Why Tom Couldn't Show You The World's Largest Artificial Sun

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  • čas přidán 7. 07. 2017
  • Tom saw something very impressive in person. Here's why it didn't look anywhere near as impressive on camera. Also hand rubbing.
    MATT: / mattgrayyes | TOM: / tomscottgo
    Synlight - The World's Largest Artificial Sun - www.dlr.de/content/en/researc...
    www.dlr.de/content/en/article...
    Wendelstein 7X (An experimental stellarator nuclear fusion reactor) - www.ipp.mpg.de/w7x
    Neckarwestheim and the End Of The World: Citation Needed 1x06 -
    • Neckarwestheim and the...
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Komentáře • 1,6K

  • @mattandtom
    @mattandtom  Před 7 lety +2894

    I just want to repeat: thank you to all the team at Synlight! They were all lovely and this was entirely my screw-up. -- Tom

    • @wierdalien1
      @wierdalien1 Před 7 lety +104

      Matt and Tom To be fair its an amazing advert for gopro.

    • @huds601
      @huds601 Před 7 lety +104

      You should have posted anyway Tom. We would have understood (and yeah, it’s a hell of an advert for GoPro!). Could have even spun it as a test of a GoPro’s prowess?

    • @wierdalien1
      @wierdalien1 Před 7 lety +12

      Daniel Hudson GoPro versus sunbulbs

    • @TheRockType
      @TheRockType Před 7 lety +33

      Do you want to apologise for That Image from That Video again?

    • @TheEABProductions
      @TheEABProductions Před 7 lety +47

      I didn't really understand why you didn't just post it anyway? I know it didn't look impressive, but it's still a hell of a machine.

  • @tzhongyan2
    @tzhongyan2 Před 7 lety +2582

    You can change your title of the video to "A GoPro can survive the world's largest artificial sun" and that's something you might not have known

    • @user-fj2me7wp4k
      @user-fj2me7wp4k Před 4 lety +77

      Yeah but then that belittles the scale of the facility.

    • @falleithani5411
      @falleithani5411 Před 4 lety +164

      "A GoPro can survive the world's largest artificial sun if you only turn on a very small fraction of the array on for just a few seconds."

    • @petermarsella6537
      @petermarsella6537 Před 3 lety +25

      Yeah but that falls into the problem that Tom mentioned. It's just anticlimactic. When you turn on the light, in person (well, you can't look at it in person for obvious reasons, but) it looks amazing. But on the GoPro it's just really anticlimactic. "GoPro can survive world's largest artificial sun" isn't news, it's not a story. It would be like "Heatwave during soccer match, nobody harmed." It's not impressive, it's just "huh"

    • @ChronoCommander
      @ChronoCommander Před 2 lety +2

      It would make for some great advertising for GoPros though.

  • @Ultracity6060
    @Ultracity6060 Před 7 lety +1972

    You accidentally filmed a GoPro commercial.

    • @cyrx-glg-1675
      @cyrx-glg-1675 Před 4 lety +15

      I was going into the comment section expecting to find this comment xd

    • @agustinvenegas5238
      @agustinvenegas5238 Před 3 lety +19

      Didn't someone put one in lava and the damn thing survived? I'm starting to think they're using the same electronics as the old-school Nokia phones

    • @lasivianleandros3558
      @lasivianleandros3558 Před 3 lety +1

      Truth!

    • @JonatasAdoM
      @JonatasAdoM Před 3 lety +4

      @@agustinvenegas5238 Tomorrow's headlines: GoPro discovered to be made out of Nokia's parts.

  • @michaelaj4495
    @michaelaj4495 Před 7 lety +2483

    Couldn't you have just explained over exposure correction and how it works? The footage would've been perfect to explain the concept

  • @Anon-xd3cf
    @Anon-xd3cf Před 6 lety +594

    "Yes I just dropped my phone. No I'm not going to pick it up. I'm in the middle of a rant."
    Subscribed.

  • @Thumbsupurbum
    @Thumbsupurbum Před 7 lety +1646

    God: "Walk into the light, my son."
    GoPro: "What light?"

    • @MatheusPratta
      @MatheusPratta Před 5 lety +10

      777 likes, must be a sign

    • @alterracorp7852
      @alterracorp7852 Před 5 lety +35

      Light: *I am brighter and hotter than the sun! Now Dow-*
      GoPro: **pulls out uno reverse card**

    • @WarrenGarabrandt
      @WarrenGarabrandt Před 4 lety +6

      Go pro: THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS!

    • @fivesix3868
      @fivesix3868 Před 4 lety +7

      The gopro looks at medusa and turns HER to stone

  • @knightshousegames
    @knightshousegames Před 7 lety +1039

    Tom, it looks fine. Your standards have officially gone too high. I mean the story you just told us was that these lights were so bright that a Go Pro couldn't even understand it. Finish the video, it's fine.

    • @TheEpicLinkFreeman
      @TheEpicLinkFreeman Před 5 lety +81

      it was the opposite, it wasn't bright enough that the gopro couldn't understand it
      the goal was for it to overload the gopro and have it look crazy, but it looked like a regular light bulb with nothing special about it and he didn't like that

    • @Sammie1053
      @Sammie1053 Před 5 lety +55

      Bear in mind the Park Bench and the Amazing Places audience have clear overlap, but not all people who would have seen that video are the Park Bench kind of person, that being people who are fans of Tom and usually have some understanding of and appreciation for the work that goes into making these videos. Most of the people who would have clicked on a video titled "The World's Largest Artificial Sun" would have been there for the spectacle, not just a technical explanation and a disclaimer about video exposure. Even on an educational channel, you have to factor in the lowest common denominator of the audience.

