Kontextmaschine

11th December 2022

Video reblogged from Life and Times of a Biology Major and Duran Duran fan with 669,782 notes

kyraneko:
inside-us-only-stars:
ojavenger:
supernaturallysarcastic:
edwardspoonhands:
overtheunderpass:
surprise-adoption:
Bottle rocket under ice
rad
I’m pretty sure that the reason the ice fractured into six slices is the same reason snowflakes are often six sided and it has to do with the shape of a molecule of water and I just think that’s so freaking cool.
How would it even stay lit though?
!!!!! it IS actually because of the structure of water molecules! Water molecules are fuckin weird, as are lots of other liquid substance molecules, because theyre shaped like fuckin HEXAGONS! hexagons are those weird, six-sided shapes that re very sturdy, but they dont tend to sit very well when stacked together. thats why, when you fill up a glass of water to its full capacity, it can go OVER the brim a little and not spill over. It’s also why water beads.
anyway, so since water is essentially made up of a gazillion little hexagons, it tends to gather into larger hexagons as it shapes together. this is not visible unless the water is in a solid form, aka ice. when the water is split, it tends to crack around the established hexagons. that bottle rocket exploded in the PERFECT place to show this phenomenon and its geeking me out.
ALSO! the bottle rocket stays lit because the fuse was definitely waterproof and made with magnesium and an oxidizer of some sort. this means that they will burn underwater because they dont need the oxygen from the air to stay lit. thats so fucking weird isnt it. im tipsy and its the 4th of july. sorry for the science haha
Don’t you dare apologize for science
Reblogging for science, explosions, and cool hexagons!
@inside-us-only-stars @kyraneko @edwardspoonhands
I don’t know why, but I need you all to know that Ojavenger just… made that up completely.
And when you take a moment to think about it, it’s obvious that water is not shaped like a hexagon. Benzene is shaped like a hexagon because it has 6 different atoms all linked together. Water is 2 hydrogen atoms joined together by the oxygen atom in the middle. How does it make a hexagonal shape, in 2 OR 3 dimensions? Answer: it doesn’t.
The closest approximation for the shape of water (probably don’t google it using that exact phrase) is a tetrahedron, like a triangular pyramid.
Also the reason that water can seem to ‘overflow’ from a glass while still staying in the glass is because of surface tension, not hexagons.