I've just stumbled on this series. A blast from the past as I worked with Martyn as a humble technician at Newcastle University. He really hasn't changed. All the very best sir.
Great to hear. Wikipedia says Martyn was at Newcastle from 1972 when he finished his PhD and Cambridge, until 1979 when he became a lecturer at Nottingham, where he's been ever since.
You can tell he is really loves elements at 5:26. I don't think the professor ever fanboys this much over anything. I really like how passionate about his work, and how clearly he demonstrates his excitement. That's what pulled me into these videos on the first place.
Lack of experience. Give an avarage person a camcorder and they'll do this all the time, because they want to tell a story with the framing, but don't understand how to do that.
I have been following along the series of elements completely enraptured. The professor is engaging with his knowledge, personal anecdotes, and flairs of coy humor. Am enjoying these very much. Had no idea elements were this fascinating.
Legend says that when you don't retest the results of your experiment 3 times before writing your report, Professor Poliakoff will come for your kneecaps with his iridium rod.
For anyone curious.. as of October, 2021: Iridium has a spot price, per troy ounce (31.1 g). So this 3.8 kg (122.2 troy oz) bar is worth, approximately: - 4900 USD/oz = $600,000 - 3560 GBP/oz = 435000 GBP - 4233 EUR = 517300 EUR
Fun fact: if a 10 kg dumbbell was made of iridium, it would look like it was just 3.5 kg (assuming that "normal" dumbbells are made of steel of which density is 8 g/cm^3).
That is truly an astonishing amount of iridium in one place, let alone one piece! Thanks for making this video, as this will probably be the most iridium ever viewed by the masses, in one place, in the world.
1:36 Naaaaaahahhhh My man! :D BTW Make Irridium dumbbells and trick professional weightlifters on April fools day XD Yeaahh that's just a 200kilo wight XD
Yeah that would be funny! "Hey go lift that 5kg weight." (Actually weighs like 50) "I cant dude" "ahh you weakling" . Hahaha I can imagine it already!!
I hop you don't mind, but I would like to make a request. The "artistic" camera movement is quite distracting (not to mention nausea inducing). Would it be possible to hold the camera still?
i love welding iridium. it is by far the craziest thing i have ever welded. To crank a welder up to 350 amps floor the pedal and not blow a hole through 1/8 inch thick of metal is outstanding.
In addition to this obviously wonderful, and informative video, let's just talk about his phenomenal periodic table tie for a minute...this guy is the best!
peanuts2105 I know right? The whole myth of "jet fuel can't melt steel" is bull. Why do they need extremely expensive nickle based alloys for jet engine turbines if jet fuel can't melt steel? I know they compress the air for more performance therefor higher temperature but science should be looked at first before idiots spout conspiracies.
+David Vermillion Its not about melting, but about the fact that steel loses half of its strength at about 600C. Thats why like in buildings, you often have some sort of fire protection on steel pillars, because in event of fire, they would heat up, bend and collapse.
Well, sort of. It's rarely actual iridium. If they use any similar metals and alloys, they like to call it iridium anyway, even if there isn't a trace of it. Something I find highly annoying.
Part of the charm of this channel is just how intensely stereotypical of a scientist Professor Poliakoff is. Brilliance, a massive pool of knowledge, and white Einstein-esque hair - it gives a sense of both respectability and cuteness at once.
It was actually Walter Alvarez, a geologist and son of the physicist, who noted that a layer found world-wide was associated with the end of dinosaur fossils and that it contained iridium. His father recognized that a metorite could explain the presence of iridium and the extinction of dinosaurs.
I bought a piece of Iridium because it's neato wow. Tiny shiny blob, $200US and weirdly heavy for its puny size. It is incredibly hard and inert and resists everything I do to it. From what I'm told, it'll look exactly the same 1,000 years from now. Freaky stuff.
I understand that iridium has a very high melting point (about 4400 degrees F). But why not make crucibles out of rhenium instead? It's much cheaper, it's essentially inert, and has a melting point of a whopping 5700 degrees F.
It and iridiums price flux significantly by their demand and at one point in 2008 rhenium was significantly more expensive. Unsure about chemical properties that would favour one over the other though.
