Episode 7 Richard Hammond's Blast Lab

Well, you can forget today's show.

I have just completed my perpetual motion machine,

and it is going to make me rich beyond my wildest dreams!

EXPLOSION

Ah, that's... Yeah, that... Oh, that...

Yeah, that's...disappointing.

OK! Well, if you forget what I just said, I AM Richard Hammond,

and this IS my Blast Lab!

Sorry about that, audience.

It didn't go as well as I'd hoped.

This is where I perform my top-secret science experiments.

To help me, I have two teams who'll

battle against each other to win some amazing prizes and answer

some of science's biggest questions. Let's see what's in store today.

Now, usually, of course, my top-secret underground lab

is protected by a crack team of SAS guards.

Sadly, though, one of them is at home in bed with a cold,

and all the others have gone round

to read him Angelina Ballerina stories.

But no matter! I have drafted in the very next best thing.

She's the OAP with a PhD in pain.

It is my Ninja Nan!

Ninja Nan, thanks for standing in.

I know she looks fragile, but she is in fact a fully trained ninja.

See? Nan, if you'd like to take your place in security...

Oh, I wish she'd turn it up!

Nan! Nan, ooh!

If you'd like to take your place in security, thank you. Thank you.

Away she goes there. Look at her go.

I know. The speed is amazing.

You're impressed. I can tell.

Handy with nunchakus, throwing stars,

bow staffs and knitting needles.

She should be there by now. Nan, are you there in...?

Oh, there she is.

Good. It makes you feel safe just knowing

she's there to protect us against whatever should come our way.

Oh, what's this? Oh, picture.

Oh, that was when she won the World Tug Of War competition. Yeah.

The following year, she did it again - only using her teeth.

They were in her hand, obviously, but she did win.

Let's meet the people trying to get into my lab today.

Hello. Where are you?

OK. Yeah, yeah.

They say they're the Yellow Team. We can't be too careful round here.

Everybody wants to get into my lab.

We have to do some security checks.

First of all, identify yourselves by name, please.

-Alice.

-Saddia.

-Alex.

Alice, Saddia and Alex. Yeah, that checks out.

Now, under "hidden talent" it says all of you

are going to do something. What?

-Karate!

-Karate. Don't move a muscle!

Ninja Nan, if she even hears you saying that, she'll spring.

Right, if we make her safe, please? Thank you, Lab Rats.

She'll never cross that line.

You are now safe to demonstrate your karate.

Aye! Aye!

Aye! Aye!

-You could put this to music.

-Aye! Aye!

OK, come into the lab. You're cleared through security.

Sorry about the security, you can't be too careful round here.

Where have you all come from?

Manchester, and we're the AU Girls!

That's your own name you made up.

You needn't have bothered. You're the Yellow Team! But welcome.

Now we're going to meet the people who claim to be your opposition.

They say they're the Red Team.

OK, you say you're the Red Team, yeah?

But we have to carry out some security checks.

-Your names, first of all. Identify yourselves, please.

-Ben.

-Alex.

-Daniel.

Ben, Alex, Daniel. Yeah, that checks out. Under "hidden talent"

it says "juggling". Who can juggle?

-Me.

-Daniel, if you can juggle, you can come in.

Yeah, that's working.

You are the Red Team. Come through security.

Reds, welcome to Blast Lab. Where have you all come from?

The Wirral, and we are Eureka!

Wow! You're not. You're the Red Team, but welcome.

I've just noticed something. Boys' team, girls' team.

That means competition is going to be fierce.

-Which team's going to win?

-Us!

OK, both teams, time to go and get settled in, ready for round one.

Go and get comfortable.

I'd like to introduce now my best friend. His brain is brighter

than his headlights, thankfully. It is Oliver.

When I fitted Oliver's state-of-the-art Fact Nav system,

the instruction manual said it was so easy you could do it

with your eyes closed - so I did!

And as a result, it doesn't work.

A lot of the facts are not correct.

A lot of them are. What I need is our two teams to tell us which

are true and which are false. Oliver knows everything, so, when they've

given their answers, he'll tell us.

If it's true, he'll do this.

SIREN

And if it's false, he'll do this.

PARP

Reds, you're going first. I'm going to give you a science fact.

You have to tell me true or false. Here is your science fact.

Venus is the coldest planet in the solar system.

Have a talk.

Audience, what do you think? Venus is the coldest planet

in the solar system - true or false?

THEY SHOUT

Ooh, I don't know.

Quite a lot thinking false, quite a lot thinking true. Ignore them.

Do you happen to know the answer to this?

-We think we know.

-OK, what do you think?

-False.

OK, Daniel, you think false.

Oliver, is it true or false?

-PARP

-It is false.

