I have a lot of experience working with gauge blocks in a calibration lab. We had different sets of block gauge of different "class". The class defines how perfect the gauge is, and the perfection is measured in terms of the tolerance regarding it's nominal length, but also in the flatness and roughness of the faces. The best gauges has a parallelism + flatness error combined of 0.05 microns, that is 50 nanometers. That's insane. While that is still a few orders of magnitude bigger than the Fe atom, I suppose it has to allow for millions of atom pairs between the 2 blocks to be in very close proximity. What I found is that, when clean of oil, the better blocks have better better adhesion (and sometimes much better, to the point of really struggling to take them apart, the only way was to use another block to push one of them out by sliding sideways). How much of that is because of just better vacuum and how much is because of more atom pairs being in closer contact, I don't know.

@shitpostingforjesus4092

2 жыл бұрын

Ok

@CraftAero

2 жыл бұрын

We never, EVER use oil on Joe blocks. Acetone, a clean sheet of printer paper and proper wringing technique (not shown) works wonders.

@THESLlCK

2 жыл бұрын

@@shitpostingforjesus4092 piss

@TheDeepDiveLLC

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you

@adb012

2 жыл бұрын

@@CraftAero ... Put the blocks at 90 degrees (like a cross) and rotate. If one or both blocks are thin (risk of bending), put them on a thicker block first.

I would love to see this scaled up to mult-Kg sized items. Would be interesting to push it. Cool viddy.

@jhonsqueaks4573

2 жыл бұрын

Why No Videos!!?.😭😭.

@datgaydangernoodle1315

2 жыл бұрын

Good idea

@emiraryaputra4900

2 жыл бұрын

wouldn't the square cube law apply here? assuming the object material is the same, it would have same density, so more volume= more mass. with less surface area:volume ratio, the weight of the object (f=mg) > than the bond between those 2 objects (via wringing), so they wouldnt stick together

@dogwalker666

2 жыл бұрын

Machine blocks on a the bed way can do this we have to use a 50Tonne Gantry crane to get them apart.

@westonding8953

2 жыл бұрын

@Deborah Ajao and electric sea metallic bonding too.

I just learned about "Gauge Block Wringing" 5 minutes before finding this video, and I must say that I'm completely fascinated by this phenomena.

@firebad0

2 ай бұрын

Metal can sometimes instantly weld in space, if you find this video interesting, the same phenomenon has been observed in space

@malto_only

18 күн бұрын

Same

I'm a machinist and when I was working in aerospace we used these a lot as standards for our measuring instruments. When we had time to talk to eachother, we would sometimes argue for hours about what it was that kept them together. Some would say vacuum and some would say surface tension. Nice to see someone has solved it.

I was always amazed how gauge blocks stick so well. Thank you action lab for answering our silly doubts. 😅.

These are the types of science projects that I love the most! Simple, yet interesting concepts that are experimented with scientific method, giving us a chance to learn and have fun in the same time.

@prestonburton8504

Жыл бұрын

and there in may lie the answer to many of the questions unanswered. I've always believed we teach too complex - like field theory against electron flow?

someone: actually ask me whether its air pressure, surface tension or the atomic forces keeping gauge blocks together me: yes

@kaboomkid5

2 жыл бұрын

Yes

@lordshuv-rowyoknow6486

2 жыл бұрын

Option d, of of the above

@THESLlCK

2 жыл бұрын

Well there’s no air in between them so I’d say it’s a vacuum

@xathridtech727

2 жыл бұрын

Why not both

@stephen_boss

2 жыл бұрын

Yes

Could you redo the experiment and attach a gauge + spring resistance to measure the force contribution of each factor? Thanks

@westonding8953

2 жыл бұрын

Great idea! I thought about that a bit too. A bit tricky in the vacuum but he can probably try to macguyver a solution!

@fridaycaliforniaa236

2 жыл бұрын

I was about to say that ^^

@Russianmafia10

2 жыл бұрын

It's also hard to wring in a vacuum. The correct way is to push and twist them together.

56 years old, and this is the first I am hearing of this! The world is just incredible.

As i was throwing away some packaging the other day i was wondering what polystyrene looks like in a vacuum chamber.

