The giant freezer that tests winter boots
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- Опубликовано: 10 июн 2018
- If you're in Canada, you need good winter boots. But how do you know whether they're actually safe, or whether you'll fall over the first time you step on ice? This is WinterLab, part of the Challenging Environment Assessment Laboratories at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, where they're testing winter shoes with science.
More about the lab and their ratings: www.ratemytreads.com/
Thanks to Evan from Rare Earth for being camera op! / @rareearthseries
Edited by Michelle Martin / @onthecrux
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I tried to find a balance between "actual science" and "me falling over" here. I think I managed it.
Cool
Make a bonus video consisting of just slipping and falling. I think we would all love that.
How do you time travel this video was made 6 minutes ago and you comment on this video 2 weeks ago
Videos can be uploaded as private or unlisted until the creator feels like flipping them over to Public - the "published on" date reflects the latter action. But the creator can still get to the video to post their own comments before the general public show up.
Was that a pun?
Can confirm: grad students are universally regarded as super disposable
You would know!
D-Class
It's not like they can just send a bunch of 60 yos up there to be crippled.
And cheap
@@streamlin yes
This guy is brutally honest about his science and I Iove it.
"Graduate students are disposable"
"A five point scale would've been depressing"
800th like 1 comment k
2 comments now
Right in the feels, I was impressed with his honesty.
A majority of scientists have a good sense of humor. Otherwise we’d all go insane.
I really like that guy
My favorite part of this giant, expensive piece of equipment with ridiculous amounts of control and data logging: the cheap mattresses to cushion the slips.
Dont forget the cheap grad student
@@heisselnicholaspramoedya8121 And dispossable too.
Secured with duct tape
If it works, it works.
They only had so much money
"We use graduate students because they're disposable"
SCP Foundation: *_WRITE THAT DOWN, WRITE THAT DOWN!_*
Ah yes, E-Class
@Neo Papa D BOOOOIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSS
Where do you think this guy got his inspiration from?
Doctor Bright may not refer to D-class personnel as his “extra lives.”
Makes me think of the endless stairwell
I love how honest he is about the disposability of grad students.
Wish wasa grad student
Im a grad student
@@derronong9331 Do you not remember the long fall boots?
Once everybody has a degree, the laws of supply and demand dictate that they are in fact disposable
Also "not very expensive"
This is my favorite kind of scientific work. There's a clear goal, thorough testing, and it has a somewhat subtle but genuine impact on the quality of goods we can produce as a species. Imagine how damned hard it would be to test all this stuff as a shoe manufacturer. The cost to do it properly would be so absurdly high that you'd never get the green light. This is just brilliant.
I'll be honest, if I was a boot maker, I would want to go there myself to try my boots.
@@reaganharder1480 I feel like they would welcome the free data sample that gives them.
Plus if the boots fail, they don't have to expend some of those grad students. They might be disposable, but they're still finite.
it's better an independent entity can test this stuff anyway, to make the best impartial reccomendations to protect consumers and, to encoursge companies to actually develop a better product, rather than puttijg all their resources into marketing.
It's much better to have one institution for all possible companies because it will less certainly be accused of being (or actually be) biased towards one specific manufacturer.
@@233Deadman I love how this implies that every time the winter lab tests, it kills off 1 grad student
That tilting ice room would be great for overcoming anxiety of loosing your footing. A controlled environment (complete with harness!) like where you can experience that loss of control but still be fine would be ideal exposure therapy.
Honestly it really would. Even just rewatching this video I had some anxiety as if it were me in that room losing footing but I do have a terrible fear of ice and ice on pavements and I get so anxious whenever I'm walking and I feel like I'm loosing my footing. I do struggle with my balance sometimes and have fallen many times before so I'm always a bit nervous about hurting myself again.
Are you serious
@@SphereOfStreaming if you're responding to me - yes I indeed did feel anxious while watching this video.
@@crescentceleste how do you have a fear of something you did hundreds of times as a child. did your brain age backwards or something? no offense at all
@@SphereOfStreaming children's bodies are generally more flexible and less fragile than adults bodies. as someone gets older, our bones get more hard and brittle which makes them easier to break. this means that a fall for a child is something ordinary: it happens a lot as a kid is growing up and getting used to the world around them. a fall for an adult, on the other hand, could mean life-long chronic pain due to an injury or even death in some cases. (not to mention the fact that we're smaller as kids: falling when you're smaller hurts less)
this is why we hear about older folks falling down and getting a serious (many times life-threatening) injury while kids can run around and fall as much as they please
"We can make nice, white, fluffy snow." Okay, next let's see some cruel, jagged, artery-slashing snow. Just for comparisons' sake.
