What would you do with a 45-metre tower and a pool full of cornstarch?

June 29, 2018 6:52 AM

The boys at the Gravity Discovery Centre of Gingin, Western Australia have some fun with oobleck and a bowling ball (also vs a pool table), an anvil (also flaming, vs deodorant cans, and a giant dart (also vs a stack of paper). They've also got a trampoline (or they had one).

They also examine the Magnus effect (and loads of other stuff).

Bonus: God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly

(The Gravity Discovery Centre previously)

posted by uncleozzy (28 comments total)

Their aim is terrible.
posted by 1adam12 at 7:10 AM on June 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

Come for the action, stay for the awesome ozzie accents.
posted by grumpybear69 at 7:24 AM on June 29, 2018 [3 favorites]

I get a strong "What We Do in the Shadows" vibe from these guys and I love it.
posted by VTX at 7:47 AM on June 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

I can't tell if I'm actually hearing them right or not, but either way I'm definitely going to start using the phrase "you need to put some more berries on it" in situations where I'd currently say "heat" or "mustard," because that's charming as hell.
posted by saladin at 7:50 AM on June 29, 2018 [2 favorites]

Is it just me or does that look like maybe too much cornstarch to water? It seems a bit thick.
posted by Splunge at 7:58 AM on June 29, 2018

I could listen to these guys forever.
posted by Sternmeyer at 8:01 AM on June 29, 2018 [2 favorites]

I came across the cornstarch video a few weeks back, and have been watching their other videos. Their enthusiasm and excitement about whatever they are doing make it fun.
posted by Badgermann at 8:14 AM on June 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

Terminal verbosity.
posted by slogger at 8:20 AM on June 29, 2018 [4 favorites]

What, nobody is going to point out that those bags clearly say "wheat starch" on them?
posted by jferg at 8:33 AM on June 29, 2018

jferg: "What, nobody is going to point out that those bags clearly say "wheat starch" on them?"

I came here specifically to make that same comment
posted by caution live frogs at 8:34 AM on June 29, 2018

Perhaps in Australia "corn" is spelled differently....?
posted by caution live frogs at 8:35 AM on June 29, 2018 [2 favorites]

In English like countries, “corn” is wheat. Our corn is called maize.
posted by njohnson23 at 8:51 AM on June 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

The 2nd time I missed I would have been moving that pool closer. They were really dedicated to making it work, though! Does anyone know what specific Aussie accent this is? Its delightful. (Not just the accent, but also the cadence and the syntax. Very enjoyable).
posted by FirstMateKate at 8:57 AM on June 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

I see. That makes sense linguistically (barleycorn et al) given that corn was a word in use long before anyone in Europe had ever seen maize. But it's gonna cause a bunch of confusion for the American gluten-intolerants when abroad. I mean, chip vs. fry was bad enough for most of us...
posted by caution live frogs at 8:59 AM on June 29, 2018

What's most astonishing to me is that they clearly haul things up to the top of that tower all the time and have somehow never installed a pulley system. The final trampoline video I linked above has them carrying a recliner up the stairs! Madness.
posted by uncleozzy at 9:00 AM on June 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

Pretty fun. I also really enjoyed the way they speak. It does sound a bit different from the Australian accent I'm used to. In a couple of places it's almost like there was a hint of Northern England in their speech (e.g., when pulling the bowling ball out of the oobleck in the first video, "C'mon, mate, put tha back into it!") Is that a regional thing in Australia?
posted by biogeo at 9:10 AM on June 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

uncleozzy, they mention on the dart video that it took them a year and a half, but they finally got a pulley system. It was posted just 2 weeks ago.
posted by FirstMateKate at 10:07 AM on June 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

Their Basketball and Golf versions of Connect 4 are my favorites.
posted by zinon at 10:34 AM on June 29, 2018

Come for the action, stay for the awesome ozzie accents.

Ditto, I never knew how much a (deep?) aussie accent saying "oobleck pool" would make me happy.
posted by RolandOfEld at 10:38 AM on June 29, 2018

uncleozzy, they mention on the dart video that it took them a year and a half, but they finally got a pulley system. It was posted just 2 weeks ago.

Ah, I must have skipped straight to the oobleck in that video and missed it, thanks!
posted by uncleozzy at 11:14 AM on June 29, 2018

My first impression when I first saw this ~a month back was that these guys were way too "dude bro" for me to take for long. But the sheer honest glee that they experience from dropping things from a giant tower is infectious. One of my favorite is where they try to catch rotting vegetables that they've dropped off the tower and bounced off the trampoline.
posted by Betelgeuse at 12:46 PM on June 29, 2018 [2 favorites]

My girls and I have been enjoying these videos for a while, but they (and I) were wondering why they didn't clean up after themselves better. There's clearly a bunch of colored fragments in the sand, and we worried they were going to get in trouble with...whoever runs that tower for whatever it's real purpose is. Turns out its purpose is dropping stuff for fun, and the colored bits are from the water balloons they provide to visitors. So carry on, then.
posted by The Tensor at 3:26 PM on June 29, 2018 [2 favorites]

I want to see what happens if they drop a block of oobleck onto a giant metal spike.
posted by um at 1:21 AM on June 30, 2018

Is that a regional thing in Australia

how much a (deep?) aussie accent saying

I'm not sure what the name is for it, but I associate this accent and vernacular with middle class suburban white aussie blokes of and under the age of about thirty-five. Country-wide.
posted by womb of things to be and tomb of things that were at 3:02 AM on June 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

// Does anyone know what specific Aussie accent this is?

Mmm...I dunno. I grew up in country Western Australia and this is just how everyone talks. It’s actually my idea of a neutral accent. (In the way that everyone thinks other people have accents, not themselves.)
posted by Salamander at 5:42 AM on June 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

OK, so THIS is what guys are for!
posted by happyroach at 1:27 PM on June 30, 2018

A nice highlights reel.
posted by nnethercote at 10:24 PM on July 1, 2018

"C'mon, mate, put tha back into it!"

I didn't notice it at the time, but it was probably "put your back into it" which sounds like "put ya back into it".
posted by nnethercote at 10:36 PM on July 1, 2018