    • @tylerdolph886
      @tylerdolph886 Před 5 lety +12

      yea just upload it, it looks cool anyways

    • @LostieTrekieTechie
      @LostieTrekieTechie Před 5 lety +8

      @@tylerdolph886 that's what this video is

  • @SogenOkami
    @SogenOkami Před 7 lety +1086

    That's not anti-climatic, that's freaking cool! A Gopro survived all that? Makes me wanna buy one.

  • @TristanBomber
    @TristanBomber Před 7 lety +520

    Tom, that video is plenty cool - the video isn't ruined at all, why do you think that? We don't watch your videos so we can look at a bright light, we watch them to learn! So what, it doesn't look super amazing? Post it anyway!
    Alternatively, just apply really heavy gamma increase. Not quite as honest, but more impressive.

  • @johnhunter5247
    @johnhunter5247 Před 7 lety +1698

    I personally found that really cool.

    • @xzonia1
      @xzonia1 Před 7 lety +145

      I know, right? I don't understand what the problem is here. Nothing needs to explode for this facility's operations to still be very cool. The fact that the GoPro adjusts to bright light is also pretty cool! I wasn't expecting to get blinded anyway until Tom put the thought in my head, and when it didn't happen I thought, eh - this work is still awesome! Science doesn't need Hollywood exaggerations to be remarkable. I wish he'd done the video as an example of how science does not need to be flashy to be amazing. :)

    • @firehog
      @firehog Před 7 lety +15

      John Hunter I agree, it was a cool video. The gopro should have been filmed with a thermal camera. Done. cool... or hot...

    • @TheAkashicTraveller
      @TheAkashicTraveller Před 7 lety +27

      My thoughts through this video was basically just. Eh, I don't see any problem here. It sounds like Tom had an idea in his head of what the video should be and when it didn't go like that he though he'd messed it up even though it was a good video anyway. If you think this is less interesting than insert random curio in a European village here then you've got something wrong with you.

    • @sarahprunierlaw9147
      @sarahprunierlaw9147 Před 7 lety

      +

    • @Mika_Storm
      @Mika_Storm Před 7 lety

      +

  • @tomasspace4819
    @tomasspace4819 Před 7 lety +1599

    You should release it anyway. Biggest artificial sun and god damn blessed gopro. Or write gopro im sure they will want this as promotion material. :D

    • @eihples
      @eihples Před 7 lety +66

      My thoughts exactly, this is great advertising for GoPro, you could squeeze out a spon probably :D

    • @maxximumb
      @maxximumb Před 7 lety +65

      Yes that ^. GoPro might even send you a new shiny one to try to abuse in other interesting places.

    • @LynxSnowCat
      @LynxSnowCat Před 7 lety +36

      So on the upside, these scientists now have another camera option for their research.

    • @eihples
      @eihples Před 7 lety +2

      The battery is still gonna melt :/

    • @LynxSnowCat
      @LynxSnowCat Před 7 lety +26

      Batteries can be substituted for by an an external power supply, much like their existing fixed cameras use.

  • @BartholomewFlutist
    @BartholomewFlutist Před 4 lety +192

    2 years late, but I just wanted to say that I am actually really impressed with the footage you hated.

  • @TheManWithThePlan360
    @TheManWithThePlan360 Před 7 lety +242

    "And on behalf of this anticlimax, from this GoPro, from this video, would like to apologize for the existence of this anticlimax, from this GoPro, from this video, and I will be careful in future when doing this again."

  • @kingpopaul
    @kingpopaul Před 7 lety +1024

    So you scraped an educational/science/tech video just because it didn't LOOK impressive enough?? FFS TOM, WE DON'T WANT A MICHAEL BAY MOVIE, JUST INTERESTING STUFF.

    • @Denuhm
      @Denuhm Před 6 lety +13

      kingpopaul right?!

    • @xtzyshuadog
      @xtzyshuadog Před 4 lety +4

      Scrapped.

    • @coolfred9083
      @coolfred9083 Před 4 lety +36

      Yeah I was going to say, it wasn't anywhere near as bad as Tom made it out to be. It would've made a great video regardless.

    • @trouty7947
      @trouty7947 Před 4 lety +12

      Ah but we get *this* video explaining it. And these are pretty cool as you learn more about the cinematography trade

  • @MatthiasYReich
    @MatthiasYReich Před 7 lety +803

    Honestly, i think it would have been (still is?) worth making a video out of it... The explanation would suffice if you ask me...

    • @chrisharrison763
      @chrisharrison763 Před 7 lety +9

      Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that what you've just watched?

    • @lukjad007
      @lukjad007 Před 7 lety +16

      I think he meant on the main channel.

    • @AntigonePoss
      @AntigonePoss Před 7 lety +8

      There are people who don't watch this channel but they do watch the main channel.

    • @LeoMRogers
      @LeoMRogers Před 7 lety +13

      Quite a lot of people in fact. The main channel has 10 times more subscribers.

  • @MrsSchwapdidu
    @MrsSchwapdidu Před 6 lety +203

    here's why i am confused: of course the camera can't pick up how amazing it really looks because if it could do that and we could watch it exactly how it really was, then we would be blinded.
    so what should have happened? it is impossible that the footage is even close to the brightness of the "sun" so the shot was all it could be, and that was totally fine

    • @goodname4514
      @goodname4514 Před 3 lety +7

      Probably could've just made the video and included this in the script

    • @tiskbubbles4688
      @tiskbubbles4688 Před 3 lety +29

      I mean if he wanted it not to correct for overexposure or whatever, the footage would just be like a white screen, no? Or at least most of it around the lights would be white. Doesn't sound all that impressive to me. I would be more interested in just hearing about the experiments and what they do there than fussing about the video tbh.

