Don't try this at home...

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[omduggineni]

Note: it is still possible to get a friction burn on your skin if not careful while using a cast saw

[candyc.]

However, if the medical technician applies too much pressure to the cast saw, as they cut the cast, they will cut skin. I have a scar to prove it.

[johanntiu]

That is how ultrasonic knives can be tuned to cut a certain hardness of materials.

[Tatterdemalion-]

Wish someone had demonstrated this to 5 yr old me years ago. I would have been fascinated and probably not nearly as scared at the time of cast removal.

[aComedicPianist]

Human skin as an under-inflated balloon is an unsettling image to think about the opposite of.

[icu]

Great comparison. In some operations, the abdominal cavity is actually filled with gas. Then you are no longer under-inflated...

[AshenElk]

Steve just gave me my next insult: "You under-inflated skin bag."

[FreejackVesa]

Hey Steve, I'm a kid and I love your show. My dad and I watch it together. I doubt you'll see this, but there are two things that I think you might be interested in:

* pitot tubes -(devices used to measure pressure, simple small devices yet involved in some very large plane crashes)
* meteor burst communications / moon bounce - reflecting radio waves off meteors during entry into the earths atmosphere, or the moon, to get better range. Wild and interesting stuff. Can apparently be done by normies like us!

The cool thing about both these topics is that you can actually build your own experiments at home! My dad and I are planning on building a raspberry pi based WSPR/WSJT device to try meteor based communication. Or maybe we will start with "moon bounce" radio communication, that might be easier 😂

(Edited by "Dad")

[gqvnxjr]

Anyone who has tried to cut a flexible board with a sawz-all also has learn this lesson.

[dominiksulzer]

So.. you are saying that my body can be inflated?

[ritokazoriv]

This short is the best explanation I have seen on this topic to date, very concise and easy to understand

[bobwinters]

As a kid i cut off my cast using a Dremel tool with saw blade and a wooden ruler under the cast. The dumb things kids do. 😧

[klutterkicker]

That's so cool, props to whichever engineer thought up that design.

[monabuu]

I was in the ER after breaking my arm and they put it in a cast. Shortly thereafter, I lost circulation in my hand and it went blue and cold to the touch. They had to take the cast off. When the technician was sawing through it, I screamed in pain, and he said „don’t be such a crybaby, it doesn’t cut skin”. I yelled back at him „yeah, but I’ve broken this arm TODAY”. He proceeded to finish the job without looking me in the eye or saying a word until he left.

[Floyder...]

I was around 10 when I broke my arm and freaked out more about this thing cutting my arm to bits than when I actually broke my arm. I wish they explained this to me when I got my cast removed

[coltoncj]

I just wish the doctors would explain that before diving in with this crazy saw. Scared the crap out of me at first when I had my cast removed.

[bobwinters]

It does seem to have a lot of wasted teeth with how that works I'm assuming the blade is adjusted periodically as it dulls or maybe the tool itself is rotated.

[FlamRackett]

When I was 8 and had a cast removed, I was AMAZED how it didn't cut me and have wondered how ever since. Thank you for answering this 😄

[mitchellpresas]

“Humans are like an under inflated ballon.”

That hit hard.

[JohnDontFollowMe]

Damm, I have seen SO MUCH of these explanations and I never got it.
But the balloon example is perfect!
Very straightforward explanation.