Lasers vs Lightning: Which Is More Powerful?

[00:00] Today, to declare a final champion among all the elements we've tested head to head on my channel, they'll be facing off in tests against seven household objects, including a CD, a crystal ball and a safe full of cash.

[00:14] - And since laser had to defeat lava to make it to the finals, your favorite former-middle-school-teacher-turned-to-laser-wielding-mad-genius is back; - You're so positive.

[00:27] And representing lightning, is Mehdi Sadaghdar AKA ElectroBOOM, who left his manners in Canada and brought some shocking bits of electric machinery... - I know what I'm doing. Kind of.

[00:42] - But once again, for the final encore performance, I'm not gonna be watching from the sidelines either as all seven objects will have to face my X factor method of destruction, So for example, this lava lamp might just get turned into an actual lava lamp.

[01:00] And as expected at this stage in the competition, the new trash talk commenced immediately. - I'm just worried about you surviving. - And by the way, winner of today's competition gets a safe full of cash.

[01:12] - I still got a rusted boat in my driveway from the last one. - You're doomed both. - And with that, it was time to start our seven item showdown of destruction starting with the contest to burn a CD from our

[01:28] And Bob was going to get us started by using his super powerful military grade laser to destroy Rod Stewart's - I'm a big Rod Stewart fan, especially track nine.

[01:40] - So Bob fired up both his laser and his Rod Stewart deep cut. - It's like the end of Avengers.

[01:52] - We had to use a replay to realize that Bob's super powerful laser had folded the CD like a taco before incinerating it in - What is that? That's nothing, Bob.

[02:04] Watch me do it. - Yeah. Let's hope he can live up to it. So it was time to see how Mehdi planned to use the super mean looking Tesla coil that he brought to CrunchLabs.

[02:22] I'm gonna use this giant... - You're like talking slower, I feel.

[02:34] Poor Chris De Burgh. - Time to see if the Tesla coil could shock the CD as well as it shocked Mehdi.

[02:47] And it worked beautifully, arching patterns, lighting up CrunchLabs. They were so gorgeous and like moths to a light we just had to get closer until we remembered we were working by Mehdi's

[02:59] And I think it would have cut all the way through. - I never have second thoughts. - With a scar.

[03:11] - But Mehdi had used a wire to ground the CD so he could get close without having to worry.

[03:24] - That's how you erase a CD. - And this crystal ball CD was facing its Ragnarok. Until Medi shocked himself.

[03:36] But despite the second self own of the day, Mehdi had done a pretty great job at burning the CD. - And this is a good time to point out, even though Mehdi has made a career out of building really cool things that always

[03:48] he does have a master's degree in electrical engineering and is very smart and actually does know exactly what he's doing. In other words, please don't try this with your own 4 ft Tesla coil at home.

[04:01] - It was time to show these boys what the X factor could pull off. - Really? A microwave? It's a microwave with two googly eyes.

[04:14] - Three, two, one! - This is true. Whoa.

[04:30] - The microwave put on quite a techno light show for us. - Don't breathe that smoke. - But ultimately, despite destroying the CD beyond repair, the final verdict was, I think Mehdi's was the coolest.

[04:45] On to round two! - So now that we have the first point on the board, we got ready for a chilly round two. - I don't want to spoil anything but I'm feeling good about my chances on this one.

[05:00] - And Bob was up first with the super powerful laser. - And as he worked his laser across the surface of the ice, the dripping water indicated that his laser was weak.

[05:12] - And honestly, he's right since ice is more or less transparent. The laser passes straight through and doesn't bounce off or get absorbed by anything, which means it doesn't build up

[05:25] enough heat to cause any damage. So this time Bob focused his laser on one spot and held it there. - And it started to create a rough surface on the ice which allowed the laser to finally interact with something and build

[05:43] Boring a hole all the way through. - Actually, it looks very bullet-like. - It was time for Mehdi to back up all that trash talk.