    • @Yodah97
      @Yodah97 Před 2 lety +9

      Yep. The most bright pixels can get is white at max brightness.
      That said, Tom keeps referring to security camera footage that looked cool and photos that looked cool. I don't know what he saw, but I couldn't find any photos of Synlight that looked better than his video. I'm guessing some of what he saw as simply edited, or it was some distortion caused by cheaper camera gear.
      Anyway, whatever he saw, that's what he was hoping the Go Pro would capture. And it didn't.

  • @erictaylor5462
    @erictaylor5462 Před 6 lety +313

    "The only way is to melt a GoPro..."
    Did you consider putting in a lower quality camera?

    • @coolguyhino92
      @coolguyhino92 Před 4 lety +26

      Still the risk of exploding battery.

    • @monad_tcp
      @monad_tcp Před 4 lety +20

      @@coolguyhino92 take out the battery and plug it in a solar panel, the facility was designed for testing them

    • @egcart4957
      @egcart4957 Před 4 lety +7

      Probably just didn’t have another camera, and still... exploding battery

  • @DrawCuriosity
    @DrawCuriosity Před 7 lety +627

    Plot twist - this becomes a new advert for Go pro :p

  • @DIYPerks
    @DIYPerks Před 7 lety +329

    Wouldn't it be possible to power the gopro externally? That way the battery or power source etc could be protected. Looked pretty cool to me anyway!

    • @ganon8835
      @ganon8835 Před 3 lety +46

      power it up by solar power and use the lights to power it. unlimited power!

    • @OrangeC7
      @OrangeC7 Před 3 lety +7

      @@ganon8835 UNLIMITED POWAAAAAH

    • @jearlblah5169
      @jearlblah5169 Před 3 lety +2

      @@ganon8835 no but actually I am pretty sure solar panels can do bad things when subjected to that much light

    • @TylerMarkRichardson
      @TylerMarkRichardson Před 3 lety +1

      @@jearlblah5169 it was a place designed for solar panels

    • @daveboy2000
      @daveboy2000 Před 3 lety +3

      @@TylerMarkRichardson solar collectors, not solar panels. VERY different things, actually.

  • @Nik6644
    @Nik6644 Před 4 lety +22

    This could’ve been the perfect GoPro placement 😂 „The GoPro - How good does it deal with bright lights? Well let’s say you wanted to film the sun...“

  • @MariusSchar
    @MariusSchar Před 7 lety +191

    Honestly, I thought that video would've been pretty good. Even just the numbers are very impressive and spectacular.

    • @DiGatsby
      @DiGatsby Před 7 lety +43

      Also changing the script so that you would tell the numbers during the demonstration might've made up for it.
      "It might not look in the video visually as impressive but each of these lights are producing - -"

    • @purplegill10
      @purplegill10 Před 7 lety +3

      Vili-Robert that's actually a genius idea

  • @JimCullen
    @JimCullen Před 7 lety +783

    You could just put the video up with the explicit disclaimer "sound effects added for dramatic effect" :P

    • @dard1515
      @dard1515 Před 7 lety +26

      That would be a very Tom Scott-ish thing to do.

    • @TheAkashicTraveller
      @TheAkashicTraveller Před 7 lety +5

      I thought that they sounded out of place anyway.

    • @foobar201
      @foobar201 Před 7 lety +26

      And then afterwards, as an kind of asterisk, 'and here's how they really sounded... *tink*'

    • @greenmumm
      @greenmumm Před 7 lety +6

      They just needed to be a little quieter

    • @happily_cj
      @happily_cj Před 7 lety +7

      I only saw this after suggesting the same thing. Several people coming up with this --> this might actually be worth a shot :)

  • @kevinkoger5749
    @kevinkoger5749 Před 4 lety +34

    Tom looks like he’s perpetually stuck between a man and a child, both in the face and his appeal. It’s more amazing than your awesome dedication to learning and teaching. Have you aged since you graduated university? Keep crushing and God bless.

  • @katherineyan4955
    @katherineyan4955 Před 4 lety +170

    "1.5 speed... because I have a tiny attention span"
    Me: is watching this at 2.5x speed...

    • @vedvod
      @vedvod Před 4 lety +6

      but the cap is 2x speed...

    • @katherineyan4955
      @katherineyan4955 Před 4 lety +21

      @@vedvod You can set it to higher with the javascript console

    • @tinkersdinkers
      @tinkersdinkers Před 3 lety +3

      @@katherineyan4955 whoaa wait fr? how?? 🥺

    • @daWinzig
      @daWinzig Před 3 lety +8

      @@tinkersdinkers document.getElementsByTagName('video')[0].playbackRate = 2.5
      but there are some extensions that can do this in a more user-friendly way

  • @dberzins
    @dberzins Před 7 lety +321

    Why does a gopro adjusting the brightness spoil the video about an interesting thing? The information about what the artificial sun is and what it does is still quite interesting to see. You do not have to film a Mars rover from the surface of Mars for the piece about it to be interesting.

    • @calaphos
      @calaphos Před 7 lety +21

      I absolutely agree. There is more background to it than melting a gopro

    • @lukediggle7639
      @lukediggle7639 Před 7 lety

      Ollyweg 0 the thing is he can't, it's in a vacuum chamber so no oxygen to fuel the fire.

