Shadowing Practice: I Built a Roller Coaster In My Lab - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
B2
This is the most epic birthday party ever!
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This is the most epic birthday party ever!
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It's got a jet-powered tire swing,
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a custom-built roller coaster, and an indoor sledding hill with actual snow.
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And I set all this up to surprise the world's most deserving kid.
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Safety is for losers!
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YAAAHHHHH!
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And importantly, three months ago, none of this existed.
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Because that's
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when I reached out to a friend of mine who many consider to be the greatest engineer this world has ever known.
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Oh, hey Mark.
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Phineas!
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I'm planning on throwing the world's greatest birthday party for this kid named Ethan.
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I can explain later.
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For now, I need to know if you've got any ideas.
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Oh, that's a great question, Mark.
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One time, Ferb and I made the world's first rocket-powered tire swing.
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You'll just need a tire,
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your standard Illumon parts, don't forget your high-powered rockets.
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Oh, and as you can see,
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as long as you don't remove this screw, you'll be fine.
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You do realize that breaks,
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like, seven laws of physics, right?
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Well, we're working with cartoon physics,
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but I trust you can figure it out.
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In the meantime, I was thinking Ferb and I could take a crack at your world record-breaking elephant toothpaste experiment.
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Oof, I think we both have our work cut out for us.
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I'll talk to you later.
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Now, I knew from personal experience,
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if you can pull off a Phineas and Ferb invention in real life,
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it makes for a really epic party with 15 tons of jello to spare.
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But the problem here was their rocket powered tire swing leaned
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very heavily on the creative boundaries of cartoon physics with estimated peak forces
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that would be 35 times what a human could endure.
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So as a first pass,
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I just slapped two rockets with 2500 newton seconds total impulse to a single chain mounted to a tire swing
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and generously gave our 180 pound crash test dummy Newton first dibs on the ride of his life.
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Initiator is on!
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This is to test my hypothesis why Phineas and Ferb is an animated show.
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3, 2, 1!
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And after the smoke cleared We lost our pants That was the most powerful de-pancing in history.
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The single chain is gonna make it tough
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So to keep us from immediately spinning out of control
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and potentially losing all our dignity in the process We doubled the chains for more stability.
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Here we go.
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And this time, let it rip!
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The exact same thing happened.
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Oh no. He can't keep his clothes on.
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I think only one of them ignited,
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and a high-speed camera replay revealed that's exactly what happened.
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So once we fixed the faulty ignition wire, we tried again.
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Go!
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Yeah!
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It's gone!
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Causing Newton, which I'll remind you weighs more than I do,
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to launch 10 feet into the air, completing the stylish dismount.
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That was definitely both that time.
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His shoes are on!
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That's a W!
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And while the dual chain configuration did provide a lot more stability,
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the slo-mo revealed there was really no way to reliably keep
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the thrust vector aligned in the best direction to loop us around.
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This is too squirrely, we need to go to rigid chains.
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So to fix that, we swapped the two chains with two solid rods.
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Igniter's hot!
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3, 2, 1, GO!
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SWIM!
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I can't see it!
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As you can see here,
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the rocket forces were so high,
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it ripped our entire half-ton steel swing structure out from the stakes anchoring it into the ground.
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Lift off!
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He's gone!
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He's gone!
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Alright, well that's a successful rocket swing.
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Now we just gotta figure out how to make it slightly more safe.
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So we were off to a promising start.
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We just needed a little more inspiration.
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Hey Mark, how's the build?
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It's got a little work left,
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but it's getting less lethal by the minute.
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I do feel though that the party needs a little something more.
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I've got it!
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How about you build them a backyard roller coaster like the one we made at the beginning of summer?
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Steel tracks, carts with seat belts,
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and of course, be sure to add extra thermal shielding for when you re-enter the atmosphere.
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Aren't you a little young to be building things that require extra thermal shielding for when they re-enter the atmosphere?
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Yes.
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Yes I am.
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Well, good luck!
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Oh, gotta go!
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Herb just arrived with our star of the show!
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No!
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Phineas, you don't need an- Talk to you later, Mark!
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Ugh, that's gonna get messy.
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Now the good thing about roller coasters is unlike two story tall rocket power tire swings,
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roller coasters actually exist.
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So I did what any self-respecting engineer would do as a first step,
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and conducted some tedious research.
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Now I knew that finding the perfect Goldilocks zone for our birthday guest would be critical.
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Not so extreme it sends him back to the hospital
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but also not so boring it feels like watching a William Osmond video.
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So armed with all the learnings from our tedious research,
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we set out to build the perfect indoor roller coaster for my buddy Ethan.
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By the way, this is Ethan.
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And what you should know about Ethan is he was recently diagnosed with a rare
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and severely debilitating neurological condition that left him bedridden,
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causing him to miss most of his school year.