@ephemeralvapor8064

2 жыл бұрын

Polystyrene/styrofoam are mainly affected by static electricity in vacuum due to their light weight/low mass not being affected by gravity much compared to their electrostatic potential afaik.

@klave8511

2 жыл бұрын

I use polystyrene blocks to displace air when I’m evacuating epoxy, makes it much quicker. It’s not an incredible vacuum but the polystyrene is completely unaffected, visually anyway.

@Blox117

2 жыл бұрын

it looks exactly the same. im guessing you mean polystyrene foam?

Yes, all 4 forces : air pressure, oil surface tension, atomic forces ( = coulomb- and, van der Waals forces) and..... the Cassimir Effect.

@seancampbell4564

2 жыл бұрын

I was wondering why he never mentioned the Cassimir Effect. It has just as big a role, if not bigger, than the atomic force.

@minamagdy4126

2 жыл бұрын

I assume it's what he meant (likely by accident) by air pressure, unless I understand the effect wrong

@alansmithee419

2 жыл бұрын

@@minamagdy4126 When he said air pressure he meant you are making a vacuum between the metals. This means there is no outward pressure between the metal pieces, and the atmospheric pressure on the opposing face of the blocks pushes them inwards towards each other. The Casimir effect is a completely unrelated thing to air pressure, and would work in a vacuum.

@minamagdy4126

2 жыл бұрын

@@alansmithee419 thanks for the reminder that the Cassimir effect is more or less the quantum mechanics version of the air-pressure effect, I did misremember

Dang Non magnetic pieces of metal sticking to each other with a lot of force This is genuinely really interesting

@imakeeditsiwillbeatevil9346

2 жыл бұрын

Ye ikr lol

@pumpkin8222

2 жыл бұрын

Communism has failed every time it was attempted, I don't care that this is irrelevant

@chandrahasreddy1729

2 жыл бұрын

I didn't understand.. how did they stick?

@The_Tormented_One

2 жыл бұрын

@@chandrahasreddy1729 re-watch the video.

@midleno8364

2 жыл бұрын

@@pumpkin8222 true.

Those blocks just remind me about my old erasers meltdown under hot weather and sticking to everything around it

I love this. I asked this same question like 11 years ago when I was in vo-tech for tool and die and I couldn't get a decent enough answer. I still wondered because it was so odd to me. Not only there was an ideas of how, there was visual representations of them.

So is it, air pressure, surface tention of oil or atimoc forces? TheActionLab: yes

@THESLlCK

2 жыл бұрын

The answer is air pressure

@h3xagon488

2 жыл бұрын

@@THESLlCK *yes*

@TheTheninjagummybear

2 жыл бұрын

"Atimoc"?

@h3xagon488

2 жыл бұрын

@@TheTheninjagummybear *yes*

@davidpalmer9780

2 жыл бұрын

There's some quantum weirdness happening there.

I love how there's so many things that just keep two smooth pieces of metal together.

Amazing work young man. I enjoyed your presentation as well as explanation in a manner that is easy to understand.

The most important factor with the holding force is the quality of the contact surface finish. My practical experience: better finished blocks hold sufficient well without oil, less good finshed need oil! And this does not mean that the less good finished blocks are out of specs!!!

@Jiggledance

2 жыл бұрын

The problem with wringing with no oil is if you leave them for long periods, they will fuse together. For example, overnight. Good luck with breaking them free.

@tuttebelleke

2 жыл бұрын

@@Jiggledance I was not aware of that fact! I never left them long time together. And we name the oil a protection oil that we apply after use of the blocks, not a "fusion" oil.

I just started a machinery course and we were shown gauge block wringing and I was intrigued. I assumed number 3 was the reason for the bond since the teacher said these ones were in bad shape and needed to be cleaned and polished as there were some near permanent fingerprints on them. Number 3 makes the most sense to me because we know that in a true vacuum with absolutely zero oxygen like metals can contact weld. So this wringing effect as I am making sense of it in my head is like a super small scale velcro between the molecules of the blocks.

Well done. Deep research on the subject, good experiments to back it up and good conclusion. I wonder why there aren't vacuum and the right temperature.