    • @GameFreak7744
      @GameFreak7744 Před 6 lety +1

      Melt a chocolate bunny?

    • @dakat5131
      @dakat5131 Před 6 lety +8

      ikr? it still made a nice piece. it might not have been as impressive as in person, but displays typically(and thankfully) don't reproduce that much brightness anyway, so it was going to get squashed or flat even if the camera didn't think it was doing the right thing by adapting.

    • @pyrioncelendil
      @pyrioncelendil Před rokem +1

      It's because standard dynamic range cameras can't even come close to reproducing the effect of staring straight into the sun, and this video was recorded in basically the same era as the one about the "pinkest pink" that can't be reproduced on SDR displays for much the same reason: there just isn't enough gamut available in eight bits per pixel.
      I'd really be interested in Tom doing followups to videos that don't work for the same underlying reason if he were ever to start using HDR-capable recording equipment, seeing as CZcams supports HDR videos just fine if watching on a HDR display.

  • @vertxxyz
    @vertxxyz Před 7 lety +85

    I think this is fine. Spectacle isn't everything, I don't know about others but I watch your videos to find out that these things exist. Not to see bright lights? It's never going to look THAT cool, it's a bright light.

  • @the_alex_ellis_channel6923
    @the_alex_ellis_channel6923 Před 6 lety +92

    You gave me an idea for a Citation Needed prize:
    A tall structure used to collate sunlight for electricity, run by a swearing New Zealand news presenter.
    A Patrick Gower Solar Power Tower.

  • @robsmithracing
    @robsmithracing Před 4 lety +29

    Not relevant I know, but i drove past you recording this. I was driving for local hospitals at the time. If you look carefully you can see me going past in an ambulance ferrying patients around! I remember seeing you both sitting on that park bench recording this!

    • @hive_indicator318
      @hive_indicator318 Před 3 lety +2

      DutchBlackMantha has a comment about the timing of you driving by!

    • @Loki-
      @Loki- Před rokem

      ​@@hive_indicator318I find it hilarious that OP slightly annoyed me for not linking the timestamp, and then more annoying when you put in the effort of remembering and writing down someone who wrote the timestamp, but you didn't also write the timestamp.
      Also, funnily enough I found the time to complain about both of these funny and annoying experiences, but I didn't find the time to find the timestamp comment or the moment in the video.

    • @I_Love_Learning
      @I_Love_Learning Před rokem +2

      @@Loki- I think it was 0:38
      I just watched that video 3 times. Have a good rest of your day.

    • @yaitz3313
      @yaitz3313 Před 8 měsíci +1

      The ambulance drove past in the video literally as I looked up from this comment. Nice.
      It's 10:29, by the way.

  • @ByteMe619
    @ByteMe619 Před 7 lety +327

    I really appreciate Tom's integrity. He doesn't just upload a video that he thinks wouldn't be up to standard, even if he knew it would still get a lot of views/revenue. But he still shows us the footage in case we're still interested (which we are). Thanks Tom!

    • @raffaelepiccini3405
      @raffaelepiccini3405 Před 4 lety +7

      Although I would like to see his video, where he explains stuff about the facility and shows short interviews with people, rather then a video just focused on the fact that the climax didn't look cool enough... It would have been amazing as a video, shame he didn't make it just for a small detail most people wouldn't even care about.. we are in for the informations not necessarily the visuals

  • @vylbird8014
    @vylbird8014 Před 7 lety +156

    I believe the 'ka-clunk' of lighting is just a dated expectation. Modern lights do not make that noise - but they once did, in very large installations like warehouses or floodlights. It is the sound of a mechanical time-delay contactor. Incandescent bulbs draw a surge current when turned on - if you turned all the lights in a large installation simultaneously the surge current would blow fuses. The solution was a device that just turns them on in stages, a few seconds apart. That's still done today, but using silent solid-state electronics. Hollywood just kept the sound effect because it sounds cool.

    • @ChristopherMeadors
      @ChristopherMeadors Před 7 lety +20

      I went to a very old elementary school, its cafeteria/stage the only place I've ever heard lights make that noise. The noise would come from the back-stage area, not anywhere near the light switch, or the light bulbs.

    • @caracaes
      @caracaes Před 7 lety +7

      Carbon arc lamps also made a characteristic noise when they turned on, but it was more of a buzz noise than a Ka-clunk.
      A carbon arc with the delayed contactor would do both noises.

    • @bbgun061
      @bbgun061 Před 6 lety +8

      Vyl Bird -Turning the lights on at the hangar where I work, there is a kachunk noise, but it's actually produced by the relays

    • @AndyLundell
      @AndyLundell Před 5 lety +6

      There may actually have been some relays controlling those lights that would make that sound. If he'd known ahead of time that he needed it, it would have been a funny to mic the relays and produce the sequence as Hollywood would, .. and then do a reveal where Tom says "Actually, that noise comes from this metal box in a completely different room from the lights themselves."

  • @DickHolman
    @DickHolman Před 6 lety +72

    "GoPro: Makes the Extraordinary normal!"
    I'll get me coat.

  • @whitcwa
    @whitcwa Před 4 lety +68

    The way to capture how bright it was is to lock the exposure at the brightest setting and showing how dark normal room lighting is at that setting. Video has a quite limited dynamic range. The white of your screen can't be made any brighter by a content creator, so making other things darker is the way to go.

    • @Yodah97
      @Yodah97 Před 2 lety +1

      That's pretty damn smart actually. Good thinking.