Isn't that hail?
I thought hail was cruel, semi transparent, hard round snow
Dude this is Canada, they will NEVER do that.
Unless you insult their favorite hockey team.There is no coming back from that.
> Sleet
Broken glass.
That guy makes people fall for science, and for a living. Awesome.
well, what else could you do with graduate students?
Make them fall for grades, hali.
It's just a prank bro
@@halimceria either they gonna fall for grades or their grades gonna fall
I do that too! Just no legaly... >.>
I love that Tom is just falling the whole time while the mad scientist is cackling about his research and disposable grad students 😂😂😂
Apart from the great work being done for accessibility and safety, the thing I love the most about this video is how they made a big ice box with a variable temperature floor and weather conditions, and then decided to strap two different bed mattresses on it with some rope. That's such a personal touch and it really ties the room together.
And it almost looks like Ducktape on the bottom to secure them
Lol he called students "disposable." haha I like this guy. He is a mad scientist kinda
x9x9x9x9x9 Students are class D personnel
Being a graduate student means that you're a slave anyway.
wat am i doing? Grad students are terminated at the end of the month
to sum up my emotions when I heard this, MonkaS
As a university student, I have to say that he's absolutely right.
Man, that videography is brilliant. I bet whoever took that footage is super cool and probably really, really handsome.
Love ya Tom.
So Tom’s videos lead me to Rare Earth, by YT algo-connection?
@syahir Careful now, that seems like reading into thing ;-)
You can just read the description.
But yeah, Evan is really really handsome
InfiltrateIndustries fun fact, Evan started his video blogs after getting inspired from Tom.
I wanna like this but it's at 666 and i don't wanna mess that up
"not very expensive (cheap) and disposable" - thats exactly how I feel as a graduate student
I am slightly disappointed that that mop in the corner of the room is not a curling broom.
The room also lacks a hockey stick.
the way Tom was sliding all over the place at the start, I'm thinking, "what, is he wearing teflon curling sliders on BOTH feet?"
It's labs like this that keep my quality of life in a wheelchair higher than ever thought possible! Those grab bars he mentioned I use several times a day and I hope he and all the people who work there know how wonderful they are and how appreciated their work is. Thank you, Tom!!!
Oh hey its you again! I swear I saw you on a King of Random video :D
Blinklith, - You probably did! Looks like we both enjoy great videos!
Wholesome comment, happy/10
Wow I’m in a wheelchair and didn’t even think about this. Thanks for bringing this up!
It’s amazing how specialists make the world a better place in small ways, cumulating in a vastly-improved quality of life!
Would have liked to find out the science behind what makes some shoes less slippery.
nhunha The malleability of the rubber soles is definitely a factor. Like in winter tires the rubber is softer so that it gets more traction in the cold.
You could have shoes with softer rubber, add abrasives such as glass powder or carbon fibres to your mix or just go for a very abrasive bottom layer.
Presumably because it better moulds itself into the shape of the ice, meaning there is a greater contact area (on a microscopic level)?
andymcl92 Yes, exactly.
To the people responding that it's a soft, moldable sole that makes shoes not slippery - you'd expect something like flip-flops to be best. If you actually look at what people wear to get good traction on ice, it's quite the opposite: hard protrusions that dig/pressure melt into the ice as you walk. They dig in and give you more than just friction to work with. I'm thinking something more like ice cleats or yaktrax, but made into the sole.
I love how the professor is just talking , while Tom is slipping and falling inside the winter box!
Why does this seem so wholesome? There’s people out there who want to make loads of money and revolutionize whole fields and then there’s this guy who’s like, “I just want to make a nice pair of boots”
would you like to get a 5 snow flake boot?
The switching between Dr. Fernie to Tom falling comically was really perfectly timed. A+ editing!
RedHorseAgenda Even the sound overlaps were fantastic.
The best ones are where they lock Tom in a fancy room or vehicle and then toss him around a bit.
Bruh we need that in a playlist!
@@aatsiii we could call it "Tom being knocked around like a redhead stepchild"
Tom getting tossed off?
