We FINALLY Proved Why Ice Is Slippery

Why is Ice Slippery? New research suggests we finally have an answer.

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0:00 Why is Ice Slippery?
1:14 The History of Understanding Ice
2:15 The Pressure Hypothesis
5:41 The Quasi-Liquid Layer Theory
6:50 The Results
10:17 Cold Ice Isn't Slippery

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[michaeldaniels]

It makes me wonder if these observations could inspire a "slippery" metal alloy that never needs lubrication

[HallowedError]

This was fantastic and I remember all the old videos that basically said 'this is our best guess but it doesn't actually make sense' so this was really satisfying

[antivanti]

As someone who lives "quite far north" I can attest to the fact that ice gets less slippery when it's REALLY cold. Bur also if the soles in your shoes are cheap and contain more plastic than rubber they get hard as bakelite and insanely slippery.
Also if it's really cold and there's a slight layer of powder snow on perfectly blank ice you're screwed. There's no more slippery surface in the world. Literally no friction. It's like being the puck on an air hockey table 😅

[rebeccawinter]

The background baseline of "under pressure" and "ice ice baby" is just sublime when talking about vacuum @2:20.

[seanb]

I had a Chemistry Teacher demonstrate a Solid - Solid Chemical Reaction.
It was quite odd looking. Two different white powders were placed in a glass tube.
The tube is shaken only one toss at a time. In the tube blue crystals quickly formed.
The crystals grew each toss of the tube but not otherwise. There had to be mechanical motion and contact.

[solii]

I started watching this video with the thought "I will probably not understand this". But you explained everything _very_ well. Good job and thank you!

[flaym.]

Therapist: "double-bonded hydrogen isn't real, it can't hurt you"
Double-bonded hydrogen: 6:25 (right side)

[gruffdavies]

Brilliant video. My favourite of yours so far (as a fellow PhD physicist, I really appreciate how much work you've put into researching this and loving the cheeky humour too. This new explanation of a classic phenomenon that we thought we understood reminded me of a fairly recent result showing that static electricity (e.g. amber and fur) isn't due to electrons as we thought, but molecular ions. Apparently, a chemist proved the electron model was energetically impossible. A bit embarrassing for us physicists, but I bet he was a physical chemist, so we can take the win anyway
😂). Keep up the great work, Dr. Ben!

[Snwar]

do you know why, when you wet your fingers with a tiiiny amount of water you get insanely good grip (on a smooth metal surface for example)? completely dry fingers are slippery and completely wet ones too but theres that perfect amount of water that gives you an insane amount of friction

[AlbertScoot]

3:17 Thank you for voicing something everyone who's studied engineering has felt.

[Yezpahr]

Lol, the bloopers at the end were priceless. Here you are trying to prove something mundane that we all know happens and the ice gods just aren't letting you have it.

[fulldeepshadowmmon]

This is a perfect illustration of the problem with active measurement. The energy introduced to the system to measure it changes it. Therefore what you are measuring is the system plus the measuring method. So you can never measure just the system.

[diamondcreepah]

The subtle change from Ice Ice Baby to Under Pressure at 2:13 is genius

[Minrus]

This is just a meme compilation of people slipping on ice. You cant change my mind

[pauljackson]

So the AFM is actually like a really small record player stylus.
And with the laser bouncing off there are 2 levers involved:
The stylus is one and the laser beam is the other.

[IroAppe]

2:44: That has to be the most clarifying picture of water freezing to ice that I've seen. It's so beautiful, you immediately see what happens and why.

[bujin]

4:15. I don't know that I buy the idea that there are three square inches of ice skate on the ice when a person is in motion. (The area required for a 150lb person to be exerting 50psi.) I suspect the real expressed area is quite a bit less than that.

[shorgravan]

Real interesting stuff! Double points as this made me unlearn something I thought I knew. And it as this generates a bunch of follow--up questions too!
Can't access the paper right now but I'll definitely give it a read at some point.

[MeriaDuck]

I knew about electron tunneling microscopes, this looks a slight bit simpler than that. The fact that we can scan atomic-scale resolution is mindblowingly fantastic.

[AllHailZeppelin]

Veritasium’s been real quiet since this vid dropped