DoctorSlime Does Time Warp!!! Discovery Channel

Mike Garlick aka Dr. Slime Guest Appearance

(byline: David Baker)

Make Garlick a local science educator and familiar face at the annual Sci-fest Presentations was asked in early May to be a guest host on Time Warp a program on the Discovery Channel. He flew to Boston and within two hours he was filming the show on how a container can be crushed by the force of air on a vacuum. Time Warp features MIT scientist and teacher Jeff Lieberman along with Zoz Brooks of MIT, who use new high speed photographic technologies to bring truly never before seen wonders into a form that you can view.

Initially Mike ran through the standard collapsing of a soda can experiment, which you can do at home. This is achieved when the pressure outside is greater than the pressure inside, and the pressure difference is greater than the can is able to withstand.

The next demonstration was to crush a 55 gallon drum which raised the danger level to moderate. For this a steam-flo generator was used to charge the barrel with steam. The pressure in the barrel started to fall toward zero, and the barrel imploded. The air pressure crushed that barrel so fast, that under the high speed Camera’s 5-20K frames per second, the barrel disappears as Super chilled water, was poured slowly on to the barrel and WHAM!!!

The ultimate experiment involved the implosion of a 4700 gallon stainless steel dairy tank. The tank was charged with 230o steam, and then the inflow was cut off to allow the pressure to drop to near atmospheric, and then the second valve was closed. The tank was then cooled using a Boston Fire Department Blitz Gun, using a chilled fire hose packed in ice, dry ice and salt. The tank groaned and then folded up.

The show is on Wednesday nights on the Discovery Channel at 8 pm. The collapsing containers show featuring Mike Garlick is expected to air sometime in the next four to six weeks.