That bar is the biggest piece of iridium I've *ever* seen, and the Prof is just holding it...Professor, I am very envious of you at this point, more so than when you held the gold bars. Everyone has seen gold once in their life, but no one I know has ever gotten to hold pure iridium. Great video, and I'm just kidding, I'm happy for the Prof, as I know he is too.
Andrew Lee I haven't been able to find a crucible made out of that material.. The only crucible I've been able to find thus far that could probably safely handle Iridium is Magnesia Stabilized Zirconium Oxide (ZrO2) Zirconia. It has a maximum working temperature of about 2500 Celcius and a melting point at over 2700 Celcius
zZDaGermanPhilZz Hi, are you sure the stuff can be molded into a crucible.. Again I have not been able to find a crucible made out of that material. I am not questioning the material's melting point.
undefinablereasoning I'd imagine so yes but I have no solid proof of course...at least it can function as a caoting for different metals to make them more heat resistant :P
@@LucasRodmo What's that got to do with anything? Obviously a crucible is going to be a lot thicker and a bulb filament.......... People trying to act smart lol
@@dphorgan Actually not. Search online and you will understand why this matter. Tungsten is brittle in high temperature, this is why NASA never used it in their heat proof exterior components. They are the scientists, if they are using iridium in this case, is because is the more appropriate.
It’s also theorized that while it’s rare above the crust of the planet, it may be more plentiful in the mantle or the core of the earth. When the earth was young and a roiling mess of molten rock, it’s theorized that heavier elements like osmium and iridium sank inside the earth since it’s more dense.
Yes. In USA too. When Uranium decays, it transforms in such noble metals like Rhodium, Ruthenium..and other no noble, Molybdenum. Palladium is also obtainable but harder to get from the decay product
You should sneak some aqua regia in, dissolve the iridium in the acid and you can bypass any metal detector. I'm assuming iridium reacts with aqua regia. I don't know much about the chemistry of iridium.
I love your videos. It's common to hear how the spark plug makes the fuel/air mixture explode. This would be detonation and it would destroy your engine. The fuel/ air mixture actually only burns when you engine is running normally. Also, if the spark plug is limited to firing thousands to hundred of thousand of times and you average an engine speed of say 2000 RPM, then you will be replacing your spark plugs after about an hour and a half. I know chemist have exceptional math skills, so once again I'm quite entertained by this.
I have a question. Why is it the science faculty of the University of Nottingham is so active on RUclips with some really amazing content but you don't really see any other similarly focussed technical universities doing the same thing? I did my computer science degree at DIT->Abertay. It was a great technical college and then for computing at least a great university. They should be doing the exact same sort of thing as you guys. I had some amazing lecturers that should be doing this sort of thing. I'm thankful you guys are doing this but I guess I wish others were following your example. Thanks. Luv and Peace.
Page 25 This hypothesis was advanced in 1980 by the US physicist Luis Walter Alvarez (1911-88) and his geologist son Walter Jr. based on the unusually high concentration of the element iridium in a thin layer of clay deposited at the end of the Cretaceous (see iridium anomaly).
6:33 The current idea is that the asteroid really just delivered the _coup de grace_ -- they were already suffering from the supervolcano eruptions from the Deccan Traps which had been going on for some time.
For certain crystal-growing applications [as said in the video]. There are some experiments which require iridium crucibles for this purpose, as ceramic will not work for growing some crystals.
+Enny Gima yes I imagine there are special uses for it. Probably the jet engines or rockets would not be nearly as reliable without these very exotic special metals.
I am constantly amazed that something several orders of magnitude rarer than gold and tricky to isolate and purify and melt is as cheap or cheaper than gold.