Graduate students: _exist_
University studies: *I'll take your entire stock*
This channel is amazing!
Yes
Yes
Mensch Jupp wat machst du denn hier?
Just like yours!
Jawohl mein lieber
Tom (at one snowflake): "I can literally just walk normally"
Geoff: "The first time we ever did this, 90 out of 100 boots failed to get 1 snowflake"
Love that clear juxtaposition, it shows the progress these lads have made.
Hearing that guy describe grad students as "not very expensive and sort of disposable" hurts a lot, as a current grad student...I mean, he may not be wrong, but it hurts...
Not as much as it hurts actually doing the aforementioned experiments!
He's just being honest. People who tell the hard truth should be celebrated!
I would be surprised if he was thinking in a pejorative way. I think he meant "there is endless supply of them, and we can do research with the money we have because we dont pay them."
Oh sure, it hurts *you*. But as you pointed out, you're a grad student and therefore, disposable.
:'(
That Professor looks so enthusiastic. Like, i want every teacher in my school like that!
scientists narrating about their findings over footage of tom flailing around is my new favorite genre of youtube video
Randall Munroe once estimated that hockey players could stay still on a rink that's tilted 50 degrees. If that's not the place to test it out, I don't know what is.
Do you know how terrifying it would be to have knives strapped to your feet and be on a 50° slope 💀 I would die
@@someone4650 Nah, hockey players and figure skaters do it since they're babies. I bet most of them would love to be test subjects.
Some One - Those blades aren’t the only steel things hockey players have.
@@Nadia1989 As a hockey player I can confirm that I'd like to try that
Isn't that wearing skates?
"Toronto is cold." Great observation.
The lad`s sharp!
Yup, warmer than many American cities.
When I was there in August it was stifling. Made me wish for some snow.
As a Winnipegger, I started laughing when he called Toronto cold.
Toronto(The center of the universe) is one of the mildest places in Canada, their winters are downright butiful compared to what most other Canadians experence.
Owen Major besides probably the least Canadian winters of any Canadian region besides Victoria/Vancouver... And we should still keep teasing them for calling in the Army to help them shovel...
I've had 8 minor concussions, and 2 major concussion. All of them were from falling on ice. It's more dangerous than people realize.
Could we have like a 20 minute version of this were there is nothing but you slipping, sliding and falling trough that room?
Maybe instead of better boots, they just need ropes and harnesses all around the city of Toronto. :P
Canada becomes Australia Lite
Toronto doesn't need the boots. We have an underground network called PATH so we don't have to go outside in the winter. It is over 30km across and has 1000s of shops/stores in it, connecting to malls, banks, etc.
@@Idiomatick That's only in the downtown though, in the surrounding area people still have to walk places
@@Derpy-qg9hn nice
Actually, the ropes aren’t the worst idea. Imagine - you have these giant rope coils on walls and posts, and every winter a group of people come by and run the ropes across the sidewalks and such.
"Graduate students are disposable" O.o k
more so than the 50+ year old professor who, if he trips and hits his pelvis could be wheelchair bound for life... Still.
I think he meant that there is a revolving supply of graduate students, since new ones start their courses each year to replace the ones who left by graduating. Even if some of students currently volunteering just get bored or disheartened with doing it there will always be new students starting their courses each year who could be recruited.
@ReNeyer I get the point you are making, but even people of graduate student age could wind up falling in the wrong way and end up with lifechanging injuries, hence the harnesses and other safety gear to prevent actually falling.
It's better to injure graduate student compared to someone extremely brilliant such as Albert Einstein or alike. Although they might discover scientific groundbreaking after falling on slippery test
Was looking for the comment the moment I heard that 🤣
So Graduate students are D-Class personnel?
I love the way this is edited, Tom just sliding along the floors while the scientists explains everything-
"Grad students are kind of cheap and disposable." Yeah, that about sums it up
Glad you had fun in my hometown :)
You fool, you thought you were safe from horrid invention ideas here.
On that note, can you make a machine which tosses assorted sharp metal objects at individuals of a very young age that try to access a container which stores poisonous substances that may end up incapacitating said individual?
@@guy0111 oddly specific
olo
It must be so bittersweet to be Canadian but also from Toronto. I hope one day you get to see the nice parts of Canada.