3:06 a whole new level of controlling things in a vacuum chamber and we can use this to do magic tricks. 😆🤣 lol

Thank you for answering this question.

He is not like other experimenters who just break and blow things. I love his videos based on very unique concept ❤️

Hilarious i asked this question on Quora just like a couple months ago. Was wringing to do with air pressure or something else and no answer really was at all sure. This is such great timing. Very very cool to see...

My brother worked for an optics company and he had two pieces of glass which were so smooth they were PERMENANTLY bonded by "wringing" them together in a bucket of soapy water.

@imnewtothistuff

2 жыл бұрын

Multi camera and telescope lenses are assembled exactly the same way. No adhesive, just perfect glass to glass contact. They will never separate without damaging both lenses.

I absolutely love your videos. They serve not just as entertaining and educational for me, but my daughter as well. Every one of your experiments that I can afford to do, and is safe, I do with my daughter... I even do some of the less safe ones, with her observing from a point of safety behind a shield. I love how it makes her ask questions, some of which I had never thought of and didn't know the answers to. From an 8-year-old girl and her dad... thank you. You are the Bill Nye of this generation.

very good explanation, thank you for covering almost every topic i find interesting and what im curious about, you're literally the guy who covers almost every interesting "science" thing, thats funny because when i search about "science" thing i always encounter your channel XD, anyways thank you! (again)

Sixty Symbols has a vid on this but you demonstrated things in a new way and covered things they didn't. Great vid.

I love how this channel has no annoying ads in between the videos.

This is a very nice and tempting channel for science geeks(as well as non-science coz they do develop interest) . I love the videos👍🏻

Always wanted to get some gage blocks to try this experiment.

Nice experiment , you can measure the contact resistance between them with a milliohmetre if the tow metal touches each other, and if they are separated by a thin oil film they will act as a capacitor.

@Spedley_2142

2 жыл бұрын

Yes, I wondered if the oil improves the bond between the surfaces like a dielectric or 'magnetic core'

@charlieangkor8649

2 жыл бұрын

I think they will touch in 3 microscopic spots and be held by oil everywhere else.

@westelaudio943

5 ай бұрын

​@@charlieangkor8649 Hence, *milliohm* meter which should give you an idea of the actual contact area.

Great experiment! Cold welding uses the formation of molecular bonds between metal surfaces in a vacuum.

Thanks for this! I oftentimes used kerosene and meticulous cleaning to wring them together but they never STUCK so strongly as shown here. Seems the company I worked at had little actual skill about this important aspect of the work we did!

@TheActionLab

2 жыл бұрын

It sounds like you were cleaning the oil off which is the strongest reason they stick together

I was about to ask you to do a Cold Welding experiment, which is similar, but not the same effect. After doing a quick search I found you already did that. :-) Way to go! Keep it up!

We tried to stick them together at work. When clean we couldn't get them to stick, but just touching the edges put enough oil on them to make them stick. So, we thought that it was just the oil doing it. The question is, when you cleaned them, were they really perfectly clean, or did they still have some minute amount of oil on them?

@mincraftler444

2 жыл бұрын

When they are worn out quite a bit then they don't stick together as easy as when they are new. Thats probably why thex din't stuck together

@Astromath

2 жыл бұрын

Why is there even oil on them?

@my3dviews

2 жыл бұрын

@@Astromath Some people use a certain type of oil to prevent corrosion while being stored. They can also get oil from your fingers just from touching them.

@my3dviews

2 жыл бұрын

@@mincraftler444 Could be. Not sure how old the ones are at work, or how well they have been handled.

Just learned about cold welding in a vacuum. Would be a cool experiment to do in the vacuum chamber if it hasn't been done here yet.

It would be interesting to measure how much force is needed to separate them in each condition, to see if oil is stronger, or air, or bonds.

Amazing. I’d never heard of this effect.

Love the videos, keep 'em coming. Btw, was the box of gloves as expensive as the gauge blocks? Lol. Here in 2021?

Love your channels!

Cool Experiment!

it'd be awesome to have this guy as a physics professor

I thought they would be welded to each other in the vacuum

@timelsen2236

2 жыл бұрын

If they were rubbed to generate heat enough they would weld. Friction welding as done for rockets.

