Pratique du Shadowing: NASA tested my chain theory in space - Apprendre l'anglais à l'oral avec la vidéo

You know what would be neat,

Steve, if you could beam yourself up here for a weekend and we could just become the perpetual uber geek.

About 10 years ago, I was playing with some beads in my loft when I accidentally discovered this weird chain fountain phenomenon, also known as the mold effect.

No big deal.

And unbelievably, an astronaut just video called me from space so

that we could figure out together whether this one little detail about my explanation of the chain fountain is correct,

because this one little detail can only be tested in zero G.

And along the way, we discovered that chain behaves a lot more weirdly than either of us had predicted.

More on how all this came about later.

But first, what is this thing that we were testing?

Well, my explanation of the chain fountain is generally considered to be correct following a six video argument with Mehdi from Electroboom.

He was right.

But one part of my explanation had to kind of just be accepted as true without really testing it because, well, it can't be tested properly in gravity.

Now this might make me sound like a sole winner, but I really just wanted to prove this last little bit experimentally.

And anyway, assuming it is right, I just knew that it would look insanely cool in space.

But what is this crucial part of the explanation that we're all just accepting?

Well, in the absence of gravity, like on the ISS, if you were to release some chain, it should just float there in whatever random shape it was given.

But what if you were to tug on one end of the chain?

Would it flatten out or would it hold its shape and flow like this?

We need it to hold its shape for my explanation of the chain fountain to be right, but why?

Well look, I can highly recommend a series of videos by me and Mehdi if you want the full explanation, link in the card in the description for that.

But in short, the chain rises above the pot in a fountain because of an extra upward force coming from the pot.

How strong does that force need to be though?

Well it needs to be able to overcome the weight of this arc of chain that would obviously fall under gravity.

And that's it, that's all you need.

But you might look at this system and think, well no, the extra upward force from the part needs to be much greater than that,

because look, the chain is being yanked downwards by this large bit of chain down here.

But that's the crazy thing, according to the maths, that yanking of the chain has no influence on the arc at all.

If gravity wasn't a factor, the arc would be fixed there in space even though it was being yanked downwards at one end.

Or at least that's the theory, that's what we want to test.

We want to test the theory

that a chain moving at constant speed will flow through its own shape

so long as it isn't acted on by an external force like gravity.

What I really wanted to test was this, you've got a chain floating stationary in space and you tug on one end, let's see what happens.

But it turns out it's impossible to get a chain to be stationary in space.

I actually think that setup wouldn't have been fruitful anyway, because the behavior that we're looking for only works in steady state, not while the chain is speeding up.

And the whole chain would have had to speed up from zero movement in this setup anyway.

A side note on how chaotic the movement of the chain is, Don likened it to the movement of molecules.

We tend to model these like slowly moving blobs, but there's a lot of energy down there.

And just like in zero-g, there's nowhere for the energy to go, so the molecules sort of wiggle and writhe about just like the chain here.

Anyway, my other idea to test the theory was to hold the chain in something analogous to a pot.

In other words, just have it all bunched up somewhere

and then pull one end of the chain out of that bunched up mess at a constant speed.

And as you're pulling it, if you give it a shape, then it should hold that shape in space as it's leaving the pot.

It should just add into what you've already created without that shape changing.

The problem with that is it's basically impossible to pull something at a constant speed

and the clumped up beads just get tangled and they start to float apart.

And by the way, we only had 25 minutes for the call because a satellite was gonna go out of view.

Actually, a bit of a tangent about the tech behind the video call.

I put some Skype sounds in at the start of this video because I thought it was funny.

But of course, you can't use Skype to talk to someone in space because...

I mean, you need to think about satellites and how are you going to...

It was Microsoft Teams.

It was a Teams call.

And like, there was basically no lag.

I don't understand how they did it.

But anyway, I had one more idea for how to test the theory.

What if we turn the chain into a loop and then put the loop into a non-circular shape like a rectangle?

My idea was to then grab the opposite sides of the rectangle and then like pull them like that.

So that you're not throwing the chain anywhere, you're just giving the chain motion like around the loop of chain.

Intuitively you would expect it to pop out into a circle, but if my theory is right then it should hold that rectangular shape.

Third hand we're making a triangle and we're gonna release it together.

One, two, three.

Three.

It's really...

It's impossible.

