FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Tech

Watch a Chunk of Frozen Gasoline Get Set on Fire

Don’t try this at home.
Rachel Pick
New York, US

Popular YouTube user Carsandwater (real name Matthew Neuland) is at it again, this time using his signature nickel ball to mess around with gasoline and liquid nitrogen.

Once the nickel ball has been cooled in the liquid nitrogen, Neuland drops it into a bucket of gasoline, and a thin layer of ice forms around the ball. Neuland can't get this ice to ignite, though, so he ditches the nickel ball altogether and drops a spoonful of gasoline straight into the liquid nitrogen. This creates a strangely malleable crystal that Neuland is able to set aflame.

Neuland has been performing home experiments with a super-heated ("Red-Hot") nickel ball for years, racking up nearly half a million subscribers along the way. Recently he's begun expanding his repertoire with liquid nitrogen and the "Super Cooled Nickel Ball" videos. Neuland, who has no scientific training, is often just as surprised by his results as his viewers. In a recent interview, he assured Motherboard that he takes several safety precautions, but it's still sort of a miracle he hasn't lost a finger or two by now.

Perhaps the weirdest part of the new video is when Neuland reverses his previous experiment, dropping the liquid nitrogen into the gasoline. The nitrogen ping-pongs inside the bucket, leaving a fizzy trail in the shape of a perfect pentagram. Satan has been summoned.