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Speaker 1: Get in text technology with tech Stuff from how stuff

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Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff.

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Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm flying solo today and

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Speaker 1: I'm going to talk about something that I thought was

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Speaker 1: really cool. I actually learned a lot in the process

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Speaker 1: of looking into this. A few weeks ago, I covered

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Speaker 1: a story for How stuff Works Now about a technique

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Speaker 1: to make melted chocolate less viscous so that it flows

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Speaker 1: more freely through manufacturing equipment. So a couple of things.

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Speaker 1: First of all, How stuff Works Now, if you aren't familiar,

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Speaker 1: is our more news oriented page, So if you go

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Speaker 1: to now dot how stuff works dot com you can

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Speaker 1: see it. We have a lot more stories that are

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Speaker 1: reflective of things that are unfolding now, thus the name,

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Speaker 1: and we also do video for that. There's also a

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Speaker 1: podcast hosted by Lauren Vogelbaum. You can subscribe to that

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Speaker 1: house Stuff Works Now. It's a summary of some of

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Speaker 1: the stories that we cover each week. So if you're

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Speaker 1: not familiar with that, go check it out. It's pretty awesome. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: I did this story about chocolate and making sure you

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Speaker 1: could reduce the viscosity of liquid chocolate so that it

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Speaker 1: doesn't come up stuff, because one of the challenges of

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Speaker 1: working with chocolate is making sure that it doesn't clog

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Speaker 1: up the pipes like Augustus Gloop in Willy Wonka. So

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Speaker 1: a consulting firm working on behalf of Mars Incorporated, which

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Speaker 1: is giant candy company that makes a lot of different

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Speaker 1: chocolate products. This consulting firm went to a group of

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Speaker 1: physicists at Temple University, and physicist is one of those

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Speaker 1: words I have difficulty pronouncing. I think I might just

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Speaker 1: say scientists. Scientists at Temple University. Hey, and that's way better.

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Speaker 1: And these guys have developed a method to make crude

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Speaker 1: oil flow more easily through pipes using electric fields. So

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Speaker 1: the question that the consulting firm had was could you

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Speaker 1: do the same thing you did for crude oil for chocolate?

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Speaker 1: And here's a spoiler alert, Yeah they could. But I

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Speaker 1: want to talk more about what they did and how

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Speaker 1: they did it because it's it's a really interesting, uh story.

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Speaker 1: So I'm gonna go into a bit more detail about

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Speaker 1: the physics and the technology behind the scientists solution for

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Speaker 1: this problem. It's pretty cool, and a lot of it

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Speaker 1: was stuff I had no idea about before I began

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Speaker 1: to research the story. So today's episode is going to

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Speaker 1: be about chocolate. It's gonna be about viscous fluids, about

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Speaker 1: electro real logical fluids and how an electric field can

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Speaker 1: change their fluid I properties, specifically viscosity. So yeah, this

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Speaker 1: episode is gonna be science heavy, but there's also chocolate,

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Speaker 1: so stick around. You know everyone loves chocolate. So let's

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Speaker 1: get into the physics first. Now, fluid dynamics is be complicated,

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Speaker 1: and also there's some stuff that's related to this that

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Speaker 1: falls into the category of misinformation about viscosity. So I'll

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Speaker 1: be talking a lot about not just the principles in general,

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Speaker 1: but some specific uh myths that I would like to bust,

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Speaker 1: as some of my former coworkers used to do on

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Speaker 1: a regular basis. So, first of all, viscosity is a

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Speaker 1: property of fluids or semi fluids, and it can be

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Speaker 1: described as a fluids thickness or stickiness and its resistance

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Speaker 1: to flowing due to internal friction. More accurately, viscosity is

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Speaker 1: a measure of the resistance of a fluids deformation due

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Speaker 1: to tensile or shear stress. Now, sheer stress is mechanical

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Speaker 1: stress that's parallel to the surface of that substance. So, uh,

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Speaker 1: you could think of sheer stress as it's not perpendicular.

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Speaker 1: It's not like an impact, right, It's more of a

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Speaker 1: tearing um ten style stress is a pulling stress rather

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Speaker 1: than a compression stress. So again, instead of compressing stuff

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Speaker 1: closer together, it's about pulling stuff further apart. And water

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Speaker 1: has a pretty low viscosity. Honey has a very high viscosity.

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Speaker 1: So we actually measure viscosity in units called poises p

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Speaker 1: o I s e s. Water at room temperature twenty

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Speaker 1: degrease celsius or so has a viscosity of zero point

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Speaker 1: zero one poises or a center poise. In other words,

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Speaker 1: a thick oil might have a viscosity of one point

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Speaker 1: zero poise. Now we measure viscosity with a viscometer. I'm

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Speaker 1: not making that up. It's actually the name of the

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Speaker 1: tool used to measure a fluids viscosity. Now, typically we

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Speaker 1: will call a liquid viscous if its viscosity is higher

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Speaker 1: than that of waters, and if the viscosity is lower

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Speaker 1: than that of waters, because water is not the least

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Speaker 1: viscous material that we know of. If it has a

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Speaker 1: lower of viscousy then water we call that fluid mobile.