That's a point for the Red Team straightaway. Well done.

Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system. There's more than

1,000 volcanoes or volcanic centres larger than 12 miles across.

That's 19.3 kilometres in diameter, I think.

Right! Let's have science fact for Yellow Team.

If all of the world's 170 billion trees were cut down and

used to make paper, there would be 215 thousand...million...million...

It's 215 quadrillion sheets of A4.

Is that true or false?

Have a talk. Audience, is that true or false?

THEY SHOUT

Everybody down here's saying false. Everybody there's saying true.

So it's dividing the audience. What do we think, Yellows?

-True.

-You're going for true.

Oliver, is it true or false?

-SIREN

-It is true. That's a point to you guys as well.

It's now 1-1.

Nearly four billion trees are cut down every year for paper,

which is about 35% of all the trees that are cut down.

A lot of them come from tree farms, so they are replanted each time.

Some more information for you there.

You want the next question, don't you? I can tell that, Daniel.

Your third question. This is not a true-or-false.

That's why you have boards. Write your answers down on there.

I'll give the point to the team who gets nearest.

How much in tonnes does the Earth weigh?

Have a good think cos I'm going to go and talk to the audience.

Through science in Blast Lab, I've actually combined this cone

with a microphone. Look at that. It's incredible.

-Yeah, it is.

-What do you think?

About 27 million.

You really looked like you were thinking about that.

Anybody else got any other ideas? Down here, what do we think?

-80 million.

-800 million.

-800 million.

-800 million.

Quite a range of answers going on amongst the audience.

-Our teams look like they're ready. Have you got an answer?

-Mm-hm.

You got an answer, Reds? Both teams, please turn your boards round.

From the Reds, 4 billion - big number.

From the Yellows, an even bigger number - 25 billion.

Well, the answer is 5.972 sextillion -

which is a thousand trillion - tonnes.

It's really heavy. It's a lot.

You wouldn't want it on your foot, put it that way.

And, with the biggest answer, then, the point goes to the Yellows,

which brings the score to 2-1 to the Yellows

at the end of the first round.

This is all to come, but now it's Mini Science,

where our contestants will be using ordinary household objects

to conduct extraordinary science experiments,

and for this I need the help of my old science teacher.

I transported her through time,

and things went a bit wrong, so she's now ten.

It is, of course, Mini Miss!

-Hello, Richard.

-Hello.

-Are you looking forward to

doing some educational and exciting experiments today?

-Sorry, what?

-Richard, were you daydreaming?

Sorry, Miss. I was just trying to work out a new BMX stunt

I'm gonna try after this show, where I get two Lab Rats...

Sorry, Miss. Sorry.

Perhaps, if you'd have concentrated more in class, you wouldn't have

failed in transporting me through time properly.

-Richard!

-Sorry, I was thinking again, Miss. Sorry.

What have you got for us today?

Well, today we're looking at turning forces and levers. On their tables,

the teams have everything they need to make an egg flinger.

Nan is asleep on the sofa, so...

-What?

-I'm just...

Are we going to throw eggs at Nan while she's asleep on the sofa?

-Yes.

-I'd like to point out that Nan isn't actually asleep.

Ninja Nan is deep in ninja meditation, so don't worry, teams.

There's absolutely no chance

you could wake her and there'd be a horrible, horrible scene.

I just wanted to make that clear, Miss. Sorry.

Anyway, once they've assembled their egg flinger,

they then have to launch their eggs at Nan.

-And the team to egg Nan the most wins the game.

-So how do these work?

-I'll demonstrate.

-I thought you might, Miss.

Hey! Oh, you missed her, Miss.

Probably just as well for us all.

So that's the theory.

Teams, you're going to have some time to assemble your egg flingers,

and you've got a choice of pivots to use and a choice of spoons.

As you get going on the game, you can at any point take this out

and change spoon. So just get the basics of it assembled,

then you can experiment with which spoons and how to set them up.

All right, you have some time to assemble your egg flingers,

and that time starts...now!

What we're talking about here, actually, is levers,

and in a lever like the one they're using, and I have one here,

it's a very simple thing.

It's only got three parts.

At one end is load. That's the load that you're moving - an egg.

At the other end is effort, where you put in the effort to move it.

Separating them in the middle is the pivot.

We've given them a choice of where to put that pivot.

If they go for this one, nearer the load, then

they'll pull this end of the lever down - quite easy to do, actually.

It'll move this end that far, and away goes the egg.

If they use this pivot here, they haven't got to pull it as far, but

it's going to be harder work to snap it down to there because they're

moving the egg all of this way. The egg will go further.

This is because, when you've pulled the lever down, the egg is moving -

if you're using this pivot, pretty quickly - up to the top.

