Why Are 96,000,000 Black Balls on This Reservoir?
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- čas přidán 9. 05. 2019
- I took a boat through 96 million black plastic balls on the Los Angeles reservoir to find out why they're there. The first time I heard about shade balls the claim was they reduce evaporation. But it turns out this isn't the reason they were introduced.
Huge thanks to LADWP for arranging this special tour for me. Next time let's put the GoPro on the submersible!
The balls are made of high density polyethylene (HDPE) which is less dense than water so they float on the surface of the reservoir even if they break apart. They are 10cm (4 inches) in diameter and contain about 210ml of water. So the main reason they are on the reservoir is to block sunlight from entering the water and triggering a chemical reaction that turns harmless bromide into carcinogenic bromate. This effect occurs with prolonged exposure to bromate so regulators insist that levels be kept below 10 microgram per liter on average over a 12 month period.
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Thanks to:
Las Virgenes Reservoir for footage of initial shade ball dump
Euro-Matic for bird into jet-engine footage
Researched and Produced by Casey Rentz
Animations by Maria Raykova
Music from epidemicsound.com "Colorful Animation 4" "Seaweed"
And from Kevin MacLeod "Marty Gots a Plan"
This is an educational video about the science of water quality.
It takes a lot of balls to do something like this
Underrated comment
around 96,000,000 to be precise!
Imagine someone who don't know Jokes just writing a fact which is technically a funny Joke
WOW! That was a really ballsy comment.
Lel
We got to 100M baby!!!!
Woohoo. Although given it's 2024, do we care about the microplastics from these shade balls? 😅
@@spk_eze we do now celebrate 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
@@spk_eze Keep yourself safe
yea we did!!!
Yeah!!!!!!
We know why we’re all here, to celebrate Derek’s fantastic achievement of a 100m video. Props to you for becoming one of the biggest science youtubers ever, you deserve it and am always impressed by the level of work you and your team put in with each video! Really hope to see what’s to come and again, congratulations! -galliums
Hear, hear!
Yes
Ils sont débiles ces mec ...
Et après ils vont en faire quoi de leurs boules ces pollueurs !!!
Yea🎉
Ay brother you here too? LESGO.
Your desmos video was fire 🔥
It took me 4 years and a community post from Derek that is super close to 100 million views and i wanted to support him so i finally gave in and watched it. You win CZcams. I can remove it from my watch later now
me too!!
Same
Wasn't on my watch list but same
The dude that explained how all of this worked had such an infectious energy. He absolutely was waiting a long time to talk to someone about shade balls and couldn't contain his excitement.
PrimeSuperboy I would if I had 96 million balls
No he was just asked to do an interview
shady
Yeah that guy is proud of his balls
Marty Adams, Chief Operating Officer, LADWP, made this video great! Smart, informed, articulate, and enthused. The kind of civil servant who actually serves.
Bromate. How can such a friendly sounding chemical be so deadly.
When you mix a college aged American guy and a college aged British guy: What's up Bromate!!!!
Bro...
@@conniescurse7325 This explains everything
cuz its gay
lolllll true
100 million here we come!
I remember getting a signed one of these in the mail. Can't believe it's been 5 years
We all know their real purpose... to stop Mr. Incredible.
LukeFili 😂
Mr Incredible's weakness is *Black* *Balls* ???
@@SethiestSeth have you seen the first movie?
@@SethiestSeth I guess thats why he hangs out with frozone so much....if you know what I mean. 😏
@@THE______TRUTH xddddd
I wanna start my own reservoir but I don't have the balls to do that.
This comment deserves more likes.
are you a middle aged dad
🤣😆
Amen! 🤣🤣🤣👍👍👍
You're wendy's yes you have the balls. A savage and a rich company
"It's very rare for you to see 96 Million of anything"
Video gets 99 million views:
so do you see the 99 million viewers? no. duh
100M!!!!! Congrats Vertasium! You are worth every single view you get and much more!
Alright I finally watched it youtube are you happy?!
Haha they certainly pushed it hard.
No doubt....gotta say it was pretty cool though. Would like to see the data in 7 years.
ikr!!
Lol
Fcuk they got us all.
“Shade balls. What are they for?!”
..
Shade.
..
I kid. That was interesting!
Exactly.