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Speaker 1: So some fluids are so viscous that they can actually

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Speaker 1: seem to be a solid, and this leads us to

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Speaker 1: that misinformation I was talking about. It's one of those

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Speaker 1: things that I hear bandied about pretty well, not not

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Speaker 1: not as frequently as it used to, but it's one

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Speaker 1: of those miss understandings that gets passed around its fact

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Speaker 1: every now and again. And that is the idea that

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Speaker 1: glass is one of these fluids, that glass is actually

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Speaker 1: a fluid that is um so viscous that it appears

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Speaker 1: to be a solid, and that is not true. Glass

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Speaker 1: is not a very, very viscous fluid. It's a little

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Speaker 1: more complicated than that. Uh So, here's the basic idea.

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Speaker 1: People have noticed that if they look at windows and

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Speaker 1: very old buildings like medieval churches, they see that the

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Speaker 1: base of the wind is thicker than the top of

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Speaker 1: the window. And this has led some people to conclude,

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Speaker 1: to jump to a conclusion that the reason why the

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Speaker 1: base is thicker than the top is that glass, over

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Speaker 1: the course of centuries has been flowing downward and that

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Speaker 1: it's so slow that it's not detectable under normal situations.

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Speaker 1: It's only over the course of centuries that you can

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Speaker 1: see the difference. Uh. Here's the problem is that that's

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Speaker 1: just not that's not the case. That's not true, it's

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Speaker 1: not what's happening. Uh. If you look at the glass

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Speaker 1: making approach in the Middle Ages, you'll see why there's

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Speaker 1: a thicker part of the pane of glass. Glass was

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Speaker 1: created generally speaking, in the Middle Ages through something called

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Speaker 1: the crown glass process. It's pretty neat idea pretty neat

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Speaker 1: way of making glass windows. Here's how it we're in general. First,

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Speaker 1: you get your raw materials h to make glass, and

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Speaker 1: in the Middle Ages that was essentially sand and potash,

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Speaker 1: and you mix it together and you melt them in

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Speaker 1: a very hot furnace. And then you would get a

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Speaker 1: glass blower with a pipe and they would get roll

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Speaker 1: out a lump of molten glass, put on the pipe,

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Speaker 1: blow out the glass. So they expand the glass outward

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Speaker 1: before flattening it, so they don't just you know, create

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Speaker 1: a globe of glass, they actually flatten it back out. Then,

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Speaker 1: with a flat glass which is still hot and still malleable,

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Speaker 1: it hasn't cool to the point where it is really solidified.

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Speaker 1: You would put that on a disk, a spinning disk,

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Speaker 1: and the disk spins around to draw out the glass

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Speaker 1: to flatten it further, sort of like how a pizza

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Speaker 1: maker will toss and spend dough in the air in

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Speaker 1: order to make that circular pizza. It's kind of similar

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Speaker 1: to that. So the disk spins and the centripetal force,

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Speaker 1: if you like, is pushing the glass outward toward the edges.

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Speaker 1: So then once that's done, you would cut the glass

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Speaker 1: into panes so that you could fit them in a window. Now,

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Speaker 1: that would mean that when you would get anywhere close

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Speaker 1: to where the edge of the glass was, the outer edge,

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Speaker 1: because you put the glass on that disk and you

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Speaker 1: spun it around, the outer edge was thicker than the

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Speaker 1: rest of the glass, just because that's where the excess

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Speaker 1: was accumulating as it was being uh pushed outward due

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Speaker 1: to the spinning motion. So typically window makers would cut

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Speaker 1: pains so that a thicker edge would only be on

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Speaker 1: one side, and they put that side at the bottom

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Speaker 1: at the base of the window, so glass didn't flow

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Speaker 1: to the base. Over hundreds of years, it started out

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Speaker 1: like like that. It was like that from the beginning.

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Speaker 1: That being said, glass is a really interesting substance. It's

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Speaker 1: what we would call an amorphous solid, so saying that

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Speaker 1: it's a fluid or a liquid is not accurate. But

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Speaker 1: it is an amorphous solid, which is a little hinky

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Speaker 1: compared to other materials that you might be familiar with.

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Speaker 1: So typically not everything, obviously metals and glass being exceptions,

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Speaker 1: but a lot of solids have an ordered crystalline structure,

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Speaker 1: so that means the molecules are organized in a pretty

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Speaker 1: regular lattice. They form a nice repeating pattern that goes

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Speaker 1: throughout the entire material. When you heat up this solid,

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Speaker 1: those molecules start to shimmy and shake, some of the

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Speaker 1: molecular bonds might start to break down a little bit,

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Speaker 1: the bonds between one molecule and another, the essentially the

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Speaker 1: crystalline order breaks down, and if you heat a solid

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Speaker 1: beyond its melting point, the crystalline structure completely breaks down

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Speaker 1: and molecules will begin to flow freely or as freely

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Speaker 1: as the viscosity of that fluid allows, and there's a

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Speaker 1: very clear delineation between the solid and liquid stages. You

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Speaker 1: can see the difference molecularly from the way this substance

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Speaker 1: looks when it's in solid form versus in liquid form,

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Speaker 1: and we call that delineation that border between the two

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Speaker 1: the first order phase transition. It's obvious when you look

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Speaker 1: at it from a microscopic standpoint. I mean it's obvious

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Speaker 1: from a macroscopic standpoint too, because a solid behaves one way,

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Speaker 1: in a liquid behaves another way. Now, when you cool

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Speaker 1: a liquid down, its viscosity tends to increase. If you

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Speaker 1: introduce a nucleation site into the liquid, crystals can form

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Speaker 1: and you get that nice solid structure again once you

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Speaker 1: get down below what the melting point was. Uh, but

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Speaker 1: glass doesn't do this. Glass doesn't form a crystalline structure.

