Acid vs Lava- Testing Liquids That Melt Everything

- Which has more destructive power, lava or acid? (metal sizzling) Well, to answer that question, (upbeat symphony music) today, they'll be going head-to-head in a bit of a scientific face off by testing each against seven objects, including a turkey leg, an iPad, slabs of ice, a bunch of toys, a baseball bat, a diamond, and finally an actual functioning car.

Oh wow!

So to do this properly, (bell dinging) I've invited out YouTube's foremost expert when it comes to chemical reactions.

- I think it's good to go.

- With the buttery smooth voice of a high school chemistry teacher.

(glass shattering) - Oh no.

- NileRed.

And his opponent in this matchup will be YouTube's very own lava king.

(flame whooshing) You love him much more than his neighbors do.

- You didn't see the fire.

It was like, almost to the top.

- I just walked out here.

- Yeah, it was pretty cool.

(upbeat symphony music) - Kevin, the backyard scientist.

But there's a catch 'cause there's no way I'm just gonna stand by and watch.

So for each of the seven objects, I'll be testing a wild card factor of destruction that will be different for each object.

So for example, for the turkey leg, my wild card factor of destruction may or may not be ravenous piranhas. (water bubbling) And then for the baseball bat, it might involve Superman X-Ray vision (flame whooshing) that can do this in two seconds.

(can clinking) That's pretty strong.

And the nerd trash talk (upbeat funky music) commenced immediately.

- Nothing beats a volcano. (hands smacking) - I think acid could.

- Or the X factor.

You guys don't know what I'm bringing to the table.

Oh and I do wanna mention while I am no Mr. Beast, winner of today's competition gets a car.

I'm not even tricking. - Really?

You can drive it?

- Yeah.

But before we even got started.

- Is this the right place?

- Someone you might recognize from our world's largest lemon battery collab showed up.

Mr. William Osmond.

But since he legitimately wasn't even invited, I made him be referee.

And so with the terrifying realization that I really should have larger spare referee shorts on hand, it was time to commence our seven item showdown of destruction, starting first with (tense music) Kevin's magma getting a chance to destroy a turkey leg.

- Here we go.

Turkey leg versus lava. (upbeat funky music) - Oh yeah, yeah!

(Mark laughing) Yes!

- Burn!

- He's enjoying us way too much.

- Boom!

- That was more violent than I was expecting.

Once it eventually cooled down, we cracked open the crucible (hammer thudding) to inspect the damage.

Oh!

And while it definitely charred the outside, it just turned the rest into a perfectly cooked.

- It's fine.

- Delicious Thanksgiving turkey leg, which I know, 'cause we definitely all gave it a taste.

- Oh, come on!

- Which meant it was time for acid to enter the chat.

(upbeat techno music) And I guess in hindsight, this shouldn't have been a surprising result, considering what our own stomach acids due to food, but given a little bit of time, it was terrifyingly efficient.

- Guys, come here.

What do you think of the turkey leg?

- What's the clear and what's the dark stuff here?

- The dark stuff is the turkey leg.

(friends laughing) - How do we know you didn't just throw it in the bush over there?

- Yeah. - Let me go look.

- And so after a fruitless search for foul play, if I was gonna steal round one from Nigel's acid, it would come down to my brilliant wild card element of destruction, which just so happened to be (water bubbling) a school of 50 pirahnas (piranas rustling) I located in a New Jersey pet store that took less than a minute (bone cracking) to clear a drumstick down to the bone.

My plan however was ruined when I went to ship the piranhas, because apparently in California, they're illegal to own as pets.

Fortunately, the pet store informed me that bucktooth tetras, while smaller, with an enough of 'em, would apparently do just as much damage.

- Oh! It's instant! - No way.

- And while there was a bit of a nibble frenzy right when I put it in, when I raised it up, it was basically untouched, which was embarrassing not only for me, but frankly for the state of California.