But obviously we couldn't actually get the chain to form that shape and hold that shape without anyone touching it,

because chain just doesn't do what you want it to do in zero gravity.

On Earth it's so easy to get something to stop moving, you just put it down.

And when you took your hand away from the bead chain there was just so much energy in there already, it just kind of spreads out.

But we just needed to get some non-circular shape and we needed to get the chain flowing.

Yes.

Hey, look at that.

It's almost a circle now.

That's very cool, isn't it?

Yeah, it is.

Which is actually interestingly not what I expected because I was expecting it not to pop out into a circle.

Look at that.

It started, it's still rotating and I think the radial acceleration is going to straighten this thing out.

Let's just keep it going.

You've done stuff with like a drop of water and a bubble and things like that haven't you?

Where you've got this you've got this surface tension that's turning into a sphere or a circle.

You don't have that here.

So I don't think it ever will turn into a circle.

That's the thing that is hopefully going to demonstrate this weird thing about chains.

How cool is that though?

It does seem to be holding its shape.

Look, even from this angle, you can see part of the chain was actually bent out towards Don

and that part of the chain shape is holding too.

But Don has a point actually, the chain does seem to be very slowly turning into a circle, or at least it's becoming more rounded.

So does that mean I'm wrong?

Well, the mathematical analysis assumes that there is no friction between the joints of the chain.

And I had a suspicion that that might be why the real chain is slowly becoming circular.

So I asked my friend Martin to simulate different scenarios for me.

Here, there's no friction between the joints.

But look what happens when we turn friction on.

Over time, the chain becomes more and more circular.

So I think it's fair to say that the chain is behaving how we would expect.

Actually we discovered a few other really interesting things on the call.

100

You are so right this behaves totally different than a string

101

because of the lack of friction at every joint

102

and thread for sewing it sticks out fairly straight It's inherent stiffness shows up.

103

But here with these low friction joints between every segment, it's amazing what this thing does.

104

It's so interesting, isn't it?

105

How many things behave completely differently when you remove gravity.

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I had no idea that rope and string would just straighten out because of the elasticity in it.

107

So you've got an intuition for how string and rope behaves on the ISS.

108

And then the chain doesn't behave like that.

109

You see, I could actually steer the string around by torquing on the yoya,

110

but a beaded chain has the mind of its own.

111

It responds to air current.

112

Yeah.

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It responds to gravity gradient.

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If you don't have air currents, it'll end up stretching out in the direction of the gravity gradient if you leave it alone.

115

No. It's really quite amazing.

116

It doesn't work the way we thought it was going to work, but then that's what it's like when you're doing a discovery.

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So this is around the world, and then this is the tether of cyst.

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So when you are in weightlessness, you get to make up your own yo-yo trick names.

119

And then let's see if I can make it come better.

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There we go.

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Prior to the call, Don was experimenting with static charge, which meant we could loosely hold one end of the chain in place.

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Whoa!

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Whoa!

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See?

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It's...

126

Oh, that's crazy.

127

Yeah.

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And I have video of this with a nice black background.

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Circular wave.

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Hold off again.

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And notice now with one free end,

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it's really tough to control it, send a wave down.

133

Each bead here is about three millimeters.

134

I put a string of French clips together, and these are 50 millimeter links.

135

And I just want to show you that this behaves just like the beaded chain,

136

but the leg scale is 3 millimeters to 50 millimeters.

137

You might be wondering how all this came about, by the way.

138

Well, after I made that video in my loft, I've been milking it ever since.

139

In fact, you could argue that my entire career is built on a flailing chain of beads.

140

Like, at one point, I held the world record for the tallest chain fountain, but eventually it was taken by a TV show in China, until I took it back.

141

Three, two, one.

142

What the hell happened there?

143

And I guess at some point a three-story high sculpture was erected in Guatemala.

144

And of course I got into a real public feud with that scoundrel electro-boom about it.

145

And it was during that video argument that I mentioned the behaviour that we've been looking for here.

146

So in that video I asked if anyone knows how to get the attention of someone on the International Space Station,

147

let me know know well stefan ennis from the european space agency got in touch thanks stefan

148

and eventually samantha christopheretti climbed aboard a rocket with four meters

149

of bead chain in her pocket unfortunately she was quite busy what with being the commander of

150

that mission so she didn't really have an awful lot of time to be fiddling about with beads.