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In fact, his pain and nausea was so severe,
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he couldn't even walk from one room to another.
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But the other thing you should know about Ethan is he's incredibly resilient.
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And after a full year,
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he'd recovered enough to make his way back to school.
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And as luck would have it,
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he not only had a birthday party coming up,
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but he was also a massive Phineas and Ferb fan.
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Which was perfect, because we had our first prototype of the world's greatest Phineas and Ferb indoor roller coaster ready to test.
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Okay, ma'am, here we go!
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What?
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Let's go, let's go!
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Oooh!
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Oh no!
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I think we're gonna have to check our calculations.
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Yup.
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So I called up some of my buddies who are really good at this,
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and they introduced me to the efficiency of their calculations,
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while I introduced them to the efficiency of a 10 second build montage.
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And while not yet perfect,
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we were certainly on the right track.
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Now we just needed a few more of them.
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Good.
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And things were coming along great,
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but if I was going to get approval from the world's most creative engineer,
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it would need a little something extra.
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So I took a closer look at their original coaster and while we definitely can't send Ethan to France,
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we definitely could send him through a snake drop,
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a mud bucket, and a full-on car wash.
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Snakes on a train in three, two, one!
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Snakes, check.
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This build was elegant.
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Our snakes pairing beautifully with a catapult calibrated mud bath.
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Ah!
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That's why we wear safety glasses.
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Why are you smiling so much?
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You ready?
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Clean me off!
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Followed by a cleansing soap scrub infused with eucalyptus oil at 40 miles an hour.
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That ought to do it.
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Gonna need a bit of a rinse off!
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And finally air drying with a gentle breeze.
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Okay!
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Okay!
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Clean as a whistle.
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Oh good.
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So now with both the roller coaster and the rocket swing pretty much ready to go,
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I opted for a check-in.
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Hey Mark, how's it going?
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I mean, it's getting there,
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but how do we really make this the best birthday party ever?
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How about...
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Swinter?
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It's like summer in winter.
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All you need is a snow cone maker and a bunch of jet-powered fans.
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But be sure to keep your windows closed.
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You really don't want to bring Swinter inside your house.
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Cuneus, you pointed-headed genius, I think you're onto something.
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Alright.
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Oh, while I have you,
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Ferb and I were wondering if your elephant preferred mint or bubblegum flavoring bubblegum flavoring.
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Neither!
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Don't you boys think you're taking this a little too literally?
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No!
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No we don't.
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Alright, well see ya!
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He hung up.
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Snowing indoors?
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How hard could this be?
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Turns out a lot harder than the cartoon solution of snow cone makers and fans.
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So I invited out an old friend to help.
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Oh my god.
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This is crazy.
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This is Fletcher, and if he looks familiar to you,
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that's because five years ago I surprised him with a special birthday party of his own,
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where he triggered the first ever Devil's toothpaste explosion,
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and then broke the world record for the highest elephant toothpaste experiment.
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Now at the time, Fletcher was dealing with a very rare form of brain cancer,
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and since so many of you have asked for an update over the years, here it is.
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I'm five years free of any sign of disease,
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and I'm a senior in high school that's going to college.
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And you are almost as tall as me.
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I'm going to say I'm still taller.
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So I explained to him the engineering challenge of creating a non-cartoon indoor snowstorm,
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Fletcher was all in.
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Alright, let's do it.
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Yeah, the problem is I don't know how.
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I don't have- don't look at me.
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With that uninspiring kickoff, we decided to just try some items we had lying around Crunch Laps.
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Far than I was expecting.
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Our first thought was grating styrofoam,
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but it turns out that's not only dangerous Ow!
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Just grated my finger
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But the static electricity buildup means it would rather stick to you than the ground Next up was using
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that water absorbing polymer you find in diapers
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But it turns out it's not very good for making snowballs It's way too slippery I'm good And on top of that,
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the amount of diapers required would be half a metric,
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but ton Which all left us with only one option
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Hold this Here we go! dumping 80,000 pounds of actual ice into a wood chute.
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Oh!
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I think it's gonna work!
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God!
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Once I came in to check things out,
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Alright, Fletch, what do you think?
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It didn't take long for Fletcher to let the power go to his head.
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Oh!
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Oh!
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I can't!
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Ah!
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Mark?
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You okay?
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Yeah, I'm fine.
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But this is gonna work great.
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Now that we had a solution in hand,
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I needed Fletcher's help on one last finishing touch.
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Oh, it was Nathan.
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Just kidding.
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After which, he abruptly told me he had to go.
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See you later.
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What?
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Man, this is gonna take a while.
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A lot longer now with one person!
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We're making snow!
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Let's go!
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And four hours and 40 tons of ice later,
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all that was left was to nail the surprise.
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Eight months of planning and work comes down to this moment.