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Speaker 1: Glasses viscosity increases, so it does what other fluids do

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Speaker 1: at that point. But since it doesn't crystallize, it solidifies

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Speaker 1: in a different way. The molecules actually form an irregular arrangement,

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Speaker 1: not that nice ordered structure that you see in other solids,

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Speaker 1: but that a regular arrangement is still cohesive enough to

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Speaker 1: maintain rigidity. So glass does become a solid, it's just

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Speaker 1: not a crystalline solid. It's an amorphous solid. Now, there's

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Speaker 1: no first order phase transition here. It's not like if

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Speaker 1: you looked at the liquid form of glass and the

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Speaker 1: solid form of glass, you would see a massive difference

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Speaker 1: in the molecular structure. But there is a second order transition. Now.

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Speaker 1: That transition is a little more subtle than first order

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Speaker 1: transitions and evolves the thermal expansion and heat capacity of

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Speaker 1: a material, So it wouldn't be as obvious to casual

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Speaker 1: observation on a microscopic level, but there would still be

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Speaker 1: differences with the thermodynamics of the material. Ill, so we

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Speaker 1: still would say the glass is a solid not a liquid.

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Speaker 1: All right, I'm done with glass now, I promise. I

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Speaker 1: had to go on that little track just because it

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Speaker 1: was related to the stuff I was talking about, and

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Speaker 1: I get really irritated seeing that one myth passed around

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Speaker 1: as fact. So now you know, if you ever go

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Speaker 1: through a a tour and the tour guide says and

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Speaker 1: the reason that the windows are thicker at the bottom

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Speaker 1: is because glass flows over the course of hundreds of years,

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Speaker 1: you can raise your hand and say, well, actually, and

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Speaker 1: tell him Josh Clark sent you, because I don't want

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Speaker 1: that kind of burden on me. I like being able

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Speaker 1: to take tours anyway. Let's get back to Viscosty in general. So,

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Speaker 1: like I said earlier, viscosty is due to internal friction

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Speaker 1: of a liquid. And you might think that that sounds weird,

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Speaker 1: like how can a liquid have friction inside of it?

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Speaker 1: But we're talking about liquids specifically that have like molecules,

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Speaker 1: and those molecules can have a tendency to resist getting

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Speaker 1: by each other. So some molecules are more resistant you

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Speaker 1: slipping by each other than others. Or a liquid could

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Speaker 1: actually have particles that are suspended in it. It could

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Speaker 1: be a suspension, which is different than just a pure liquid.

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Speaker 1: But if it's a suspension, it's got particles suspended within

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Speaker 1: the liquid at at some level of density, right, Like

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Speaker 1: some maybe a pretty weak suspension where you don't have

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Speaker 1: a whole lot, but others could have all a greater

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Speaker 1: density of particles inside a suspension of fluid. Make chocolate bars,

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Speaker 1: let's say, and you're laying out melted chocolate into the

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Speaker 1: mold for the chocolate bars, uh, and it clogs up

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Speaker 1: and you have to stop production and clean out the

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Speaker 1: clog and get everything back up to temperature and start

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Speaker 1: it all over again. It's time consuming and expensive when

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Speaker 1: that happens. So one solution to preventing it from happening

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Speaker 1: is dilute the cacao more so that those particles don't

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Speaker 1: clump up as much because there there's a less dense

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Speaker 1: cacao component in the fluid. That essentially means replacing cacao

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Speaker 1: with something else, typically something that is less viscous, like

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Speaker 1: that oil that fat. Essentially, so you usually add more

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Speaker 1: fat to the recipe, so you get the more fat

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Speaker 1: but less cacao. However, it ends up flowing better and

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Speaker 1: creates the chocolate bars that you want without creating the clogs.

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Speaker 1: But it's not necessarily the best product you could create.

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Speaker 1: It's just the most convenient based upon the method of production.

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Speaker 1: So that's where this alternative solution comes in. If you

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Speaker 1: could change the shape of those cacao particles in the

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Speaker 1: fluid so that they packed together more effectively, you would

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Speaker 1: reduce that viscosity, that internal friction of the fluid. So

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Speaker 1: imagine you've got one of those inflated rubber balls, like

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Speaker 1: like a kickball or something. Now imagine that you're able

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Speaker 1: to grab hold on either side of this ball and

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Speaker 1: pull it outward so that you're elongating it. Now it

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Speaker 1: would become a more of an oval shape, or as

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Speaker 1: the researchers at Temple University called them, prolate spheroids. Now,

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Speaker 1: the interesting thing about these prolate spheroids is if you

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Speaker 1: align them in the direction of the flow of chocolate,

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Speaker 1: you can pack more of them together. They have these

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Speaker 1: elongated sides and they will fit together much more snuggly.

