Randomnies: Slow Motion Videos by Modernist Cuisine

Slow motion, high speed videos from the Modernist Cuisine photo team.

Slow motion video of a large water balloon being popped.

High speed video shot with a phantom v.12 of popcorn popping.

Slow motion video of a a stream of oil poured onto a hot coal.

Coffee Creamer high speed video

Series of video clips showing the leidenfrost effect* in action

"This video is actually showing drops of liquid nitrogen; ice is from the ladel I was using to produce the drops is what you are seeing trapped inside the nitrogen."

Image via Wikipedia

* The Leidenfrost effect is a phenomenon in which a liquid, in near contact with a mass significantly hotter than the liquid's boiling point, produces an insulating vapor layer which keeps that liquid from boiling rapidly. This is most commonly seen when cooking; one sprinkles drops of water in a skillet to gauge its temperature—if the skillet's temperature is at or above the Leidenfrost point, the water skitters across the metal and takes longer to evaporate than it would in a skillet that is above boiling temperature, but below the temperature of the Leidenfrost point. The effect is also responsible for the ability of liquid nitrogen to skitter across lab floors, collecting dust in the process. It has also been used in some potentially dangerous demonstrations, such as dipping a wet finger in molten lead or blowing out a mouthful of liquid nitrogen, both enacted without injury to the demonstrator. It should be noted that such experiments are potentially lethal.

It is named after Johann Gottlob Leidenfrost, who discussed it in A Tract About Some Qualities of Common Water in 1756.

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