The Chemistry of Fire and Gunpowder - with Andrew Szydlo
Andrew Szydlo gives a spectacular demo-filled talk of explosive science using gunpowder, energetic reactions and quite a few flames.
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The talk was filmed on the eve of Bonfire Night, also known as Guy Fawkes Night.
Andrew Szydlo is a chemist and secondary school teacher at Highgate School, well-loved by pupils and Ri attendees alike.
He has given public lectures around the UK, been featured on TV shows and has become a popular part of the Royal Institution's KZhead Channel in recent years.
This talk was filmed in the Royal Institution on 4 November 2017.
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Take a shot of ethanol every time he: 1. Thanks his assistants. 2. Mentions Faraday. 3. Starts a new sentence without finishing the previous.
you'd be knocked out cold in the first 10 mins of this lecture xD
no, I want to survive...
thank you very much indeed
All I have is methanol... and I don't intend on self preservation.
5 min into thee video, first bottle of scotch is empty.
Earlyer today I was wathcing a video on "HOW TO CHOP WOOD WITH AN AXE".... My settings must have been set to AUTOPLAY because I just came back to my computer 12 hours later and this video was playing. I have no idea who this guy is I'm not a scientist or a chemist Nor am I a student, I'm just a dumb carpenter who now has an interest in science because of this guy . I LOVE THIS GUY ,he sure knows how to teach.
Coming from northern New England where wood chopping and splitting are part of every day life it kind of shocked me to realize not everybody is brought up that way. Two things I might mention is 1. that most modern axes, splitting mauls and splitting wedges are crap. 2. most of the demonstrations use dry straight grained wood with no knots, not very realistic. Any ways thanks for the reality check.
I know it's now a quarter from your comment, but if you haven't already do check out SkillCult. I have a feeling you'll like it.
_
Learning is fundamental
"How to chop wood with an axe" step one throw the axe away, step 2 get a chainsaw
I'm 33 and can't say there was anything really new to me and I also tend to have a short attention span. I'm used to working on some project while having videos like this playing in the background. This lecture consumed 100% of my attention. Absolutely amazing. Those kids have no idea how lucky they are to be there in person. I'm sure many will have an intense interest in chemistry for the rest of their lives thanks to this.
There's a good reason for the fact that this video captured your attention and held it, actually! You and I both suffer from adult ADHD, so focusing on something for any length of time is difficult... HOWEVER, the professor is so "scatterbrained" that he bounces around from topic to topic, and often within the same topic, that our brains don't have "time" to get bored. I would LOVE to have him as a professor... He's absolutely wonderful. And his son is GORGEOUS.
If there is nothing new to you at 33 years old then you have lived a very closed life.
@@locutusofborg2880 Are you the borg queen? :)
I see why people clap. Its so amazing and he deserves the props
Somebody needs kids
If this man had taught at my school, i would have taken a very different career path. If you have a class he teaches, You are a lucky person.
Same here
I think if you ask most people why they are working or studying in the field they currently are, the answer will boil donw to them having had a teacher that got them hooked.
John Robinson I’m pretty sure my chem teacher was a pill addict 😂
@@BluGuyMyco did he get ya hooked?
truth
Dr. Szydlo reminds me of the physics teacher I had 20 odd years ago who, among other things, walked over coals to demonstrate various principles of physics. He was passionate about his subject and did his best to teach as much as possible to as many as possible. The equations tend to confuse me, but that man did manage to drill some physics and a love of that science into my head.
Andrew Szydlo is an archetypal professor, his mind always a few steps ahead, the now a bit helter-skelter and absolutely lovely with impeccable manners. He makes it a tour the force of interesting experiments mixed in with enough chaos to give it a dangerous edge 😊
Did anyone who liked this not notice that 'tour the force' is not a saying? Ted, where did you hear that saying? And if you weren't sure then you should have googled it
Tour the force is in French tour de force that means that you succeed in a very complicated situation.
@@tituswilliams8063 Yeah, I'm sorry, but no
*tour de force, not "tour the force", "de" here is French for "of" not "the", the literal translation is "feat of strength"
SliP _ it is indeed a French expression. But since “de” is not an English word, I just assume the original poster’s autocorrect kicked in.
This video was far more interesting than any action movie.
A man explains what wood is made of for over an hour. I love it.
For the love of god I do not understand why Prof Szydlo's video's dont have more views and likes. I abolutely LOVED chemistry when I was in highschool and this man has completely re-invigorated my love for the subject. Thank you.
Andrew Szydlo is a LEGEND!!!
I thought what the hell I'll watch his general chemistry video. Now I have my fourth ready for tomorrow. He certainly does love his fire.