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Speaker 1: You can create chains of them and chocolate would flow

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Speaker 1: much more readily. But how do you change the shape

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Speaker 1: of those cocu particles. What is it that you could

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Speaker 1: do to make them actually assume a different shape than

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Speaker 1: their natural globular ball like shape. This is where electric

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Speaker 1: fields come in. Uh, we're gonna talk about applying magnetic

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Speaker 1: or electric fields to a fluid to changes viscos. But first,

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Speaker 1: this doesn't work with every fluid. Uh. Not every fluid

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Speaker 1: reacts to electric fields and magnetic fields in a way

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Speaker 1: that will alter its viscosity. But it does work in

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Speaker 1: fluids that have certain non conducting or weakly conducting particles

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Speaker 1: suspended in an electrically insulating fluid. Now, we call this

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Speaker 1: a special type of liquid, electro reeological fluid. Electroheological fluids

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Speaker 1: essentially means that when you apply an electric or magnetic

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Speaker 1: field to such a fluid, it changes its viscosity. Sometimes

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Speaker 1: we also call them smart fluids, but more about that

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Speaker 1: in a bit now. Interestingly, the property was completely discovered

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Speaker 1: by chance. There was an inventor named Willis Winslow who

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Speaker 1: observed the effect in the nineteen forties, and he actually

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Speaker 1: patented it in nineteen forty seven. Now, for this reason,

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Speaker 1: we sometimes call this effect of changing an electroheological fluids

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Speaker 1: viscosity the winds Low effect, And I'll mostly be using

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Speaker 1: that term from here here on out, because there's only

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Speaker 1: so many times I'm gonna be able to say electroheological

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Speaker 1: before my mouth just decides to rebel against the rest

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Speaker 1: of me and march out the door. And as entertaining

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Speaker 1: as that would be, kind of needed. Alright, So, applying

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Speaker 1: an electric or magnetic field to such a fluid changes

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Speaker 1: that fluids viscosity within meloseconds like it's practically instantaneous. And

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Speaker 1: if you remove the field, the particles in the fluid

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Speaker 1: will snap back to their original shape, to the fluid's

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Speaker 1: viscosity will return to what it normally would be. So

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Speaker 1: the change isn't permanent. It only persists as long as

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Speaker 1: the respective field persists, which is super cool because you

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Speaker 1: can do these temporary changes that are really useful in

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Speaker 1: specific situations and then have it go back to normal

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Speaker 1: and it's like it never happened in the first place.

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Speaker 1: But one thing to keep in mind is the direction

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Speaker 1: of the electric or magnetic field is critically important when

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Speaker 1: you want to make a particular effect. So, in the

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Speaker 1: case of chocolate, if you apply the electric field perpendicular

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Speaker 1: to the direction of flow, you will actually increase the

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Speaker 1: viscosity of the chocolate. You will make it thicker, more

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Speaker 1: like a gel. Melted chocolate will turn into this kind

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Speaker 1: of thick gel. It'll otherwise have all the same properties

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Speaker 1: that had before, but that viscosity will increase dramatically. However,

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Speaker 1: if you were to apply that electric field in the

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Speaker 1: direction of the flow of chocolate, then you would decrease

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Speaker 1: the viscosity of chocolate and it will flow more freely

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Speaker 1: at that point. Now this makes some sense because imagine

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Speaker 1: that you have these elongated ovals, these uh prolate spheroids. Right,

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Speaker 1: If you stand them vertically, then you can imagine them

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Speaker 1: slipping through a pipe very easily. If you laid them

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Speaker 1: out horizontally, you could imagine um ending up like like

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Speaker 1: blocking a pipe easily, because it's like trying to fit

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Speaker 1: a long stick through a narrow doorway. If you don't

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Speaker 1: turn it the right way, you're just gonna hit against

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Speaker 1: the door. This is making me think of my dog Tiboalt,

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Speaker 1: who has done this on numerous occasions. He just he

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Speaker 1: can't get it through his little doggy mind. They needs

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Speaker 1: to turn the stick vertical in order to move it

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Speaker 1: through a doorway. He just wants to charge ahead full

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Speaker 1: steam with the stick horizontal. In many other ways, He's

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Speaker 1: an intelligent dog, so we forgive him this lapse of judgment. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: the chocolate on a molecular level is essentially the same thing.

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Speaker 1: If you are applying this electric field perpendicular to the

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Speaker 1: flow of chocolate, then you get this much thicker uh mixture.

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Speaker 1: And an interesting side note, the electro reeological properties of

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Speaker 1: chocolate aren't a new discovery, right. I mean, I covered

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Speaker 1: this story for how stuff works now because there was

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Speaker 1: a new application of this property with chocolate. But we

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Speaker 1: actually knew that chocolate would react this way already, at

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Speaker 1: least to the point of increasing the viscosity, because back

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Speaker 1: in there was a Michigan State University grad student who

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Speaker 1: observed the Winslow effect on chocolate, and his name is

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Speaker 1: Dr Christopher R. Daubert, and as professor Dr James Steph

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Speaker 1: worked with him. They both conducted experiments on liquid chocolate

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Speaker 1: and observed the Winslow effect. Now, in that experiment, Daubert

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Speaker 1: was again increasing the viscosity, not decreasing it, so he

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Speaker 1: was turning chocolate into that thicker gel. That the liquid

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Speaker 1: chocolate into thick gel. Uh. It wasn't until recently that

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Speaker 1: we saw someone try and do the opposite. So that

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Speaker 1: brings us to the Temple University experiment. So you had

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Speaker 1: these researchers. They had worked on crude oil and decrease

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Speaker 1: the viscosity of crude oil, which is a huge thing

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Speaker 1: for the oil industry to be able to uh move

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Speaker 1: oil more effectively without the fear of clogs or viscosity

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Speaker 1: screwing up things that had been planned ahead of time.

