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00:00Two, one.
00:04This is me reclaiming my title for the world's largest and tallest elephant toothpaste experiment.
00:10And this is a totally different kind of reaction we discovered in all our experimentation called Devil's Toothpaste,
00:16which is insanely reactive and super dangerous.
00:19I'll explain why in a minute, but for now, here's a hint.
00:22And if you look closely in both shots, I'm not holding the trigger.
00:31This kid is.
00:32In fact, that kid was the whole reason we were there at all, because this was a culmination
00:36of eight months of planning to throw him the most epic birthday party ever.
00:41And all of this started inadvertently from a single surprise phone call.
00:45This is Fletcher, and this is also Fletcher a year before this call.
01:15But unbeknownst to everyone at the time, also pictured here, under all that amazing hair,
01:20was a fast-growing brain tumor.
01:22They eventually realized something was wrong, and discovered it was a dangerous form of brain
01:25cancer so rare, he was only the sixth kid ever known to have had it.
01:29So his family uprooted their lives for a year, and moved almost a thousand miles to be closer
01:34to St. Jude, where they removed the tumor and would try and fix his brain.
01:37In fact, our call was the night before he was going back in for another brutal week of chemo.
01:42He's such a funny kid, and I was so inspired by his hopeful attitude, that after talking
01:46for an hour, I secretly vowed that if he made it to 13 years old, I would fly him and
01:51his family out and surprise him with just the dopest birthday party ever.
01:55And not long after, I texted Fletcher this picture.
01:58So he knew we had closely matching hairstyles, but what he didn't know is that plans were
02:02already underway for him and I to take back the record for the world's largest elephant
02:07toothpaste.
02:08Quick refresher.
02:09Last summer, my buddy Science Bob and I set the world record for elephant toothpaste by
02:13filling up an empty swimming pool.
02:15I wanted to be able to swim in the foam afterwards, so we figured out how to use yeast as the catalyst,
02:19which is in fact safer, but it doesn't react very fast.
02:23And our video seemed to inspire some folks, because two months later, this happened in
02:27David Dobrik's backyard, where they didn't bother with the yeast and just took the normal reaction
02:31and scaled it up a bunch.
02:33But then a few weeks later, these guys in Brazil did the largest experiment yet, and
02:36they are the current Guinness World Record holders.
02:39And so even though Fletcher's birthday was still eight months out, we started our testing
02:42right away, because I knew blasting a world record amount of foam straight up into the
02:47sky wasn't as easy as it might sound.
02:50And the part that concerned me the most was picking the right nozzle size, and here's what
02:54I mean.
02:55Every containers are identical, except for the diameter of their outlets.
02:59If that diameter is too large, it looks kind of cool, but it doesn't really go that high.
03:04Too small, and it will go high, but it just looks like confetti and doesn't look that impressive.
03:10But for every container, there is a Goldilocks sized diameter opening that gives you that
03:15cool laminar looking flow, while still going pretty high.
03:18And you might think, well why don't you just take a typical flask that works so well, and
03:21just scale all the dimensions up.
03:23And we tried that on our first five-foot scale test, and just as I feared, it went all confetti
03:31on us.
03:32And the problem is illustrated here.
03:34If you want to scale up and double all the dimensions of the block, you get this as perfect.
03:39All these dimensions increased exactly by a factor of two.
03:42But wait a sec, the volume increased by a factor of eight.
03:46This is called the squared cube law, and its effects are everywhere in nature, such as putting
03:50a hard limit on just how big land animals can be.
03:53Because how heavy you are is a function of your volume, but the strength of your muscles
03:58and bones is a function of their cross-sectional area.
04:01So since animals evolved to get heavier by the power of three, but stronger by only the
04:06power of two, at some point, it's just too much.
04:09So on the next five-foot test, we increased the top diameter by a mere three and a half inches.
04:14But now the pendulum swung too far the other way, because while the column looked smooth,
04:18it didn't really go that high.
04:19And so finally for the third test, we let the pendulum swing back just a tad and shave
04:24down that diameter by just over an inch to try and dial in that Goldilocks outlet size.
04:29And sure enough, the column went really high and looked great.
04:33But this test uncovered another issue.
04:35With such a high volume of foam, the pressure was creating some really high forces in the
04:39flask.
04:40I mean, that's a lot of damage.