exactly. Also, Platinum alloys are commonly composed by a Ir-Pt matrix but this is quite expensive. palladium, copper and even osmium can replace Ir but the quality falls down. Pure Platinum, altough being stronger than Gold, remains too soft so is dopped with noble metals to enhace is hardness (this is necesary to withstand years and years of wear and scratches) sorry for my English XD
Only a small fraction of all life that perished due to the KT boundary Asteroid. Was from the actual impact. Most of the life that died from the asteroid was from global catastrophe that followed. Not the impact itself. But I think the real question is why do asteroids have so much Iridium. Did the Earth's Crust originally also have as much Iridium. Before being recycled in the Earth's mantle. And due to its density would it have sank to the middle. Also is it this material along with mini others of course. That allow the production of the electromagnetic field emanating from our planet. I love these questions. Excellent video.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge... I am not an "academic mind" but not for lack of my desire. I want toreturn to school when I can and study history or chemistry... I appreciate your time and sharing it with "us"... Thank You again - Joe
Thanks for the video. But you missed a very important feature of iridium, its electrostatic charge potential. You even got it on film. Look at the seen were the tiny pieces were sticking to the sides of the bottle. Iridium helps to speed new worlds as an aggregator in planetary nebulas.
@@jonhohensee3258 a thin layer of iridium rich rock formed when the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs slammed into Earth, 65 million years ago. It's called the KT boundary.
@@jonhohensee3258 It's fact. The KT layer of iridium can only be formed from a massive meteorite impact. The age also coincides with the age of the massive chicxulub crater. Maybe the dinos were in decline but this was the final nail in the coffin. No dino fossils can be found above this layer. You won't find better scientific proof.
Probably a nonmetal composite engineered for high temperature resistance. For instance, the melting point of diamond is 3550°C compared to 2500 for iridium, so a coating of industrial diamond on the indisde may be involved.
![KSI - Dirty [Official Visualiser]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/VoDh1h1dPUE/mqdefault.jpg)
"For once I can keep Brady in order" I love this guy so much. He's always so playful yet talks so intelligibly and with such enthusiasm and enjoyment.
I love this professor... I wish I had him in school, every word he speaks has passion for science in it
His mild happiness with that bar of iridium is contagious, sort of.
I've just stumbled on this series. A blast from the past as I worked with Martyn as a humble technician at Newcastle University. He really hasn't changed. All the very best sir.
❤️🧪🧪🧪🧪🧪
Great to hear. Wikipedia says Martyn was at Newcastle from 1972 when he finished his PhD and Cambridge, until 1979 when he became a lecturer at Nottingham, where he's been ever since.
You can tell he is really loves elements at 5:26. I don't think the professor ever fanboys this much over anything. I really like how passionate about his work, and how clearly he demonstrates his excitement. That's what pulled me into these videos on the first place.
Teachers like him are becoming harder to find. That's what makes these videos special to me.
@@povnw8985 ❤️🧪
The hair, the tie, the glasses, the jokes, the tremor. This man is a character!
I had an eccentric professor in college who reminded me of him.
Looks like someone had fun with the zoom function on that camera.
Peter Carlson now i can't unsee it
Littlemanz Jordan I know. Isn't it irritating?
Lack of experience. Give an avarage person a camcorder and they'll do this all the time, because they want to tell a story with the framing, but don't understand how to do that.
It's so damn annoying...
In the start i just thought he was focusing on the iridium written on his tie, but then he just won't stop lol
Professor: That's not Iridium
*pulls out long Iridium rod*
Professor(Aussie accent): That's Iridium.
He’s British not Aussie smh
@@brianisme6498 he’s making a joke you bumbling fool
@@cryamistellimek9184 well, I didn’t suggest it wasn’t did I?
@@brianisme6498 No, but you did suggest you weren't aware he was making a joke.
@@shadesilverwing0 when? Where did I say it wasn’t a joke?
The professor does vodka shots?! I'll go there when i finish my pHd.
Sebastián Manríquez i was searching for this Comment hahaa
He's actually a very cool guy.
Shots? Nah he drinks vodka straight like a Russian. Shots are for college kids and girls.
Dave Hobbs shots are straight vodka, shots go into mixed drinks.
It's hard to imagine him drunk.
Martyn, you are an international treasure sir. I've never met anyone who could spark my interest in learning like you have done, thank you.
This guy looks like science
This guy *IS* science
.
He smells even sciencier.
He is a scientologist haha
This comment looks like stolen.
@@haveatyou1 yeah, in every single video
I have been following along the series of elements completely enraptured. The professor is engaging with his knowledge, personal anecdotes, and flairs of coy humor. Am enjoying these very much. Had no idea elements were this fascinating.
