Time Warp (2008) s01e11 Episode Script

Paintball

All right, if I hit you, I'm sorry.
NARRATOR: What happens when a hurricane blows a 2x4 through a plate-glass window? So, most of the glass in the country would do this.
NARRATOR: When a paintball meets human thigh at 300 feet per second? [Laughs.]
That's amazing! NARRATOR: And an extreme bartender makes the ultimate flaming cocktail? -What happens? -Light it up.
"Time Warp.
" Uh-oh.
[Laughter.]
NARRATOR: Take two guys whose slo-mo cameras can stop the world in its tracks.
I'm gonna run down there and catch all the action.
-Good luck.
-All right.
Matt, you ready? All right, Greg, I reset this camera.
We're gonna take a look at your takeoff this time.
NARRATOR: Add a high-tech laboratory, where anything can and will happen.
Oh, boy.
NARRATOR: And toss in some of the world's wildest talents.
[Electricity zapping.]
[Dogs barking.]
What happens? When catastrophic storms hit, torn-off and blown-in shattered windows can cut down a life in seconds, making flying glass a leading cause of injury and death.
But is it preventable? One man believes so, and he has set out to remedy the problem one window at a time.
Meet Carl Kernander, or rather, a coating for normal glass made from a complicated substance with simple initials -- P.
E.
T.
The tensile strength of the P.
E.
T.
we use ranges from 28,000 to 36,000 PSI.
It's incredibly strong stuff.
And it's the same thing that water bottles are made out of.
NARRATOR: Sounds like cool stuff, but how do we test it? Rather than wait around for a hurricane MAN: Oh, my God! NARRATOR: we decided to make one.
LIEBERMAN: So you just charge it up until you are where you want to be? NARRATOR: Chris Bennett, from the National Certified Testing Laboratory, brought his massive air cannon, big enough to fire an 8-foot 2x4 into test panes of glass.
Okay, so this is gonna give us some kind of rough approximation of a low-type hurricane? Absolutely.
NARRATOR: Just how does good old plate glass, installed in 90% of American structures, fare against Chris' cannon? For our part, we'll be cowering in the corner, waiting for it to all be over.
Now, what speed are we gonna fire the projectile? Well, for today, we're gonna shoot 22 miles per hour.
NARRATOR: That's nearly a 9-pound board they're loading in.
BENNETT: There you go.
Three, two, one, fire.
[Glass shatters.]
LIEBERMAN: Oh, that was great.
Most of the glass in the country would do this.
Most of it, yes.
NARRATOR: All that remains of this window are jagged, razor-sharp shards sure to act as deadly shrapnel.
But you can see how dangerous plate glass can be.
LIEBERMAN: Yeah, right, I mean, the glass is going just the speed that the wood was coming in.
So it's not really dampening any of the energy at all.
The pieces stay so big that they have a really significant mass still.
KEARNEY: Yeah, and, I mean, I thought the biggest problem would be a giant piece of wood flying at you.
KERNANDER: Turns you into coleslaw.
LIEBERMAN: Yeah.
NARRATOR: Human coleslaw? Nice image.
Thanks for that, Carl.
Next matchup -- 9-pound 2x4 versus tempered glass -- panes that have been treated with an 1,100-degree heating process, causing internal tensions that control its breaking pattern.
So for tempered glass, we're gonna shoot the same speed.
-Same speed.
-Okay.
And tempered glass is about four times as strong.
-And I'm ready when you are.
-All right.
Three, two, one, fire.
[Glass shatters.]
Totally different sound.
Completely different.
NARRATOR: But still, alas, the sound of one glass breaking.
Ooh.
I guess the really nice thing about something like this -- you know, this breaks, and this hits me, it's not gonna do anything.
I would never want to do that with one of the plate-glass pieces.
No.
That'll definitely cut something important.
[Laughs.]
NARRATOR: Let's review that one in slow motion while Jeff still has life and limb.
The glass fragments remain stuck together, unlike the earlier untempered plate-glass shards.
LIEBERMAN: Wow, it's so different.
Yeah, I mean, this was 20,000 frames a second, and it's In eight frames, the whole thing's gone.
That's the first time I've ever seen tempered glass when you could actually see it let go.
LIEBERMAN: Right here is a really beautiful point.
All of these things fold open.
The plate glass was totally jagged, but here you have so much internal stress, it's got to get rid of it everywhere.
NARRATOR: Okay, so we know what happens when a 2x4 meets plate glass.
And tempered glass.
Now it's time for Carl Kernander's magic micro-thin P.
E.
T.
coating to take the spotlight.
This little thing, this little adhesive is gonna make that much of a difference? -No question.
-Really? All right.
NARRATOR: True hurricane glass melds two panes of the tempered stuff with P.
E.
T.
film, but we're going to use only one pane of tempered glass, just to really test it out.
Three, two, one, fire.
NARRATOR: Board meets glass.
Glass shatters.
But board bounces off, and glass stays put.
Like some futuristic force field, the paper-thin coating stops a 9-pound board flying at more than 20 miles per hour.
Watch that again.
The power at impact tells it all.
Boy, glass breaks fast.
