Episode 4 Richard Hammond's Blast Lab

This is it.

I have done it. That is the world's smallest microchip.

The power of a thousand super computers

on something the size of a pinhead.

Oh...oh! Lab Rat what have I told you

about playing ball games in the lab?

That is six years' work, down the drain, gone.

That could have changed the world we live in for all of us.

-And I'll never...

-SQUELCH

Ah.

Thank you.

Thank you very much indeed.

I'm Richard Hammond and welcome to my Blast Lab.

Joining me today, two groups of young scientists

who will compete in various challenges to win great prizes.

Coming up we have Facts Galore with my trusty sidekick Oliver.

In Mini's Science, there's even more friction than usual.

It'll still work.

We go back in time to discover

why the Lab Rats wear red and yellow lab coats.

And they're grotty, they're snotty, they're definitely robot-y,

they are the Snot Bots.

To keep my top secret lab safe, I have employed the most dangerous

security woman biscuits can buy.

She is my Ninja Nan, I've even built her her very own ninja "Nannex".

You need to be pretty quiet

she's having a Superwomen's Institute meal there.

It may look like ordinary swiss roll but it's actually made of steel.

Only she can do that.

Let's look at who's trying to get into my lab today.

Yes, yes, yes, they're all very excited in here.

They think you're the Red team. We don't know yet - security check.

Your names, please. What are you called?

-BJ.

-Spencer.

-Harrison.

Yeah, OK, that checks out with your security file.

And talent, who's going to do what? To check you are who you say.

-I've got weird eyebrows.

-Why?

Because when I move them they be very weird.

I've seen stranger in here, you wouldn't believe,

but they are moving independently. I'll accept that.

Come in, come into the lab.

Please, please, please you can come in this far, no further.

Ninja Nan's watching.

You're pretty much good to go, one final check.

We've agreed a password with the real Red team,

and if you're Red team you'd know what that is.

ALL: Mushrooms.

That's what I've got written down here. Why mushrooms?

Because our mum always cooks them and we absolutely hate them.

-What all three of you hate mushrooms?

-Yeah.

You are the official Red team though.

Go and get settled in and ready.

There you go, audience, they are your Red team.

That's half the team - we need another,

let's see the people claiming to be the Yellow team.

OK, you three claim to be the Yellow team and you could be,

we must check to find out.

Your names, please.

-Maya.

-Angelique.

-Andrea.

Maya, Angelique, Andrea - yeah, that's what I've got down here.

Angelique and Andrea, it has your names under talent.

-BOTH: We can do gymnastics.

-Really? Go on, then.

Owwww! No, OK, I'll accept that, come into the lab.

Be careful - all the loose change will fall out of your pockets.

Welcome to the Lab. You're nearly through, just one final check.

We've agreed a password with the real Yellow team, what is it?

ALL: Chatterbox.

-Why, any reason?

-Because we always get in trouble for talking.

You won't get in trouble for that around here.

Just don't touch anything. It explodes.

Go and get settled in and ready for the first game.

OK, they are your Yellow team.

Now let's meet our adjudicator.

He's a fast thinker and a very slow starter, it is Oliver.

Yeah, that's the Fact Nav 2.0 plugged in. OK.

When I was installing the latest hi-tech Fact Nav 2.0 system,

I accidently spilled some strawberry milkshake on the instructions.

And a bit in the wires.

And as a result, it's not always 100% reliable.

Some of the facts are true, some are false,

and, teams, it's up to you to tell me which they are.

If they are true, Oliver will tell us by doing this...

HORN AND ALARM

And if they turn out to be false, he'll let us know by doing this...

FOGHORN

OK, the game's simple. You'll see each team has got three lights.

Each time you answer a question correctly,

we'll turn a light green.

The first team to get all three lights lit green will win. Hurrah!

Not quite that simple, though,

because if you answer a question incorrectly,

not only do we not light one of your lights green,

we light one of the other team's lights green.

We need to sort out who's going to seize control of the game

and we'll do that with a "nearest to" question.

Halley's Comet was last seen from Earth in 1986.

In what year will we next see it?

Halley's Comet was last seen from Earth in 1986.

In what year will we next see it?

-'Time's up.'

-Time is up. Yellow's what have you gone for?

3050.

3050.

Reds?

2124.

Well, I can tell you the real answer is...

2061, which means the Reds,

despite being a little way away, win the point.

That's a green light for the Reds, you're in control.

You get the first true or false question.

Antarctica is classed as a desert.

Is that true or is that false?

Have a think. Audience, let us know what you think, vote with your feet,

let's see what you think, true or false.

ALARM

A lot of hopping about and mind-changing.

You're in the middle there.

-Can't make your mind up, or you just trying to get on there?

-Yeah.

-You think it is?

-Yeah.

-Do you think it's a desert?

-No.

-No.