Tom, quick hint. If you're on ice, you should try and lower your centre of mass by keeping your knees bent a bit as you walk, and by crouching down when you start falling. Bending your knees helps keep your centre of mass over your foot as you walk which limits the amount of force pushing against friction between the boot and the ice. Crouching down lets you move a foot out to gives your more space where your centre mass is stable, this lets you catch your balance again so you stop sliding.
Source: Am Canadian who has stopped falling on his butt.
I love seeing people excited to talk about things
0:43
_We have the worlds most realistic driving simulator_
*shows graphics of a mobile game*
In case you aren't joking he's talking about the physics
This looks fun, how does one sign up to be a test subject at Winter Lab?
graduate students
Hmm gotta say, first time ever I'm sad about not being a disposable grad student
+Robert Loblaw
We also have that in Norway. ;-)
Yes, until you realise the harness is only for guests because Dr. Fernie has tenure.
I'd sign up to do it for free, even though I'm not a grad student. Looks way more fun than my typical weekend!
You know it's a proper mad science lab when they talk about their test subjects being disposable.
GLaDOS agrees
It is amazing what an industry will improve on (and be more competitive with each other) when there is a good third party creating and applying a solid benchmark.
I love the comedic timing of *well worded explanation of the mechanics and design of this machine* and then skipping to Tom slipping and fumbling his way down a slope to smash into a cheap mattress
Best quote: "We have a group of graduate students.. ..they're not very expensive and sort of disposable"..
1:42
I liked the cross-cutting between the interview subject and the slipping in the winterlab, because the latter footage was always well-related to what the former was talking about
My favorite episodes are the ones where someone else explains and Tom just faffs about on the background
Tom, your content is fantastic. Thank you for all the great videos.
"...disposable grad students..."
I guess that is as evil as a canadian scientist can be ;-)
A loooong place from hooome. A good plaaace to stay. A waaarm shoooower to remember. A niiiice food to eaaaat. A comfortable bed to be in. Aaaa resting place from raaaaain
In my experience, professors and university doctors are usually like this - and I mean that in the nicest way possible
We need more slipping footage please.
Park-bench: "Tom went to Toronto to slip on ice"
Fun fact, static friction is higher than sliding friction... so if you don't wanna slide... then don't slide
The format of this video was delightful. The expert talking about his project as the narrator as Tom just fails to walk in the background!
this guy was a great interviewee.
Sev Frost they're used to the media by now. Every winter news agencies flock to them for fluff pieces
Love this guy's quote about grad students - "..they're not very expensive and sort of disposable". HA HA HA HA!!! Awesome video!
This is why standardized independent testing of product quality is so important; innovation! Well done!
Two of my favourite channels working together. Rare Earth and Tom Scott, NICE collab.
I LOVE the way he says graduate students! I love knowing I am disposable.
Welcome to real life: you are. You gain experience, but you're not staying. You do realise that this is the case in nearly all Universities.
In case you're wondering "if there can be such a thing as too much friction", talk to someone with MS. Yes, friction is needed but when getting your feet off the ground is hard enough, every little snag can make you fall down hard.
"Here in toronto, its cold for most of the year, so you need a good pair of winter boots"
*me walking around in broken sneakers*
Good to hear they're improving winter boots. I had been previously thinking why don't they make winter boots like winter tires with a softer rubber and lots of sipes.
60 disposable grad students disliked this video.
Tom your videos never cease to amaze me!
As a grad student, I appreciate being appreciated. Even if it's for being disposable
I am constantly impressed with your ability to show the world that you aren't perfect. You are willing to show your mistakes and oops moments, and that's commendable.
That's called being British.
I like all your videos, but the ones, in which you're flailing around always crack me up
Yep, am laughing like a maniac.
Anyone who has tried bowling in street shoes knows you can have too much friction.
Adam Kendall ... or dancing in tennis shoes.
Scientist: *(explaining)*
Meanwhile...
*Tom:* ↘️↗️↙️➡️⬅️↖️↔️
I wanted to see more of Tom, never seen him this happy while falling :(
"Thanks to Evan from Rare Earth for being the camera op"
*WHAT*
Finally an honest description of graduate students. Not expensive, and disposable. (Former Grad student)
I love how this is mostly just voiceover from the researcher set to clips of Scott constantly tripping.
It's nice to see science like this, that has immediate, direct real life effects. Usually stuff that happens in labs won't get into the public for a decade or two.