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There he is.
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Oh gosh, my heart's about to beat out of my chest.
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We had Ethan's parents tell him he was auditioning for a toy commercial
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so he wouldn't suspect anything we laid eyes on a balloon-laden indoor roller coaster resting on two feet of freshly packed snow.
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That's cold.
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But I had to act fast because Ethan was catching on quick.
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Why is there a crunch lounge?
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Hey Ethan, what's going on pal?
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No, no, no. I thought you might need a coat.
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Wait, I'm so confused.
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What is your favorite cartoon?
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Phineas and Fur probably?
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Have you seen the episode where they make the rocket-powered swing?
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Yeah.
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Have you seen the episode where they send the roller coaster to space?
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Yeah.
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Have you seen the episode Ethan called Swinter where they turned inside into winter?
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Yeah.
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This is Phineas and Ferb in real life.
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We're throwing you a birthday party today.
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Wha- N- H- You know what a banger party needs Ethan?
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A birthday cake?
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It does need a cake.
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Let's work on a cake.
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You know what it also needs though?
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I feel like we should have more people here.
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Do you have friends you'd want to invite?
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Yeah.
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And that was the cue to send in All of Ethan's best friends And also his loudest friends.
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Including his little sister, which meant that he had an important decision to make.
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Ethan, is it okay if they all hang out with us?
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Ethan, you better say yes.
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Five bucks.
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I have 77 cents!
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Okay, that goes for everyone.
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Yeah!
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Generous.
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When do you guys say we start with the rocket switch?
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Yeah!
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But before we kick off the party,
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I realize you're probably looking for a good way to spend your 104 days of summer vacation.
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We'll look no further, because it's here,
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and it's called Camp Crunch Labs.
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Camp Crunch Labs is your key to fighting that summer brain trip with an eight-week virtual space-themed summer camp
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that hops to each of the planets in our solar system,
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featuring weekly videos with mega experiments that I do,
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and super challenges that you do.
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And the best of these weekly challenge submissions earns one of these bad boys a platinum ticket,
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Giving you the chance to join me on my favorite planet
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for the biggest mega experiment of them all in the final episode of the summer.
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Oi!
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Oi!
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Oi!
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Oi!
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On top of that, usually the Crunch Labs build boxes will build a super fun toy together.
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Learning all the juicy physics how they work comes once a month.
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But to coincide with Space Cam Crunch Labs' weekly challenges and videos all summer long,
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we'll ship them to you every week.
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Let's go.
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So if you want an eight week summer camp where you can travel the cosmos while learning to think like an engineer,
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With an absolute zero percent chance of bug bites and poison ivy,
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head to campcrushlabs.com to reserve one of the limited spots,
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and I'll see you in camp.
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Back at the party, it was time to see
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if I'd actually accomplished turning three Phineas and Ferb cartoon marvels into real life.
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Starting first with the rocket swing.
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You guys want to see it go?
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What?
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What did that happen?
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You might notice we swapped the rockets out for a pair of 24 volt electric turbines.
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This provided two advantages.
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First, we learned from testing that big rockets make a lot of smoke.
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Hold your breath!
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Which is not ideal for your lungs or your smoke alarm.
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And second, if you pulse the turbines at the exact natural frequency of the swing I take my lungs!
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Which is exactly what you naturally do when you pump your legs on a swing,
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by the way.
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Well, then you can add more and more energy to the swing Oh no!
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Until it has enough Come on,
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come on, come on, come on!
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To clear the bar.
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Yeah!
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Come on, come on!
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That's real!
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And even with their modifications,
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a thought suddenly occurred to me.
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That seems really dangerous!
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My protest fell on deaf ears.
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Safety is for losers!
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Yeah!
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Seeing as he was such a tough guy all of a sudden,
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I decided to use Ethan to get a bass line.
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Here we go, Ethan, here we go!
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To see how high you could swing if you just had to rely on your boring old muscles.
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Let's go!
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Wow!
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And the answer was pretty much horizontal.
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Ethan, you're kinda going high.
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High shmai.
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Now it was my turn to see what would happen if you added 14,000 RPMs of propulsion.
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Okay, are you guys ready?
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Yeah!
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Of course, the number one rule
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when demoing a potentially disastrous engineering build at a kid's birthday is that you definitely want to do it before you...
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I've never done this before!
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What do you mean you've never done this before?
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This is my first test!
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Has it been tested?
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No!
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Uh oh.
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No!
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Yeah!
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Yeah!
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Yeah!
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Yeah!
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Yeah!
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And the only feeling better than pulling off a build like this,
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is how you feel when you finally get off a build like this.
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Oh my gosh!
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That looks so nauseating!
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Ethan, you're next!
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roller coaster finale, I decided we should take a little swinter break,
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starting with some snow cones,
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You're ready for a snowball fight!
