Can a Little Oil Really Calm the Ocean?
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- Опубликовано: 14 мар 2024
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A few published papers about this effect:
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.c...
os.copernicus.org/articles/15...
sci-hub.se/journals.s...
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This is awesome...
Seriously I'm it is my empirical opinion that you legitimately have the best. And by best I mean most novel topics and or subjects on youtube. . Like where the rubber meets the road of reality.!!!
Bravo sir.! 👍👍🙏🍻
now no surfers will ever mess with me again!!!
@@theheroofmagicical628 lol 😂
What's crazy is that this works so well that scientists were worried about people using it to control the weather in the papers I read about the effect.
Could it be used to control erosion?
Yes, could you please change the local weather, that less clouds form above the ocean surface near the beach and we have more sunshine ?
Would it stop people hearing me fart in the bath?
Is this not also a visual effect that due to the oil the light sees a different medium and refracts differently hiding the waves? You could see that when you moved the camera the ways came back into the picture.
Nobody tell China
I hope this exploit won't get patched in the next update
Me to
Those developers only care for money, they won’t listen to us😢
@@doob.God is chill tho, He wont patch this.
@@Onlyoneway.You to what? Please finish your sentence.
@@TheTechAdmin hes also hoping that it wont get patched next update
Oh my god finally. In my 12th grade physics, one of the practical applications of surface tension was to calm ocean waves. All of us students and the teacher was equally confused, and googling it didn't give answers. Thank you for solving a 6 year long mystery
It must be grade 11, as I just finished it and learned that in surface tension.
It also comes up in a Jules Verne novel, can't remember which one.
Also read about when hurcanes we’re getting bad 10-15 years ago
It must have been nice to have Google while in school.
With the Internet, I don't understand how every student doesn't have straight A's; sans laziness factor.
@@TheTechAdmin Google doesn't automatically make you remember things. It is good to look things up you don't have answers to but at the end of the day you still have to memorise and learn concepts. It is good for homework, though.
It's blowing my mind that so little can create that big of an area of effect.
For real! But like he said, the fish oil tends to form a monolayer - a layer one molecule thick. That makes a little oil go a long way!
Now think of a crude oil spill
yea all the rainbows that are on a large area of the water, really thin film that creates rainbow@@christow7989
@@christow79896:47
me when farting
science truly does feel like magic sometimes. if someone wrote this in a fantasy book, where people drop this alchemical substance into the ocean to near-instantly calm the waves, i would say they are being too unrealistic
@patrick-quora I am amazed at your criteria. "It can only be true if I have heard of it before." Lmao! 😭😭😂😂
@patrick-quora modern lifeboats carry oil for this exact purpose....
@@RP-vi8fx Right, so give me a reference. And even if these lifeboats carry oil. give me an example how they calmed the sea. lol. I've seen plenty of ppl selling magical ground level water/mine detecting devices, yet they're all just bullshit.
LMAO. I can already see the news: These poor fishermen was caught in a storm, but they pored a few gallons of oil into the sea and was saved.
@@streight4lk You laugh at my point, yet can't support the point of the video furthering educating me, which just proves my original point. You're just a mindless viewer regurgitating whatever mindless matter the video spouted.
woah there using big words, your points will surely come across well you snob
The gulf of Mexico was as calm as a bathtub during the BP oil spill. Nobody talks about it, but I was out there in the golf, and I can tell you there wasn’t a single wave to be found.
This was my first thought when I saw the thumbnail. Thanks so much for confirming it.
It was! Ive never had such a smooth boat ride as the ferry to gavelston island around 2009
I saw water like that before. It was on the day a tropical storm not hurricane was hitting thay day. We were supposed to head out dive and come back before it hit by noon. It came while we were diving. Anywho on the way out the ocean was like a bathtub. And u could see the storm on the distant horizon.
Now that everyone knows how carcinogenic animal/fish liver oils can be. Specially once oxidised under sun and in contact with windy air. Everyone also gets what a scandal of cancers it's been for more than 130 years. It's interesting what an 1857 doctor would've told this lad about ecology and blood poisoning
Gulf, not golf the sport
wtf...it seems so simple, yet in all my years I've never heard of this. Thank you!
Used to be common knowledge amongst ocean sailors... mostly the cruising folks.