This is the kind of passion I wanna see in people who lift. No, not just the energy. *The deep understanding and ability to explain it in a way that gives a grown man a childlike fascination with the subject.*
I am commenting this from Addis Ababa in Ethiopia 🇪🇹🇪🇹 far far away from Great Britain. Dr. Andrew Szydlo is not just one genius chemist. Rather he is a passionate person with a combination of talents packed in together. He is a humble ingenious teacher, an amazing musician and a talented painter. Moreover, unlike many scientists today who prefer to dwell in their area of specialization, he is curious about nature and how things work in general. His teaching techniques should be adopted by many trainers. As for instance, when he sketched with that graphite, he was not just try to show what elemental carbon can do, but he was summarizing his flask experiment with a picture so everyone will not forget the lesson when he switch to the next lesson plan. Besides chemistry, I think there are a lot of lessons to take from his videos. I had been following his series for a while and was always fascinated by his simplistic methods and his common sense explanation. Big love and hug for Dear Dr. Szydlo from the rainy city of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.🇪🇹🇪🇹🇪🇹🇪🇹
He talks as if him and his assistants broke into this lecture hall and he's trying to get through a lecture before security comes to drag him away
But cool experiments
It's all part of the act to entertain the children. It enables him to appear harassed and flustered, so the kids think there is going to be an almighty catastrophe any moment (they hope).
Very good theatrics i must agree...are the cops coming???
Tony Clark it's a combo of that and just him having so much information to tell. It's much easier to explain such things to people when they already know about it. He's explaining it in a way that a 5 year old and a 50 year old should be able to understand it. It's actually a quite hard thing to do. He's mastered it lol
His energy and his ability to project it with so much info so people understand what he's trying to do is incredible, I thought it was amazing
This is simply AWESOME!!!! Love almost everything about this teaching genius, from the way he so charmingly says "dear children", to the way he mingles such a huge amount of information with a wealth of historical perspective. Also adore the way he shows how beautiful and interesting science can be, when approached in such a manner as he does. BRAVO and thank you for posting this for everyone to enjoy and learn from.
"My dear childrens," only your favorite uncle says like that. Hehe
He mastered chemistry so much he can turn off breathing to maximize talking and teaching
🤣🤣🤣
O
So happy that I was part of this magnificent lecture demonstration!! Andrew is an inspiration and a great value to all chemistry and chemists!
Well done sir. You all did an absolutely wonderful job here!
Yay - my favourite pyromaniac! *settles back with a bucket of popcorn*
I like how he emphasizes the words "FIRE" or "BURN" whenever he says them.
popcorn is surely flammable ! ...
@@andrewgalloway7344 doritos are apparently
@@yungchill69 -a man who has clearly tried
His emotional remembering at the end of the lecture.. that was intense. A great professor, a greater man. That sense of passion is the kind of things that pushes us into the future.
This is so amazingly good; the music segment was... delightful.
I absolutely love this guy's presentations! The best classes I had in high school 35 years ago were from a Physics teacher and Chemistry teacher who both loved demonstrations. You can read about the numbers and theory...but watching your Physics teacher go down the hallway on a CO2 extinguisher-powered cart. Or seeing a sledge-hammer/construction-block/bed-of-nails demo with YOUR teacher on the bed-of-nails during class...oh man that was awesome! Hat's off to those great teachers from my youth and to these great presentations from The Royal Institute!
Absolutely uplifting to know that these type people still exist. Passion for one's field and the desire to pass on his knowledge rather than overcomlicating the subject with curriculum designed to inhibit imagination and mindfulness and drifting further away from any real world knowledge. Refreshing to see someone who just truly loves what they do and want everyone to have true knowledge.
He's more of an entertainer, who has an exceptional scientific knowledge for being an entertainer, rather than a scientist, who has a superb knack for entertaining people. I wish we had more teachers like him. Hats off to that man, I enjoyed every minute of this.
So brilliant
This man is absolutely brilliant. He didn't stop for nearly 2 hours.....unreal!!! What a stellar performance!
This guy is great. I love watching everything he is featured in on this channel. He is the reason I subscribed to this channel the first time I watched it. Thanks again to The Royal Institution.
@45:06 Open flame ignites the vapor. "Oscar, very well done!"
"Slightly out of control" LoL. Oscar is his sons name, which I believe would be the other guy who appears to be slightly older then Yarkov
Upon further viewing, I'm completly confused as to what their names are now...
You can clearly see that the fire started from the other flame in the desk, going from left to right. So it wasn't his fault,
My favorite chemist! So happy to see a new vid
How come every time I fall asleep, no matter what I'm watching, I wake up to this guy doing incredible feats of science?