@douglasharley2440

2 жыл бұрын

if the surfaces were freshly-machined, and subjected to pressure, they would indeed cold-weld.

@irtheLeGiOn

2 жыл бұрын

@@timelsen2236 They are talking about cold welding not friction welding.

@Spedley_2142

2 жыл бұрын

@@douglasharley2440 That is a fair point. I wonder if the 25nm is to permit space for the oxide to form. It may be that the oil minimises the thickness of the oxide and prevents the block becoming unusable whilst also preventing them from welding together.

@seanurquhart3179

2 жыл бұрын

That's what I was wondering. If they were cold welding in the vacuum part.

You previously did a video on cold welding in a vacuum, could you discuss the possibilities with these, if it’s even possible because they are too smooth?

I'd like to see this with other materials,.and also dissimilar metals for each block

I worked at a double disc grinding shop and we basically specialized in making parts flat. I would be done with some small rectangles or even really precise parallels i would be able to slap em together and they would stick to each other. Also did steel plates and when placed on a precision granite it would be impossible to lift it off the granite. Compressed air would be needed to walk the parts off the granite table.

@imnewtothistuff

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you! You just proved my point perfectly!! 😀

@amanciobarragan5679

2 жыл бұрын

@@imnewtothistuff what point?

@imnewtothistuff

2 жыл бұрын

@@amanciobarragan5679 My original, earlier comment.

You could tether the bottom block to the chamber and then use a force gauge attached to the other to measure the strength of the attraction in each case as you pull them apart and get some quantitative data.

Action lab I love yr short vids over there you act like a mad scientist lol

@Ascientistsjourney

2 жыл бұрын

Science is magic to the untrained eye. 😅

Nice experiment. But I suggest tou to try cleaning the oil with some strong solvent, like acetone, and manipulate the blocks with gloves. You probably see a much stronger effect from the solid-solid adhesive forces.

Super good video, thanks

What about the Casimir effect? This might explain some of the attraction. At 10 nm of separation, conductive surfaces will exert about 14 psi or 100 kPa or 1 atmosphere of pressure against each other. I think the video said there was more space between the blocks than that, due to the oil, but there'd be some Casimir force.

@justinhughes2207

2 жыл бұрын

Interesting

@THESLlCK

2 жыл бұрын

So a vacuum

@anbayanyay

2 жыл бұрын

@@THESLlCK An inward pressure of around 14 PSI. This pressure exists even if the plates are in a vacuum. It's a pressure in the sense that it is a force that is proportional to the perpendicular area.

Action lab and vacuum chamber goes hand in hand!

@erstwhilegrubstake

2 жыл бұрын

Maybe it should be called "Action Vacuum" or "Action Chamber". Personally I think "Vac Action Lab 4090" would sound cool.

This actually makes me think of blocking we have at work when we make packaging materials from HDPE .. due to the cooling temperature of the HDPE after the extrusion the layers end up sticking together (there is inner blocking where the inside of the packing material sticks together and outside blocking where the outside of the packing material sticks when coiled) , think the same thing is happening with the gauge blocks .. heat is conducted into the blocks making them expand on a microscopic scale and when you press both together and release they cool rapidly and shrink causing them to stick.

A video on second law of thermodynamics with Enthalpy entropy and free energy

this guy and the other science Chanel’s teach me more than my science teacher

I did that experiment during my metrology class at Dawson College back in 2007.

There's also ZPE (The Casimir Effect) and Cold Welding (especially problematic among Stainless Steels)!

this is fascinating

Every time I come back I wish I never left but at least I've got a couple days of content to explore!

Anyone else remembers Veritasium's "Why Metals Spontaneously Fuse Together In Space" video from 2016?

Thanx...TIL wringing...Before opening this AL notification, I thought perhaps "Wringing" meant "Ringing", as when the sound waves distributes thru the srrounding medium (air or lack therof) when two or more hard metals are impacted by each other.

