14 DAY TRIAL // Just the other day, somebody on Reddit posted a GIF showing a ping pong ball spinning out of control after having been filled with liquid nitrogen. Being the experiments fanatic that he is, TheBackyardScientist couldn't help but recreate this neat trick, just for the fun of it.
He went to the nearest store, bought himself a ping pong ball, and then, when he got home, he filled it with liquid propane. Like the liquid nitrogen in the experiment on Reddit, the propane turned the ball a wee hyperactive.
When the ball was empty, TheBackyardScientist managed to make it spin at a rate of about 2,880 revolutions per minute. An impressive feat, but not exactly one for the books.
When dipped in liquid propane and left to its own devices, however, the ping pong ball began to spin around 10 times faster, propelled by the expanding gas leaving it through the hole in its side. Apparently, it reached a speed of about 30,000 revolutions per minute.
“I was on Reddit yesterday, and I saw a cool GIF on r/woahdude. It looked so cool I had to do it. Also people were debating on how fast the ball was really spinning, and I had to find out for myself so I grabbed my camera that can shoot up to 1000fps.”
“The original poster estimated the speed at 10,000 rpm, but the ball was really spinning 30,000 rpm in my experiments!” TheBackyardScientist wrote in the video's description.
Maybe next time he'll put some wings on it and see if the ball can take flight like a miniature helicopter of sorts. Now this would undoubtedly be one super cool science experiment.