Lol true though
Could be potentially one of the trick questions asked in an interview. Lol
I know it's not meant to reduce evapotranspiration, but wouldn't it be a good idea to use the same technology for this purpose in other reservoirs in arid countries?
the balls for shade would be white for maximum albedo and not black.not sure though😀
Congrats man!!!! Your videos have always been super interesting to me and actually makes me want to learn more about things. You definitely deserve the 100 mill.
Congratulations on your 1st 100M video.
Here's to many more 🎉
So. It reduces amount of dangerous chemicals and up to 80-90% evaporation. Also stops birds from getting near it and possibly decontaminating it and on top of that it is food safe. All you lose is a beautiful view of a lake. Idk, quite worth it if you're doing it with reservoirs.
You mean contaminating………
@@operationsearchgate3072 Just say "shitting on it"
Thank you for saving me 12 min
@@trillination been recommended this in 2021 aswell? lol
thanks for saving my time
I'm a truck driver, and getting to open a container and let a million plastic balls fall out and roll down a slope into a reservoir would definitely be the most fun delivery I would ever get to do. A career high, I tell ya!
Like a GTA mission
I drive trucks too
in my dreams 😭
@@eleettabboo8673 Go live your dreams son.
Haha lol
I was just sitting here thinking about what I need to do to get that job haha!
The first 100M video! Thank you for doing all the things that you, Derek, share with us. You made huge and small changes to each and every of our lifes. And in the end, a lot of videos have 42-nd element in them - Veritasium - and we appreciate that :)
Congratulations on your first 100M Veritasium. 👏🏻🎉
The fact that this videos has as many views as the balls in the reservoir is crazy
Hooly shiet, I didn't notice
It's true
That's crazy
A sign from the gods
@@user-fv4zl8qb6u hahah
one black ball for each black man that watched this video
CRAZY
Anyone else wants them to add 4M more shade balls?
So it's a perfect 100M shade balls
Reduce it to 69,000,000
@@rovnn 😂😂😂 FUNNY STUFF!!! :DDD
No
nope. if it was 99M then i MAYBE would have the urge to agree
96000000 is a round enough figure, AND its an even number and a multiple of 5.
Congrats on 100m!!!🎉🎉🎉
Congratulations for the 100 million views! 🎉🎉
5:51 I saw that bird ....RIP
From bird to ground meat in less than a second. Sheesh
I have witnessed a devastating death
Oceassa no it doesn’t
@@agshauydjagdhadgs6378 you can see the outcome after it got killed
Oof 😭😭
I love how pumped the guy was while explaining the shade balls. Man loves his job.
ikr i loved his energy
Who wouldn't want to talk about balls
@@man-qx2lx especially black ones
He has really nice balls!
I think it was the mayor or something.
Goodluck for the 100mil. You deserve it champ ❤
Congrats on 100 million views legend!!!!
5:51
damn that bird got obliterated
LMFAO
Good eye
WTF I did not notice
:(
LOL
"Bromate" is the most friendly word I've heard. How can it give you cancer?
That's how it lures you in.
You're going places not college but places
That makes too much sense.
bromate kinda sounds like a fratboy from england
@@skyluke9476 That's very on the nose.
100m veiws! Deserved for such an amazing channel!
Congratulations on reaching 100M views! 🎉
They used these balls to trap Mr. Incredible.
Gamer Awesome45630 dudeeee
LMAOO
Whole of The Incredibles family actually.
You actually made me laugh out loud.
XD YES
“Bromate” sounds like what a British frat guy would call his favorite dude
Woah it's my favourite youtuber
U wot Brom8
i hope this means a dress made of shade balls video is coming
as somebody who lives in england i can confirm
True. Very true.
Congratulations on your views. Love your content and passion so much
100M views. Congrats, man! Love your content!
That's the nicest, enthusiastic and knowledgeable Executive i've seen in a company.
Im.Puk cuz he’s being filmed to be featured on a CZcams channel with 5m subs
He's the spokesperson of the water district.
Must not have seen Elon musk then
@@dominicg2456 yup, I believe it's a publicly-controlled department. You really don't want water utilities to be privately run.
@@jjdank4475 ofc i know about Musk. It's just that this was not expected of this guy.
This guy explaining bromate is fantastic...why can't we have more public servants and politicians like him...he is serious, concerned and engaging all in one...fantastic!!!!