@@maxhugenWas the reason why it works common knowledge?
@@DrakonBlake I can't speak for others, but I certainly did not know!
Never read... Jules Verne?
I havent watched the video yet, But if this is about putting Oil into the water to calm the seas its an old Sea dogs tale, and not actually real.
2:00 it took quite some time to realize the mirror-finish was NOT the bank of snow, but a near perfect reflection of it!
same
Same. I didn't see anything at first; just saw a bunch of disturbed water.
SAME i was like wtf is he talking about
A sinking boat raises the flag "I'M SINKING!"
A passing-by boat raises the flag "NOT MY PROBLEM"
...a third boat raises the flag "ARE YOU SINKING WAT I'M SINKING...?"
I was fully expecting that when I watched the video.
Hallo! Dis is the German Coast Guard. Vat are you sinking about?
And that's the origin of getting flagged.
the neighbouring ship raised the flags i over s which means 'skill issue'
Edit: apparently this comment is spoiling the video before people can watch it, and I apologize for that.
When I read the thumbnail, I totally thought you were pulling our chains, but the fact that this actually works is mind-blowing. This is the best real-world example of the butterfly effect I've ever seen
Yes exactly, when he told that anecdote i was convinced it was bs
I think I first read about it in some Jules Verne's novel. Sailors knew this trick and used for centuries.
@@d4slaimlessand now as a species we are getting more and more uninformed.
But is the nuclear war head not the best example? One man sized bomb to level an entire city?
That really is the best physical analogy of the butterfly effect.. Crazy he used such a small amount of oil to effect so much
me dumping 5 million tons of crude oil into the ocean: "my Amazon package will never sink now."
How much would it take to actually coat the ocean?
@@user-kg9jr9bw8o From my crude calculations at least 361.9 million liters if it was only a single nm thick
*Don't know where the surface area came from, just googled for it, was 361.9 million km^2, 1nm is 1e-9 m so it cancels out the km^2 to m^2 conversion.
@@user-kg9jr9bw8o dunno but with your small monthly donation of 50 trillion dollars, we can find out how many barrels of crude oil it takes to destroy the ecosystem.
@@user-kg9jr9bw8o the ocean is 361 million square kilometers or 3.61 * 10^14 meters^2, the monolayer is around 1.6 nm or 1.6 * 10^-9 meters, so you need around 5,8 * 10^5 cubic meters of oil, or 580 million liters, multiplying by the density of 0.93 kg/liter, we get just over half a million ton of fish oil I think
i think that is the wrong oil. needs to be fish or vegetable oil
The Coast Guard just needs to carry a 5 gal bucket of fish oil with them on rescue missions. Easy peasy.
This needs traction..
Also,.... life saving gear should be equipped with a small flask or capsule, maybe? Baywatch, where are you?😅
Not sure they need it for plucking people out with helicopters. Admittedly not sure what kinds of rescues they have to do from time to time, I suppose it varies greatly but I just don't see them needing this kind of thing anymore. That and the ships that do sink these days are so far away from help they wouldn't reach them in time for the oil to do anything useful.
I suppose if anything, ships that are worried about rough waters could have oil on board themselves maybe. But not sure how long it would keep them safe from the storm.
And lifejackets should have a slow release supply. Even if it doesn't affect the water to the point of making rescue easier, the giant patch of water that is less covered in white horses would be far more visible than a tiny orange spot.
Funny at first, but then, actually not a bad idea. @@agsystems8220
This used to be well known amongst sailors. Once a sailing yacht starts to get overpowered even with just small storm sails up, a "sea anchor" (like a small parachute) is let out via a line from the bow of the yacht for some distance, and sails taken down. This keeps the bow facing oncoming waves. If waves were breaking , a very small amount of oil could be released via the head (toilet) periodically, which would calm the sea as the yacht drifted downwind with the oil slick, bow on to the now-calmer waves.
I remember reading about this when I was younger, I believe it was in Graham Robinson’s account of his sailing voyage around the world. He would let out some oil in rough seas. I remember being confused by it. Now all these years later it makes sense.
Also worth noting is that the danger to ships in the sea isn't really the size of a wave, but the wave breaking onto or into the side of a boat. The oil film helps prevent waves from breaking, meaning that while the waves are still tall they aren't as 'pointy', or steep - and thus much less dangerous.