  • @tatianatub
    @tatianatub Před 7 lety +116

    i was not expecting that face at the end i demand an apology

  • @Valkyrien04
    @Valkyrien04 Před 7 lety +108

    Should have had thermal cameras pointed at it, seeing the thermal spike would have been amazing

    • @trickytreyperfected1482
      @trickytreyperfected1482 Před 4 lety +4

      Surely those would be way too expensive to risk that.

    • @RAY30050
      @RAY30050 Před 4 lety +6

      @@trickytreyperfected1482 oh look someone else from 2020. I would think that the facility would have the equipment to masure the temperature. So once the second take with the gopro "failed" Tom could've recorded the change of temperature on the next go around.

    • @trickytreyperfected1482
      @trickytreyperfected1482 Před 4 lety +4

      @@RAY30050 I'm also stupid because I misread your comment. I assume that you meant to have a thermal camera in the focus point, not somewhere else pointed either at the lights or at the focal point.

  • @TheCheekyPotato
    @TheCheekyPotato Před 7 lety +99

    to be honest Tom, I watch your videos to find out about interesting places. I did enjoy watching that, and would have been happy to see it! Release it!

  • @SonicWizards
    @SonicWizards Před 4 lety +97

    In Hollywood sounds are added to make it “larger than life”, but also to translate the feeling of the situation rather than the fact of the situation. In the sense of what we experience as real, rather than what actually is real, the added sound is actually more true than the absence of the sound.
    This counts more for things like punches and stuff, than lights turning on, though. But still...

    • @blisles7626
      @blisles7626 Před 4 lety +5

      When we had a fight choreographer in for a show I was doing he taught us the difference between a sxene that was napped (where you make the noises of punches colliding etc) and one where you don't. If the sound is not there it doesn't come across properly to the audience and looks dead weird.

  • @martinhill7304
    @martinhill7304 Před 7 lety +267

    Run it as a video on how awesome cameras are at not getting destroyed in super bright light instead? featuring science machines

    • @martinhill7304
      @martinhill7304 Před 7 lety +12

      Also start with the seemingly domestic lights being switched on, then go for the shiny shiny kit?

    • @pierre-yvestardieu6834
      @pierre-yvestardieu6834 Před 7 lety +25

      Berakh Hvar yes I think that could be a good solution, there may be things to learn about CCD sensors and how they cope with bright light.

    • @LynxSnowCat
      @LynxSnowCat Před 7 lety +1

      Automatic gain control for the win?

    • @RainaRamsay
      @RainaRamsay Před 7 lety +13

      THIS. How tf is GoPro capable of this? What kind of technology have we developed such that the camera brand known for "cheap" and "sketchy" is capable of handling this?
      Talk about how automatic gain control works, and then, as proof, show that a GoPro is capable of handling the brightest thing humans can produce. *THAT'S* impressive.

    • @RainaRamsay
      @RainaRamsay Před 7 lety +5

      But if you don't want to use this footage, please at least talk about how automatic gain control works, because I really want to know.

  • @Heimbasteln
    @Heimbasteln Před 7 lety +266

    I think the video would have worked just like this. Its still a cool thing, just because you cant completely show it doesnt mean it isnt awesome.

  • @adranirdoradrie4922
    @adranirdoradrie4922 Před 5 lety +20

    "This isn't the Wendlestrom ?
    -I BEG your pardon ?"
    I don't know why but this made me laugh

  • @DutchBlackMantha
    @DutchBlackMantha Před 7 lety +26

    10:25 They talk about melting a GoPro. An ambulace drives by.

    • @DSSlocksmiths
      @DSSlocksmiths Před 4 lety +6

      Clearly, Surry/London(?) ambulance service gets nervous when there's a video being recorded by Matt and Tom, regardless of content, and were circling just in case.

  • @flashbaggins427
    @flashbaggins427 Před 7 lety +391

    I think you should apologise for the very very end
    I am traumatised.
    Wherever I go... I see that face

    • @Spiritwonder420
      @Spiritwonder420 Před 7 lety +66

      Flash Baggins from that picture from that video :p

    • @Dzeroed
      @Dzeroed Před 7 lety +2

      Flash Baggins Looks like Ethan from H3H3

    • @connoroud4248
      @connoroud4248 Před 7 lety +2

      Here, have a listen to this. I suggest using VLC for it. mega.nz/#!FokzVA5T!QZZxnQJY-ASjgCMMFV-XSjAKbfuxvy_Ljsd2PhzJQs8

  • @QuotePilgrim
    @QuotePilgrim Před 7 lety +56

    Point a GoPro straight at the Sun and do a comparison with that. That may or may not work, but it's worth a shot.

  • @Skyliner_369
    @Skyliner_369 Před 7 lety +40

    "okay so the Go Pro decided to give up on exposing for the lights and capture the detail for the rest. But here is a simulation of what it would look like."

  • @tylerpeterson4726
    @tylerpeterson4726 Před 7 lety +12

    In my experience, the master power to stage lights makes an impressive noise. It's a big heavy clunk. If you go to the lighting board before turning on power to the array and push all the switches up, then you get a clunk paired with blinding light. But that switch is for providing power to the entire lighting array, not each individual bulb.