04:42Which, quite frankly, left us with only one option.
04:51And so with the power flex tape, we scaled things up even further to a ten-foot test and
04:55did our best to interpolate that Goldilocks outlet size.
04:59So once again, the outlet size worked great, but our joint construction wasn't prepared
05:12for the further scaled up forces.
05:14In fact, score a fat W for the flex tape, where you could see it single-handedly held
05:19the thing together, even as the screws and wood busted through.
05:23And we were realizing we just had to make the structure so over-engineered and indestructible,
05:28so the only option for the foam to escape the high pressure would be going out the top.
05:32And so while that wasn't a perfect result, I felt like we'd learned enough from all of
05:35our failures to design it strong enough for the final 20-foot world record version.
05:41In the end, we ran over 150 tests, not only to determine the right scaled-up flask dimensions,
05:46but things like does neck length have an effect?
05:49What happens if you vary the soap amounts?
05:52What effect do different brands of food coloring have?
05:55All of these tests were really insightful, but perhaps the most interesting finding was
05:59stumbling upon something I've affectionately named Devil's Toothpaste.
06:03Now you might be thinking, Devil's Toothpaste?
06:06That seems a bit extreme, Mark, but allow me to demonstrate.
06:08This is a shoebox full of the standard formula of hydrogen peroxide, sodium iodide, and soap
06:13that pretty much everyone uses to make elephant toothpaste.
06:16Now here's the same volume of reactants, only this time using Devil's Toothpaste.
06:21Now see if you can spot the difference in real time.
06:30Not only is it hyperreactive, but the reaction is much hotter, so you get these really cool
06:35bubble formations.
06:36Here's one more.
06:37Once again, this is normal elephant's toothpaste in an Erlenmeyer flask.
06:41No big deal.
06:42People have been doing this for years.
06:43But once again, here's the same volume of reactants, now only with Devil's Toothpaste.
06:51And given how explosive this is, this may be irresponsible of me, but while we watch
06:56the replay, I'll tell you exactly how to make it.
06:58You start with 20, 16, once that mixes, you're going to put a torch on the leftover rabbit
07:07fur, and you're good to go.
07:08And so by taking some rigorous safety precautions, we also intended to set the first and therefore
07:14only world record for the world's largest Devil's Toothpaste experiment by filling six
07:1955-gallon drums with 400 times the amount that broke the flask here.
07:23And so after 150 tests and eight months of work, feeling much more confident about our
07:28build plans and chemistry, we packed everything up and made our way to the small farming town
07:33of Gridley, California.
07:35We chose Gridley because our family friend Dale graciously agreed to let us use his land,
07:39which is full of hundreds of acres of walnut trees.
07:42No, don't even think about it, Fat Gus.
07:46He also had a great backyard we could make use of.
07:48And so with only four days left till Fletcher was flying out for the party, we got to work
07:52on a 20-second build montage.
08:15And it took four consecutive 14-hour back-breaking days of labor in the hot sun because with so
08:19much time to plan the most epic birthday party ever, I just kept adding more and more ideas
08:23to the list we would need to pull off.
08:25So in addition to building the indestructible 20-foot flask and the Devil's Toothpaste dumping
08:28mechanism, we also needed to make a methane bubble fountain, a 3D bubble printer, a fire
08:33tornado, a slip and slide into a pool, and an epic bubble pit.
08:37And even though I brought my buddies, it was cool to see this turn into a modern day small-town
08:41USA barn raising.
08:42If we needed extra hands or a piece of equipment, ten neighbors were there like instantly to help
08:47us out.
08:48And so the morning of the big day, there was still a lot of last-minute scrambling,
08:51but things were looking pretty good.
08:52I'm seriously so nervous right now.
08:54I love pranks, and a surprise is like the most wholesome type of prank, so I haven't been
08:59able to sleep for days just thinking about this, like every last detail to how this will
09:04go down.
09:05And so with only one hour left, we did one final test run on everything.
09:08First, the Devil's Toothpaste, and then the 20-foot flask.
09:15For the real reaction, the peroxide would fill the whole bottom pool where John was standing,
09:19and then the troughs would dump over all the catalysts at once, sort of like this.
09:23And I should mention, Guinness only lets you choose one world record category per event,
09:26so we were going for the tallest, but when we did the math to scale up the flask to the
09:30arbitrary height I picked of 20 feet, and this is a true story, it was exactly one gallon less
09:36than the folks in Brazil who set the world record for the largest.