Ben Franklin, letter to William Brownrigg, 1773: "I then went to the Windward Side, where they [the waves] began to form; and there the Oil tho’ not more than a Tea Spoonful produced an instant Calm, over a Space several yards square, which spread amazingly, and extended itself gradually till it reached the Lee Side, making all that Quarter of the Pond, perhaps half an Acre, as smooth as a Looking Glass."
I have used a small amount of vegetable oil to prevent water from boiling over when cooking pasta for as long as I've been cooking. I think this explains why this trick works.
it also works a bit like a lid and prevents water from evaporating, thus reaching boiling temperature faster
I did that too thanks for reminding me I had fogotten
Ahhhh it makes sense, i always thought that was so the noodles didnt stick if they cooled off
Doesn't these thing's means that "accidental" oil spills might actually be of benefits to their owners? Can it cause drought by reducing the amount of evaporation from sea water?! Or reducing ship travel time by calming ocean waves? Or destroying a country's marine life??! Huh, what's that black van doin under my window...
I've seen this while lake fishing. After casting a hook with potski's eggs, there'd be a smooth spot about 8 feet around. And that was just from the residue on two little eggs.
Fellow fisherman as well and always wondered about that.
Wow, I wasn't expecting it to actually work!
I actually wasn't expecting it to work that well either. I had tried it at home with a fan over some water and it was barely a noticeable difference, but I thought I would try it for real at the lake and I was blown away at the effect. So it really works better over large area.
@@TheActionLabThat is really interesting, how difficult it was to represent on a smaller scale, I wonder how many effects haven't been fully studied thanks to being hard to try on said small scale.
Benjamin Franklin was notorious for using oil to calm water. He described this in his autobiography
(great read). He loved it so much that he had the top of his walking cane turned into a small oil container so that we would have oil on hand (or under) at all times.... Great video demonstration. As I recall, Ben used whale oil.
Using powder on water to measure the volume of drop of oil on a pin / needle was an experiment that I saw 50y ago. The oil spreads out forming a circle in the powder and the maths is simple to estimate the volume of the drop.
I have known of the oil on water from my sailing days; I am very impressed by you experiment, I thought it would need a gallon of oil.
Yachtsmen in the 1950s carried perforated bags in which were rags which could be soaked in oil and which could be trailed from a boat when stopped in a storm. This created a slick to windward. I seem to remember the use of oil is described in the book Heavy Weather Sailing, and in 19th century sailing books such as the Voyage of the Tilikum and Sailing Alone around the World.
That's the coolest sh!t i've learned this year
It's like that famous Simon and Garfunkel song, "Fish Oil Over Troubled Waters".
"Hello fish oil my old friend"
The visual at the end describing the feedback loop is excellent!
"While at sea in 1757, Franklin took particular interest in a stark difference between the wakes of certain ships compared to others. Franklin consulted his captain and learned that one ship’s cook threw refuse oil over the side of the boat, turning the water tranquil-a phenomenon he had likewise learned about in his youth from the writings of Pliny, the ancient natural historian. It was at sea that Franklin fully contemplated “the wonderful Quietness of Oil on agitated water"
Learnt about this back in my school days many many years ago. Apparently certain ships and lifeboats were required to carry oil that could be slowly released into the sea during storms in order to do exactly this. Utterly amazing that something so small can do so much!
In French we have the expression "une mer d'huile" which we use when the water (ocean, lake etc.) is like a mirror.
oil dispersal on the water was a standard heavy weather tactic used by captains back in the day. Ships carried barrels of oil specifically for this. The oil was dispensed by continious drip buckets.
One of your best vids yet. Keep this format please. The goal of 10 min clearly can push you to fill it with oodles of notes and facts as you've demonstrated.
"You can see the smoothness spread out in a semicircle from where I put it in."
Wise words to be remembered by every husband.
I Started watching your videos recently. These videos are really knowledgeable. I appreciate your work man. Keep it up!
My dude here is getting better at making awesome videos, the infographics wow!!!
this one was both fascinating and mind-blowing! thanks!