[05:58] I'm going to use a welding machine and run 650 amps of current through this. - Basically, Mehdi's plan was to use the build up of heat from electrical resistance to create a hot rebar knife through icy butter.

[06:14] - Give me more juice. - Now, watch this. - And it worked really well until it didn't.

[06:30] - I think your ice is too cold. - So Mehdi added a little bit of elbow grease to try and saw his way through the ice by using the parts of the rebar that were - Despite his best efforts resulting in a little melting but much more reheating and then subsequent bending.

[06:50] All right, I'm done. - It was a failure, but it was a cool failure. - Enough of these jokers, it was time for the X factor.

[07:03] - Actually kind of excited to see this with - With the red hot nickel ball. - The question is, can I make it deeper than Mehdi did?

[07:19] - The core of the nickel ball had been heated to 2000 degrees and it was slowly but surely making its way down the ice. - But unfortunately for me, the laws of thermodynamics had other plans.

[07:33] It's full of water. It takes a lot of energy to heat up water. - Is there a clear winner?

[07:47] This is how we're going to solve this. - So we decided to add a little gravity and whoever's block broke the cleanest must have done the most damage. So they'd be declared the winner and devastatingly for the second round in a row.

[08:02] - Oh Canada! Next challenge. - So we moved on to lamps and this one was going to be a little bit different.

[08:15] - Because this time we wouldn't be trying to destroy lamps. We'd be using our chosen elements to create lamps. I'm gonna hit it with a sparkle pattern, ultraviolet laser filter.

[08:32] - I can't see, Bob. - Activate the laser. The world's first slime laser lamp.

[08:45] - That's kind of interesting. - And I wonder what it would look like if you attacked it with the CrunchLabs vortex cannon. - No, don't play with the laser.

[09:00] - That was not on my bingo card. - Lightning boy was about to whip out the Tesla coil and this fluorescent bowl. - I'm gonna do Nikola Tesla's dream of wireless power and power this with that super large Tesla coiler.

[09:18] - Why do I not trust what you say? the electric field created by the Tesla coil in the air

[09:30] - actually causes the fluorescent tube light to glow. What's happening is the gas particles in the tube are getting excited by the electric field which breaks them into charged And it made it look like the coolest actual light saber battle ever.

[09:55] Light it up. I just wanna see how bright it gets okay?

[10:18] - Once we got the lightning man a light bulb that was too big to use as a light saber - Lightning lamp. All right, gentlemen, for my lamp, I'm doing a lava lamp as in a lamp that's filled with actual lava.

[10:37] - Does Kevin the backyard scientist know you're doing this? - But the question was,

[10:50] - This is the moment of truth, can Mark do it? - Because I only have one pour. And the anticipation had us feeling like Christmas morning.

[11:04] Speaking of which now's the perfect time to mention that if you want a Christmas morning reaction like this or this then a CrunchLabs Build Box subscription is the answer because with the Build box, not only do you get a super fun toy that

[11:18] you get to put together every month, but you do it alongside me while I teach you all the incredible physics behind how it works. So the principles really sink in.

[11:31] So if you're a kid and you're looking for something to put at the top of your Christmas list, or you're just looking to be use the link in the video description or head to crunchlabs.com where we're giving away two free boxes as our

[11:43] Now, back to my precision lava pouring skills.

[11:57] But had I poured too much? Ultimately, I felt like the lava gods would be pleased.

[12:09] - So it's time to pick a winner. I made a lamp.

[12:23] - I suppose even the lava gods agreed with Bob's logic, which meant laser was on the board with one lightning with two and Which meant I'd have to change that in the lipo battery round.

[12:35] - Alright, here we go. More questionable science.

[12:47] But it did, it gorgeously. The laser burned right through the batteries casing - Laser did some sweet damage to that thing.