09:39And so don't mind me while I set these two gallon containers right here.
09:43And so as people started gathering for the surprise, I hit the hardened streets of Gridley,
09:47California to look for some kind of last minute disguise.
09:54And so after a bit of a warm up, because these are all moves I can for sure do, and that's
09:58definitely me in the costume, the moment I had spent the last eight months planning for
10:02had finally arrived.
10:05And the cover story for the kids is they were coming to tour a walnut farm of a distant relative.
10:16And to provide a good juxtaposition, I wanted him to feel as awkward as possible for this
10:21part.
10:23And then when we gathered for the picture, I snuck up right behind him and took off my mask.
10:27All right.
10:28Cool.
10:29What do you guys want to do next?
10:32What should we do?
10:34His sister Isla also had no idea any of this was going to happen.
10:41What's up, buddy?
10:42How are you?
10:43Get in here.
10:44I'm the boy.
10:45What's up, dude?
10:46You are dating me.
10:47When I'm not making videos, I'm the Gridley mascot.
11:02The mascot.
11:04To really stretch out the surprise, I wanted him to think I was only there to drop in and
11:08say hi.
11:09So I had Dale suggest that I take the kids for a ride in his dune buggy, to which I reluctantly
11:13agreed because, you know, I'm a busy guy.
11:16How do you do it?
11:17You do it.
11:18Like 15 minutes?
11:19You guys want to go for a Razor Ride?
11:20Sure.
11:21Is that cool?
11:22Let's get the whole crew.
11:23Your sister?
11:24I had about like a half an hour, so it's good to meet you in real life.
11:27Yeah.
11:28Hey, what's up?
11:29Don't tell mom!
11:30It's not a word.
11:31It's not a word.
11:32I'm good.
11:33Watch out for walnuts.
11:34That's a...
11:35Woo!
11:36Wow, a single walnut grows in one of these, which is crazy to me.
11:45All of those are just a single walnut.
11:53As we pulled up the driveway, I stopped the dune buggy in a precisely predetermined location,
11:57where the view of the 20-foot flask was obscured by the truck.
12:00I heard it was your birthday, so I got you something simple.
12:02Well, tomorrow's my real thing.
12:04Oh yeah, tomorrow.
12:05I'm one day off.
12:09So, Fletch, I've got to come clean, buddy.
12:13You and I today are going to set a Guinness World Record for the world's tallest elephant
12:18toothpaste.
12:19Wait, what?
12:20Are you kidding me?
12:21You are currently in a YouTube video.
12:24Crazy.
12:25I want you to wave to your 20 million of your newest friends.
12:28Hello.
12:29We're going to put all the elephant toothpaste in the... and just blast it in the air.
12:34Yeah, I got 15 minutes.
12:37I actually fully cleared my schedule.
12:41Oh my God.
12:43With the surprise fully and successfully executed, my heart rate finally lowered a bit and I gave
12:49them a preview of all the cool stuff we had lined up for the party.
12:52Then we headed to the backyard where he saw the setup and his mom.
12:55You are devious.
12:56Because at this point it had sunk in, there would be no Walnut Farm tour and that her and
13:02I had been conspiring for months.
13:04For now, though, it was time to party.
13:09It was time to party.
13:37And everybody starts to move as soon as Panta Panta starts to play.
13:43Let's bubble party, my grandma.
14:07Before we busted out the flaming bubbles or the bubble pit, we headed across the street
14:23to check out the world's first, and therefore largest, Devil's Toothpaste experiment.
14:28Here we go, Flusher.
14:323, 2, 1.
14:35Floater.
14:361, Floater.
14:392, 2, 1.
14:413, 2, 1.
14:431, 1.
14:471, 2, 1.
14:491, 2, 1.
14:502, 1.
14:511, 2, 1.
14:521, 1.
14:531, 2, 1.
14:54Science Bob came over and hooked us up with the slow-mo shot.
15:24This shot was from a GoPro on rails, and we weren't quite fast enough with the pull.
15:31And for some reason I found this, like, WALL-E level pathetically sad.
15:35You can see, even in slow-mo, the reaction happened so incredibly fast.