Alright, I’ve been watching for a while and I’m gonna go ahead and subscribe. I’m surprised, engaged, amused, entertained, this is cool.
Over 50 years and never heard of this phenomenon, super interesting and very well explained, also the graphic explaining the feedback loop, well done! Thankyou
I know I got a lot to learn about the world, but you just blew my mind! Thank You!
Fascinating! I did not realise that the type of oil had a measurable impact.
I recall a TV demonstration on a lake in the UK many years ago. They rowed out, tipped a small amount of oil over the boat and waited as the flatness spread out from them.
I don't recall any mention of the type of oil (mineral vs. vegetable/animal)
I would have never believed this without the amazing camera angles. Thank you!!!
Another brilliant video.... keep up the good work... Always entertaining and educational.
Ok, I have to admit not often I see something on the internet, that is really new that I didn't see before. Everything seems to be just a re-upload about the same phenomena over and over again. But this I truly see for the first time.
I love that I have never heard about this before. Amazing.
I'd never heard of this, truly fascinating. Thankyou for the practical demonstration and clear explanation.
this was a really interesting video with great storytelling, keep up the good work!
It's been a long time since I got such a new and and just mind blowing information. I was really excited to watch him revealing the secret.
We appreciate how well you articulate your insights. Keep up the good work.
Absolutely incredible. What an episode.
I had no idea that this was even a thing.
After watching all your videos for months...this is the best one.
This solves a long standing personal mystery that I've had for years (at least, I think it does.) My grand father lived near me and had a pond that was a few acres in size. I spent many summer days fishing on the lake. One of the things I noticed, and still have noticed, is that from time to time there would be patches like this on the water. The water would be more still in a some-what circular area, and the rest of the pond would have waves you'd expect depending on the wind. I'm guessing that something either died and seeped oil OR it might have been from bait, from time to time. Regardless, I'm assuming the calm patches were from some form of minimal oil introduced to the surface.
The oceans can have a little oil, as a treat
Dude!! This is very informative, I didn't know this could happen, probably most people on the earth don't know this. Great work with another exceptional video👍
This is one of the craziest science videos I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot. I just can't believe I've never heard of this! Thanks for demonstrating and explaining so well!
They did this in my hometown with lower quality whale oil. The good stuff was very useful but the remaining bits were stored for calming the waves on the port and letting the fishing vessels go in or out
Whale oil?
@@bertiesmith3021 You dump chunks of whale fat into a pot and slowly heat it until it is a goo. Whale fat was also used for soap and illumination
@@VictorGarciaRI’m being hopeful that you don’t do this any more.
I reside close to the Mediterranean Sea, where I often ponder the occurrence of smooth patches on its calm surface. after watching this video, I've come to understand that these patches are likely caused by motor oil from small boats. Wow! I didn't expect that to be the reason.
I've seen the oil/wave phenomenon many times. Thanks for revealing how it actually takes place.
Over here in the UK we used to have a BBC2 science program in the 1990's called 'Local Heroes' (by Adam Hart Davis) and this oil-on-water effect was detailed in one of the episodes (some of the episodes are here on RUclips). On one of his visits to Britain, Benjamin Franklin stayed in the Lake District with William Brownrigg and they performed this experiment on Derwentwater.
Lakes and ponds are one thing but to know this effect has been witnessed for the last two and a half millennia on rough seas is mind blowing... thankyou for making this effect more widely known.
Every rescue boat/helicopter should have a bucket of fish oil on board
Vegetable oil would be better. Catching the fish to make the oil isn't very sustainable
@@ghostratsarahI feel like fish oil is the least polluting though, since it's just dead fish, which the ocean already has trillions of
too much oil makes the effect worse
A MAN HAS FALLEN INTO THE RIVER IN LEGO CITY
POUR THE NEW RESCUE FISH OIL
@@ghostratsarah Fish regenerate, it's the definition of sustainable
9:30 the best line ❤❤❤
That is a very cool feedback loop. I subbed for this one, well done.
Impressive experiment, it's intriguing how a small amount of oil can calm the waves. The underlying science behind it is well explained and the historical anecdotes really make it more interesting.
It calms down because old Greek gods like oil in their salad so they get too distracted by munching to do anything else. Much less a storm.
Makes sense.
