If you poured a giant bucket of water

onto the Sun, would it actually

extinguish it causing the Earth to

become dark and frozen? Well, water puts

out normal fires because it cools the

fuel and helps block oxygen, but the Sun

isn't a normal fire. It runs because

hydrogen nuclei are smashing together in

a powerful reaction called fusion. So,

if you flooded it with an enormous

amount of water, you'd be giving it more

hydrogen to fuse. And this amount of

water would also increase the Sun's mass

causing Earth to be pulled in closer

because of gravity. Meaning eventually

everyone on the planet would be cooked.

If you jumped out of a plane with a

helium tank and a balloon, could you

fill it up on the way down and survive

the fall? Well, a single helium tank

wouldn't have enough gas to slow you

down. Instead, you would need one bigger

than yourself and your balloon would

need to be over 16 ft wide. But this

would take way too long to inflate. And

since the weight of the tank would make

you fall faster, you'd only start

floating once you dropped it. This means

you would need thousands of miles of

fall time just to pull it all off. But

this is far beyond any plane's limit.

And at that height, you [music] would

actually just suffocate in space.

He was keeping score of the baseball

game in 1902 sitting next to two other

guys. Now, he was using a pencil to

write down the information, but after a

while it got too dull. He knew Leroy had

a small knife and asked if [music] he

could borrow it to sharpen his pencil.

He agreed and as he pulled it out, he

opened it and began to hand it over. But

just as he did, the player up to bat hit

a foul ball that flew back towards the

three [music] men. It struck the knife

while it was still being passed over the

man in the middle. This forced the blade

straight into his chest, in between

[music]

two ribs and just over his heart. And

within minutes, the 19-year-old bled to

death right there on the spot.

Imagine you were picked up, plopped into

a glass coffin, and forced to the bottom

of the ocean. You start freaking out

because you have no idea why you're

here, and everything happened so fast

that you don't know how deep you are. As

you feel around, you find a hammer.

Maybe it's to smash the coffin and

escape. But what if you're really deep

and the coffin is pressurized? This

means smashing it could get you crushed

instantly. But you also could be

shallow, meaning you would just float up

and survive. The worst part is you don't

know how much oxygen you have left.

Could be an hour, could be minutes.

There's no timer, just your own panic

making you breathe harder. You grip the

hammer just to hold something. Maybe

it's a dream, but the hammer feels real.

The cold sweat feels real. You raise it

up, take one final breath, and you

swing.

Two mirrors were mounted to the rifle,

which allowed the image of the enemy to

bounce from mirror to mirror and into

the shooter's view. Another stock was

attached to a frame for stability. Then

they would pull on a cable that was

attached to the trigger, eliminating the

enemy. You see, as soldiers popped out

of trenches, they would get shot almost

instantly. But this World War I device

let them shoot without ever sticking

their heads out. Over time, the mirrors

were swapped with cameras, and they

mounted a pistol on a hinge that could

flip in either direction. A screen on

the back showed what the camera saw, and

the trigger cable was replaced with a

second trigger on the grip, neutralizing

threats while keeping the shooter safe.

He was placed inside a plastic chamber

just seconds [music] after he was born,

and he lived this way for years, unable

to touch anyone or anything. Even the

air that went in had to be sterilized in

a gas chamber. You see, he was born with

a rare disease [music] that could kill

him if a single germ got into his body.

When he was 12, doctors tried to cure

him with a transplant [music] of his

sister's bone marrow, and he was able to

touch his family for the first time.

But, the marrow contained an undetected

virus, and just weeks later, he

tragically [music] died. His story has

helped doctors spot the illness earlier

in others, which has ended up saving

hundreds of lives.

The plane hit the tower, and just an

hour and 42 minutes later, it began to

collapse. Deep in the core, a small

group of rescuers were carrying a woman

down a stairwell as they felt the tower

crumbling. Now, as each floor above them

crashed into each other, everyone inside

perished. But, the collapse actually

didn't fall perfectly vertical. The

floors appear to have shifted unevenly,

tilting some of the weight outward and

away from the center. [music]

As they heard it crash down above them,

they knew they were doomed. But, the

central position and the way the rubble

fell somehow left a pocket of space

protected. A huge gust of wind pushed

them down the stairs as the outer

structure was stripped off and the

stairwell was literally exposed.

Everything [music] else was obliterated,

but part of stairwell B stood in the

rubble and the 14 people inside

survived.