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Speaker 1: They wanted to see if they could in fact use

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Speaker 1: a similar approach to have liquid chocolate move more smoothly

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Speaker 1: through a system so that manufacturers could save money by

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Speaker 1: not having to worry about cleaning up clogs and shutting

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Speaker 1: down production for maintenance. So They had to test this

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00:21:36,480 --> 00:21:40,399
Speaker 1: hypothesis that an electric field directed in the flow of

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Speaker 1: liquid chocolate would reduce viscosity. So they built a cool

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Speaker 1: chocolate zapping gadget. That's not really a zapper, that's kind

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Speaker 1: of a it's kind of not entirely accurate, but I

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Speaker 1: like the idea of using electricity does zap chocolate and

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Speaker 1: make it better. That's just a over simplification of what happened,

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Speaker 1: But that's okay. I'll I'll explain to you what was

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Speaker 1: actually going on. They built this thing where it starts

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Speaker 1: with a bit of a melting chamber. You can just

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Speaker 1: think of it as like a a pot. It could

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Speaker 1: even be a glass vial. Really, it could just be

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Speaker 1: any little container that can hold chocolate. They put the

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Speaker 1: chocolate in the container and they cover the container, sealing

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Speaker 1: it shut. Uh. They added compressed nitrogen gas into the

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Speaker 1: chamber simply really to to just increase the pressure inside

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00:22:33,480 --> 00:22:36,159
Speaker 1: the chamber itself. The chamber was heated so that you

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Speaker 1: had chocolate melting into a liquid. There was a thermocouple

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Speaker 1: in there to make sure that the temperature was correct

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Speaker 1: so that the chocolate would not overheat or cool down

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Speaker 1: so much that it becomes solid again. And then the

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00:22:48,680 --> 00:22:54,280
Speaker 1: base of this container was essentially a drain, so there's

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Speaker 1: like a hole at the bottom of the container that

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00:22:56,720 --> 00:22:59,960
Speaker 1: liquid chocolate could flow through. Attached to that was a tube,

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Speaker 1: and inside the tube they put a series of metal

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Speaker 1: mesh screens, and the screens were what generated the electric field.

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Speaker 1: They had electricity running to those screens and creating electric

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00:23:13,600 --> 00:23:16,520
Speaker 1: field that way in the direction of the flow of chocolate,

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Speaker 1: so the chocolate would end up flowing very smoothly through

365
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Speaker 1: the tube and didn't have any issues. At the other end,

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Speaker 1: they had another vessel container that the liquid chocolate would

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00:23:29,680 --> 00:23:33,199
Speaker 1: flow into, it would cool down solidify. So once that

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00:23:33,280 --> 00:23:37,600
Speaker 1: liquid chocolate flowed through into the collecting vessel, uh and

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00:23:37,680 --> 00:23:40,200
Speaker 1: once it was free of the electric field, the cacao

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00:23:40,359 --> 00:23:45,359
Speaker 1: particles they went back to their original shape immediately. Again.

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Speaker 1: They didn't have to transform or anything. It wasn't a

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Speaker 1: gradual process. They whoop moved back into those globe shapes

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Speaker 1: that they typically are in, and the chocolate cooled and

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00:23:56,000 --> 00:24:01,240
Speaker 1: solidified and was, to all intents and purposes, indistinguishable from

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Speaker 1: the chocolate that was being fed through at the top,

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00:24:03,880 --> 00:24:07,359
Speaker 1: you know, at that top chamber. So they were able

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Speaker 1: to reduce the viscosity of the flowing chocolate uh and

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00:24:13,560 --> 00:24:16,160
Speaker 1: to the to the point where it was no there

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00:24:16,160 --> 00:24:19,600
Speaker 1: were no issues of clogging. It's perfectly fine. So they

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00:24:19,600 --> 00:24:22,040
Speaker 1: were able to prove that their hypothesis was correct, that

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00:24:22,080 --> 00:24:27,040
Speaker 1: in fact, this electric field applied in this way would

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Speaker 1: decrease chocolates viscosity. Hooray. But there's more to it than that,

383
00:24:33,760 --> 00:24:36,440
Speaker 1: So this experiment was not just a success. The researchers

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Speaker 1: actually realized that it had a lot more implications than

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Speaker 1: just having chocolate flow freely through a machine. Uh. That Again,

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Speaker 1: the reason why chocolate has such a relatively high fat

387
00:24:48,640 --> 00:24:53,240
Speaker 1: content is to create that oily fluid to reduce viscosity,

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Speaker 1: to have the cacao particles suspended within it at a

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00:24:58,000 --> 00:25:01,840
Speaker 1: density that's low enough so you're not likely to clog

390
00:25:01,920 --> 00:25:05,640
Speaker 1: up the machines. But if you use this approach, if

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00:25:05,680 --> 00:25:09,960
Speaker 1: you use the electric fields to reduce the viscosity, you

392
00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:14,480
Speaker 1: don't need as much oil or fat in your chocolate content.

