A Million To One (1961)

this is a hollow metal can with rubber stopper and we fill that can with dry ice that is solid carbon dioxide now you know solid carbon dioxide is very cold this white stuff is just Frost that's gathered on the outside of the can now as the can absorbs ABS heat from the room the carbon dioxide evaporates and turns into a gas the gas takes up more room than the solid so it has to go somewhere can't come out the top so it comes out a little hole here in the bottom of the disc now you can't see it coming out the hole but if I make a flame I think you can see that there's gas coming out and blowing the flame now if we put the disc with its stream of gas coming out the bottom down on our tabletop which is made of a very smooth piece of plate glass we can wait a moment while the gas coming out builds up pressure underneath which it has to do in order to escape by now the disc is floating on this film of escaping gas that film is so thin that I'm sure you can't see it from out there I can scarcely see the thick see a space between the disc and the glass myself but if you'll come and look over my shoulder I think I can show you that there is a space by slipping underneath the disc this piece of tin foil I took off a chewing gum wrapper now we'll slip the tin foil between the disc and the plate glass top of the table showing that there is inde indeed a space a thin film of gas between the disc and the the glass upon which it's resting the purpose of this is simply to reduce the friction to a point where we won't have to worry about it or measure it in our experiments today it's fun to play with this thing let me show you I'll give it a little push just a little one there it goes moving sedate no sign of slowing up come on back same thing the other direction it takes only a very tiny Force to start it in motion let me show you [Music] that [Music] n [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]