I love this guy. Just knows the subject so well it's almost unconscious. He makes me think this is what happens when you open a book and all the words spill out and catch fire.
This man is indeed a remarkable scientist and so inspirational, that I can't stop watching ! And I'm 63!
The RI Lectures are a traditional part of Christmas, and this gentleman is a legend.
absolutely brilliant. knowledge and the passion to express it to others.
jed tattum the thing I like the most is this guy doesn't hide his mistake. He embraces it and uses to to teach.
He has developed his 'absent minded professor' act to perfection, extremely entertaining and educational.
Without a doubt my favorite lecturer, his mannerisms have me in tears
Let me tell you how brilliant Andrew truly is: Most lectures are boring. Boring means that the lecturer has succeeded in cutting bloodflow to your brain making it harder to learn. Andrew realizes this either consciously or unconsciously and he keeps the class engaged. No one is bored, everyone pays attention, cerebral perfusion is increased and this helps memory as well as intelligence. Anyone who would criticize my professor is ignorant of psycophisiology and the science of how we learn.
Absolutely superb. At the age of 58, I also learned something new - that Carbon Monoxide is flammable.
Gary Hardman it was new for me too
I never thought about it before, but it makes sense...there's still room for further oxidization, as we know it can take two oxygen atoms. :-)
Town gas for cooking was CO and H2 - from burning coal (C) in steam (H2O). Then we discovered natural gas - methane - which was far safer.
I've known that since I was about 4 years old (I turned 58 myself a few weeks ago)... but that's not the weird part: I learned it from reading one of my mother's *nursing* textbooks (she was a working RN until less than a week before I was born). :-)
When you light a charcoal fire for a BBQ and you blow air then you stop you see lots of blue flames, that's burning CO! Reason why charcoal fires should never be used on enclosed spaces, it can be deadly.
1:37:45 UNACCEPTABLE! This brought tears of laughter to my eyes. I love the royal institution videos as background noise, although i'll admit they tend to draw me away from what i'm doing more often than not. Edit: it's rare I have the impulse to clap along with the audience at the end of a video but the Royal Institute consistently has wonderful presenters who inspire that reaction.
Got to say this was absolutely amazing. I was glued to it from start to finish. Its now 05:30am, didn't think I'd watch the whole thing lol! What a brilliant lecturer
I ve loved watching this. Dr Szydlo looks like kid in a playground, i could watch him every day. Nice, thanks RI.
What a teacher and a true gentle-man, thoroughly courteous and brilliant person. I think I've learned more in this one session than I ever learned at school. A very captivating lecture/demonstration, many many thanks.
I had a fantastic teacher. His name was Mr Millington. He walked around with a white lab jacket that he painted "Acme science teacher" painted on the back. He was full of life and used to speak regularly to BRMB. He went on Live TV in the 90's to do stand up. He tragically died out of the blue not long after I left school. He was brilliant.
Hectic, but so intertaining that you just can't stop watching.
Can't help thinking on "Professor Farnsworth" here and there.
@@ZeedijkMike Good news, my dear children
I have a wish that he should be my chemistry teacher and his teaching is really ossum
I think you need a spelling teacher
Andrew Szydlo is inspiring. So excited he's like a kid in a candy shop. Never a dull moment with his lectures. I love fire, too, but he might love it more than I. Thanks for sharing.
This guy is the best teacher I have ever seen. It's like Doctor Who meets Ace Ventura. He's brilliant :)
you can tell he truly understands and is interested in what he is talking about, he can hardly stay quiet with how excited he is to show everything.
I love his high speed talking. I wld love to have had him as a teacher when I was in school. Wld love to see more from him.
1:37:50 Me when I've realized that I over-slept.
i thought nobody mentioned it lol
I love this guy so much! He so enthusiastic about everything and the kids feel that and love him for it!
The thing I love about this is that he loves his subjects and passing knowledge that he dashes from one to the other with little direction.
Wish I could see this brilliant guy before the call comes. You better live long, cause world need this kind of people. Mindful of work and pursuit, musically entangled, appreciating others but never thyself for once...
I just love the essence of joy and interest this man displays throughout the video, it's like watching a small child having fun with homework, this man has a gift of sharing what he likes, my best hopes for him
I *love* Andrew Szydlo! These are my favorite lectures and demonstrations at the Royal Institution. :D
I absolutely love his lectures and how passionate he is about FIRE.
...and at the same time, we had a little bit of extra flame produced, which was the most important! - Andrew Szydio 2018
Love this guy
"Wood doesn't always have to be burnt." this is the highlight of this wonderful video, indeed!