15:46And I apologize for the gratuitous amount of slow-mo, but this has got to be the coolest thing I've ever filmed.
15:54And afterwards it kept oozing this rainbow Play-Doh extrusion thing.
16:12It just looked like some kind of whimsical alien landscape.
16:29And as you can see over time, it just sort of deflates itself.
16:33And after that we went back and ate some dinner, and had some amazing and not-at-all-creepy army of Fletcher face cupcakes,
16:39while the crew started prepping for the big world record finale.
16:42And in the vein of cool stuff I would need to have at my birthday party if I was turning 13 years old,
16:46I of course had to bust out the Elon Musk flamethrower to light some fire bubbles.
16:50And finally it was back to the front yard to top things off with the most amazing bubble pit ever.
16:55It was like belly flopping on a cloud.
16:58And at this point we realized it was taking way longer to fill up than we had calculated.
17:12So it was all hands on deck to try and pull this off before the sun went down.
17:16Oh, and this is cool.
17:17The bubble pit was dual purpose because once emptied,
17:20it served as the bunker to give a completely safe front row seat to whatever was about to happen.
17:25And so with the flats really close to being filled,
17:27Fletcher asked to take a very quick last minute ride in the Tesla,
17:30because he'd never been in one.
17:31This one.
17:32This one.
17:33This one.
17:34This is in like every video.
17:35You guys are in a Mark Grover video.
17:38Per the request, I gave them a quick ride.
17:50Autopilot.
17:52Oh my god.
17:53The weird part is I can sit and have a conversation with you.
17:56And this feels very freaky, but you trust me.
17:59Remember our story.
18:00All right.
18:0110 miles an hour tops.
18:02And so with the official measurement drone in the air,
18:04our timing was perfect because we made it back just as they were sealing up the door for the big moment.
18:09Okay, Fletcher, I'm handing this to you officially.
18:12To think you should have been touring a walnut farm right now.
18:15And so after eight months of planning and so much work by so many people,
18:19the coolest birthday present I've ever given anybody came down to this moment.
18:24Here we go.
18:25Three.
18:26Two.
18:27One.
18:28Oh!
18:29Oh!
18:30Oh!
18:31Oh!
18:32Oh!
18:33Oh!
18:34Oh!
18:35Oh!
18:36Oh!
18:37Oh!
18:50Oh!
18:52Oh!
18:55Oh!
18:57It worked!
19:07It went from the bottom!
19:10It came out the bottom and lifted it up!
19:15Look at my truck!
19:17Let's go!
19:19What'd you guys think?
19:21It exploded from the bottom.
19:23Look at the truck! It's like buried next to it!
19:27It landed there!
19:29So you're as if there were to move on!
19:31That's it!
19:33I see!
19:35Boom!
19:37and i'd just like to point out how great that flowing column looks with a perfectly selected
20:05outlet diameter that is until things got chaotic once the pressure changed drastically from the big
20:10rupture we literally made a rocket ship i mean fundamentally this is how rockets propel
20:27themselves an actual failure mode wasn't really a floor strength issue as much as it was a stiffness
20:32issue i knew our structure weighed over a ton so i just didn't consider that the reaction could lift
20:37the whole thing five feet into the freaking air and anessa that's what we refer to as a critical
20:42oversight but honestly this result was way more spectacular plus it leaves room for improvement
20:47and i should also note even with all that we still crushed the previous world record by more than
20:52double and so as the sun went down science bob lit up the fire tornado as a fitting end to the party
20:57i also told fletcher there was one more thing which is that with a little help from dale
21:04he could use some heavy equipment to destroy our beautiful creation
21:14and so with that the party was all over
21:18that was epic i'll never forget this
21:22as they drove away i thought about everything they've been through for the past year and all
21:26the people that came together from all across the country to donate their time and energy for a
21:31kid they've never even met and i might not vote the exact same as all of them but for like five
21:37inspiring days none of that stuff mattered whenever i find myself short on hope i find it helps to put my
21:44phone down and choose to see the good parts in my fellow humans and be one of the good parts for my
21:50fellow humans to see and so to fletcher thank you for being such a good example of holding on to hope
21:56amidst really lame circumstances happy birthday buddy and congrats on your new world record
22:20so
22:26i'm
22:28i'm
22:29i'm
22:29i'm
22:30i'm
22:31i'm
22:32i'm
22:34i'm
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