Legend says that when you don't retest the results of your experiment 3 times before writing your report, Professor Poliakoff will come for your kneecaps with his iridium rod.
"this is a metal free zone..."
-brings in whole camera equipment 😂 Great video by the way!
I'd never get in ... "I'm made of Metal ... My circuits gleam" "I Am Iron Man"!
So, if it has such a high melting point, what kind of substance is the crucible made of in which iridium is melted?
Unobtainium.
Silentspeaker3 osmium I guess
tantalum hafnium carbide crucibles.
@@whatbizarreactisthecaninep791 idiot.
An electric arc furnace
For anyone curious.. as of October, 2021:
Iridium has a spot price, per troy ounce (31.1 g). So this 3.8 kg (122.2 troy oz) bar is worth, approximately:
- 4900 USD/oz = $600,000
- 3560 GBP/oz = 435000 GBP
- 4233 EUR = 517300 EUR
I have one metal bar in my custody. I diceide to sell.?
@@psswamykal1042 we don't believe you
700,000 tonnes of earth to be mined to get 3.5kg of Iridium. Staggering, just staggering.
According to Johnson Matthey, the Iridium price was $900 oz t on 19/07/13.
That bar weighs 3.8 kg and would have been worth at least $109,953.
For the most part it's not economic to mine Iridium on it's own. More typically it is a byproduct of Copper and Nickel (amongst other) mining.
Joe Black , That's what I was thinking. A by-product would be a freebie unless more processing is necessary. I'd like another video.
@@flymasterA I think it's just useful enough for buyers to be willing to carry the cost and probably some profit.
Joe Black , Like the tip on a plug, my interested is sparked to find properties and novel uses for it.
That’s a $623,000 bar of Iridium at 2024 prices.
Fun fact: if a 10 kg dumbbell was made of iridium, it would look like it was just 3.5 kg (assuming that "normal" dumbbells are made of steel of which density is 8 g/cm^3).
2:37 wow this metal is so dense that every ounce weighs 800 pounds
what?
800 pounds as in the currency
And it's getting heavier
or about 1040 dollars
It was a joke guys. I'm pretty sure he knew.
Iridium 192 is also widely used as an isotope for Gamma radiography.
That is truly an astonishing amount of iridium in one place, let alone one piece! Thanks for making this video, as this will probably be the most iridium ever viewed by the masses, in one place, in the world.
Professor, what you need is an Iridium Crowbar: Gordon Freeman's weapon of choice I'm sure.
Lol now I'm picturing an action movie starring Dr. Polyakoff. :D
It would be very heavy so Gordon would have beefy arms.
Love these videos, been binging them this week or so! That Iridium bar is worth £667,000 as of 28th June 2021!!
How can check original or duplicate, iridum metal
1:36 Naaaaaahahhhh My man! :D
BTW Make Irridium dumbbells and trick professional weightlifters on April fools day XD Yeaahh that's just a 200kilo wight XD
Yeah that would be funny! "Hey go lift that 5kg weight." (Actually weighs like 50) "I cant dude" "ahh you weakling" . Hahaha I can imagine it already!!
Tommy Davies OH! to add to it you lift an actual 5kg weight, "see, no big deal!" and just leave them with the Iridium one.
The shot of science XD
That would be expensive
That dumbbell would probably cost millions of dollars.
4:53 - I love how he's holding the iridium directly in front of the Ir box on his tie.
So if we could mine asteroids and iridium became cheap like steel, what uses would we have for it?
Turbines for jet engines?
Brady is the perfect audience insert. Fantastic questions and "rock"-solid camerawork too.
I hop you don't mind, but I would like to make a request. The "artistic" camera movement is quite distracting (not to mention nausea inducing). Would it be possible to hold the camera still?
i love welding iridium. it is by far the craziest thing i have ever welded. To crank a welder up to 350 amps floor the pedal and not blow a hole through 1/8 inch thick of metal is outstanding.
This guy is the personification of science.
Wish the History Channel or Discovery Channel would produce a real show like this
You guys make chemistry even more awesome. Thanks.
These videos will never stop being interesting.
"might make quite a good vodka glass, actually" someone went hard in college
In addition to this obviously wonderful, and informative video, let's just talk about his phenomenal periodic table tie for a minute...this guy is the best!