😂
Poseidon loves his fish oil
Nice video sir ❤❤ love you from India 🇮🇳🇮🇳❤❤❤
I too neighbour
I don't know how I've never heard about this. Great explanation!
I've been dumping my used motor oil in the ocean for decades. People always give me sh!t and never believe me when I tell them why. Thanks for setting the record straight.
Is it possible that jesus dumped a vase of fish oil and prayed to God, before commanding the ocean to be calm? Who wouldve known? It's a Miracle!
I've learned so much from you and this is one of the cooler and informational ones 😊😊😊
I wouldn't have known. Thanks for telling us about it!
How much fish oil do i need to calm the pacific ocean?
Rather than have an app to help choose whose propaganda to follow, would it not be better to ignore all Main Stream Media?
no
Not only Main Stream Media Puts up propaganda.
I think they probably put up less.
Didn't get that far in the video yet, but I'm guessing you're talking about GroundNews? It's useful to see the differences in how different people with different political views report on events. And how are you planning to avoid main stream media, apart from going completely off the grid?
@@ThePhoenixSlayerSounds promising, but I find it rather hard to believe it doesn't have its own agenda/bias.
@@ThePhoenixSlayereveryone knows social media is where the real news source is lol. Seriously people need to stop being addicted to shit that just reaffirms their existing viewpoint and learn to get several points of view combined with some critical thinking skills. Sadly most won’t and will just let whoever they like the most influence their point of view.
@@ericwazhung Well as long as you treat every news article like you treat this program, you probably don't need it anyway. Just a disclaimer that I don't actually use it, but I'm pointing out that OP's opinion is a bit misguided.
I read about this technique in a very old power squadron manual, thought it was awesome but not something I'd ever be in a situation to actually use. Really cool
Over 20 years in the Navy and I never knew this. Awesome!
Sacrifice a soul?? The god eat the sacrifice. mmmm thank you for your sacrifice. And the god will calm the seas.
"No no, not a 'soul', I meant a 'sole'! You know, the fish? Dumb humans!" - some old god
Thank you for the very interesting video. Again, top-notch material from The Action Lab.
Thought it was another of your well illustrated think pieces but wow, it actually works.
I was just watching this random video about this random topic when i casually stumble upon a video of one of my hometown's beaches, Empa beach in Ericeira, Portugal. Great video
We used to use something similar for swimming pools, it was used for the tiles where the water rested but has the same effect. Was very satisfying in a swimming pool
I'm learning. Love it. Thank you again .
Fascinating, I recall learning this as a child and then I totally forgot but it's still amazing it's true.
This is the sort of content I come here for. :) Thanks for sharing.
Boy did I learn something! Thankyou!
This is amazing. Thank you for explaining…
Your videos are so well done. You totally make 'nerd' look cool. Keep up the good work.
😎
Swimming pool has lane dividers that quell the waves, there are quite a few different designs of plastic dampers.
Our 50m pool can be divided in to three smaller pools that can have different depths. The extra pool walls rise up with hydraulics, they do this most days at 9am and it takes 30min for the staff to deploy three sets of shorter lane dividers.
Amazing video! It also explains why in my country (Greece) people refer to calm waters as the sea looks like oil today! Thank you!
We always learn something from your videos ❤
I never new this. I love learning new stuff ❤
Great video man. Learnt something new and cool
That was super cool, thanks for the education.
Wow, how did I not come across this earlier, amazing!
This was amazing!
I love the cruel irony that oil spills from capsized vessels end up fixing the problem the caused them.
hoping they spilled the right oil
Really interesting topic!
This is deep deep on a social level. Good work
This is crazy. Nice to learn something new. Thanks.
Crazy I did not think that this would actually happen!
Wow this is completely new to me, I have to experiment
man, you always find the most interesting stuff. also your note about the chaos theory in the end... I'm pretty sure that if you throw a stone into the ocean, you change the waves of the entire ocean forever. eventually maybe a huge wave that would occur somewhere will never materialize.
This is THE MOST INSANE thing I've ever seen in RUclips science video. Absolutely amazing.😮
Thank you. I did indeed learn something today. I was shocked to see how an extremely small amount of fish oil could have such a profound effect.
Cool, I was thinking like it reduces surface tension, but no idea there was much more to the story!