- You remember what you said at the beginning of this, is you'd eat whatever's left.

- I definitely never said that.

(friends laughing) Which gave acid the early lead, sending us into round two with the iPad.

Kevin and his lava were hungry for a W, and that hunger only intensified when they saw the C tier YouTube content playing on the iPad.

- Right on my face.

- Sorry Will.

- Oh!

(flame whooshing) (upbeat synth music) - Oh!

- Oh, now we can't see if it's playing.

- Oh, it's so hot.

- Okay, okay, okay. That's enough.

- No more, more, more. - That's enough.

The molten rocks had practically melted the iPad.

But for the real question, was it enough to stop the iPad from playing?

(Ipad crackling) Yes, of course that's going to do it.

Nigel was up next. (upbeat funky music) And with more video content suitable for destruction loaded up, (bell dinging) he slipped the iPad into eight liters of concentrated acid.

(Ipad buzzing) - The video turned off instantly.

- It was time to see what acid could do.

- Oh man. - Boo!

- Hey, give it time.

Give it time. - Boo!

And even with a full hour of soaking, not much happened besides some kind of small reaction that turned the acid some cool colors, which makes us the perfect opportunity to debunk the idea that there are acids that can immediately dissolve all metals.

And now you might say, "Hold up, Mark.

I've seen really popular videos like this online where the metal spoon is immediately dissolved in acid."

However, I would offer the counterpoint that the reason he could safely dip his fingers in the acid later in the video is because that's not acid.

It's watered down Mountain Dew.

And that spoon is actually made from gallium, which simply melts in lukewarm liquid.

Now, certain acids can dissolve certain metals, but it's a process that just takes several hours for chunks of metal like this.

So with Nigel out of the running, it was time for the wild card.

Normally this fires tennis balls.

Today we're firing golf balls at like 200 miles an hour.

- I bet I could catch it.

- Though I feel good on my destructive capabilities.

The real question is, how's my aim?

(cannon whooshing) Pretty good as it turns out.

(metal clinking) - Oh my!

- Yeah!

- And even after all this, it still had enough kinetic energy to dent the back wall.

Wow.

- It almost split the whole thing in half too.

- This looks very violent.

Let's see your acid do that, Nigel.

Is this a W?

- It's pretty cool. - Okay.

This meant I was tied for first as we headed into the ice round.

- Are you ready?

- Fire versus ice.

And lava came right out of the gate sizzling hot.

(lava sizzling) - Oh wait.

No!

No!

- We!

- No! - We!

you didn't make it through one.

- Oh, look at it bubble, though.

- Admittedly, the bubbles were pretty cool.

But other than that, Kevin was grasping at straws.

- Look, I made lava spaghetti. (lava sizzling) - The ref tallied the final count as only breaking through one of the 12 layers.

(ice shattering) (friends screaming and laughing) Noting that the final break was too little too late, which made it acid's turn. (acid sizzling) And almost immediately.

Oh wow.

It tied lava.

- It's through. It's through.

- It's through.

Wow.

- I'm trying to aim.

- It just kept breaking through each layer as the acid mixed with the water.

Creating an exothermic reaction that bored a hole through the ice like a laser.

- Yeah, one more. - One more.

- One more. Why am I rooting for you?

- Ultimately, Nigel's acid made it through every last sheet of ice, which meant my wild card would have to do the same and do it faster.

Gentlemen, my approach here is a little bit more Kevin than Nigel.

(flame thrower whirring) (Mark screaming) I feel like that did nothing.

- Wow, you're making water.

- All right a good engineer always has a backup plan.

(ice shattering) As a timely delivery of potential energy from the Acme Corporation.

- Oh!

- Not only finished off my ice, but it also took care of Nigels. (whistle blowing) - He killed money too.

- Yeah. - Technical foul.

No, that was a regular foul.

- What?

But with further evidence of referee bias.

- Flame thrower, not flame thrower and anvil.