151

But she got the chain up there, and that's an important first step.

152

And brilliantly, she put me in touch with another astronaut, Don Pettit.

153

Now, the great thing about Don is you can nerd snipe him.

154

Oh, look at that.

155

Look at that.

156

I mean, there's a lot of great things about Don.

157

But anyway, I explained about the bead chain currently languishing on the International Space Station.

158

And he really got into it.

159

And he said he'd look for the beads next time he was up there.

160

And then at some point we were emailing about the experiments.

161

And he said, you know, look, it's hard to really communicate over email.

162

Let's have a video call.

163

I was like, yes, that would be amazing.

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Just on a personal note, this was obviously a once in a lifetime experience.

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Just unbelievable.

166

There was a period as a kid where I wanted to be an astronaut.

167

But the job that I ended up having, which is making science videos on YouTube, somehow means that I ended up having a video call with one.

168

And like we were doing science together.

169

science that had never been done before you know it just I almost can't believe it happened

170

but yeah beads in space I think I peaked literally a huge thank you to Issa

171

and Samantha and Don

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and NASA for making it happen an extra big thank you

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to John Stevens the person on the ground at NASA who put the video call together, made sure that all worked because honestly,

174

like I was pretty nervous about it because we only had one shot.

175

It was 25 minutes and my internet at home was terrible.

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So I had to, you know, set up somewhere else that had good internet.

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And John just made it all really smooth, put my mind at ease.

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The full conversation unedited plus Don's extra footage that he filmed for me outside of the video call,

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unedited, is available over on my Patreon.

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Link in the description for that.

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Oh, also thank you to Rohan Francis from Medlife Crisis because he was all over this, even before I got in touch with Esaf.

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Look at him go.

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So there you go, that's the evidence that we have from space.

184

What do you think?

185

Does it prove that a chain will flow through a fixed shape in the absence of gravity?

186

Does it change your opinion of my explanation of the chain fountain?

187

It was a great demonstration seeing it pass through the same path through the loop

188

and your explanation about why it would eventually turn into a full circle due to friction was pretty adequate.

189

So I guess I agree with everything you said in your video and don't have to embarrass myself making another debunk video.

190

Although you didn't quite demonstrate if the path will remain the same if the chain wasn't in a loop.

191

Another stimulation might be nice,

192

but what would be better is to take 100 meters of chain into space and drag it behind you in a spacewalk. Do it!

193

We just got the rug pulled out from under us, Steve.

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It's been so interesting, so interesting to see it.

195

yeah it is and and it was been really good actually talking to you so i could understand

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you know what we want to look for it looks like

197

we're just gonna walk off the end of our keu band

198

and then i'm gonna have to vacate because i think that's it okay wow oh

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Vocabulaire et conseils d’expression pour cette leçon

Cette leçon d’expression orale de niveau B2 s’appuie sur la vidéo « NASA tested my chain theory in space ». Les mots qui reviennent le plus souvent : chain, shape, space, bead, gravity. Cette vidéo contient 198 phrases et 2564 mots à répéter en shadowing. La partie parlée dure 15:02. Le locuteur parle à un rythme naturel d’environ 171 mots par minute, proche d’une conversation courante. 84 % des mots font partie des 3 000 mots les plus courants en anglais ; le reste mérite d’être vu avant de commencer.

Vocabulaire clé de cette vidéo

Les 15 mots les plus avancés de la vidéo, avec leur prononciation et leur sens :

Mot	Prononciation	Sens
bead nom	/ˈbiːd/	grain
fountain nom	/ˈfaʊn.tɪn/	fontaine
behave verbe	/bɪˈheɪv/	se comporter
friction nom	/ˈfɹɪkʃən/	frottement, friction
circular adjectif	/ˈsɜɹ.kjə.ləɹ/	circulaire
yank verbe	/ˈjæŋk/	tirer d'un coup sec
astronaut nom	/ˈæstɹəˌnɔt/	astronaute
float verbe	/fləʊt/	flotter
gradient nom	/ˈɡɹeɪdiənt/	pente
rectangle nom	/ˈrɛktæŋɡl̩/	rectangle
loft nom	/lɔft/	grenier
stationary adjectif	/ˈsteɪʃəˌnɛɹi/	stationnaire
molecule nom	/ˈmɑ.lɪ.kjul/	molécule
whoa	/woʊ/	ho, holà
rope nom	/ɹoʊp/	corde

