Scientist needs to Just Say No to huffing

To make up for the troubling, after-dinner cow eyeballs, please enjoy this clip of a community college professor inhaling sulfur hexafluoride for a 1995 cable access video.

Thanks, Awesome Esther!

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kenahoo

My acoustics professor in college (Dr. Carr Everbach) did the exact same demonstration. I had to hold his feet up while he was standing on his head. =)
knoxblox

My aunt used to rail on me about how huffing helium was going to kill me. I kind of wish I’d had some sulfur hexafluoride on hand, ’cause that sure would have killed her (not literally).
Anonymous

My new T-shirt: “The molecules are so heavy…”

:D
agraham999

Where was this man when I was failing chemistry class?
EH

NERD ALERT

Awesome!
Fred Bush

Please don’t plug sulfur hexafluoride. It’s an extremely potent greenhouse gas, 23000 times as potent as CO2.
GeekMan

He was getting pretty goofy there, I was kind of expecting him to pass out from lack of oxygen.
- dculberson
  
  Yeah, same here. When he started just talking about the “second swig,” I was visibly cringing.
Antinous / Moderator

FYI – downward facing dog would be the easy and efficient way to purge your lungs.
- murray
  
  Yeah but down dog wouldn’t have been nearly as comical.
putty

Forgive my ignorance but I have an honest question. How does this potent greenhouse gas ever get up into the atmosphere to do its dirty work if it is heavier than air?
- murray
  
  That’s an awesome question. I don’t know but I’m thinking maybe it’s just because the atmosphere is quite turbulent, so all the gases in it are being mixed around. If the air didn’t move at all, maybe then the SF6 would sink to the ground. And if there’s enough of it, we’d all suffocate…
Doomstalk

Much better. I think you’ve atoned for your sins. Thanks. :)
Boondocker

That had me howling. Awesome stuff.
Rich Keller

Sulfur hexafluoride?
Put it on the pizza!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wusGIl3v044
thebelgianpanda

thank you, i needed that :D
MarkM

goofy professor is goofy!
Anonymous

Oh man, Video Toast wipe at the end brought back some memories.
irksome

Methinks the good professor has huffed a few too many times.
thelibrarian

And here is a video of Adam Savage doing much the same demonstration (although his sulphur hexaflouride voice is much more demonic):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-XbjFn3aqE
- Ted8305
  
  Demonic? Nah, Adam Savage + SF6 = Penn Jilette. Somebody needs to convince Penn to inhale helium to see if he sounds like Adam.
Jaan

I used to work in public access back in those days…I love the Video Toaster glass cracking effect. That was always the most popular wipe.
Anonymous

Back in the day when dinosaurs roamed the earth, we at NASA investigated using SF6 to achieve higher Reynolds number testing capability in the Ames Reseach Center 12′ pressurized windtunnel. We found that filling the tunnel (660,000 cu ft) would use up the entire years production of SF6. There is a problem with SF6, it is too squishy so really doesn’t model air too well. There were some other problems like emergency blowdown where we could asphyxiate everyone on the center. Ah! the wonderful days of thinking outside the box.
mellowknees

That was awesomely hilarious, and I thank you for it
Anonymous

He lost me when he said “helium molecules”. Helium is inert, it doesn’t form molecules!

Ok, the headstand won me back.
Anonymous

Science fail. Sound speed and density are two different things. While sound speed depends on density, it also depends on the compressibility of the gas. In fact, they are inversely proportional:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_sound
Sekino

Sulfur hexafluoride chaser accepted!! :D
Anonymous

Xenon will give a similar effect and it’s not a greenhouse gas.
Paco

I was at a music festival two years ago where there was a lot of nitrous oxide around and one of the bands said ‘What’s with all the balloons, is somebody having a birthday party?’

I can’t help but remember that every time somebody mentions inhalants.

The event cracked down on it this past year; shit’s dangerous. People forget they might black out and crack their heads off the ground. Or think it’s a good idea to do a handstand and break their necks. However, there usually are not any tables to lean on when you’re at a concert :p
- Nylund
  
  Back when I was much younger and much dumber, I fell through a glass table after doing way too much nitrous. I did think the deeper voice it gave me was kinda funny though.
yochris

i think i partied with that guy in college
Anonymous

Please don’t do this at home. Like Fred said, it’s an extraordinarily potent greenhouse gas. The power co I worked for two jobs back did its best to audit every kg lost to atmosphere during maintenance and recycling.

Apropos… if you’re going to inhale, you’d want to be sure the gas is totally pure. There are chemical weapons less toxic than the contaminants potentially present in industrial SF6.
Anonymous

http://sf6.ytmnd.com

the audio/video synchronizing option seems to have disappeared from the ytmnd creator. hey, I tried.
Nerdstrom

The sound he makes on the near-puke makes me laugh quite hard, quite instantly… gets me in the same way as the sounds lizard-attacked newscaster made…
pinehead

Oh god, I laughed so loud when he made that “HUAH” near the end. It immediately reminded me of Angry Kid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-B6bOpw-Tc