- You're ruining everything.

The win-win to Nigel, which put acid back in first place headed to the toy city.

And this one for sure had toy story vibes going on.

- Three, two, one.

- Wow.

- Which definitely makes Kevin, backyard Sid.

- Whoa. It's going right for the school.

- Oh no, for the school.

- Whoa, whoa.

Oh, no Stretch scratched.

- I eventually swooped in to save the townspeople.

I got it. (extinguisher whooshing) I'm a hero.

But arguably it was.

- Oh Stretch.

- Ah.

Too little too late.

- I don't think he's gonna make it back.

- So with an identical set of toys ready to go.

It was more bad news for the action figures.

- Start with some sulfuric.

- Sulfuric.

As the forecast called for acid rain.

- Oh! - Okay.

He has red hair now.

- And after a combination of several acids, the townspeople were mildly inconvenienced at best.

- Wait, wait.

Stretches hair is back to yellow.

- And the lack of reaction with the plastic toys sort of makes sense in hindsight because polymers have highly stable chemical structures, so the acid can't break them down, which is not only the reason it takes them so long to degrade in a landfill, but it's also why most acids are therefore stored in plastic containers.

So in contrast to (door buzzing) that lame result, it was time for the Mark Rober Wild Card.

In the form of a two ton steam roller.

America! (eagle screeching) (heavy metal rock music) (machine whirring) (friends laughing) - Yes. - Yes.

- And while I get this figured out, this makes a great time to mention that.

If you haven't been to Crunch Labs yet, I have the next best thing because you can now visit Crunch Labs for free in Roblox, but it's way cooler than that.

'Cause the game's called, "Build a Rocket versus Mark Rober," where you build fully customizable rockets with your friends and then use your engineering skills to help me defeat the evil fat tail (Phat tail cackling) rescue my squirrel friends.

And we've been secretly working on this project for over a year.

And I already know people are gonna get mad and say, "I'm just doing this as a trick to teach you science."

And to that, I say, "How dare you?

I'm just trying to make a really fun free game.

And if you happen to learn about projectile motion and Newton's second law in the process, well that's not my fault."

Oh, and the coolest part is that anyone who passes the game with the help of Phat Gus before the end of the year can enter for a chance to win a platinum ticket to come out to CrunchLabs in real life for a day and we'll make a real life version of the rocket you designed in the game.

So visit CrunchLabs.com/Roblox with a parent to learn how you can enter and then you can go play, "Build a Rocket," on Roblox for free so you can learn stuff.

I mean, just like have a bunch of fun building rockets with your friends.

Now where were we?

(heavy metal rock music) (friends cheering) Yeah! - No!

- No, this very unsportsmanlike.

- Oh. - No.

- Yeah!

I mean I basically just pushed the stuff around, but it still felt cool.

- One Mark Rober versus three Buzz Light Years.

Who would've thought the Buzz Light Years would win?

This one a hundred percent goes to Kevin.

- All right, this is the bat challenge.

You gonna choose wood or metal?

- Definitely. I think metal, (bat sizzling) - Oh wow.

- That made a sound.

- Kevin's lava quickly melted away the top half of the bat.

- Whoa.

- As he topped things off.

Oh, that's a nice layer, Kevin.

With a gratuitous flourish.

So it was up to Nigel's acid to top that.

- This time you got it, Nigel?

(metal clinking) - Yeah.

- At this point it's me.

And I'm actually gonna go with the wood bat.

'Cause my contraption just happens to be a 2000 watt laser, which you may or may not recognize because this is Kevin's laser.

It's true.

And it's also how he knew a fact that I didn't, - You shouldn't have chose wood.

- This 2000 watt laser is actually terrifyingly effective against metallic objects.

So we ran a test.

(tense music) (fire whooshing) (can clinking) Wow!

Clearly I need to swap for the metal bat.

Judge, can I? - No.

- Now you see why he wasn't invited.

