Name: These Pools Help Support Half The People On Earth
Uploaded: 2021-02-27T02:33:49.000Z
Duration: 19 min 24 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Derek: The world is full  of mysterious places

you can see from high above  using Google Earth,

but what's really going on  down there, and why?

I'm Derek Muller, a scientist,  educator, and filmmaker,

I am here in the middle of the Utah desert

surrounded by sandstone cliffs  and red rocks

What I'm looking for should be right over this ridge.

I had so many questions,  like what are they?

since, after all,  you can see them from space.

Someone else suggested,  "Well, maybe they're just  really large swimming pools."

Like a geo kinda thermal thing? Like a solar thing?

It's gotta be some sort of, you know, science experiment of some kind.

Derek: The truth is  far more fascinating

These technicolor pools are  full of something

that's been prized  throughout human history.

and how are they connected  to fireworks,

George Washington, soap,  glass, Gatorade, gunpowder,

a pioneering scientist  named Humphry Davy,

The answer begins with a pot  and a hardwood fire.

Now, there are a lot  of different chemical  compounds in there,

Put it in a pan  and let the water evaporate  in the sun,

and what you're left with is  this crystalline substance.

It is one of the most  important chemicals

because that is  exactly where it comes from.

British scientist Humphry Davy  got some damp potash

and as they burst  through the crust  of the potash,

Yes, that is where the name of the element comes from.

many people think of bananas or Gatorade,

these foods are good sources of potassium,

This is a piece of pure elemental potassium.

because it is so reactive, it'll react with anything.

so it doesn't react with the water in the atmosphere.

and to demonstrate that, I'm going to put a piece of it

so the potassium doesn't  just sit on the top

but actually will sink down  to the bottom.

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These Pools Help Support Half The People On Earth

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