KERNANDER: Well, they absorb a tremendous amount of energy.
NARRATOR: We're impressed.
This stuff really can save lives.
But let's take it to the next level.
Remember the jagged edges of plate glass? Could this film protect people from that, as well? BENNETT: Three, two, one, fire.
[Wood clanking.]
Oh, that's great.
That whole window just vibrates back and forth, and this looks just like it did, you know, .
001 of a second after impact before.
The plastic is deforming and letting the glass, you know, break, but not split.
NARRATOR: Now, we've all heard the expression "Better living through science.
" If you live where hurricanes can pay a house call, this is one invention that just might come in handy.
We think of something like this, and we think it's roughly a sheet-of-paper kind of thing, but these materials are amazing.
NARRATOR: Now, while we were drawing straws to see who was going to clean up the glass from the hurricane experiment Fire in the hole! NARRATOR: Matt just couldn't resist.
Paintball meets wall.
KEARNEY: My high-speed masterpiece.
NARRATOR: Not their intended use.
This is their intended use.
[Rapid gunfire.]
If we go play some paintball, we can take a much softer bullet.
You really want to stand in front of a projectile? I don't want to stand in front of one.
I want to dodge them.
Okay, I'll do that.
NARRATOR: Just how lethal is this nonlethal sport? Aah! NARRATOR: We're about to find out, thanks to our own band of brothers.
And sisters.
Tammy.
Rachel.
And Nikki.
Assisted, of course, by our own Jeff and Matt.
[Record scratches.]
-I am not worried.
-I'm not worried.
[Rapid gunfire.]
NARRATOR: But sometimes bravado, even in the name of scientific inquiry, can hurt like hell.
[Grunts.]
I'm out.
I'm out.
"Joanie loves Chachi"! Ugh.
It doesn't taste good.
Medic? NARRATOR: The real purpose of this outing is to see what a paintball can do to different objects.
For example, an unprotected face.
[Rapid gunfire.]
The paintball leaves the barrel at a rate approaching way over level-5 hurricane speed.
Ouch.
Even with protective headgear, you're gonna feel that.
Now, watch how the head reacts to multiple shots.
Imagine what would happen if you weren't wearing a helmet.
This sport is fun and games, but it is also very serious business.
All right, we're going for this second one right here.
NARRATOR: Our next target, light bulbs.
[Gunshots.]
Okay.
Ah! That's cool.
NARRATOR: Not quite what Thomas Edison had in mind.
Look at it even closer.
And a bit closer still.
LIEBERMAN: You can still see the tungsten is lit.
TAMMY: That is very cool.
LIEBERMAN: That's going out in less than .
1 of a second because it needs to be evacuated to be able to stay lit.
TAMMY: That is awesome.
NARRATOR: But inanimate objects can tell us only so much.
To get an even better idea of how hard these projectiles hit, "Time Warp" gets a human volunteer to take one for the team in the name of science.
So I guess you guys are going for the thigh? We'll wrap this up so that the paint doesn't actually stick to your thigh, we can actually see the welt form.
TAMMY: Ready? Ready.
Okay.
- [Gunshot.]
-Ohh! [Laughs.]
That's amazing! That is so good.
Look.
-LIEBERMAN: Ow.
-Wow! LIEBERMAN: A little bit of paint.
There it is.
Wow, that's fast.
KEARNEY: [Laughs.]
-Okay, you feel all right? -Oh, yeah.
-All right, ready? -Oh.
KEARNEY: Let's watch this bad idea in action.
-Oh! -Wow.
LIEBERMAN: You can see the whole wave go through.
NARRATOR: In semi-close-up, we can get a better view of how Nikki's thigh absorbed that 300-feet-per-second shot.
Ooh, not well.
LIEBERMAN: By the time you peeled that off, which took about two seconds, the welt was fully formed.
I really thought it was gonna take, you know, a minute or so to really come together.
[Rapid gunfire.]
NARRATOR: Okay, old adage.
Don't get mad.
Get even.
Revenge of the test subject.
Aah! Oh, you want to play? All right! All right! Really good playing.
Well, thanks.
You're welcome.
We learned a valuable lesson, which is never, ever do that again.
Sorry.
I apologize.
NARRATOR: In the immortal words of author Dorothy Parker, "I'd rather have a full bottle in front of me than a full-frontal lobotomy.
" And when master bartender Scott Young gets a bottle in front of him, well, anything can happen.
A little curacao and then NARRATOR: He's elevated the simple act of pouring a drink to an intoxicating level of liquid wizardry.
YOUNG: Cinnamon.
This is where the fun part comes.
There we go.
-Wow! -Wow! NARRATOR: We turned the "Time Warp" studio into a high-tech bar where everything is on the house.
The cinnamon shows you right where it's catching.
NARRATOR: And there's a 32-drink minimum.
Safety first.
Don't try this at home.
NARRATOR: On one hand, excessive alcohol consumption Aah! NARRATOR: We're sure many of you know that all too well.
But on the other hand, science is precisely what drinking is all about.
Okay, with a little showbiz thrown in.
Step away from the bar, please.
NARRATOR: Scott Young and his colleague, Raji Pine, are a professional stunt-bartending team who do more than mix intoxicants.