  • @PoliticRevolutionnaire
    @PoliticRevolutionnaire Před 7 lety +239

    There was an old lady called Wright
    who could travel much faster than light.
    She departed one day
    in a relative way
    and returned on the previous night.
    (Not mine originally just really cool)

    • @konstantinkh
      @konstantinkh Před 6 lety +2

      What is this? Relativity limericks?
      There once was a fencer named Fisk
      Whose thrust was incredibly brisk
      So fast was his action
      That Lorentz contraction
      Has turned his rapier into disk

    • @thenorup
      @thenorup Před 6 lety

      This limerick is printed in my special relativity textbook :)

  • @heddafh5766
    @heddafh5766 Před 7 lety +57

    I was NOT prepared for that image from that video. I think you might owe us another apology.

    • @Grimsace
      @Grimsace Před 7 lety +1

      You mean this solar array? From this image? From this video?

    • @Luuk3333
      @Luuk3333 Před 7 lety +4

      Hedda Holtung Just call +44 20 3870 2020.

    • @hansolavtalg4560
      @hansolavtalg4560 Před 7 lety +3

      Please schedule regular apology videos

    • @ZMYaro
      @ZMYaro Před 7 lety

      I, for one, am skeptical that That Image from That Video actually made that sound; I think Tom just added it in afterward¡

  • @_Niels__
    @_Niels__ Před 6 lety +20

    The 3-countries point in with the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany is really quite interesting actually. It was a 4-countries point at some time due to some disagreement between Belgium and Germany about materials in the ground. Could have been an interesting story...

  • @HaloInverse
    @HaloInverse Před 7 lety +3

    Well, now I know what brand of camera to bring on a trip to Mercury.

  • @firebird9594
    @firebird9594 Před 7 lety +28

    You could've also pointed a thermal camera at the GoPro and shown how hot it was getting

  • @CanOzmaden
    @CanOzmaden Před 7 lety +41

    Just a small addition to the video: the Triland point (DE-NL-BE) is near the town of Aachen which is approx. an hour drive away from Cologne. And the facility where this artificial sun is located is called the Jülich Research Center.
    Source: I live in Aachen and study at the Rwth University which also has close ties to the said research center.
    A pity it didn't make the cut!

    • @j.anonym5605
      @j.anonym5605 Před 4 lety +1

      Ich lebe auch in Aachen, aber ich hab noch nie davon gehört 😂

  • @leackedimp7169
    @leackedimp7169 Před 7 lety +14

    U should just upload it with an explanation of why the GoPro makes it look more mundane

  • @handiman5001
    @handiman5001 Před 3 lety +8

    Just one question "What did you expect would happen?" a go pro explosion? I found it very interesting -- the fact that the go-pro didn't explode was interesting enough -- now we can try to guess why it didn't

  • @GamesFromSpace
    @GamesFromSpace Před 7 lety +16

    Meanwhile I get migraines if I don't have sunglasses on an overcast day.

  • @GameRevo
    @GameRevo Před 7 lety +45

    You could've made it a double-purpose video, looking at the artificial sun and the surprising build-quality of the GoPro! Regardless, I'm glad we got to see it. It's still really interesting.

    • @Vibinator
      @Vibinator Před 7 lety

      Dont you mean Sony :) (Its their sensors)

  • @seanm9306
    @seanm9306 Před 3 lety +4

    “The disused one that’s now a theme park.”
    Foreshadowing

  • @jeim376
    @jeim376 Před 4 lety +9

    Matt laughs like The Count from Sesame Street
    12:45

  • @swunt10
    @swunt10 Před 7 lety +443

    so you only want to show videos that are visually impressive? well that will be a limitation. lots of cool things are visually underwhelming.

    • @dgodfrey9189
      @dgodfrey9189 Před 7 lety +28

      Tom's made plenty of videos about things that aren't actually that visually stunning- the borders inside borders inside borders one is just him walking on a street, and there's one about little twiddly knobs underneath crossing signals. In this case they were expecting something to be much more visually impressive than it turned out to be. If they'd used his phone, rather than the gopro maybe it would have been.

    • @Firecul
      @Firecul Před 7 lety +9

      dgodfrey9189 Or the sideways river, that looks pathetic.

    • @cybercat1531
      @cybercat1531 Před 7 lety +51

      Seriosuly, Tom if you read this. Upload it anyway and send the video to GoPro too. The Camera that looked into the sun and lived.

    • @MrFrostburner
      @MrFrostburner Před 7 lety +12

      I think it's that the go pro didn't accurately portray the subject. The really thing is super bright, blindingly bright, but in the video it just looks like a normal spotlight.

    • @SpotTiger
      @SpotTiger Před 7 lety +1

      Mar Right? Example: How insanely, incomprehensibly amazing is a modern smartphone? The engineering and history of "That doesn't work. How do we fix that?" is incredible. But, from the outside? Iz'just a plastic brick, innit?

  • @idkhowtoplay7747
    @idkhowtoplay7747 Před 7 lety +101

    so I see you have a new outro?

    • @Zero8600
      @Zero8600 Před 7 lety +36

      I spat my drink laughing when i saw that at the end again xD

  • @deathman1687
    @deathman1687 Před 7 lety +26

    I just got this video recommended to me and for two minutes I thought Matt is blind. I'm excited to see the other videos.

  • @jpe1
    @jpe1 Před 6 lety +6

    Some lights in some circumstances do make that sound. I worked lighting for a 2200 seat theatre that had fluorescent house lights (roughly 200 4 foot fixtures). On the lighting control board was a tiny toggle switch to turn them on or off. When turning on there was a sound almost exactly like your sound effect as the relays and starters and ballasts energized. It was loud, impressive, and when you heard it you knew something had happened.