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Yeah!
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And some snowballs.
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However unfortunately for them, certain habits Yeah!
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Are hard to kick.
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Oh!
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Headshot!
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Who's next?
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Oh, that was- Oh, that was- Ha ha ha!
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Eat him!
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And then suddenly and very undeservedly I might add I wasn't over my head.
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Wait, why is everyone aiming at me?
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Okay, truth?
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Who wants to go sledding?
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Go Henry!
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High five!
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Ethan was really encouraging with his friends.
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He's out late!
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That is when he wasn't attacking.
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Hey!
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Go Bam!
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After we had our filled with snowballs and sledding,
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it was time to test out the final and most audacious Phineas and Ferb in real life engineering bill.
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Now up the stakes, Ethan reminded me what their coaster was actually like in the show.
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There was like snakes and like a car wash and a bunch of stuff.
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So if this is really Phineas and Ferb right here- He'd be a triangle.
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Oh yeah, if this was Phineas and Ferb, he'd be a triangle.
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Fair.
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Fair.
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But I wasn't going to make Ethan ride solo,
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so I had no choice but to buckle up.
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I'm nervous!
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Yes!
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Ethan, are you nervous?
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Three!
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What?
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Two!
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Oh gosh!
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One!
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Go!
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And while the snakes were fake, the mud was real.
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Oh no!
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Oh no!
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Oh my!
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The final step, of course,
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was to rinse off in Science Bob's 20 mile an hour car wash...
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Oh, no!
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Goodbye!
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Oh, no!
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We're pulling to a halt in front of a massive blow dryer so we could dry off.
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Nice and clean?
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Yeah.
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Yes.
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You won't have to shower tonight at least.
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I doubt that, but um...
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So now that all three of our inventions were tested and Ethan approved...
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Thank you.
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So it's time to give Ethan a well-deserved 15 second party montage.
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Ethan, I also have a confession.
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I didn't pull this off on my own,
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I had a little help.
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What do you mean?
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Hey Phineas!
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Look what we did!
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Whoa!
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You know, for not relying on cartoon physics, that looks so fun!
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I'm happy it all worked out for you.
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Now for the elephant toothpaste experiment!
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Whoa, make sure Ferb isn't too close!
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Whoops.
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Wow, it looks like you got a lot of cleanup on your hand.
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You want us to help?
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Actually, our cleanup usually takes care of itself.
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See?
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No muss, no fuss.
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Bye, Mark.
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Sorry Ethan, but that trick will not work in real life.
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Am I cleaning up?
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Grab a shovel and let's clean this up.
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Oh my legs!
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Oh my god.
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Now that Ethan's been given the best birthday ever,
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why not join us for the best summer ever with Space Camp Crunchlots.
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The 8 week virtual space themed summer camp designed to help fight that summer brain drain.
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So check out campcrunchlots.com with your parents and reserve one of the limited spots,
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and I'll see you at camp.
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Thank you.
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Context & Background
The video titled "I Built a Roller Coaster In My Lab" showcases a unique and exciting birthday party where the speaker, alongside a talented engineer, creates extraordinary attractions for a deserving child. The dialogue is filled with creativity, excitement, and a touch of humor, illustrating how imaginative ideas can come to life. The speaker emphasizes the necessity of safety while playfully acknowledging that some inventions push the boundaries of physics, providing a fun and educational insight into the world of engineering and physics. This context serves as a lively backdrop for those practicing their English speaking skills.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- “This is the most epic birthday party ever!” - A powerful expression to convey excitement.
- “Safety is for losers!” - A humorous take on taking risks; ideal for lighthearted conversations.
- “I need to know if you’ve got any ideas.” - An effective way to invite suggestions or feedback.
- “Let it rip!” - An informal phrase used to encourage someone to go for it or start something.
- “We lost our pants!” - A funny way to express an unexpected result or failure, perfect for storytelling.
Step-by-step Shadowing Guide
To effectively practice the language used in this video, implement the shadowing technique. Here’s how you can do it:
- Choose the Right Segment: Start with a short segment of the video, ideally where the speaker expresses excitement or shares an idea—a great place for IELTS speaking practice.
- Listen Carefully: Play the segment and listen multiple times. Focus on the intonation and emotion in the speaker's voice.
- Repeat Aloud: Use the shadowspeaks method; speak along with the audio. Try to match the speed, tone, and expression as closely as possible.
- Record Yourself: Listen to your recording and compare it with the original audio. Pay attention to areas where you can improve.
- Practice in Context: Integrate these phrases into your nightly routine. Use them in conversations or while recalling your day to enhance your english speaking practice.
By following this structured approach, you can build confidence and improve your speaking skills effectively. Remember, consistent practice through shadowing not only enhances your vocabulary but also helps with pronunciation, making you more fluent in English communication.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.
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