They put on a floor show, as well.
We begin the proceedings with a stunt designed to solve a common bartending concern.
Multiple orders.
You, my friend, can pour on that side.
About halfway.
Not the race quite yet.
NARRATOR: Now, there's an interesting study in fluid dynamics.
Time to mix them up.
YOUNG: Three, two, one, go.
-All right.
-LIEBERMAN: It was pretty close.
NARRATOR: One drink just led to another and another and -- Well, you get the idea.
But we're talking fluid dynamics, right? So we're talking Isaac Newton.
The gravity guy? Yeah.
That's why glasses fall.
The law of momentum? Well, that's the domino effect.
And the law of viscosity.
Remember that one? That law explains why some liquids don't mix readily.
That's not the case here.
Agree? But it's clear that, as the shock wave propagates, energy is dissipated.
But, then, liquor will do that.
-YOUNG: That's amazing.
-I'm gaining on him.
I tried to kind of give it a Michael Phelps there at the end.
-Reach.
-Reach for it.
NARRATOR: If you've ever wondered about the alcohol content in a bottle of 151, the next trick lends the name some credibility.
YOUNG: We're gonna light this on fire.
We are going to take a sip of this, put it down.
We're gonna rub our hands in the fire.
NARRATOR: Okay.
As long as they're wet, we're okay quickly.
[Blows.]
We're gonna exhale.
And we go [blows.]
and we do not inhale.
And what happens, we have this fire, right, which he's already lit, and on our hands, and it ignites when we spit through this, and it goes, "Whew!" NARRATOR: So, let's get this straight.
Our two heroes are going to become fire breathers, but not before they cover themselves with flaming alcohol? Now, all the preceding was merely a setup for the catchphrase that is sweeping the nation.
ALL: Don't try this at home.
But the main ignition comes from coming through this fire that's here.
And it happens fairly quickly.
NARRATOR: Well, that's reassuring.
Now for their I mean flame! YOUNG: Light it up.
There it is.
Okay.
KEARNEY: Oh, my God, it's on fire.
Mm, mm, mm.
NARRATOR: Didn't the Wizard of Oz do this trick? No wonder he was bald.
That reminds us.
Safety first and last.
Do you get singed occasionally when you do this? Yeah, you don't have a lot of hair on your fingers there.
YOUNG: Occasionally.
NARRATOR: One more thing.
Always remember to tip the bartender.
Okay, we've indulged in some serious child's play here, adult-style.
Paintball battles.
Bartender flameouts.
And let's face it.
What 8-year-old wouldn't want to shoot a 2x4 at a piece of plate glass? But we have one innocent pastime left to deconstruct.
The yo-yo.
John and Rebecca Higby are the Yo-Yo People, or pro yo-yos.
Take your pick.
And they took up "Time Warp's" invitation to swing by, literally.
I can't really look at you right now.
NARRATOR: Yep, you guessed it.
Even yo-yos must bow to one of Newton's laws.
A lot of physics going on in this little plastic thing.
NARRATOR: A yo-yo is essentially a flywheel.
The energy from the throw, combined with the pull of gravity, converts into rotational energy.
The string spins freely around the yo-yo's axle, but overall, it's too taut to rewind itself until a tug from John's hand creates some slack, and up it goes.
It's so slow, it doesn't really feel like this is when you really jerked it very fast.
But all that does is it kind of lifts the yo-yo, and then when your hand comes back down, it provides that slack.
And then it builds up the first couple rotations, and then it's totally rigid.
Wow.
And all I was thinking was how hairy the string looks.
[Laughs.]
NARRATOR: Bet you're thinking, "Bring on the tricks!" So, John obliges, and Jeff meets his match.
-Ready? -Yeah.
All right, if I hit you, I'm sorry.
You might want to close your eyes.
-That's what I'm gonna do.
-You will be sorry.
An inch from your chin.
-Yeah! -Yeah! There it is.
So, did that light it? LIEBERMAN: That lit it.
Watch.
You'll see.
NARRATOR: At 2,000 frames per second, you can barely tell that the match is lit.
But wait for it.
The yo-yo makes another full rotation before the match even reaches its ignition point.
Now is probably as good a time as any to warn that yo-yos can be dangerous.
Hospitals report broken teeth Yes! NARRATOR: bruises, and even string burns.
But that didn't stop to help John demonstrate his world record.
Assume the position, please.
NARRATOR: 15 quarters knocked from 15 ears in under 2 minutes.
Hey, somebody's got to do it.
Yes.
NARRATOR: It's a 15-to-1 shot somebody could get hurt.
LIEBERMAN: One down.
Two.
Yeah! There it is.
Oh, look at that.
-Double hit! -That was cool.
NARRATOR: Go ahead.
Make my day.
No coin left unturned.
LIEBERMAN: There it is.
Nice.
[Cheers and applause.]
NARRATOR: While the crew scrambles to pocket the loose change, remember, if there is something you want to see warped check us out on the Discovery Channel Website -- discovery.
com/timewarp.
And the warp you see just might be your own.
-I'm parched.
-Nice.

Previous EpisodeNext Episode