    • @YCbCr
      @YCbCr Před rokem

      The large and echoey PE hall in school had some overhead sodium lamps fixed to the roof beams, made a lovely deep energetic racket and as they warmed up, all the hum and buzz slowly turned into light. Shivers. It ain't the same with LEDs :)

  • @CuleChick11
    @CuleChick11 Před 7 lety +13

    Rant Mode: "Yes, I just dropped my phone on the floor! No, I'm not going to pick it up!"

  • @Razoreas
    @Razoreas Před 7 lety +22

    Who cares if the gopro didnt melt or malfunction in any way, its still interesting as f**k.

  • @McJaews
    @McJaews Před 6 lety +3

    Solution: "Hello. Today, we're going to visit a place with some very bright lights. Unfortunately, there's no way your screen can show how bright they are, so this video will begin with a massive ANTICLIMAX WARNING! Now, let's visit these guys and ask them what their deal is, and why they can't just use a regular torch."

  • @shadowhenge7118
    @shadowhenge7118 Před 4 lety +6

    GoPro... the camera you take when you absolutely must capture your extreme trip to Mercury. I dunno. This is a good ad for GoPro.

  • @anxplodinturtle7928
    @anxplodinturtle7928 Před 7 lety +18

    I just about lost it when *this face* came on screen 😂😂😂

    • @homomculus
      @homomculus Před 7 lety +7

      From this video?

    • @ohpurpled
      @ohpurpled Před 7 lety +1

      Jess Kay as show in that video about that face in that picture from that video being used as a thumbnail in that video

  • @varana
    @varana Před 7 lety +68

    That's really unfortunate that that didn't work.
    OTOH, maybe send the video to the GoPro people, they might have use for it in their marketing. :D
    P.S. Reading the title, I also immediately thought this was about the Wendelstein reactor.

    • @caracaes
      @caracaes Před 7 lety +3

      Wait, this isn't a GoPro advertise?

  • @stmicoll
    @stmicoll Před 7 lety +2

    Tom, you're being way overcritical about it! This would have been a great video. I'm glad you did share it, even dripping with self-deprecation. The place is awesome, the setup was indeed well done, and you didn't anticipate that a GoPro was as badass as it is. That would've been a lovely aside - "we tried to film this from inside, but the GoPro compensated so well, it's not super impressive. Still, here's what this incredible facility can do..."

  • @sidewinder15599
    @sidewinder15599 Před 5 lety +4

    Some of the arc lamps I've worked on make a VERY similar sound, especially the older ones that are close to failing. Listening to the sounds they make is actually part of how I troubleshoot them.

  • @3lapsed
    @3lapsed Před 7 lety +17

    THERE ARE FIVE LIGHTS!

    • @BoHolbo
      @BoHolbo Před 7 lety +2

      3lapsed :-D Not to be pedantic here, but cpt. Picard actually yelled "there are four lights"
      But the reference still works;)

    • @BoHolbo
      @BoHolbo Před 7 lety

      No, wait. I'm not shure anymore...

    • @izzieb
      @izzieb Před 7 lety +2

      Bo Holbo Rasmussen No, you're right. He was being told to say there were 5.

  • @brunoais
    @brunoais Před 7 lety +10

    13:00 Oh?? That was it? I thought it was the sound of relays switching on/off

  • @TopherIsATribble
    @TopherIsATribble Před 4 lety +1

    -hears Tom call himself out for watching at 1.5x speed for a tiny attention span- -looks at the settings where he's watching this video at 2x speed- -feels called out-

  • @ryanford5387
    @ryanford5387 Před 3 lety +2

    'it's playing at 1.5 speed because I have a small attention span'
    Me, who watched up to that point at 1.75 speed: ...

  • @collinscody57
    @collinscody57 Před 2 lety +9

    Lights never made that noise it was the solenoids use to switch on and off the massive amount of electricity they used that did. They has to move extremely fast so they can disconnect/reconnect power without arcing inside the switch

  • @dragos7puri
    @dragos7puri Před 7 lety +26

    I would have liked the video. Science doesn't have to be spectacular in order to be interesting.

  • @Night_Hawk_475
    @Night_Hawk_475 Před 4 lety +1

    Honestly it's still a really cool project to learn about. The title definitely had me thinking you were going to talk about fusion reactors. I had no idea there were test facilities like this! Thanks for still sharing what you had, honestly I do kind of agree with one of the top comments, it still would have been fine footage, it was more the over-hyping beforehand than bad footage from inside the chamber (which I don't think needed to be included in a video then)

  • @pyroslavx7922
    @pyroslavx7922 Před 4 lety +5

    You never heard old contactors of cinema projector HID light startup circuitry, they go BANG, discharging a huge capacitor bank into a bulb to "kickstart" it?

  • @marcgro4111
    @marcgro4111 Před 3 lety +3

    Hey Tom, considering this video is almost 4 years old, I realize someone might have already pointed it out, but I think, you should revist the "Drielandenpunt" as the Dutch call it, I think there actually is enough there for a couple of reasons:
    1. It is not only a tripoint, it is also the highest point of the (continental or European part) of the Netherlands. Having been there and knowing that is actually not that high says a lot about just how flat that country is.
    2. It has been a quad-point (hope that is the right term), since once there was an area that was disputed between I think the Netherlands and Prussia and so that area was somehow considered to belong to neither and being neutral.
    3. In a way it still is a quad-point, as Belgium is separated in a Dutch-speaking, a French-speaking and a tiny German-speaking community (I think, I remember you mentioning that in a different video too) and the border of the German-speaking community with one of the other two also runs up to that point.
    4. Last but not least: You can jump up and down by around 2 meters just by crossing the border...not literally of course, but apparently Belgium uses a different reference for their hight above sea level than the Netherlands and Germany do, so even though it's totally flat the Belgian part of that point is 2 meters higher than the German and Dutch part...of course that would be true for any point on the Belgian-Dutch and Belgian-German border, but I know you care about that as little as I do as long as it makes a good a story and you can nitpick yourself for it afterwards. ;)

  • @NotMeInc
    @NotMeInc Před 7 lety +8

    Actually, the three countries point used to be a four countries point at one time in history
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutral_Moresnet

  • @natedunn51
    @natedunn51 Před 6 lety

    I love how it didn't make the cut, but matt and tom channel, it's more than great.