You scared me there, I thought you meant 'explaining that bromate is fantastic'
I am so glad I'm not the only one who thought that guy did a great job of explaining everything! Very unusual for sure
Meanwhile that politician is getting richer from the income tax you pay every week with every one of your pay checks while you get more poor every year as he keeps raising your income tax percentage
William Mulholland was like that too
Yeah, really interesting to listen to.
Congrats on the 100 Mill 🎉🎈
It reached 100M views! Congratulations🎉
The fish in the water “who turn off the lights”
LMFAO
It’s drinking water tf there’s no fish dumbass did you watch the video
@@TURTLEMAN lol I am stupid
@@mrbob1675 yes
@@johnnypickles47 how
I think it's really cool how you can see patches on the surface where the balls have aligned in perfect lattice structure, much like atoms and molecules does in crystals.
#metoo
You can also see shear lines, which is neat.
Funny, I watched a yt vid about that just a day or two ago. ‘3000 ball bearings show crystal defects’ should get you there if interested.
Looks like metal grains
@@br6768 Yeah! Metals are usually formed into crystal structures so you aren't wrong.
Congratulations Derek!!
Came over to help achieve 100M views... some perspective.... there are more views of this video than balls in this video. Close... but nice to imagine each ball as a view. Amazing! Congrats Derek!
“It’s very rare to see 96 million of anything.”
Deserts:
Didn't think of that, damn
Most beaches easily have more than 96million grains of sand.
Also... just look at your hand. There is millions if not billions of atoms...
Chandler P Wilson but can you see them?
@@OneLegendo you can see your hands cant you?
0:40
Him: its very rare to see 96000000 of any thing
Sand: am I a joke to you
Bacteria?????
@@austinbrown6340 you can't SEE bacteria.
@@EyeballAnimations you technically are seeing it
It's just so small that it doesn't seem visible in the human eye
@@anushka1063 but you are only aware that there are billions of them, you don't actually see them all in a single place
@@austinbrown6340 u just contradicted yourself 😂😂😂
100 million!!! You did it!!!
We did it!!!
100M views lessss go congratulations 🎉🎉🎉🎉
I can’t stop thinking about that Scene when the black balls cover up mr incredible
For a security system, to me those balls are perfect, but I can only speak for myself.
That effect always creeped the hell out of me, it's become a fear of mine to be engulfed in expanding gelatinous balls
Ikr
SAME
Literally the only reason i clicked on this video lmaooo
Do U know the movie "Inside Out"?
Is THAT the pit where all the deleted memories are dumped?
Yes and ew
@@MrOfTheIdiot my grandma
@@MrOfTheIdiot adults with no kids mayb
desinfector am watching it now what about it??
꧁ H o p e ꧂ it looks like you say “ boom, kill me grandma”
It seems good when such a huge audience watch this type of scientific video instead of cringe and useless stuff
Congrats for 100+M 😊
Congrats one 100 million views!
Much respect for the poor seagul that gave it's life for the making of this video. We will never forget your sacrifice.
nobiggeridiot homage will be payed in the comment section of every video I watch from now on.
Id get it
Where?
What seagul?
@@lostmic during the plane scene..poor thing got sucked in the turbines.
Bromate - great name for a gym app.
I'm on it
particularly in Australia
Male room mates that tell everyone they're straight, but have lived together 25 years.
Don't taze me, bromate.
just did it
100 mill..
Congrats
Congrats on 100 million views! Your channel has been super important for me, great job
3:28 "bromide becomes bromate, and bromates are carcinogenic" ... when bros become foes, you start throwing shade balls
I read your comment at the exact time he was saying it 😂
THIS WAS HILARIOUS LMAO amazing joke😂😂😂
Wolfgang Von Zubaz ... narrate my life please
Tony Sparks pointless the journey
🙂
The guy in the suit is so excited love his enthusiasm.
I too love how happy he is about what he’s doing.
Good to see passionate people doing what they love
Everyone should be this excited about their job, better mentality makes your live better.
No a scheme... Got it 🤭
Recognize his type immediately, it's called 'giddy scientist'. Bless him 😁
Congrats for 100M!!!
Congrats for 1st 100M video🎉🎉
Bald dude with glasses is awesome. 10/10 would listen to him again
Ikr, he was so knowledgeable.