So what you're saying is...
Jet fuel can't melt iridium beams?
+Donald Neal jet fuel burns at 4000 degrees F. Steel melts at 2500F
But can laser beams melt iridium bars?
+David Vermillion yes, but steel loses half of its strength at 550°c
peanuts2105 I know right? The whole myth of "jet fuel can't melt steel" is bull. Why do they need extremely expensive nickle based alloys for jet engine turbines if jet fuel can't melt steel? I know they compress the air for more performance therefor higher temperature but science should be looked at first before idiots spout conspiracies.
+David Vermillion Its not about melting, but about the fact that steel loses half of its strength at about 600C. Thats why like in buildings, you often have some sort of fire protection on steel pillars, because in event of fire, they would heat up, bend and collapse.
Iridium is also a common tipping material for fountain pens. Most pens with nibs made of gold or palladium are tipped with iridium to avoid wear.
Well, sort of. It's rarely actual iridium. If they use any similar metals and alloys, they like to call it iridium anyway, even if there isn't a trace of it. Something I find highly annoying.
When he held the grains for the camera, the Iridium symbol on the tie was visible through the canister; not by accident I'm sure! Great videos!
I cant believe there are people that don't subscribe to this channel, never would be able to see this apart from this youtube channel. awesome
Can't mention iridium without mentioning the K-T boundary. Thanks for another great video!
Part of the charm of this channel is just how intensely stereotypical of a scientist Professor Poliakoff is. Brilliance, a massive pool of knowledge, and white Einstein-esque hair - it gives a sense of both respectability and cuteness at once.
6:06 Serves the dinosaurs right for all standing in the same place.
I love how basically every comment is about how the professor is the complete embodiment of science.
He has a scientific hair do. If there was a picture of a scientist in the dictionary, his picture should be there.
your absolutely right! 😁
What about his absolutely right?
Just Multiply You have to find more important things to be annoyed by....lol!
Just Multiply Dude, it was a joke. Something to smile about, he looks like the quintessential professor. Get it? R u ok?
you're
It was actually Walter Alvarez, a geologist and son of the physicist, who noted that a layer found world-wide was associated with the end of dinosaur fossils and that it contained iridium. His father recognized that a metorite could explain the presence of iridium and the extinction of dinosaurs.
I bought a piece of Iridium because it's neato wow. Tiny shiny blob, $200US and weirdly heavy for its puny size. It is incredibly hard and inert and resists everything I do to it. From what I'm told, it'll look exactly the same 1,000 years from now. Freaky stuff.
Ah ya.... Same with gold and platinum..
@@dphorgan and osmium
Live long and prosper, dear Professor! We all love you!
I understand that iridium has a very high melting point (about 4400 degrees F). But why not make crucibles out of rhenium instead? It's much cheaper, it's essentially inert, and has a melting point of a whopping 5700 degrees F.
It and iridiums price flux significantly by their demand and at one point in 2008 rhenium was significantly more expensive.
Unsure about chemical properties that would favour one over the other though.
That bar is the biggest piece of iridium I've *ever* seen, and the Prof is just holding it...Professor, I am very envious of you at this point, more so than when you held the gold bars. Everyone has seen gold once in their life, but no one I know has ever gotten to hold pure iridium. Great video, and I'm just kidding, I'm happy for the Prof, as I know he is too.
What do you melt iridium in?
Andrew Lee
I haven't been able to find a crucible made out of that material..
The only crucible I've been able to find thus far that could probably safely handle Iridium is Magnesia Stabilized Zirconium Oxide (ZrO2) Zirconia.
It has a maximum working temperature of about 2500 Celcius and a melting point at over 2700 Celcius
Andrew Lee *shakes fist* Use metric/SI units or DIE!!! : P
zZDaGermanPhilZz
Hi, are you sure the stuff can be molded into a crucible.. Again I have not been able to find a crucible made out of that material. I am not questioning the material's melting point.
undefinablereasoning I'd imagine so yes but I have no solid proof of course...at least it can function as a caoting for different metals to make them more heat resistant :P
becton98 graphite crucible
love your videos. As a chem eng student, its nice to have a constant reminder that chemistry still kicks ass!
