Popcorn in Extreme Slow Motion

Get up close and detailed with a kernel of popcorn as it heats up. When the moisture inside turns to steam, the pressure it exerts causes the tough shell to violently burst open, so that the starch inside can freely expand. In this video, the process is seen slower and slower until you have a sequence filmed at 100,000 frames per second, which gives us a long view. We can see how the underside of the kernel is always where the rupture comes, because that's where the heat is. There's enough force to hurtle the kernel into the air as it does its thing. Oh yeah, the popcorn video is only two minutes long. -via Digg