The explanation that came with this on YouTube says:
Get enchanted by a aluminium foil ship floating above ground on hexafluorid (gas significantly denser than air) at the Physikshow of the University of Bonn!
I looked on the Really Weird Materials site Alex posted earlier, but found no explanation of “hexafluoridâ€. I Googled the word, and found plenty of documentation, none of it in English, at least what a non-scientist would understand. Can someone direct us to more on this? Push play or go to YouTube. -via Arbroath
UPDATE:
What they have is Sulfur hexafluoride. It’s 5.11 times as dense as air. It’s non toxic, although it’s byproducts can be extremely dangerous.
Another interesting point is that inhaling this gas will make your voice sound deeper. Sound does not travel as fast in this medium. Helium can transmit sound very rapidly, hence making your voice squeaky.
Thanks, Russell! I knew someone would know more about it!
Newest 5 Comments
Wow thats neato! The gas you describe and is shown of the video, i've never seen before.
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Great information. I haven't heard before of this gas. I like the video! Thanks
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Just wait till David Blaine gets a hold of this one.
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Another cool experiment to do would be to fill the bottom half of the with SF6 and the top half with helium. Then if you put a small balloon filled with regular air, it would sink through the helium but would float on the SF6, it would be suspended half way.
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SF6 is used in sound detonation in the window industry. They will blend the nobel gases (Argon or Krypton usually) with SF6 to help lessen sound transmission.
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