I don't know how the hELL you got that to work or if it was just coincidence, but it made my day.

@chrisi359 Жыл бұрын

Imagine traveling back to the medival age and doing this 😬😅

@TwilightCage Жыл бұрын

I want to say that the reaction more so has to do with the Hydroxide component of copper. It functions as a base, a ligand, a nucleophile, and a catalyst. (due note that I am no chemist but I hope this helps somehow)

@zeke7515 5 ай бұрын

You missed the fact @ 2:37 1.134 is hell upside down on a 7 segment display. That's pretty cursed itself.

@VengefulCowSpirit Жыл бұрын

Bro u sound so confident is scary

@dounutjr1064 Жыл бұрын

good to know your alive

@user255 Жыл бұрын

I was in the impression that more zinc is used than reduced and thus the energy comes from the zinc.

@midgefidget5796 Жыл бұрын

My son turned some copper pennies into gold for me once. I never got over it. Thanks for the explanation. Now to see if I can do it myself...

@favorte2789 Жыл бұрын

This makes me understand alchemy a little bit Super cool! 👍🏽

@matrixfull Жыл бұрын

woahhhh alchemy that actually works!! amazing!! are there more alchemy (ish) reactions out there?

@epincion Жыл бұрын

Fascinating thanks

@WearyKirin Жыл бұрын

Wouldn't mind if you did more short form videos likes this

@dadsonworldwide3238 4 ай бұрын

Just imagine a relative unification of something in critical extremes like idk inertia value that doesn't care for elements but deterministically centers on non locality pushing complexity back out onto the cosmic to deal with lol

@GlorifiedGremlin Жыл бұрын

That would be an awesome way to fill up a pirates chest for a kids party or something

@mmdurfee Жыл бұрын

With transistors at capacity (with respect to size) where voltage begins to bypass them all together due to quantum tunneling, more people are coming around to at least the idea of solid state voltage generation. Thanks to chemistry (and you sir) we have experiments like this where only a modest amount of voltage needs to be transferred, completely within the constraints of thermodynamics, and when things begin to heat up (and odd that heat would be the gold standard for this process but that's what happens!) things start to change and change rapidly. Chemistry masterfully assumes the role as the "blind wiseman" in the theater of science in that it is deprived of a particular sense (the biological), and provides insights into situations and phenomena that never would be thought of from one with sight. Which complicates even further where the physics resides between the Quantum world and Newtonian world. Today quantum mechanics has to abandon intuitiveness altogether and embrace their ever descriptive “quantum weirdness”. The justification for the vagary is that it gets precise results. The mathematics goes from an empirical start to an empirical finish. It’s predictive to an unimaginable degree of accuracy. However, accurate prediction is a sign of a theory's usefulness, not its truthfulness. Clear evidence can stare us in the face for centuries without anyone recognizing it as being significant because the meaning is unthinkable. Free energy is one such thing, but rather the major obstacle being hypothesizing the idea, its the engineering of its scale. In so many human developments and discoveries the effects come before the cause. This is obvious, as obvious as you being there or me being here, the effects are here the causes will be here shortly.

@tsm688 Жыл бұрын

Found the person who didn't watch the entire video