Spinning Sphere of Molten Sodium

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An experiment on how turbulent convection in Earth's core makes a magnetic field

Companion video to explain Earth's magnetic fields in more detail:

Special thanks to Brady Haran and Periodic Videos for sodium vs water footage. Original clip is here:

Special thanks to Patreon supporters:
Donal Botkin, Michael Krugman, Jeff Straathof, Zach Mueller, Ron Neal, Nathan Hansen, Yildiz Kabaran, Terrance Snow, Stan Presolski

I learned a lot in making this video and the one on my second channel with Prof. Jon Arnou. I changed a lot of my preconceptions, specifically I thought:

1. That the Earth's magnetic field was a passive thing - it shouldn't need a continuous input of energy to maintain itself (that seemed reasonable to me because the magnetic field has been around for a long time and it seems mostly stable). But as it turns out, the Earth is a giant electromagnet, and so of course those currents dissipate their energy as they encounter resistance in the liquid metal through which they flow. So the energy to continuously create these currents comes from the kinetic energy of the liquid metal flows in the Earth's outer core.

2. If it's convection, I'm thinking hot things rising, cooler things falling. But apparently the main effect driving convection is the compositional differences at the boundary with the Earth's inner core. This is because of the differential freezing at the boundary. Things like iron freeze into the inner core, while elements like sulfur do not. Hence the pockets of lighter material which then rise outwards.

3. I didn't get why the fluid motion was necessary for the generation of the magnetic field. I mean if it's a conducting liquid, it can conduct currents whether it moves or not. But the key is that the liquid metal can 'trap' magnetic fields. I imagine this like how iron channels magnetic fields. Then once these fields are channeled, they can be pulled and stretched, making more magnetic field.

4. Fluids operate very differently in rotating frames of reference. This is something I didn't intuitively grasp. But, as fluids move from the inner core outwards, those particles are moving much more slowly in the direction of rotation than the matter that has been there for a long time, which means the convection currents get deflected and form helices.

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"Describe your life in two words."
Me: "Modestly catastrophic."

capnkayso
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"And everything just Chills." You gotta love this guy.

balemonte
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This guy is a bad ass. Great interviewee

RealEngineering
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"Yeah we have a giant spere of flammable explosive stuff that spins really fast, and in case something goes wrong we just dump some hella cold stuff on it"
gotta love science

ookjannesplanting
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The older guy's enthusiasm makes me really want to listen to what he is saying.Kind of like a favorite teacher in school.You walk into class prepared to be a little bored and walk out excited for class the next day.

benbrice
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Lets just skip over "the magnetic field is dying and we don't know why"

blockhead
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"If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn’t be called research, would it?"

spartyzik
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Can we get a follow up on some of these? I wanna know what they've learned in 2 years.

crispy
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1:48
>Emphasizes the importance of safety
>Has power strip hanging by the cords plugged into it

yannisconstantinides
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"It doesn't care where the tickle came from"

... so it's basically like the nucleation point when a liquid freezes to a solid. The tiniest little point and within a second the whole thing is frozen

DMTrance
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"Back up plan is put it out with cryogenics... it actually works great!"

ARE YOU IMPLYING, SIR, THAT YOUVE HAD TO USE THE EXTINGUISHER?

theflerffyburr
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The pens in his pocket are in such a harmonic position. I am mesmerized.

Deusriba
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did he just say the earth's magnetic field has reduced by 10% in the last 100 years? ... thats scary

DJJR
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I like that statement. "Modestly catastrophic". Lol

mikepalmer
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5:40 There is no way we'll ever know which dinosaur comic that was stuck to the machinery

redoktopus
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It's always amazing to witness the machinations of crazy scientists that casually spin 12 ton molten balls of sodium.

omahanprabla
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Now I really want to see liquid nitrogen put out molten sodium

avsaucyboi
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These are scientists we need.
_"Yea its risky. Yes it could be a catastraphy. But were going to try it. And we've even invented new ways to prevent things going really really baddy"_
Bold science is best science.

jasoncarto
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This is fantastic content. Those sulfur spirals extending from the solid/liquid core interface were fantastic for explaining the twisting magnetic fields. Just a perfect use of this medium. Subscribed!

junkdriver
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he is so genuinely enthralled by his work. I can only aspire to live like this man

andrewpak