Always turning up something interesting AF

Thx for another vids

"Comment reserved for when I think about something funny to say"

@imakeeditsiwillbeatevil9346

2 жыл бұрын

Ok I’ll just edit this comment when you unreserve it

@imakeeditsiwillbeatevil9346

2 жыл бұрын

Lemme give you a suggestion keep it like this you’ll get a lot of likes

@YourPhysicsSimulator

2 жыл бұрын

@@imakeeditsiwillbeatevil9346 Okay, let's make the experiment

@imakeeditsiwillbeatevil9346

2 жыл бұрын

@@YourPhysicsSimulator ;)

@SilverVolo

2 жыл бұрын

Eight

I knew you lived in oregon for some reason. As soon as I saw you in a Columbia shirt and then a mt hood shirt that sealed the deal for me. That's cool. My wife and I are in tigard. So you guys actually moved from utah to here in oregon or the other way around?

I think it's oil viscosity. Any minute traces of oil will create a layer in between. If you want to move them apart, the layer needs to get thicker first, so oil from the edges must flow to the middle. But since the layer is so incredibly thin and the oil viscous, it requires a lot of force to flow. I think they are basically glued together with oil.

@jamesbra4410

29 күн бұрын

First of all what is surface tension at the atomic level and second of all ask yourself if the permittivity of the oil will enhance the electric field potentials

Cold welds....learned that in the early days in space sending metals without rubber or plastic joints would cause a bond so they couldn't open up antenna solarpanels....etc

how do you get all the interesting experiment ideas? it is like daily dose of internet but with science and every video is selfmade.

I think it's love that keeps them together

I would like to see a video explaining how a capstan assist works

Pls conduct double slit experiment in vacuum. Really nice videos.

How much do the sides of your vacuum chamber deflect under vacuum ?

If youtube and this guy would have existed back in 2005 I would’ve been a great scientist for sure. But I still watch every video and it fascinates com enlightens me every single time.

I'd be interested in seeing what would happen if they were put together in a vacuum. I wonder if it's cohesion would be stronger.

Is anyone familiar with the Canadian TV series, _Black Hole High_ ? I’m pretty sure that’s where I first saw this concept, in the episode “Friction”. Though, they explained it as interlocking nanoscale bumps, or something like that.

I think you need to heat up the blocks to make sure there is no microscopic residual water on the blocks that might help it in wringing too. It would be hard to do because I’m certain unless you were in an environment completely void of moisture, I’d imagine the humidity in the air deposits on the metal right away after heating it to dryness. There may even be a galvanic reaction between the metals (even though they are the same metal) accelerated by the moisture, which might be another reason the wringing is possible. Just a few other ideas I figured I’d throw your way even though I have no proof otherwise. Just something to consider that I haven’t ever heard anyone mention. Edit: Spelling correction.

I've seen stainless steel cold weld to itself. It's something I have to watch out for in my industry. Stainless isn't always the best option and sometimes a bit of oil makes all the difference.

Does it also work if the two blocks are made from a different metal ?

@TheActionLab

2 жыл бұрын

Yes it does. I’m this video he sticks a ceramic block to a metal block kzread.info/dash/bejne/kY2KucaxopOrj8o.html

@pumpkin8222

2 жыл бұрын

@@TheActionLab Communism has failed every time it was attempted, I don't care that this is irrelevant

@sutapadey5274

2 жыл бұрын

@@TheActionLab thanks

@The_Tormented_One

2 жыл бұрын

@@TheActionLab thanks

hi i need help on angular measurement how angular measurement can be standardized

Iirc a good rule of thumb is the distance between two guage block sides "wrung together" is one millionth of an inch. That's like 25.4 nanometers. Atoms vary in " size" from ~0.27nm-0.037nm so it would seem like a few atom could fit in between them. It might be a tight fit for some molecules in the air. So I'd guess the vacuum won't affect them. I remember once two flat surfaces get a certain distance or less most em radiation can't fit thru the crack. That creates an imbalance between the area outside the small area between. That seems almost like an em version of a vacuum. I forget what the effect is named. I think that would be what holds them together and maybe the two sides being worked till they both fit each as if each side had a bunch of tiny pins which slide between the bunches if tiny pins on the other side thus having twice the number if tiny pins in the same area which puts horizontal pressure on all the pins making them "stick."

What was used to hold the blocks and move them while in the vacuum chamber? Hard to see what's in your hand to move the blocks? I wonder if acoustic laser tweezers can move the blocks and or dislodge them in atmosphere and in vacuum. Thanks.

