Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share The Most Bizarre Substance Known to Science and What It Can Do
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
The Most Bizarre Substance Known to Science and What It Can Do
If ever there was a criminally underrated natural resource, it would
have to be Helium. Though most commonly associated with party balloons
and making one’s voice sound like a cartoon, Helium’s most important
application is in cooling the magnets of Magnetic Resonance Imaging or
MRI machines. While the finite and ever-dwindling global supply of this
vitally important gas is a topic worthy of its own video, perhaps even
more fascinating is just how bizarre an element Helium truly is. For if
Helium is liquefied and cooled to a low enough temperature, it begins to
behave like no other liquid on earth, seemingly violating the laws of
gravity, thermodynamics, and even logic itself. This is the story of
superfluid Helium II, the weirdest substance known to science.
In order for Helium to be liquefied, it must be cooled to a temperature
of -268.8 degrees Celsius or 4.2 Kelvin – that is, only 4.2 degrees
above Absolute Zero, the coldest temperature theoretically possible. By
contrast, Nitrogen liquefies at a relatively balmy 77 Kelvin, Oxygen at
54 Kelvin, and Hydrogen at 33 Kelvin. The reason Helium is so difficult
to liquefy lies in its electron orbitals being completely filled, making
it – like the other noble gases Neon, Argon, Krypton, Xenon, and Radon –
electrically neutral and chemically inert. This means that the only
force which can pull Helium atoms together is the so-called Van de Waals
Force, which is caused by electrons shifting from one side of an atom
to the other and creating a momentary electrostatic charge. This force
is incredibly weak, meaning that Helium must be cooled to extremely low
temperatures in order for the Van de Waals forces to overcome the energy
of the moving atoms and pull them close enough together for the gas to
liquefy. Solidifying Helium is even more difficult – so difficult, in
fact, that it cannot be done at regular atmospheric pressures. Only at
pressures of 25 atmospheres and above can solid Helium be created.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
View all episodes
By Cloud10
4.9
13701,370 ratings
If ever there was a criminally underrated natural resource, it would
have to be Helium. Though most commonly associated with party balloons
and making one’s voice sound like a cartoon, Helium’s most important
application is in cooling the magnets of Magnetic Resonance Imaging or
MRI machines. While the finite and ever-dwindling global supply of this
vitally important gas is a topic worthy of its own video, perhaps even
more fascinating is just how bizarre an element Helium truly is. For if
Helium is liquefied and cooled to a low enough temperature, it begins to
behave like no other liquid on earth, seemingly violating the laws of
gravity, thermodynamics, and even logic itself. This is the story of
superfluid Helium II, the weirdest substance known to science.
In order for Helium to be liquefied, it must be cooled to a temperature
of -268.8 degrees Celsius or 4.2 Kelvin – that is, only 4.2 degrees
above Absolute Zero, the coldest temperature theoretically possible. By
contrast, Nitrogen liquefies at a relatively balmy 77 Kelvin, Oxygen at
54 Kelvin, and Hydrogen at 33 Kelvin. The reason Helium is so difficult
to liquefy lies in its electron orbitals being completely filled, making
it – like the other noble gases Neon, Argon, Krypton, Xenon, and Radon –
electrically neutral and chemically inert. This means that the only
force which can pull Helium atoms together is the so-called Van de Waals
Force, which is caused by electrons shifting from one side of an atom
to the other and creating a momentary electrostatic charge. This force
is incredibly weak, meaning that Helium must be cooled to extremely low
temperatures in order for the Van de Waals forces to overcome the energy
of the moving atoms and pull them close enough together for the gas to
liquefy. Solidifying Helium is even more difficult – so difficult, in
fact, that it cannot be done at regular atmospheric pressures. Only at
pressures of 25 atmospheres and above can solid Helium be created.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More shows like The BrainFood Show
View all
Lore
44,999 Listeners
Astonishing Legends
9,494 Listeners
Skeptoid
2,666 Listeners
Last Podcast On The Left
51,319 Listeners
Myths and Legends
23,489 Listeners
Our Fake History
3,482 Listeners
Revisionist History
58,974 Listeners
Help Me Be Me
1,814 Listeners
Dark Histories
1,878 Listeners
MURDERISH
3,440 Listeners
Dan Carlin's Hardcore History: Addendum
8,312 Listeners
Behind the Bastards
15,684 Listeners
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities
8,401 Listeners
Enneagram & Coffee
1,049 Listeners
Advantage Connors
191 Listeners
The Casual Criminalist
2,745 Listeners
Black Girl Gone: A True Crime Podcast
2,275 Listeners
Hungry for Conversation with Natalie Puche
1,668 Listeners
Forever Young
54 Listeners
History of Everything
711 Listeners
The Codependent Podcast
930 Listeners
Decoding The Unknown
928 Listeners
Scorched Justice
414 Listeners
Dirty Money Moves: Women in White Collar Crime
314 Listeners
Raising and Rising
20 Listeners
CHRISTORY with Chris Manzo
96 Listeners
Funny Energy
73 Listeners
Untangling Toys
20 Listeners
Are You There Pod? It's Me, Dad
21 Listeners
Fantasy Foes
15 Listeners
The Moderns
0 Listeners
The Bad Good Parent
20 Listeners
The Reality Informant
20 Listeners
Warfronts
50 Listeners