Blast Lab's all-time hero Sir Isaac Newton said anything that's moving

basically wants to keep on doing that until something

gets in their way to stop it - another force, or in this case,

Ninja Nan's face. It's as simple as that.

It's up to the teams to try different spoons, lengths of levers

and points for the pivot.

Judging by the thinking going on, they're giving it some thought.

Teams, our building time is up.

We must move on to the next phase,

which is throwing eggs at Ninja Nan - obviously, for scientific reasons.

Teams, there's teamwork here,

to decide which spoons, which levers, where to use your pivots.

That's up to you. The aiming - that's definitely up to you.

Your some time to throw as many eggs as you can at Ninja Nan -

never thought I'd say those words! - starts now!

Well, they're away. The first egg.

Oh, dear, a disaster from the Reds.

More force. Teamwork falling apart.

'The Yellows' pivot is broken.

'That could seriously hinder their chances.'

Whoa! Just missed. Just missed!

You can see the energy in the egg as it reaches the top and leaves

the pivot... Just missed her again.

Ready, steady, go!

So far, Ninja Nan's meditation has gone uninterrupted.

Whoa! Very nearly.

Now the Reds' pivot has gone.

Oh!

I think what we're having is teamwork issues.

In all instances, it's better to have a loader,

somebody to steady the pivot in the middle -

that's essential to the lever - then somebody to put in the effort,

to fling the egg. And we're struggling.

They're simple things, levers, but harder than you might think to use.

KLAXON SOUNDS

Teams, you had the unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity

to pelt Ninja Nan with eggs.

However, I can safely say that the score is 0-0, which means

we're still at 2-1 to the Yellows.

CHEERING

Now, medieval warriors used catapults just like these

to destroy their enemies' buildings.

Course, they didn't fire eggs with them, and their aim

was probably better than our teams.

They used something a bit bigger.

Standing 18 metres tall, weighing more than 22 tonnes and capable

of unleashing deadly missiles across huge distances towards castles,

this is the medieval siege weapon known as the trebuchet.

Not to be operated by Lab Rats, this machine needs an expert.

Hello. I'm the Trebuchet Master.

Our Lab Rat is relaxing in his castle, which looks suspiciously

like an open-air living room.

Hunger strikes, so he phones to order the king of brain foods -

the Hawaiian pizza.

The outdoor living room is a lovely idea,

but placing it in the firing line of the most destructive

medieval siege weapon may have been a mistake.

Especially as this is the largest trebuchet in the world today,

and it's being loaded.

We're using Lab Rats to power it, as it's dangerous, and they're

useless, expendable creatures. No normal person should do this.

Trebuchets are basically giant levers with a sling

and ammunition at one end and a heavy counterweight at the other.

When fired, the counterweight falls quickly towards the ground,

which should raise the sling up and send the ammunition flying -

hopefully at our target.

-BELL RINGS

-It sounds like dinner's arrived.

But what state will his beautiful living room be in when he gets back?

OK, hold the experiment.

Don't like to be cruel, but there's a point in this.

So it's 2-1. This could even it up.

The point goes to the team that is most accurate.

I'm going to tell you some facts.

Four attempts at hitting the Lab Rats' outdoor living room.

Out of those four, how many direct hits do you think it will score?

-Two.

-OK, two for the Reds.

-Two.

-Yellows, two. Ah, yes.

Right. You see, the thing is, that means you both either win

or both lose the point.

OK. Let's have a look and see what does happen.

OK. First attempt.

It's looking good.

It's looking good. It's...

..it's disappeared.

No idea where that went. Brilliant.

Second attempt, then.

Might be able to reduce a castle to rubble,

but Auntie's antique pine chair is another matter.

Best we try it again.

OK. We're running low on ammunition now.

Success! That easy chair never stood a chance!

Great to see the easy chair cop it,

but no points for either team.

Now, both teams, it's time for you to get changed and ready

cos we're moving to the final round. Get your protective suits on. Quick.

While they're going off and getting changed, audience,

something else to share.

None of my Lab Rats would have a living room as nice as that set.

I don't pay them enough.

Let's aim our trebuchet at where they really live.

At home with the Lab Rats.

Not exactly luxurious, but at least it's got four walls...for now.

Unfortunately, this particular caravan is marked for demolition.

-MARCHING BEAT

-The early warning drums sound.

No reaction.

The drums sound again.

Still nothing.

The drums sound again.

Don't the Lab Rats realise they are in impending danger?

Well, at least they got the message in the end.

CACKLING LAUGHTER

SCREAMING

Another...almost direct hit for the trebuchet.

Let's have another go before it gets too dark to see our fireballs.

Three hours and 30 fireballs later,

our Trebuchet Master is still going strong.

Ah, so close.