Les verbes à particule que vous entendrez

Mot	Prononciation	Sens
end up verbe		se terminer, se finir
figure out verbe		cerner
make up verbe	/ˌmeɪk ˈʌp/	constituer, composer
pass through verbe		traverser
set up verbe	/ˌsɛt ˈʌp/	mettre en place, installer
show up verbe		apparaître, se montrer se pointer
speed up verbe	/spiːdˈʌp/	accélérer
stick out verbe		dépasser, saillir

Des phrases à répéter

Des phrases courtes et complètes de la vidéo, à réutiliser dans la conversation de tous les jours :

I don't understand how they did it.
That's very cool, isn't it?
Let's just keep it going.
You don't have that here.
So does that mean I'm wrong?

La grammaire de cette vidéo

Les structures que le locuteur utilise le plus, avec les mots exacts de la vidéo :

Structure	Dans la vidéo
Phrases conditionnelles if + proposition, will/would + verbe — une condition et son résultat	If you don't have air currents, it'll end · if the path will remain
Present perfect continu have/has been + -ing — une action commencée avant et toujours en cours	I've been milking · we've been looking
Voix passive be + participe passé — l’accent est mis sur ce qui arrive, pas sur qui le fait	be tested · be accepted · was given
Present perfect have/has + participe passé — une action passée qui compte encore maintenant	you've already created · You've done · It's been

Prononciation à surveiller

Le locuteur utilise 46 contractions et formes réduites, comme you've, don't, we're. Prononcez-les sous leur forme courte, telles que vous les entendez.

Les sons « th »: tether /ˈtɛðəɹ/, writhe /ɹaɪð/, mathematical /ˌmæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪ.kəl/, mathematics /mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/
Les sons « sh » et « zh »: friction /ˈfɹɪkʃən/, stationary /ˈsteɪʃəˌnɛɹi/, languish /ˈlæŋ.ɡwɪʃ/, intuition /ˌɪn.tjuːˈɪʃ.ən/, stimulation /stɪm.jʊˈleɪ.ʃən/
Mots longs — placez bien l’accent: stationary /ˈsteɪʃəˌnɛɹi/, analogous /əˈnæl.ə.ɡəs/, elasticity /ɪ.læsˈtɪs.ɪ.ti/, intuition /ˌɪn.tjuːˈɪʃ.ən/, rectangular /ɹɛkˈtæŋɡjəlɚ/

Les sons difficiles pour les francophones :

/h/ — il se souffle, il n’est pas muet: behave /bɪˈheɪv/, inherent /ɪnˈhɪəɹənt/
/tʃ/ et /dʒ/ — à ne pas adoucir en « ch » et « j »: tangent /ˈtæn.d͡ʒənt/, perpetual /pɚˈpɛt͡ʃuəl/, sculpture /ˈskʌlpt͡ʃɚ/
/r/ anglais — langue recourbée, sans frotter la gorge: friction /ˈfɹɪkʃən/, circular /ˈsɜɹ.kjə.ləɹ/, astronaut /ˈæstɹəˌnɔt/, gradient /ˈɡɹeɪdiənt/, rectangle /ˈrɛktæŋɡl̩/

Comment s’entraîner avec cette vidéo

Écoutez la vidéo en entier une fois sans parler et notez les mots que vous ne connaissez pas.
Commencez à la vitesse 0,75×, répétez phrase par phrase, puis revenez à la vitesse normale quand cela devient facile.
Enregistrez-vous et comparez avec l’original, en faisant attention à des mots comme bead, fountain, behave.

Qu'est-ce que la technique du Shadowing ?

Le Shadowing est une technique d'apprentissage des langues fondée sur la science, développée à l'origine pour la formation des interprètes professionnels. Le principe est simple mais puissant : vous écoutez de l'anglais natif et le répétez immédiatement à voix haute — comme une ombre suivant le locuteur avec un décalage de 1 à 2 secondes. Les recherches montrent une amélioration significative de la précision de la prononciation, de l'intonation, du rythme, des liaisons, de la compréhension orale et de la fluidité.

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Pratique du Shadowing: NASA tested my chain theory in space - Apprendre l'anglais à l'oral avec la vidéo

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