[13:03] - Definitely did. - And once it was actually dead, we were able to see the many battery layers of smoldering wreckage the laser left behind

[13:15] - Do I? - For lightning I'm gonna let the battery destroy itself by connecting its lead with a very low resistance wire that will - A classic Mehdi starch

[13:31] Because by connecting the leads, he's created a path for the electrons to flow with essentially no resistance. This basically causes a stampede of electrons trying to squeeze through the wire so intense, it generated a bunch of

[13:45] heat that melted the connections on the flimsy white wire in an effort to scale up that flimsy white wire so that the He fashioned himself this giant mad scientist switch.

[13:57] I'm not gonna lie. I'll step back, that's for sure because only one thing would die today and it actually wasn't the battery.

[14:10] - I don't know if it's the sun. - So Mehdi attempted to Macgyver his way to a solution, but he was shocked to find out

[14:22] that these batteries had a fail safe internally that prevent them from sorting themselves out. - Maybe use the knife. - These batteries are not safe, man.

[14:38] - And I was going crossbow. Now last time my fatal flaw was aiming at a target that was physically impossible to hit. - So this time I was picking a distance that would be physically impossible to miss.

[14:52] - It's gonna be a long video.

[15:11] by connecting all the layers of the battery - causing the electron stampede - that resulted in beautiful flames.

[15:26] - There's nothing in there. And according to this crystal ball, we were about to destroy, - Laser versus crystal ball, Bob.

[15:39] - Bob, have a little confidence, buddy. Some of the greatest discoveries in scientific history came from that aha moment we might be about to find the cure to - Feeling inspired, Bob gave his laser a shot and once it hit the crystal ball

[15:57] - It's beautiful double rainbow! But the infrared camera indicated that the only effect Bob had - You're laser, you're not lava Bob.

[16:11] - I'm both. - It didn't even notice the globe. - Meanwhile, team X factor had no doubts about its upcoming hole in one.

[16:24] - This, while it might look like a normal golf club, it's actually a firearm. - Three. Two. One.

[16:42] - I see - I don't see it being that strong. Three. Two. One.

[16:59] - That feels very disappointing. - So I called in an assist. - I thought everyone got one try.

[17:13] Three. Two. One. - Oh no, I'm literally destroying the floor.

[17:25] - At best, you could argue that I turned this crystal ball into a bowling ball. - Bob and I are no match for this thing. - It would all come down to whatever insane invention Mehdi had brought in.

[17:37] - We brought in a huge capacitor that can deliver 100,000 amps as much as one lightning strike, - I think we get the point. - It can power 100,000 homes for a microsecond.

[17:55] Three. Two. One. Zero. - Gosh, that was loud. - I've never done something like this before.

[18:11] Three. Two. One.

[18:24] - But maybe that's because we'd finally harnessed enough energy to destroy that dang crystal ball. - Well, Bob, I think we've got to give this one to Mehdi.

[18:39] - Mehdi, added another to the score as we moved to the watermelon round. So Bob let us know what he was planning to do with his adorable little friend. - Googly eyes now suddenly seem much more sinister.

[18:55] - We're going to leave this to you. Three. Two. One.

[19:07] - But the highly trained "00-Melon" didn't seem like he was going to crack. So Bob turned up the heat. - Actually, that was kind of fun.

[19:21] - Oh gosh, that looks horrible. - But all that and it only cut the watermelon about an inch deep. So I had to apply a little old fashioned elbow grease.

[19:36] - Clearly. - It has a hint of laser. - Gordon Ramsay, watch out!

[19:48] - I do. - Remember what I did to the crystal ball? - I'm gonna do the same thing to this poor watermelon; paint the room with watermelon. - Let's make the watermelon vapor melon.

[20:05] - Three. Two. One, Zero. - On second thought the barrier was overkill.

[20:18] - I call that an electro bust. - You did what a knife could do. - Oh my God.

[20:32] - I think the watermelon absorbed all the shock from the explosion. - And my intrigue would take some explaining. You know, if you have a soda bottle and you shake it up, it has a lot of pressure and wants to expand?

