The Leidenfrost Effect
An introduction to the wonderful Leidenfrost effect.
The Hotbuds
Duration: 2:30
Views: 1842
Team The Hotbuds write:
One day in Physics class we accidentally discovered you could get beautiful standing wave patterns on a drop of water on a very hot plate. This film gives an introduction to the wonderful Leidenfrost Effect.
The film was made by 16 students (aged around 16) - only three appear in the film, but everyone helped, as did their physics teacher.
This film was nominated for the SciCast Awards 2010, and won the category:
Institute of Physics Best SciCast Physics Film (ages 16 and up).
I’ve a confession to make:
Right at the start of SciCast, we were looking for a slogan. Something that encapsulated what we hoped to achieve with the project, but also that explained it. I found myself typing ‘Short films, real science’, and we liked the shape of that so much it ended up in the rather dashing project logo. Hence, you see it everywhere, on posters and postcards, on the reports we send to our funders, on the pin-badges and T-shirts we have, and so on. It’s up in the top corner of this page, I’ll wager.
Thing is, it’s never been quite true. ‘Short films,’ sure, but what’s real about the science? Is a demonstration with a known outcome ‘real science’? Surely ‘real science’ means experiment, observation, constructing theories, finding something new?
So I’ve always been a little nervous of our own slogan. It works in an arm-waving sense, but we’ve never had a whiff of ‘real science’ in the project.
Until now.
This is an outstanding observation, thoroughly unexpected, and the reveal in the film is lovely. As it played in the awards ceremony I could hear mutterings of ‘It’s good, but why did it win?’ — replaced immediately by ‘OK, that’s why it won. Coooooooool!’.
I’m gutted that the team couldn’t be in London to see the reaction to their film, nor to collect their award in person. A crying shame. But I’m delighted that they won their category. Other films might have been slicker, or clearer, or funnier… but they didn’t start from something we’d never seen before.
— Jonathan.
Great Film. I didn't know the effect had a name. Liquid nitrogen does something similar when you drop it on a bench at room temperature. Maybe in the sequel ("The Leidenfrost Effect II: This time it's personal") you could try liquids with different boiling points, including nitrogen.
Adam Nieman, 19 Jul 2010
Great! I had no idea that the effect would do this, thank you for sharing. Very clearly explained as well.
Martha Henson, 19 Jul 2010
Just fabulous. I can almost feel the 'woah' that went up in the lab when you discovered this.
Elin, 18 Jul 2010
This is my favourite and, for me, sums up everything SciCast is about. You found something cool and wanted to share it. You do so with charm and an amazingly clear explanation. This is truly brilliant. Well done.
Alice Bell, 18 Jul 2010