The caper is placed inside an anchovy,

which is shoved inside an olive, which

is then stuffed into a tiny wild bird.

And that bird is stuffed into one that's

slightly bigger, which is shoved inside

a third, which is shoved inside a

fourth, and this is then stuffed into a

quail, meaning five birds in and it's

still only the size of your hand. But it

keeps going with each bird bigger than

the last. The gaps in between are filled

with stuffing until finally the duck is

shoved inside a chicken, a pheasant, a

goose, and a turkey. The last step is to

shove it inside a bustard, and the whole

thing is cooked for 24 hours. [music]

When it's done, it's sliced open to

reveal all 20 layers. But some of these

birds are now illegal to eat, so it's

impossible to make this dish today.

They packed the tube with gunpowder,

drilled a hole for the fuse, and secured

the top with tape. Then they loaded it

with colored powder. You see, the plan

was to fire it, [music] and the color of

the powder would reveal the gender of

their baby. But they decided to add

extra gunpowder thinking it would make

the reveal more impressive. Now, when

they lit the fuse, it ignited, but the

force of the blast shattered the metal

casing sending shrapnel flying through

the air. They all dove for cover, but

one piece of metal flew too fast and

struck the grandma in the head. Now,

they called 911, but it was too late. By

the time the powder cleared, the only

color left was red, and she died without

ever learning the gender of her

grandchild.

If you dropped a steak from really high

up, could the air resistance actually

[music] cook it, leaving you with a

perfectly seared fillet? Well, if you

dropped it at the same height [music] as

the world record for skydiving, the air

up there is incredibly cold, but the

steak would be smashing into molecules

so fast that the surface would get a

tiny bit of heat from the shockwave.

But, the icy winds would still be

freezing it over. So, when it finally

lands, you might have to thaw it out.

Now, if we dropped it from 155 miles up,

the outside of the steak might get

nicely seared, but that heat only clings

to the very surface. The moment the

steak drops lower, it's slammed by icy

cold air. The inside never has time to

warm, so you would end up with a steak

that's seared on the outside, but still

raw in the middle. If we went even

higher, the air in front of the steak

[music] gets squashed so hard, it would

be thousands of degrees hot. That heat

burns the very outside [music] layer

until it flakes away in the wind. Then,

the next layer is exposed, and the same

thing happens again and again, like

peeling layers [music] off an onion,

which could leave you with a plate of

char.

She dropped a potato into the first pot,

an egg in the second, and coffee beans

in the third. Then, she boiled them all

for 20 minutes. The potato started out

hard, but after being boiled, it's soft

and limp. The egg used to be delicate

and fragile, but boiling it has hardened

it inside. Now, the coffee beans

actually changed the water itself,

transforming it into something richer

and different. [music] Each one faced

the same adversity, the boiling water,

but each one responded differently. One

broke down, one toughened up, and one

completely transformed its environment.

[music]

So, when the heat rises, ask yourself,

will you be the potato, the egg, or the

coffee beans?

If you swapped all the balls with human

bodies on a Newton's cradle, would it

still work? Well, normally, this device

works because the metal balls are so

stiff. So, when one of them is hit, it

briefly squashes and then springs back,

sending that push all the way through to

the last ball, which flies out because

it gets that shove. But, since human

bodies are soft and squishy, this energy

gets absorbed more and doesn't transfer

well. The last person might swing out a

bit, but so would everyone else. Even if

you swung the first person as fast as

possible, the middle humans would just

crumple, getting bruised and squashed in

the process. [music] Now, the energy

would make it to the last person, but

the bodies would be flung in the wrong

directions. Even if they were wearing

some sort of metal armor and you swung

it with a lot of force, it might

transfer enough energy for a few back

and forth swings, but you would still

break some [music] bones in the process.

A football player drove right into him,

knocking him unconscious. Now, he

eventually recovered and moved on. And

over the next 10 years, he met his wife,

had two kids, and landed a dream job.

Life was normal for him. Until one

night, while sitting in his living room,

he noticed something odd about the lamp.

Now, it still looked like a lamp, but

the perspective was off. It was somehow

distorted. He was mesmerized by it,

staying up all night. He stopped eating

and wouldn't leave the couch despite his

wife begging him to. She eventually took

the [music] kids and left, and that's

when reality hit him. The lamp wasn't

real. His house, [music] his wife and

children, none of it was real. Suddenly,

everything collapsed inward, and he woke

up on a sidewalk, 10 years younger,

having just been knocked down by a

football player.