Regardless, I pressed onward.

All right. (upbeat synth music) (wood sizzling) Oh my goodness.

That's pretty strong.

Here I go.

And this was honestly the closest thing to a real life lightsaber I've ever experienced.

- Oh my God.

He's like two thirds through, I think.

Oh! - Heck yeah, baby.

Look at that pure destruction.

- I think that that is really cool.

And Kevin's laser did it. (friends laughing) - And with that questionable ruling, it meant if I didn't win the diamond round, I couldn't outright win this competition.

Even with the finale worth two points.

1.2 karats right here.

- I do. - I don't.

As usual Kevin kicked things off.

- Ready?

- Bloop.

As we completely encased the diamond in sort of a lava sandwich.

Wow.

And after it cooled off and we chiseled away the actual obsidian.

Nothing for lava.

The diamond was perfectly intact.

1.2 karat diamond versus acid.

(water plopping) Yeah.

- It's working. (friends laughing) - Classic acid.

It's time for the wild card to kick it old school (anvil thudding) and get back to basics.

I'm just gonna smash the crud out of this.

Just to reclaim my honor.

With the W heading into the final challenge in three, two, one.

(hammer thudding) I missed.

(friends laughing) (anvil thudding) - Did you miss again, Mark?

- No.

Are you kidding me?

That round's a wash.

You have two points.

You have two points.

You have no points 'cause nobody invited you.

And I've got one.

Which set up the perfect finale showdown where we each brought our own junkyard car.

- Where's Mark?

- Where is Mark?

(engine revving) (upbeat country music) - That's probably Mark.

- Yee haw!

Yeah!

(car crashing) - Oh, he hit my car.

- Dude, why'd you park so close?

- You only know how to drive a Mars rover, Mr.

- The rules were simple. (upbeat hip hop music) Whoever could disable their car the fastest will get two points and win it all.

Starting first with Nigel who is pulling out all the stops.

- I have a propane burner here with a nice big beaker loaded with hydrochloric acid.

I'm gonna start adding nitric acid and this will make the same mixture that can dissolve gold.

Aqua regia start the engine.

We'll get this aqua regia nice and hot.

It'll just start tearing all the metal apart To trigger it I have something special.

- To pour the acid on the car from a safe distance.

He had a clever solution, but before he could get to that.

- Oh. - Hey!

- We were rudely interrupted. (upbeat funky music) Wow more uninvited science YouTubers as Stephanie and Allen.

And since they were already here, I put 'em to work with more questionably sized referee uniforms, after which Nigel was up. (upbeat violin music) Now when acid comes in contact (metal sizzling) with the service of the metal, it rips away the metal atoms like a magnet.

We call this corrosion.

So you can increase the corrosive destructive power by either one, increasing the concentration of the acid, meaning there's more magnets. (liquid bubbling) Or two, you heat it up because if a liquid's hot, that just means the molecules are moving around way more.

So you increase the chance an acid molecule will make contact with the metal and attract away in atom.

And so in this case, as a last ditch effort, Nigel did both.

Now we just had to shatter the beaker.

(slingshot clicking) (glass clinking) (acid sizzling) - Nigel, this was your plan?

Why does it just make holes?

- I like the slow release. (glass shattering) Oh, there it goes. (gas whooshing) - That is terrifying. - That is.

- I've never seen a gas that color before.

- Now for the verdict.

- It's still running.

- Still running. (Mark laughing) Honda makes a good car. (hands clapping) And as Nigel released his frustrations.

(air whooshing) (glass shattering) You feel better, Nigel? (upbeat techno music) - I prepared to release the final mega wild card in the form of a 50 ton excavator.

And as I figure out the controls.

Oh. (excavator beeping) I got it.

I want to remind the viewer the purpose of this video was to use tools of scientific inquiry for the noble cause of furthering our understanding of interactions in the natural world.