My dream has always been to have an iridium sword, and since iridium is mostly found on meteorite crash sites, you could call it a meteor sword.
Though you get more iron in meteorites 😅 And steel is actually harder than Iridium
You would need to spend millions.
2:10 an explanation in how it's able to be welded when having such an extremely high melting point would have been interesting.
they just heat it up enough that it melts. simple
You could also use a Tunsgten crucible, which has a melting point of over 3000C and it's really a lot cheaper.
AluminumHaste Sometimes is a question of durability too. The tungsten in a light bulb doesn't last much
iridium is much more inert
Lucas Rodmo we're not talking about a thin filament, but a crucible made from it with thick sides.
@@LucasRodmo What's that got to do with anything? Obviously a crucible is going to be a lot thicker and a bulb filament.......... People trying to act smart lol
@@dphorgan Actually not. Search online and you will understand why this matter. Tungsten is brittle in high temperature, this is why NASA never used it in their heat proof exterior components. They are the scientists, if they are using iridium in this case, is because is the more appropriate.
I have chilled vodka waiting anytime he’s in town. Love this guy!
5:35 My favorite line from Professor Poliakoff so far!!
It’s also theorized that while it’s rare above the crust of the planet, it may be more plentiful in the mantle or the core of the earth. When the earth was young and a roiling mess of molten rock, it’s theorized that heavier elements like osmium and iridium sank inside the earth since it’s more dense.
There sure is a lot of Iridium on pandora!
I thought that was Unobtainium...
wrong pandora, op is talking about the pandora from borderlands (videogame series)
Ah, ok.
It's Eridium
no, it's 55 Pandora
"Uridium" is far superior - best side-scroller on the platform!
I feel smart watching this
For those that want to know, basically If you want 1 unit of Iridium you need to mine 200,000,000 units of earth. So a 1:200,000,000 ratio. Crazy!
What if I forget a element in periodic table!..
Nooooo-
Oh my tie,
*You saved my life!*
Yes. In USA too. When Uranium decays, it transforms in such noble metals like Rhodium, Ruthenium..and other no noble, Molybdenum. Palladium is also obtainable but harder to get from the decay product
Iridium was once used to make the tips of fountain pen nibs.
A number of them are coated with osmium as it is even less subject to wear.
I swear I learned that from periodic videos. The professor says it in one video, I think.
The best chemistry videos.
Awesome tie!
You should sneak some aqua regia in, dissolve the iridium in the acid and you can bypass any metal detector.
I'm assuming iridium reacts with aqua regia. I don't know much about the chemistry of iridium.
t still intrigues me how they were able to identify the different elements and then put them on the periodic table according to their atomic mass.
There were other factors (reactivity etc.), but yeah
It's not arranged according to atomic mass, but atomic number. It's easy with X ray crystallography.
@@JetFalcon710 nazi
I love your videos. It's common to hear how the spark plug makes the fuel/air mixture explode. This would be detonation and it would destroy your engine. The fuel/ air mixture actually only burns when you engine is running normally. Also, if the spark plug is limited to firing thousands to hundred of thousand of times and you average an engine speed of say 2000 RPM, then you will be replacing your spark plugs after about an hour and a half. I know chemist have exceptional math skills, so once again I'm quite entertained by this.
Now I need an iridium sword for the zombie apocalypse.
Ya damn right!
Bad Idea cause of its heavy weight.
When he said the price "800 pounds an ounce" the america in me laughed.
I have a question.
Why is it the science faculty of the University of Nottingham is so active on RUclips with some really amazing content but you don't really see any other similarly focussed technical universities doing the same thing?
I did my computer science degree at DIT->Abertay. It was a great technical college and then for computing at least a great university.
They should be doing the exact same sort of thing as you guys.
I had some amazing lecturers that should be doing this sort of thing.
I'm thankful you guys are doing this but I guess I wish others were following your example.
Thanks.
Luv and Peace.
Page 25
This hypothesis was advanced in 1980 by the US physicist Luis Walter Alvarez (1911-88) and his geologist son Walter Jr. based on the unusually high concentration of the element iridium in a thin layer of clay deposited at the end of the Cretaceous (see iridium anomaly).
Page 358
K-T boundary See Alvarez event.