You're on the wrong spot, then.

OK, right. Over here, what do we think?

I think it's, er, not a desert.

Let's find out what the real answer is. OK, back to your places, please.

So the audience, I would say,

more coming down in favour of it being classed as a desert.

But it's your call because you're in control.

What do you think? Antarctica is classed as a desert, true or false?

-ALL: True.

-You think it's true.

Oliver, is it true or false?

HORN BLARING AND ALARM

It's true, well done.

A green for the Reds.

Brother celebration theme going on there.

If an area has less than 250ml of annual rain,

it is classed as a desert.

Parts of Antarctica have seen no rain for 2 million years.

Right, let's ask a question for the Yellows. Here is your science fact.

Vitamin C is an acid.

Is that true or false?

Vitamin C is an acid - is that true or is that false?

-ALL: True.

-You think it's true.

Oliver, is it true or false?

-ALARM AND HORN BLARING

-It's true. Well done.

That's a light lit for you.

That puts you very much still in the game.

Reds, three brothers, hate mushrooms and like science.

Here is your science fact.

A centipede is born with 100 legs.

Just to remind you, in case you've forgotten, this is to win.

Get this wrong, you give the Yellows another life,

and they can win next time around, OK?

The centipede is born with 100 legs. Is that true or false?

-ALL: False.

-You think false.

Is it true or false, Oliver?

-FOGHORN

-It's false!

That means another light lit green for the Reds, they win this game.

Yellows, I'm sorry. A long way yet to go.

That means the score now with three lights lit, it's 1-nil to the Reds.

One morning, I was so bored

I decided to bring my old science teacher back from school

to the Blast Lab using a time machine.

It went well until I accidently hit F3 on the keyboard

and she came back as a ten-year-old.

She is of course Mini Miss.

-Hello, miss.

-You never did check your working, Richard.

No, sorry, miss. Good job I didn't hit F4.

That would have brought you back as a gerbil.

I shudder to think what F5 would've done.

I don't think you want to know, miss. What are we doing?

Today's game is all about phone books and friction

in a game I like to call...

I'm in the phone book, miss. Under "S" for scientist.

You're also under "I" for idiot.

-Yeah, you spotted that.

-Now, listen up.

These two phone books, with a few pages interleaved,

can support quite a lot of weight, thanks to friction.

So, weight is being supported off this little ring, I'm guessing,

-and then are these screwed together?

-No.

-Glued?

-No.

-Taped?

-No.

-Nailed?

-No. Sensing a pattern here, Richard?

-Is it magic?

No, it's friction.

-OK.

-Now, the teams must take it in turns

to hang these household objects off this loop and then...

And then the team that causes the phone books to separate, loses.

-Don't interrupt, Richard.

-Sorry.

-What I was going to say is,

the team that causes the book to fall, loses.

-But...but...

-Not a word, Richard.

-OK. Right but before we do this,

we need to decide who's going first and second.

Reds, you're in the lead right now.

-Do you want to go first or second?

-First.

-If you'd like to step up.

This is your selection of objects. Go round and make a selection.

The rules do state you're not allowed to pick an object up.

You have to guess, by looking at them, which one you want to use.

Just to explain,

these two bits of paper slide over each other quite easily.

But if I squeeze them together, it's much, much harder to separate them,

to move them across one another.

That's because the more of it that I bring into contact

with the other piece, the more friction there is.

Imagine tiny bumps. They're gripping one another and it's harder to move.

The bigger the area sticking together, the more friction there is

and all those pages

adds up to a big area of paper pressed against one another.

No glue, nothing to fix it in place, just friction.

If I squeeze them, as you add the weight,

it'll squeeze the pages together, which will increase the friction.

There will come a point when the whole lot will fall down.

The team that does that loses. Reds, have you made up your mind?

-Yes.

-What are you going for?

-The oil can.

-The oil can.

All right, team. Away you go.

The oil can is the second heaviest item, weighing four kilograms.

OK, it's taking two of you to lift it

and you've taken a Wellington boot.

Will the phone books be able to hold its weight?

-Oh, oh, oh!

-Yes.

-Just about did it!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Some brave play from the Red team,

going for the second heaviest object, four kilograms of oil can,

suspended from there by nothing more than friction.

No glue, no nails, no fixings of any sort, just the friction.

It's the Yellows' turn now and they've gone for the teddy bear,

the third lightest item,

weighing only 300 grams.

There you go, there you go. Held in place by friction alone.

Well done, Yellows. Excellent play.

The boys are up next, and they've gone with the tambourine.

It's 150 grams, making it the lightest item.

-Yes!

-And it's worked!

It's worked. Well done, Reds.

The Yellows now coming back with the candlestick,

weighing in at 475 grams.

Oh, it's on, it's on, it's on! Well done, Yellows!

And the pages showing no signs of weakening.