And definitely not just to live out my lifelong dream of operating a 50 ton excavator.

(metal clinking) - Arm tank. Arm tank. Arm tank.

(Mark screaming) - Yeah! (car shattering) Oh yes!

Yeah!

Yes!

(upbeat heavy metal music) (car horn beeping) - Oh no. - Oh no.

- Just put it out of its misery Mark.

- Yeah!

Whoo!

(car crashing) (glass shattering) (friends cheering and clapping) And with my finishing move.

- There you go. - Nice.

- That was pretty good.

- I am very precariously balanced.

While the horn was somehow still working, the engine was definitely not (triumphant horn music) and I returned to receive the praise from my contemporaries.

- The machine was impressive. - Yeah.

(friends laughing) - All right.

- Lava.

- So for the grand finale lava.

(upbeat techno music) (friends cheering) (lava sizzling) (fire whooshing) With the lava poured, it was time for Kevin's escape.

(Kevin screaming) Oh, it stopped already no.

- As soon as I poured it on there.

- Are you serious?

- Wow, all it took was four gallons of lava.

(friends laughing) (upbeat techno music) - Oh, something's happening.

Oh wow.

Luckily we had some fire extinguishers on hand.

(extinguisher whooshing) That basically did nothing.

So now the judges just had to confer amongst themselves.

Don't make me regret ever even having invited any of you in the first place.

And deliver the verdict.

- Okay, so.

- Kevin, your car stopped at four seconds.

- Nigel's car still runs perfectly.

- Literally still running. - But it could stop at any moment.

- And Mark, how long did Mark take?

- Add 10 minutes to even get on the thing.

- You counted for when I start moving?

(clock ticking) Which honestly feels like a technicality, but I'm nothing.

- Kevin! - Kevin!

- If not a gracious loser. (triumphant symphony music) And as a reward for a fight well fought, I gave Kevin the indestructible 1.2 carrot diamond. (bell dinging) Congratulations.

Now go drive off in your cars.

You're welcome.

I'm basically Oprah.

(door thudding) Given that we've been secretly working on this Crunch Labs Roblox game for over a year.

I'm super stoked to show you in an exclusive world premiere the official game trailer.

Build a rocket (engine rumbling) where the sky's not the limit, it's just the beginning.

I'm Mark Rober and my new game, "Build A Rocket," is your key to a super cool space adventure.

Build rockets here at Crunch Lab's, journey to distant planets, mine for valuable resources. (diamond clinking) Then build even cooler mega rockets to explore the furthest corners of the universe.

You could build with your friends.

Customize your rocket with unlimited combinations, navigate treacherous space environments, and then use your mad engineering skills to help me defeat the evil rat Phat Tail (Phat tail cackling) to get my squirrel friends back.

Building your first rocket's super easy, but if you wanna master the game, you'll need to think like an engineer and balance your rocket's mass, thrusters, fuel supply, (upbeat synth music) and navigation capabilities.

As you explore each planet, you'll find unique challenges and super rewards.

Will you dig deep into the alien soil of the Martian surface?

Or make some discoveries on uncharted planets like Twistopia or Balloonanza or Marshmalia?

Well, that's totally up to you.

And in between rocket missions, you can hang out with your friends at Crunch Labs, where you might even spot some Easter eggs, including hints at whatever my next video will be.

And Crunch Labs is actually a real place.

It's where I come up with the ideas and builds for all my videos.

And anyone who beats the game before the end of this year has a chance to win (ticket clinking) a platinum ticket, to come to Crunch Labs in real life for a day where we'll build an actual version of the rocket which you designed in the game.

So visit CrunchLabs.com/Roblox with the parent to learn how to enter.

Or you can just play the game, "Build a Rocket," (rocket whooshing) for free on Roblox.

'Cause I'll actually be there playing myself a bunch and I can't wait to see the super clever ideas that you come up with.

Thanks for watching.

(bell dinging) (bubble popping)