[20:48] - I'm basically gonna take a really cold liquid that will give off gas and do the same effect and stick it in the bottle. - Let's go to the clip, - So back at the house while Science Bob distracted the crowd with liquid nitrogen powered exploding water melons

[21:03] - Before I get interrupted again, let me put on the most important touch. - And then the second most important touch which is the activating mixture and then hightail it out of there behind

[21:17] the safety glass because this water minion was going to go off any second. - Now, this is real boring until it's time. - Oh, something's lifting up there.

[21:38] - Wow. Woah, look at the ceiling. - You guys don't even need to say it.

[21:51] Only one round left. Bob's got one. You can technically tie at best.

[22:05] - And we'd all have to break out the big guns as we moved into our safest round yet cracking open a reinforced vault filled Whoever stacked the most money would win this round and potentially the whole championship.

[22:17] - Any concern about lighting the money on fire? Therefore, I will cut in here and I walk away with all the money. - Let's pull off this heist.

[22:32] - And Bob's laser immediately started tearing deeply into the recesses of the vault and we wondered briefly whether it would make through the thicker mechanism. But we didn't need to worry at all as it cut through them like paper.

[22:47] - Oh, I feel like there's some burning cash in that safe, Mehdi. - The question was how much cash Bob would be able to salvage after he opened the door.

[23:04] - You might have welded it back. - And so this operation depended on me to act as the muscle. But after one final struggle,

[23:19] Bob finally opened up the door to his... - That's not true. - You have a corner of a dollar!

[23:33] - So Bob's final score was 25 cents and we moved on to see what lightning could do. - 750 amps of current cut through this like butter. - Mine is 31,000 watts?

[23:48] - Let's do this! - That was beyond me because frankly, Mehdi's was stunning.

[24:02] - It glowed brighter as it got hotter and hotter, making even quicker work of the vaults latching mechanisms. that Mehdi's gloves almost melted off his hand, which of course he had to show us up close.

[24:18] - Ultimately, he made much quicker work than lasers. But he also burned through the money much quicker than laser had. - That's too late.

[24:35] - Fortunately, neither one of you guys got any money, which means the stage is now set for the X factor. All right, gentlemen, you might notice the safe is sitting on a big red X.

[24:52] That's because for my final X factor, my plan is to go with 170 ft of pure unadulterated gravitational potential energy. - It had come to this because I couldn't be sure this would crack it open.

[25:08] - I think gravity's gonna win this one. - The safe doesn't stand a chance there. - I could win the entire championship.

[25:22] Nine. Six. Three.

[25:34] Go!

[25:47] Let's go! - But how many dollars had I gotten out of there? I could definitely get in there.

[26:01] Three. Two. One. - The safe door flew off the hinges, like a leaf falling off a tree, or a bird flying through the wind, or...

[26:19] My money. - I didn't think about the wind. - Put it in your pocket, here.

[26:31] - With all the interference from the win, it was hard to get a final tally, but I was pretty sure I could count more than $1. Here is a little something for your efforts. There can only be one winner.

[26:46] - Hey, there are some electronics in there. - What did you put there? But what should not hopefully surprise you after watching all the videos I've been making on my YouTube channel for 12 years,

[27:06] is that learning science and engineering doesn't have to be sucky and boring. Which is exactly why I started a toy company called CrunchLabs with the express goal of helping kids think like an engineer through monthly toys that get delivered to your door where you put it together with me.

[27:22] And have already shipped millions of these boxes the data is in 87% of kids rated an eight out of 10 on a fun scale out of 10. More than three out of four parents said their child gained a new passion around STEM and engineering from the boxes.

[27:36] Our secret sauce here just like on my videos is hiding the vegetables. On top of that, each month, your box has a chance to contain the platinum ticket and if you get it,

[27:50] So if you want to embark on this monthly journey with me and get a Christmas morning reaction like this.

[28:02] just go to crunchlabs.com or use the link in the video description where we're giving away those two boxes free as a holiday special.