Yeah Vsauce is pretty cool
he can sell me anything i would buy
that's the sound of one satisfied politician.
agree
That bald guy is super excited about his job and I love it.
Noerdy that could be true because he has a really unique job or he knew this video was going to be seen by a million people and it will be something to brag about
What can I say, the man loves black balls
Yeah, I love enthusiastic workers~
It is awesome when an administrator of public services really enjoys his job and tries to go above and beyond to do the right thing and even doing that, he finds the time to explain a random youtuber all the details - and enjoy that even more because this youtuber is geniunly interested in any and all details. I think the workers will be very happy and pride to work there when they see this video.
@@sarowie Supports the sentiment that it's better to have a job you love and for you to do some good for the world..
100M let’s go! ❤❤ Love all the content man!
Congrats on 100M - well deserved!
“Hard to see 96 million of anything”
Salt grains: ok...
Grass, leaves, idiots in Texas, sand etc
I thought stars lol
Sand grains: *(._.)*
Atoms : ಠ_ಠ
molecules: .-.
"It's really rare for you to see 96 million of anything!"
Grass: o7 ;(
did u mean 96 million pairs?
96 million air
Oxygen
Dark matter
Grass
Water
Fire
Land
Light
Grain of sand
Atoms
Blood cells
And matter
@@Theostar33 96 million grain of sand
96 million atoms
Congrats on 100m
100M WOOOO
They remind me of those sticky black ball things in The Incredibles 😂
Duke Nukem damn it!! You beat me to it!
Lol
@Negan Don't think dirty then
XD
They're not the only sticky black balls in your life.
"...not that I've ever driven through peanut butter."
- A guy who has definitely driven through peanut butter.
Ikr? The second he said that I thought, "Yeah, THAT'S a lie."
Your mom has driven through peanut butter.
Seriously though, do you think anybody ever has? Feels like a question for XKCD's What If.
Congratulations 🎉
100 Million ☺️
100,000,000 congrats
The look on that professor's face is priceless as he's explaining things; he's so happy when he's talking about such a niche thing that's awesome
Sunny Gandhi I agree and I find it very interesting. 😀😀😀
It's so wholesome
Edgar Teh yes very wholesome
That's so crazy. I had no idea water quality control involved so many interesting problems.
Most things in life do, there are just people that solve them. Think about sewer, or electricity or a government. Society is a very intricate machine with many cogs, its easy to forget about in daily life but the entire picture is absolutely mind boggling.
That's why Labs are a thing "Controlled Environment". But with outdoors, you have alot of factors to cover and as you can see, they didn't see the reservoir problem "Sun said hello". Lots of things like this happened actually, they even wanted to add something weird in the water for clearing the OIL on oil spills but yeah, turned out it would do more harm than good.
@@Haeruna it really is
Some of these problems and benefits are also specific to this climate, so it's not to crazy that you've never heard about certain problems. For example algae growth might be less of a problem in cooler areas with less sunlight and lots of flowing water.
Areas with lakes don't have to deal with reservoirs like this, like where I am from in Canada (the great lakes)
Congrats on 100M views
You made it, now lets make it 1M Likes!
Everyone’s talking about the 96 million figure, but nobody’s talking about how nice these people were
I agree
That lake has some balls
Ya they even withstood their cringe talk in the end. If I was the guy handling the boat, I would have landed a nice punch on that lady offsetting her balance enough to fall into the ball pit water.
czcams.com/video/fAXNf7wwIdE/video.html
People rather talk about balls, they are more interesting. LOL
The spokesman has a really fun person to listen to. He is an excellent speaker.
Agreed!
That’s exactly what I was thinking. Bravo to him
My thoughts exactly!
i wish i could be more like that guy
I also love how open he is.
Like... No way for me to know for sure, but he sounds like he cares.
Sounds like they did proper research on top of just savvy business decisions, it just all sounds spot on.
Bravo.
Congrats for 100 milion views!
Before 100 million ❤
the guy explaining everything wearing a suit was very informative and detailed.. good interview
He seems to be the rare case of a leading official actually understanding their job, its really refreshing to see
@6 of 10 I do I think, I also feel like the guy in the boat with the shirt probably earns a penny on the dollar for what the rest of them get.