@sillygoose18282

2 жыл бұрын

I think he used two magnets and some tape. 🙂

It is really interesting! if we had gauge blocks heated or freezed, could the result change?

@ephemeralvapor8064

2 жыл бұрын

The air pressure effect shouldn't change much I suspect, but oil tension and electron forces would both change noticably. Oil tension would weaken outside an optimal bound, too hot or too cold methinks. Electron forces may increase as temperature increases toward the melting point of the metal. Not a chemist or material engineer so that's just my supposition.

@Speeder84XL

2 жыл бұрын

It actually does - and it may be significant at the precision levels of measurement those blocks are often used for. I read that, to get maximum accurancy, they should be allowed to cool for some time after just handling them (because just the heat from the hands is enough to make them expand out of their specified tolerances). Most are probably specified and calibrated at a temperature of 25°C (77°F), since that seem to be the "standard room temperature" in a lot of applications - for example in chemistry and it's also the "standard temperature" electronic components, many measurement devices etc. are specified at. It could be a cool demonstration if he for example took a block and submerge in liquid nitrogen, see how much it shrinks, haha - or heat it up to like 200°C (higher temperature is also possible, but may ruin it by oxidation).

@fayeblake5463

2 жыл бұрын

@@Speeder84XL First, thanks for discussing like that. I totally agree your idea! If he could just as you has said, how cool! Anyway, his coming experiments might answer some of our questions.

@fayeblake5463

2 жыл бұрын

@@ephemeralvapor8064 Yes, we don't need to think air pressure. Cause he showed it works a little bit even in vacuum. But I think we should check out some elements in the air that might react with gauge material when it was overheated. I'm into your thinking. I'm not a chemist or material engineer, too. Just a learner. Anyway, cheers, Mate!

@ 0:29 this is in relation to their conjugate of magnetic permeability.

I want to see numeric measurements (done with statistically significant sample size) of pull force versus air pressure, at vacuum and above atmospheric pressure, because I think it's van der Waals forces which increase with the microscopic layer of oil acting essentially as an adhesive.

@jamesbra4410

29 күн бұрын

You mean as a dielectric

But I heard about another cause of wringing from another channel, that being mechanical. The imperfections on each surface lock together, which is why often to wring the guage blocks it helps, or is even necessary, to slide them together. On the atomic scale they're not flat and the surfaces kind of mesh when friction is applied. Thoughts?

Could this be done with other metal blocks?

The fact that they can machine those to a tolerance of nanometers is insane. That sounds about like the tungsten pointers you see under an electron microscope.

I believe wiping with paper towel doesn't remove oil, it just thins the layer. In this case we are dealing with microscopic phenomena so even the thinned layer of oil can be sufficient to have an effect. To remove oil you need to use a solvent (e. g. acetone or paint thinner), a surfactant (dish soap) or alkali. Removing oil is a demanding process which is done before painting parts.

Is the 3rd mechanism the same as cold-welding?

I think it would be interesting to repeat the test with ceramic gauge blocks, they're usually a much higher quality than your "standard" accuracy gauge block (which says a lot, steel GBs are insanely accurate already) and it kind of eliminates the molecular attraction/cold welding theory of steel since ceramic can't cold weld. They're pretty expensive so I wouldn't recommend getting a set but you could buy two single blocks for a much lower price.

Could it be to some degree the same process metals are fused together in space with no air for a lubricant ? But would it be flat enough to push enough air out to fuse?

If you remove the oil while inside the vacuum chamber and polish surfaces to eliminate oxidized metal will the gauge blocks weld together?

Casimer effect also?

Yaaaay for learning something new 🤓,, didn't even know that phenomenon had a name 👍

@Spedley_2142

2 жыл бұрын

Yes, I was surprised when he just pushed them together at the start. "Wringing" means a twisting motion.

I know is a year later. Revisiting this topic I'm wondering if you've learned of the Vander walls Force or Casimir effect and if that could play into this wringing?

Still is very fascinating!

An old scratched up rusty set I found at a garage sale only sticks through one mechanism. Glue!

Can u do this with mica, or glass?

Is it possible to water a plant but with musou black paint? Will it be dark like after using a black dye?