  • @TheMsLourdes
    @TheMsLourdes Před 4 lety

    I loved every part of this. Both the subject matter originally and especially the backend commentary :)

  • @MrNordi999
    @MrNordi999 Před 3 lety +3

    10:35 matt just died randomly ^^

  • @DeserdiVerimas
    @DeserdiVerimas Před 7 lety +5

    In any case, good on your scientific conscience for not faking any of the results!

  • @Hyraethian
    @Hyraethian Před 4 lety

    I'm glad you didn't totally toss this video. I had no idea this facility existed, very interesting.

  • @grig8310
    @grig8310 Před 3 lety +2

    When life doesn’t give you lemons,
    You make a video about not getting lemons...

  • @MinecraftSss
    @MinecraftSss Před 7 lety +3

    Every time I see that there's a new Park Bench video up makes me just smile :)

  • @mistaecco
    @mistaecco Před 7 lety +98

    There's also a place in the US where 4 states' corners meet in one spot. Not quite the same thing but still neat.

    • @part-timepartytime9621
      @part-timepartytime9621 Před 6 lety +3

      but there's 50 states, I imagine that there's more than 1 spot where 4 of them meet.

    • @alexevanspoppsychedelicren4158
      @alexevanspoppsychedelicren4158 Před 6 lety +15

      Can’t think of any other place where 4 meet than the Four Corners. Plenty where 3 meet.

    • @bmteastern256
      @bmteastern256 Před 6 lety +10

      Only one spot: NW corner is Utah, NE corner is Colorado, SE corner is New Mexico, SW corner is Arizona.

    • @DR-54
      @DR-54 Před 6 lety +6

      Part-Time Party Time There are over 190 countries and there isn't an actual spot where 4 meet. In the US there is only one spot where 4 states actually meet. That is it.

    • @tylernass6263
      @tylernass6263 Před 5 lety +7

      Yeah US states tend to be more rectangular than countries so it was bound to happen somewhere, but that's actually the only place it happens. I know it's another whole level of magnitude lower, but there are tons of places four counties meet in the western half US. There's also a four corners in Canada which has 13 provinces+territories. I'm sure some other countries have four corners in their subdivisions but I'm not aware of any others.

  • @Joodwe
    @Joodwe Před 4 lety

    This is such gorgeous footage!

  • @Monkeyb00y
    @Monkeyb00y Před 7 lety

    I love anything you post Tom. You could post a video of you for 2 hours sitting at your desk in a red shirt, editing a video and I'd like it. :)

  • @MadMedicineMan
    @MadMedicineMan Před 5 lety +5

    Just a thought - as Matt mentioned the Wendelstein: It would be lovely to have something on this :D And Greifswald is a nice coastal town with this wonderful reactor prototype :D

  • @wiiza4ever
    @wiiza4ever Před 7 lety +4

    You probably should have set up more than one camera for the takes of the artificial sun. One with a fixed brightness setting or aperture, or however the hell that thing works.

  • @rikwisselink-bijker
    @rikwisselink-bijker Před 7 lety +1

    Actually, the tripoint The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany used to be a 4-point. There used to be a super small country called something like "Neutral Moresnet". The road into the point (I believe from the Belgian side) is still called the four-country-road.

  • @lexiel920
    @lexiel920 Před 4 lety +2

    “I have the speed set to 1.5 because I have a tiny attention span” I feel called out

  • @Throckmorpheus
    @Throckmorpheus Před 7 lety +5

    No I'm not gonna pick it up, I'm in the middle of a rant

  • @n0ffk3
    @n0ffk3 Před 7 lety +3

    Go Pro 1, Tom Scott 0
    Also amazing advertising for Go Pro

  • @jadefalcon001
    @jadefalcon001 Před 7 lety +1

    This is a wonderful story. Thank you, Matt and Tom for talking about it. I'm working on creating my own things and it's helpful to see how everything can be going smashingly well and only after it's too late to try to save it do you realize it was pear-shaped the whole time.

  • @debries1553
    @debries1553 Před 7 lety

    There are a whole bunch of people not subscribed to this channel, that are subscribed to your main one.
    I think they would still love to see this video. With or without the edit, they would want to see it.

  • @mukrifachri
    @mukrifachri Před 7 lety +3

    Probably it'd have been better to put a sliver of mirror in the focal point and look up to that. But now it'd be better to remind people how good a go pro is.

  • @Nicksanders99
    @Nicksanders99 Před 4 lety +3

    "It looked great from the viewing gallery" So why not film from there?

  • @nomiSimple
    @nomiSimple Před 7 lety

    I like that Tom always wears the same red shirt while Matt has a seemingly unending selection of cool shirts.

  • @arfyness
    @arfyness Před 4 lety

    I seriously think you should post it. It's a cool facility that I am not alone in wanting to learn more about. You can probably even work out a GoPro sponsorship deal for it.