In fact, I think it landed underneath our caravan.

Yes, there's smoke. There's fire...

So there we have it.

If you've a caravan you need to get rid of and aren't in a hurry,

Blast Lab recommends the medieval siege weapon, the trebuchet.

-CHEERING

-Right. And on that note,

it's time for us to move on to the Messy Messy Mess Test.

Today is the Gungey Bungee, featuring my Blast Lab catapults

designed and built by myself for an elaborate experiment

in airborne cat transportation which was brilliant until the RSPCA

became involved before it started. We'll use it to project prize pods

across the toxic tank into the prize zone.

These are the pods.

You fire as many into the prize zone as you can.

This being Blast Lab, there is a twist.

We have a member of each team standing in the toxic tank.

Their jobs are, firstly, to stop the opposing team's prize pods

as they arc gracefully across the tank.

The second job is to return your team's prize pods to the baskets

so they've more to fire into the prize zone.

The winning team is the one with most pods in the prize zone,

they keep the prizes written on them - a cargo copter,

plug-and-play electronic set, MP3 player...you'll take those home.

The losing team will blow their prizes up.

And just one note for both you here.

This bit of tape here - very important you don't pass it,

cos this is the deep end.

I don't actually know HOW deep, but they have found four

different types of octopus in there and a really weird sharky eel thing,

a lot of teeth, which occasionally shows itself...

You should be fine. It won't go past that tape...I imagine.

It's simple. Yellow, you're in the lead with the scores at 2-1,

those points bought an advantage -

a five-second lead. When you hear the first siren, start firing.

Reds, hold until the second one.

That's your cue to get firing.

You have some time to get as many pods into the prize zone as you can,

and that "some time" starts...ooh...

Now!

The Yellows with a head start, and they know what they want -

- going straight for the MP3 player.

Second siren has gone and Reds are in with a chance

as the score is still 0-0.

Both Red and Yellow homing in on the prize zone, though there does

seem to be a number of red pods floating in the gunge.

A Yellow misfire there.

Good grouping by the Reds!

And if the aim of the game was to get as many pods as you can next

to each other in the gunge, they'd be world champions.

Oh, absolutely terrible from both teams.

The Reds firing high and wide, and the Yellows...

They're not really firing at all.

It's actually hard to say which team is worse at this game

with such fierce competition to come last on display.

Quite breathtaking!

I spoke too soon.

Perfect shot by the Yellows, whilst Reds...

Reds, what are you doing?!

Some fine teamwork from the Yellows, who seem to have woken up now

and are firing on all cylinders.

And another for the Yellows.

Another miss for the Reds - brilliant.

Time's running out - or it might be. With my "some time" clock,

it's impossible to tell.

KLAXON SOUNDS

Everybody stop right where you are.

Stop right where you are. Don't go down that end.

I did warn you. Let's find out which team won.

Red Team, how many do we have?

Two. For the Yellows?

Four. That means Yellow Team have won!

Yeah!

Right, this is what the Yellow Team has won.

Ready, Nan?

An Uno Flash game.

Horrible Science Book.

Cargo Helicopter!

and an MP3 player for each of you!

CHEERING

All those prizes coming home.

On the other side of this particular equation, the Red Team,

let's find out what you WOULD have won. A Horrible Science Book each,

a Transforming Robot for each of you.

Instead of taking those prizes home, you'll blow them up,

because it is time for Bidet Goes Bang!

Here we are again - one team,

the Yellows, with a wheelbarrow full of prizes, all yours,

so you're feeling great. Happy, content. Well played.

The Reds, by contrast,

are not behind a wheelbarrow full of prizes.

They're behind the plunger to blow theirs up. How do you feel?

We don't feel too bad cos at least we see the explosion.

It's some consolation.

It's generous of me to let you blow your prizes up.

-What went wrong?

-We didn't fix the spoon in the egg...

The egg flinging.

You messed it up, let's be honest.

-Time to do the blowing up. Who's doing the exploding?

-All three.

Share the blame. The wisest way to do it.

Some inventions are just a flash in the pan,

but this one's much better. It's a flash and a bang in the pan!

Your prizes are in position, ready. Step forward and lift the plunger

into firing position.

Don't fire it yet. Don't knock any of the wires!

The countdown...

Five, four,

three, two,

one...

Go! Oh, crikey!

Sort of contained in the bag but blew the door off,

Interesting results. That's all we've got time for.

We learned about catapults and levers. We could have done that

by learning Greek and translating ancient theories.

Instead, we decided to fire eggs at my nan.

See you soon!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Blast Lab was recorded before a live studio audience.

No Lab Rat was harmed during filming. There was a minor injury,

but he's OK now...I think.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

E-mail [email protected]