I like how Tom has decided to release this video about winter boots in the MIDDLE OF JUNE. Absolute mad lad.
Maybe he's targetting ppl in the southern hemisphere...?
*waits for the bonus video of All The Falls... with or without Culture Club's "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" playing in the background...*
I'm glad someone is creating a rating. It's vital winter safety information.
"put my foot down and it just stays where it is" as a Canadian, I felt that
1:27 "That is terrifying!" what, do you mean the walk I take to get the mail?
I live in Wisconsin, where we get a lot of slushy, icy winters. I also have a visual impairment, which affects my ability to balance, especially once I start slipping.
Therefore, I have developed what I see as a special ability of being able to recognize not just that I am slipping, but how much. My reaction to starting to slip on a surface is not throwing my arms out, but rather reducing the amount of force that I'm putting down to the surface to help control the slip and regain traction. In a way, I "cut power" when a significant amount of slippage is detected, similar to a traction-control system on a modern car.
This ability seems like it would wreak havoc on these ratings. Instead of outright falling on a slope that was too steep for the amount of traction that I had, I would go through a rapid cycle of trying to move, getting no traction, and stopping. On the other hand, being able to very precisely control slip could be an advantage. Where other people might fall, I could control the amount of slip and end up successfully climbing the slope.
Yes. As a Canadian i am very good at walking on ice too so I think it does change the results depending on who is wearing the shoes, but they probably have many people test each shoe for proper scientific results.
I love your vids. These are fascinating random things I didnt know actually happenned
I had no idea this was a thing science could improve, and now that I know, it stuns me that I didn't think it would be.
-
This is important research, thanks for showing it to us all.
Honestly my favorite part of this entire video is the idea that mattresses duct taped to a wall are this effective at making you not hurt yourself when you smack into something
This one is tests I was hoping someone was going to mention those! The way they're attached to the wall makes me think they may have been an afterthought! XD
Tom Scott slapstick. This is why I subscribed.
I love how much Not-Martin-Poliakoff loves his job! Sort of disposable indeed haha. Fascinating video; I've become a little too good at keeping my balance when slipping on ice.
I love how brutally honest this dude is!
I don't know about 'Built for Science'... more like 'Tom flails about again for science'. Always interesting, flailing or not - Tom Scott rules the internet! :D
Good usage of grad students. They are truly disposable.
Seriously good work being done there
I like how exciting that guy is about explaining what they're doing WinterLab
graduate student, disposable and cheap
True
And killed at the end of every month just in case they have memetic hazards. Yay!
And terminated*
When I am confronted with a slippery surface i sit down and move with my hands and legs. You can't fall over if you are already on the ground
As a Minnesotan, I find this delightful.
That’s like the most wholesome dude and lab ever. Just practical experiments to benefit something that wouldn’t get much attention otherwise.
Walking on ice is a skill that people that live in snowy countries have. You have to lower your center of gravity as low as you can, a lot of the balance is maintained with ankles.
nihir this is also about unexpected patches of ice on otherwise “dry” surfaces.
It's about walking on icy sidewalks and roads, not lakes...
In those situations I have found that walking flatfooted is the best as it gives the greatest contact area
and walk like a penguin?
@@blackoak4978 flat-footed, keep the foot motion straight up and down when stepping, and tense the hips and glutes. At least, that is my general method.
Similar to this one, if you get a chance (and everything legally works out and if you haven't already), go to Sweden and take the "icy road driving course" which is part of the requirements for getting a driver's license there. It's a really interesting course and I'd really love to hear a non-Swede's thoughts on it. (More specifically, I think you should do the one in Norrköping if you can, because I grew up about five minutes away from the place where that one's held). The idea is that no matter how much you try to stay safe, odds are your car will get into a skid at one time or another, and so the purpose of the course is not to teach people how to avoid skidding - it's to teach them not to panic WHEN a skid happens. This is done by intentionally skidding ALL over the place until you start feeling like a street racer in a very silly kind of movie. :-)
I love how the professor is explaining stuff and Tom is just playing around
Thanks to you Tom I just actually replaced my winter boots after 4 years of back pain and slippery hell, thank you
Love it
Is it just me, or does that guy seem kind of like a Canadian Martin Poliakoff?
B roll of Tom planting into a wall with the voice overlay is just what I needed
I can watch that last scene over and over again, never gets boring :D