The boys have gone with the foam hand, weighing 375 grams.

Ooh, OK!

The Yellows have answered with the tennis racquet,

which weighs 400 grams.

Look at that! Well done, Yellows.

Unbelievable. There's a combined weight of 5.7 kilograms up there

and the pages are still holding the strain,

more than can be said for a certain Red team member.

Now the Reds have gone for the lightest object yet, the lampshade,

which weighs only 225 grams.

Ooh, there you go! That counts.

Yellows, the umbrella.

This is the lightest object still available, weighing only 350 grams.

Andrea stepping forwards. Oh, no pressure(!)

If she gets this, lads, you're going to be in a lot of trouble.

-Am I allowed to hold it?

-Yeah.

Any means of getting it supported off there

is allowable under the rules. Ooh! Well done! Well done!

-Go.

-Grab it.

-Do you want to put it on?

Going for the fire extinguisher. Oh, it's heavy. It's heavy.

It certainly is. Weighing in at 1.4 kilograms.

Ooh, ooh, it's a tricky one, it's a tricky placing.

Ooh, well done, Yellows.

Step forwards.

Well done, a snap decision taken.

A good decision, nonetheless,

with the welly weighing only 800 grams, the lightest remaining item.

Oh, look at that!

Maya, possibly our coolest player today.

Every time, just walks up, hangs it and walks off. Job done.

The boys, oh, they've gone for the duck.

I happen to know the duck is the third heaviest item.

It's been weighted with sand.

This could be a disastrous pick for the Reds.

The duck weighs three kilograms.

Will the phone books be able to hold its added weight?

OK. Good luck, good luck.

Ooh!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

It's a traffic cone.

And it's not light, weighing 1.9 kilograms.

Oh, absolutely beautifully done.

If it'll hold the weight, this'll be an amazing...

Oh, look at that!

This is incredible.

The two phone books are holding up just under 13.5 kilograms.

Surely they can't take any more weight.

-Oh, no. It's...

-Oh, it's a whopper! 3.5 kilograms of drum going on.

-Keep it up...

-Oh! Oh!

-Ooh!

-Yes!

Oh, it's Ninja Nan's shopping trolley,

full of ninja fighting equipment.

I think the heaviest item out here today.

-That'd be magnificent.

-Seven kilograms.

Ooh, now make sure it's high enough to hang.

It has to be suspended, it can't just... Oh!

Oh! Argh!

Although the pages managed to hold up just under 17 kilos,

it was the added seven of the trolley that proved to much,

bringing it crashing to the ground.

Astonishing play from both teams.

The point goes to the Reds. It makes the score 2-0.

Well done. 2-0 to the Reds now!

I never knew phone books could be so much fun, but let's get serious now.

Seriously heavy, that is.

It's time to go back in time for a bit of Blast Lab history.

Legend has it that in the grounds of my secret lab...

..there once lived two separate tribes...

of idiots...

..each as simple and pointless as the other,

but with one noticeable difference.

One group lived their lives devoted to the colour yellow

and the other followed a red path to happiness.

Needless to say, the two tribes did not mix.

But the two tribes were not alone in the forest.

There were others, creatures older than time itself.

Although this one says he's not a day over 21. Likely story(!)

Anyway, these mysterious elders wanted to end this division

scarring the land and devised a plan

to finally and for all time

join the two colours, the two tribes, together,

by simply taking the two tribes' colossal phone books

and interleaving them closer than ever before,

to create the ultimate bond.

But how does it work?

The pages of our books are actually very rough

and so under a microscope,

they would look like bumpy roads.

When one page is slid over another, these bumps get caught on each other

and so there is a small amount of friction.

The more pages of the books we overlap,

the more bumps get caught and so the more friction there is

stopping the pages from sliding apart.

When the two tribes found the books, the elders had added handles,

encouraging them to try to pull them apart.

The handles were not holding them together, though.

The power of the pages was doing this alone.

No matter how hard they tried,

they could not undo what had been done by the elders.

The power of the pages was too strong.

But the two tribes still did not believe that it was impossible

to separate the two books.

Therefore, a final test of the power of the pages was set.

One car with go-faster stripes, representing each tribe,

would be attached to the books,

which would in turn be attached to a crane.

Yeah, obviously, they had cranes back in the olden times too(!)

Then, using only the strength of the combined pages,

they would attempt to lift the car from the ground.

So will ultimate example of the combined strength

of red and yellow be successful?

Will the power of the pages be enough to completely lift the car

clean off the ground?

Hold the experiment, because things are just getting exciting here.

We've seen how strong friction can be with phone books.

Can it be that strong?

What we're going to try and do is lift a car using friction alone

and the pages in those phone books.

They're not glued, stapled, nailed, taped, fixed. It's just friction.

What do you think, teams? There's another point up for grabs.