Can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic😂
They should of had him on the boat for the tour of the reservoir. The personalities of the interviewer and the city works employees clashed and created an awfully awkward chemistry. I bet they were on the lake for an hour and every word spoken made the final cut.🤐🤐🤐. 😂🤣
He's reminds me of one of those fun science teachers.
the guy talking about the balls is so wholesome, he clearly is passionate about it all.
LOL
That's double meaning but ok
100% right guy for the job
oh 😏
This is the massacre of black ppl and got Ripped
And why are they black!
LETS MAKE IT FIRST 100 MILLION VIEWED VIDEO OF VERITASIUM BY SHARING IT TO GIVE A REWARD TO HIM FOR THE TYPE OF KNOWLEDGE HE HAD GIVEN TO US❤❤
You did it!!! Congrats 100m
You can tell that there was a lot of awkward silence on that boat they were on😁🤣😁
Silence*
Yeah, the captain seems like a jerk. Plus there’s that uncomfortable, fake laugh at the end. Cringe.
Snowflake
@@thegreatonegreatness6689 ?
Not everyone is comfortable in front of a camera. These are people doing a really important job that goes largely unnoticed by the public unless something goes wrong and then the media is not friendly.
The real question is *Why aren't there 100,000,000?*
They calculated that 96000000 is enough, so why buy another 4 milion?
*top 10 questions science still can't answer*
because 4 million balls costs money
TRIGGERED! :D
I say dry out the reservoir and create a $33 million dollar ball pit.
Congratulations for 100M
I have 8 subs
100M views. You deserve them
At first, that suit guy seemed like a politician just marketing it, but he seems genuinely proud of it!
Hey, nothing better than the bureaucrat who cares who actually did something to improve the situation!
Leslie Knope energy
You can tell passion
You would be too. I mean, these balls solve so much issue, and they aren't that expensive.
Seems to me most of his life he was just managing something that was there before him and would be there after him. He got an opportunity to have a hand in making real change for the better in his field. Of course he is super excited. He isn't the guy that just kept the water flowing... he removed almost all the chlorine, solved the bormide problem, saved water and money, and as an added bonus gave a couple local plastics companies their largest ever orders.
Good for those guys being able to have such a positive effect for the environment and peoples health.
The spokesman for the water district did a great job. Animated and informative.
I think the animation was done after
It’s almost like informed, intelligent people make the best leaders.
@@jama211 Oh no, America could never accept THAT!!! :-D
He's just a salesman for their product they are selling to the state of california
When you get more views than there are balls in the reservoir. Thats a good visualisation of the videos popularity. Congrats!
Congrats, Derek on the 100 million views achievement 🎉👏🏾
Shade balls manufacturer: "I'm so broke, nobody needs my balls, I'm going to have to close my company and sell my house"
LA: "We need 96,000,000 of your products".
That would be 96 balls. About $30. Big spender!
96 reversed is 69 (nice)
also, “balls” (insert lenny face)
alteragnostik wow!
tas the cookie wholesome chungus 100 sexs number ahahah
It's cali. Apparently, everything is full of carcinogens including, of all things, their drinking water. Who's telling them this? Ask the guy who wants to sell their taxpayers 96 million plastic balls at 10 bucks a pop.
the spokesman knows his stuff so well and is so passionate. love it. very well explained
Just what I was noticing too. Dude's face is all lit up 'splainin all about that black ball he's holding.
$3 per ball TIMES how many balls?
You'd be smiling too! DUH
Barbara Maj Listen closer... he said they got 3 balls per dollar, so roughly $0.33 per ball.
@@barbaramaj1919
It's 3 for one dollar...
I felt that too, love listening to people who are passionate about their job.
0:57 listen to this part without any context
Congratulations on 100 Million views 🔥🔥❤️
The guy in the suit was super clear and informative! Seemed like a nice guy too
Kevin Chang Too bad he had shares in the company they ordered from no doubt lol..
@@FanaticDrummer ok yeah maybe but I like to think he was just a nice guy
Boring tho.
ColoniaAgrippinaRex not when he reminds you of dr Steve brule
Super
Question: What do shade balls do?
Answer: Provide shade.
Alex Shi ohhhh now I get the term “Throwing shade”
Lol
@D.O.A. Provide sun! :D
hihihihi
@D.O.A. It's a sun glass. It glasses sun.
I love how passionate that guy is about shade balls
I'm doing my part, onward to 100M!
Same here