I'm inferring that Dr. Poliakoff likes his vodka. :)
I think the camera guy likes his vodka too, judging by the drunk camera work lol
6:33 The current idea is that the asteroid really just delivered the _coup de grace_ -- they were already suffering from the supervolcano eruptions from the Deccan Traps which had been going on for some time.
So what is crucible from which the iridium was made? There must be an ultimate melting point solid.
Ceramic crucibles don't melt.
+Matthew Granstrom so why do you need an iridium crucible vs. ceramic?
For certain crystal-growing applications [as said in the video]. There are some experiments which require iridium crucibles for this purpose, as ceramic will not work for growing some crystals.
+Enny Gima yes I imagine there are special uses for it. Probably the jet engines or rockets would not be nearly as reliable without these very exotic special metals.
you can use tungsten, that has the highest melting point of all pure metals.
I am constantly amazed that something several orders of magnitude rarer than gold and tricky to isolate and purify and melt is as cheap or cheaper than gold.
Is that a periodic table tie ?
exactly. Also, Platinum alloys are commonly composed by a Ir-Pt matrix but this is quite expensive. palladium, copper and even osmium can replace Ir but the quality falls down. Pure Platinum, altough being stronger than Gold, remains too soft so is dopped with noble metals to enhace is hardness (this is necesary to withstand years and years of wear and scratches) sorry for my English XD
Now, that's heavy metal ... "I AM IRIDIUM MAN!"
5:08 How do you melt that? Cuz whatever crucible is used to melt the Iridium grains, one can use that instead of Iridium crucibles?
"This man is cool as a polar bears toe nails!!!"....
Only a small fraction of all life that perished due to the KT boundary Asteroid. Was from the actual impact. Most of the life that died from the asteroid was from global catastrophe that followed. Not the impact itself.
But I think the real question is why do asteroids have so much Iridium. Did the Earth's Crust originally also have as much Iridium. Before being recycled in the Earth's mantle. And due to its density would it have sank to the middle. Also is it this material along with mini others of course. That allow the production of the electromagnetic field emanating from our planet. I love these questions.
Excellent video.
I'm pretty sure the spark plug tip wears more due to the plasma arc than the combustion.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge... I am not an "academic mind" but not for lack of my desire. I want toreturn to school when I can and study history or chemistry... I appreciate your time and sharing it with "us"... Thank You again - Joe
vodka glass hee hee xD I love the professor!
Nice shot. Iridium in front and the symbol and number on the tie.
I named my daughter Iridium. Iridium Crystal Carone!
The Professor's tie is plain awesome!
Imagine hitting somebody with that rod, that would hurt alot
pretty much anything denser than foam will hurt tho
"I AM IRIIDIIUUUM MAN!"
Thanks for the video. But you missed a very important feature of iridium, its electrostatic charge potential. You even got it on film. Look at the seen were the tiny pieces were sticking to the sides of the bottle. Iridium helps to speed new worlds as an aggregator in planetary nebulas.
i realized that too, wonder what caused them to fload like that?
nice.
Stop moving camera, please.
The bar in the beginning of the video is a significant portion of the yearly world iridium production (a few tonnes).
My mom saw me watching this and thought that his hair was a joke
So can you weld noble metals without shielding gas as it wouldn't oxidise?
iridium killed t-rex, Damm you space!
If the T-REX was still around, we'd never be here.
Got proof?
@@jonhohensee3258 a thin layer of iridium rich rock formed when the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs slammed into Earth, 65 million years ago. It's called the KT boundary.
@@HobzyMcRuse - That's evidence, not proof.
@@jonhohensee3258 It's fact. The KT layer of iridium can only be formed from a massive meteorite impact. The age also coincides with the age of the massive chicxulub crater. Maybe the dinos were in decline but this was the final nail in the coffin. No dino fossils can be found above this layer. You won't find better scientific proof.
I love your videos! Thank you so much for teaching people about these elements.
Now to the junker to get me some spark plugs :). Im gonna be rich!
Probably a nonmetal composite engineered for high temperature resistance. For instance, the melting point of diamond is 3550°C compared to 2500 for iridium, so a coating of industrial diamond on the indisde may be involved.