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00:25:14,600 --> 00:25:17,960
Speaker 1: You could actually start with a recipe that has less

394
00:25:18,080 --> 00:25:22,000
Speaker 1: fat in it, and the electric fields would take care

395
00:25:22,080 --> 00:25:25,520
Speaker 1: of the viscosity problem, so you don't have to have

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00:25:25,640 --> 00:25:27,639
Speaker 1: as much fat there. That also means you can have

397
00:25:27,720 --> 00:25:31,439
Speaker 1: more cacao in your mixture. It could be a higher

398
00:25:31,600 --> 00:25:36,080
Speaker 1: proportion of the overall recipe. So they found that they

399
00:25:36,080 --> 00:25:39,320
Speaker 1: could reduce the fat content in certain types of chocolate

400
00:25:39,920 --> 00:25:42,840
Speaker 1: by as much as twenty percent and still have no

401
00:25:42,960 --> 00:25:47,640
Speaker 1: negative impact on the fluids viscosity. Now, it depends on

402
00:25:47,840 --> 00:25:50,119
Speaker 1: what type of chocolate they were using. They were they

403
00:25:50,119 --> 00:25:54,239
Speaker 1: were actually using name brand chocolates, you know, like like

404
00:25:54,320 --> 00:25:58,399
Speaker 1: chocolate bars. They would try different types and depending on

405
00:25:58,440 --> 00:26:02,800
Speaker 1: the type, they could actually end up removing up to

406
00:26:03,600 --> 00:26:07,240
Speaker 1: the fat in the mixture and still have the chocolate

407
00:26:07,280 --> 00:26:12,480
Speaker 1: flow without any problems. And beyond that, the researchers said

408
00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:16,200
Speaker 1: that people who were tasting the chocolate afterward, because keep

409
00:26:16,200 --> 00:26:17,960
Speaker 1: in mind, other than the fact that there was less

410
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:20,320
Speaker 1: fat in it, there was really no difference between the

411
00:26:20,320 --> 00:26:23,480
Speaker 1: original chocolate and the end result, they said that the

412
00:26:23,560 --> 00:26:27,280
Speaker 1: end result chocolate actually tasted better to them. He said,

413
00:26:27,320 --> 00:26:30,520
Speaker 1: I had a more intense cacao flavor. It was more

414
00:26:30,600 --> 00:26:34,640
Speaker 1: chocolate d e than the original chocolate. Now that could

415
00:26:34,720 --> 00:26:38,520
Speaker 1: be just subjective, or it could be purely psychological, but

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00:26:38,640 --> 00:26:43,560
Speaker 1: it's not outside the realm of possibility that by increasing

417
00:26:43,760 --> 00:26:48,720
Speaker 1: the the proportion of chocolate of cacao in your mixture

418
00:26:49,680 --> 00:26:52,440
Speaker 1: because you've removed some of the fat, so you've got

419
00:26:52,440 --> 00:26:56,920
Speaker 1: more cacao per unit of chocolate than you would previously,

420
00:26:57,320 --> 00:27:00,560
Speaker 1: that you would also affect the taste. It is entirely

421
00:27:00,600 --> 00:27:03,760
Speaker 1: possible that that is true. It hasn't really been tested

422
00:27:03,800 --> 00:27:07,879
Speaker 1: on a scientific level. It's mostly people saying this tastes

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00:27:07,920 --> 00:27:10,840
Speaker 1: really good. Also, I should mention this is not the

424
00:27:10,880 --> 00:27:15,119
Speaker 1: same as fat free chocolate. Fat free chocolate is essentially

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00:27:15,200 --> 00:27:18,159
Speaker 1: using some different type of fluid other than oil to

426
00:27:18,240 --> 00:27:22,840
Speaker 1: suspend cocow particles. So fat free chocolate is has that

427
00:27:22,880 --> 00:27:27,320
Speaker 1: particular weird taste. It's not It's not the same as

428
00:27:27,359 --> 00:27:32,159
Speaker 1: the stuff that Typal University was producing. So, uh, I

429
00:27:32,320 --> 00:27:34,399
Speaker 1: just want to clear that up. It's not like you

430
00:27:34,440 --> 00:27:37,240
Speaker 1: would take take a bite of a brand new chocolate

431
00:27:37,280 --> 00:27:40,040
Speaker 1: bar that was made using this procedure and they, oh,

432
00:27:40,160 --> 00:27:45,040
Speaker 1: this tastes like fat free chocolate. No, So the end

433
00:27:45,080 --> 00:27:47,080
Speaker 1: result here is that we could end up with better

434
00:27:47,160 --> 00:27:50,800
Speaker 1: tasting chocolate with less fat in it in the future,

435
00:27:50,840 --> 00:27:55,040
Speaker 1: which seems pretty awesome to me. Now, Earlier I mentioned