The score is 2-nil,

but for the honour of competing, I think you should go for the point.

-Yellows, what do you think?

-We think that it won't.

You think it won't support a car? OK, so you think it won't. Reds?

We think it will. Yeah.

The whole car? OK.

Well, there's only one way to find out - carry on with the experiment.

Let's have a look.

The final test of the combined strength of red and yellow was set.

One car. One crane. Two books...as one.

But will nothing more than the layered pages of two phone books

be strong enough to lift a car?

The pages are taking the strain.

Surely, friction can't lift a car weighing over 800 kilograms.

Amazing! The power of the pages is so great,

the car is safely hanging in the air.

I can't believe it.

The tribes can't believe it.

Even the car is having trouble coming to terms with it.

The friction created by interleaving more pages

closer and tighter together led to this experiment being a success.

Brings a tear to the eye.

Therefore, another point to the Reds, bringing the score to 3-0.

Wow! That is amazing.

Just friction holding those books together and supporting a car.

Of course, it does leave us with a problem, because I don't know

how we're ever going to get those phone books apart.

They're too tough.

LOUD SMASH

That'll solve that, then.

OK, we must move on, because it's time for something...

It rhymes with "yeti's dressy vest quest".

And I can't...it's the... Hold on, it's the...

Time for that!

Which today involves, well, my own creation.

My Snot Box.

These robots produce more than 10,000 litres of snot a year

from their noses.

Try not to get too close, but you're going to have to for this game.

Here's what's happening.

In the tank with you, as well as a lot of robot snot,

there are prizes.

The team who gets the most discs in their Snot Box

will win what is written on those prizes.

The team who doesn't, well, we'll come to that later, don't worry.

It's your jobs to get as many discs into those Snot Box open mouths

as you possibly can.

Be careful, because in there with you...are these.

These discs not only don't count as a prize.

You put one of these in the mouth of your Snot Box,

it'll take one of your prize discs away.

-OK, does everybody understand what you've got to do?

-Yeah.

Good luck, teams. May the best team win.

The Reds have a five-second head start, so you go straight away.

Yellows, you wait until you hear the klaxon, then you start.

All right, both teams, good luck. As many prize discs as you can get.

You have some time to do that, and that some time starts now!

Reds up and running.

Much like the metal noses of my Snot Box.

KLAXON SOUNDS

And there's the second siren bringing the Yellows into the game.

The teams are determined, the competition is hot,

the snot is green.

Just a list of random facts I thought you should know.

OK, the Red team having trouble with their Snot Box mouth closing.

That's better.

Reds scoring points already, but through the mucous haze,

it looks like the Yellows are hot on their heels.

Amazing how the Reds have an aversion to mushrooms,

but seem to be taking to the pool of snot like ducks to...

well, snot, I suppose.

You really can't pick holes in the teams' dedication,

much like the Snot Box can't pick their nostrils.

Maybe I should have built them with some hands as well.

Nah.

Never has the world seen such a frenzy of snot-based insanity.

Probably for good reason,

for the teams are now resembling the pool party at the annual convention

of mini Incredible Hulks.

Normally held at a lido near Milton Keynes, if you're interested.

Back to the competition. It is a fantastic contest

between the two teams who will not surrender.

Oh, hang on.

I think their some time is over.

KLAXON

Time is up.

So, Lab Rats, count them up, please.

For the Yellow team, how many have we got?

OK, we have a total of five prizes for the Yellows, well done.

OK, so, the Red team.

Six to the Reds!

That means the Red team win, let's find out what you've won.

Each of you Reds take each of those home.

Yellows, let's find out what you would have won, had you won.

That'll be nice.

So, each of you would have won...

AUDIENCE: Aw...

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Perfume Factory, that would have been nice.

The truth is, Yellows, you've worked hard enough to win all those.

You were so close, but instead of winning them, here's the thing,

you're going to blow them up, because it is time for

Bidet Goes Bang!

Reds, that's quite a lot, well done. You won.

We'd like to give the Perfume Laboratory to the girls.

The girls can have these? Oh, that's nice.

-You go and hand them over.

-Thank you.

Hand them over. Reds, thank you very much.

You can take that enormous haul home with you.

That's really sweet of you, thank you.

Yellows, you get something to take with you.

Obviously, there were a lot of other things.

Instead, what you're going to do is blow them up.

Because it's time for the Walk of Shame. Follow me, girls. Here we go.

It breaks your heart.

Girls, if you'd like to lift the plunger.

Right, we'll count them in, OK, audience?

Five, four, three

two, one.

You were lovely sports, well done.

Today, we've learnt about friction, and seen how you can use

two plain old phone books to lift a car.

I now intend to put those phone books to another good use

by finding the number of a local pest control company.

I have a nasty rat infestation I need to get rid of.

Ta-ta for now. See you again.

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