I love how he stops the applause at times for reasons of either humility or scientific demonstration. Legendary man
Dear Mr. Andrew Szydlo I want to congratulate you for being a SUPER teacher. The studnts that have the honor to know you should be proud and gratefull. Thank you very much for transmiting a us litle part of your big knowledge.
Brilliant lecturer. An absolute pleasure to watch!
Andrew Szydlo makes chemistry understandable by everyone. Perfect.
Andrew Syzdlo is awesome!
these videos are such a fantastic and entertaining resource. Thank you Dr. Szydlo, and thank you Royal Institution.
I can see, hear, and feel his passion and excitement for what he does. His energy makes me want to listen.
I always enjoy watching a teacher with such passion.
Szydlo is absolutely amazing.
Having studied Chemistry at University, but I still find Andrew Szydlo an extremely entertaining and fun lecturer to watch! If anyone can win over new Chemists from the crowd of exited children, it's Andrew Szydlo! One of the very, very best The Royal Institution features!👍
45:05 The ether cought flame from the burner, 'Oscar' never lit it! Just shows even more how dangerous the invisible gasses coming from the (heated) flamable liquids are...
Best lecture I've ever witnessed. The props are all well and fine, but my goodness, that man just exudes excitement and favor for his profession and desire to share his passion. And share he does. What a joyful man.
Fantastic! Mr. Szydlo is a spectacular teacher and has an excellent presence!
If every science teacher, - strike that - every teacher, would have this enthusiastic and kind style, the world would be a better place.
I thought at the very beginning that I would be only able to watch a few minutes and then I was most of the way through having been entertained the whole time! This man has a gift, what great enthusiasm for the subject of chemistry and the desire to share it with children. What a great way to get kids interested in the subject! I lost count of all the demonstrations he performed. Great stuff!
Thank you gentleman. I never thought chemistry would be this much interesting subject to learn. Long live Sir Andrew Szydlo and his crew.!
I could watch Andrew Szydlo forever. . He's amazing!
Great show! Keep em coming. Thank You Prof. Szydlo
These videos are so easy to watch. Andrew is better than a grand master!
I'm breathless just watching him. Excellent stuff!
There's something for everyone in this demo-talk. Brilliant!
Brilliant !!! Great talk, great delivery, great subject. Now I'm looking at my fire completely differently!!! I hadn't thought that so much stuff was happening with a 'simple' wood fire.
Learning the chemical change that wood takes in order to catch fire is amazing. This means that wood itself technically doesn’t burn but rather the flame brings out the charcoal and the CHARCOAL catches..... mind blown...
I appreciate the way he delivers.
I just love Andrews enthusiasm. In is upper years, he is bouncing around WANTING to tell this.
I love this guy. I'm 60 but I'm happy to be one of his "children."
i am romanian and i am working in Germany for 3 years but that small violin melody moved my soul . THANKYOU
it's such a joy watching someone so passionate
When he was playing with that plane I lost it he's very spritely and seems so sweet and endearing when he says dear children
So so entertaining!, A wonderful man who obviously takes delight in enlightening people! Thank you sir for your time and all involved in bringing such educational entertainment to KZhead for us all who cannot be there.
I love this gentleman. From the way he speaks on so many things at once, but always brings it all together. I enjoyed the unexpected musical part . A genius, performance.
Hydrogen (followed by exited villain face), "Which I'll show you at the end" - priceless.
Most amazing, fantastic - chemistry combined with music!
I learned quite a bit from this, good stuff. The guy was on fire... also he could play a villain in a movie.
"Chemistry of Fire and Gunpowder" *cue Hungarian Folk Melody played by a random troupe of musicians*
I'll do you one better. A folk tune played by Szydlo. kzhead.info/sun/gcVwctRsnaSPeq8/bejne.html&t=6359
@@kingrichardiii6280 I'll do you one better Why is Hungarian folk music
Romanian
I dont think i know anyone else who can make science of wood this interesting, and these lectures are way to short. Been watching every lecture by Andrew thus far on the Ri channel.
Great presentation. I experiment with running engines on wood gas and this presentation got me fired up. I was always curious about heating wood in a retort.
So captivating, he has my attention every step of the way, the mark of the best and rarest of educators
Wonderfully simple simplified and very very entertaining and I like the energy
Love this guy, hope he lives to be 200 and constantly consumes knowledge.
This is the best professor on the planet. I want to study under him now and I’ve been out of school for 19 years. Bravo
Omg. I love watching this man. I just wished people would stop interrupting him. He speaks fast because he has a time limit.
Amazing video! He managed to speak for over an hour without even a second of silence, absolutely superb!