436
00:27:55,040 --> 00:27:59,880
Speaker 1: that electro rheological fluids are also called smart fluids, that's

437
00:28:00,080 --> 00:28:03,200
Speaker 1: cause these fluids can change their viscosti almost instantly in

438
00:28:03,240 --> 00:28:05,560
Speaker 1: the presence of an electric or magnetic field and then

439
00:28:05,600 --> 00:28:07,800
Speaker 1: go right back to what they were before once the

440
00:28:07,840 --> 00:28:11,720
Speaker 1: field is turned off, and they become really important in

441
00:28:11,760 --> 00:28:16,000
Speaker 1: ways beyond making superior chocolate. For example, car manufacturers have

442
00:28:16,080 --> 00:28:19,720
Speaker 1: been using smart fluids and suspension and breaking systems. Uh.

443
00:28:19,800 --> 00:28:22,560
Speaker 1: The fluid can actually go from relatively thin too thick

444
00:28:22,680 --> 00:28:25,040
Speaker 1: and just a moment's notice, which makes it superior to

445
00:28:25,080 --> 00:28:28,080
Speaker 1: a lot of mechanical solutions that would take time to

446
00:28:28,200 --> 00:28:31,400
Speaker 1: propagate through a system. And you can have a variable

447
00:28:31,440 --> 00:28:33,959
Speaker 1: suspension in this way. Imagine that you have a suspension,

448
00:28:34,920 --> 00:28:38,320
Speaker 1: it's a fluid suspension, like literally it's a suspension for

449
00:28:38,400 --> 00:28:40,640
Speaker 1: a car with fluid in it, not that it was

450
00:28:40,680 --> 00:28:43,440
Speaker 1: a fluid that has a suspension in it. It's kind

451
00:28:43,440 --> 00:28:46,840
Speaker 1: of confusing. So car suspension's got fluid in it. Very

452
00:28:46,880 --> 00:28:49,200
Speaker 1: high end sports cars have these, and you can set

453
00:28:49,200 --> 00:28:53,000
Speaker 1: your suspension to different modes, like you can predetermine which

454
00:28:53,040 --> 00:28:56,280
Speaker 1: mode you want at any given time. So let's say

455
00:28:56,400 --> 00:29:00,000
Speaker 1: you're gonna be driving on like a racetrack, a nice

456
00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:04,000
Speaker 1: smooth racetrack, and you're really gonna push the car to

457
00:29:04,400 --> 00:29:08,200
Speaker 1: its limits. You might want a pretty stiff suspension for

458
00:29:08,280 --> 00:29:11,600
Speaker 1: that to really be able to feel the car as

459
00:29:11,640 --> 00:29:15,280
Speaker 1: you're driving along this very smooth surface. But that stiff

460
00:29:15,360 --> 00:29:19,960
Speaker 1: suspension would be torture device. If you were driving down

461
00:29:20,720 --> 00:29:23,480
Speaker 1: a normal everyday road that had some bumps and maybe

462
00:29:23,560 --> 00:29:27,240
Speaker 1: some potholes in it, that would be very jarring. You

463
00:29:27,280 --> 00:29:30,880
Speaker 1: would feel every single little bump. So in that case

464
00:29:31,240 --> 00:29:34,200
Speaker 1: you'd want a more you know, loose suspension, a little

465
00:29:34,240 --> 00:29:36,760
Speaker 1: spring in it. So you might want to reduce the

466
00:29:36,840 --> 00:29:40,280
Speaker 1: viscosity of the fluid inside the suspension to allow for

467
00:29:40,360 --> 00:29:46,080
Speaker 1: more um give really, and you could do that with

468
00:29:46,240 --> 00:29:49,920
Speaker 1: a smart fluid and just change the electric or magnetic

469
00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:53,720
Speaker 1: field that ends up affecting the viscosity of the fluid.

470
00:29:53,920 --> 00:29:56,960
Speaker 1: So you can actually have settings and say I want

471
00:29:56,960 --> 00:29:59,520
Speaker 1: a very stiff suspension in this circumstance, and so it

472
00:29:59,560 --> 00:30:03,440
Speaker 1: generates electric field, the viscosty increases and you get your

473
00:30:03,440 --> 00:30:05,520
Speaker 1: stiff suspension. Or he might say, oh, I want it

474
00:30:05,560 --> 00:30:09,080
Speaker 1: to be a more forgiving suspension, and it turns off

475
00:30:09,120 --> 00:30:12,640
Speaker 1: that electric field, the viscosity decreases and you have your

476
00:30:13,080 --> 00:30:16,680
Speaker 1: more your your suspension when more given it, it's a

477
00:30:16,680 --> 00:30:19,560
Speaker 1: pretty cool idea. At chatted with Scott Benjamin about this

478
00:30:19,640 --> 00:30:21,680
Speaker 1: before I came in here. He was very interested when

479
00:30:21,680 --> 00:30:24,200
Speaker 1: I started talking about chocolate, but then when I started

480
00:30:24,200 --> 00:30:26,240
Speaker 1: talking about smart fluids, he really lit up because he

481
00:30:26,320 --> 00:30:28,640
Speaker 1: knew exactly what I was talking about. I mean, Scott

482
00:30:28,720 --> 00:30:31,960
Speaker 1: is a car genius and knows everything there is to

483
00:30:32,040 --> 00:30:34,720
Speaker 1: know about cars, it seems. So we had a good

484
00:30:34,720 --> 00:30:38,000
Speaker 1: discussion about, you know, the physical properties of smart fluids

485
00:30:38,040 --> 00:30:41,160
Speaker 1: and why they behave the way they do. So this

486
00:30:41,240 --> 00:30:44,560
Speaker 1: technology could be used in lots of different applications moving forward.

487
00:30:44,760 --> 00:30:47,840
Speaker 1: When you can induce some mechanical change in a fluid

488
00:30:47,840 --> 00:30:50,600
Speaker 1: with something as simple as an electric or magnetic field,

489
00:30:50,960 --> 00:30:53,440
Speaker 1: a lot of different opportunities open up. But for me,

490
00:30:53,600 --> 00:30:56,720
Speaker 1: you know, I'm happy with the chocolate thing. I'm going

491
00:30:56,760 --> 00:30:59,920
Speaker 1: to settle for that because I do love me some chocolate.

492
00:31:00,640 --> 00:31:03,200
Speaker 1: Al Right, guys, Well, this kind of wraps up this

493
00:31:03,240 --> 00:31:06,400
Speaker 1: episode where I really wanted to look at the physics

494
00:31:06,400 --> 00:31:14,520
Speaker 1: and technology behind ostensibly making chocolate manufacturing more uh smooth

495
00:31:14,680 --> 00:31:19,520
Speaker 1: and efficient, but ultimately could result in better, more delicious,

496
00:31:19,600 --> 00:31:22,920
Speaker 1: less fattening chocolate. That doesn't necessarily mean we should all

497
00:31:22,960 --> 00:31:24,840
Speaker 1: go out and eat more chocolate by the way, not

498
00:31:24,960 --> 00:31:26,680
Speaker 1: that that ever stops me, but I feel like as

499
00:31:26,720 --> 00:31:28,600
Speaker 1: an adult, I have to at least say, don't go

500
00:31:28,640 --> 00:31:32,320
Speaker 1: out and just eat more chocolate. Even if we ultimately

501
00:31:32,320 --> 00:31:35,280
Speaker 1: have chocolate with less fat in it, that's not that's

502
00:31:35,320 --> 00:31:38,640
Speaker 1: not a good excuse. Uh, do as I say, not

503
00:31:38,720 --> 00:31:41,959
Speaker 1: as I do. Anyway, I wanted to invite you guys

504
00:31:42,040 --> 00:31:43,840
Speaker 1: to get in touch with me. Let me know what

505
00:31:43,920 --> 00:31:45,400
Speaker 1: sort of topics you would like me to cover in

506
00:31:45,400 --> 00:31:47,880
Speaker 1: the future. I've got some interesting future topics lined up.

507
00:31:49,240 --> 00:31:53,000
Speaker 1: He would like a quick peek into the future. Pretty soon,

508
00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:56,280
Speaker 1: I'm going to be doing an episode about the story

509
00:31:56,400 --> 00:32:00,480
Speaker 1: of Pixar. I'm gonna do a full maybe two parter

510
00:32:00,640 --> 00:32:02,560
Speaker 1: on that because it's a it's a good long story.

511
00:32:03,320 --> 00:32:07,280
Speaker 1: I've got a an interview lined up with some folks

512
00:32:07,320 --> 00:32:10,960
Speaker 1: to talk about Amazon Alexa and developing apps for that

513
00:32:11,080 --> 00:32:14,480
Speaker 1: and what Alexa might mean in the future. I've got

514
00:32:14,800 --> 00:32:17,360
Speaker 1: uh an episode lined up with Mr Scott Benjamin, whom

515
00:32:17,360 --> 00:32:23,680
Speaker 1: I just mentioned about robo rites, and also the tragic

516
00:32:23,720 --> 00:32:27,479
Speaker 1: tale of the first Death and an autonomously operated vehicle.

517
00:32:28,120 --> 00:32:30,560
Speaker 1: So we've got a lot of different stories coming up.

518
00:32:30,600 --> 00:32:32,880
Speaker 1: But if you guys have a specific text story, or

519
00:32:32,960 --> 00:32:35,680
Speaker 1: technology in general that you would like me to cover.

520
00:32:36,160 --> 00:32:38,479
Speaker 1: Get in touch with me, Let me know I'm I

521
00:32:38,560 --> 00:32:41,440
Speaker 1: love hearing from you guys. You can email me. The

522
00:32:41,480 --> 00:32:46,560
Speaker 1: address is text stuff at how stuff works dot com,

523
00:32:46,680 --> 00:32:48,760
Speaker 1: or you can drop me a line on Facebook or

524
00:32:48,760 --> 00:32:52,440
Speaker 1: Twitter at both. I am Text Stuffs H. S W.

525
00:32:53,320 --> 00:33:02,320
Speaker 1: And I'll talk to you again really soon. For more

526
00:33:02,360 --> 00:33:04,680
Speaker 1: on this and thousands of other topics, is it how

527
00:33:04,680 --> 00:33:15,360
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com, wh