Original subtitles

CHARLIE: Hey, guys, Charlie here. You know my sister Kirby.

KIRBY: Hey!

CHARLIE: Today we're hanging out in State College, Pennsylvania.

KIRBY (off-screen): We're learning how to be test engineers by doing

stuff like this.

CHARLIE (off-screen): And this.

KIRBY: And this.

CHARLIE (off-screen): Whoa!

KIRBY: It's time for Weird But True!

CHARLIE: It's time for Weird But True!

(theme music plays).

CASEY (off-screen): And, there you go!

KIRBY: I'm never gonna be good at this.

(oven timer ding)

CASEY: Oh, sounds like my homemade bread is done.

I gotta go run it over to the homeless shelter.

CASEY (off-screen): So I'll see you guys later!

CHARLIE: See ya Case! Hey guys!

KIRBY: And our super talented amazing sister strikes again!

CHARLIE: What's goin' on, Kirb?

KIRBY: I mean, I love Casey, but sometimes her achievements

are really hard to live up to!

(playing clarinet poorly)

(playing clarinet)

CHARLIE: Wow. Whoa!

What? Casey!

What? Wow!

Oh yeah, she's pretty much good at everything.

KIRBY: Yeah.

I mean usually I can take her achievements in like science

and math and history and art and music,

cause I don't even like the clarinet anyway.

CHARLIE: Ok, so what's bothering today?

KIRBY: Today, that all changed, when Mr. B.,

my science teacher, gave us our final project.

CHARLIE: This year's final project is the egg drop!

Students must build a homemade contraption,

to protect an egg from a fall to the ground.

To get an A you must beat the school record set by a

legendary builder.

My favorite student, who's the sister of somebody sitting in

this very room.

An amazing person named Casey.

No.

KIRBY: Yes. CHARLIE: Really?

KIRBY: 100% she's considered the best builder in the entire

history of my school.

Building is my thing.

I own building!

KIRBY (off-screen): I've built vegetable boxes,

a dining room table, even a chicken coop with windows and

shingles and everything!

It's my thing!

I should have that record, but there's no way I'm gonna beat

Casey so I might as well drop out now, leave school,

and go move to a deserted island in the ocean.

CHARLIE: Kirb, deep breaths.

What if I could guarantee that you could go into class with a

record-breaking egg protector?

KIRBY: What are you talking about?

CHARLIE: So you can build things, no problem.

And if we could test their performance, we could

test our way to a record breaking idea.

All we gotta do is figure out how scientists test their products.

KIRBY: Hmm, I don't know Charles.

CHARLIE: I feel good about this one, Kirb.

There's nothing we can't do without some paper and glue.

So that means today we're unraveling the world of.

KIRBY (off-screen): Test Engineers!

CHARLIE (off-screen): Test Engineers!

KIRBY: I don't know if I can do this, Charles.

CHARLIE: All we have to do is approach things calmly,

from an academic standpoint.

Like we do, right Kirb?

KIRBY: Like we do.

So, what is an engineer anyway?

CHARLIE (off-screen): An engineer is a person with

scientific training who designs and builds complicated products.

You've built chicken coops and vegetable boxes,

you're an engineer Kirb.

KIRBY: So, engineers build chicken coops?

CHARLIE: Not exactly, there are a whole bunch of different

types of engineers.

CHARLIE (off-screen): Let's see, there's agricultural.

Computer. Mechanical.

Nuclear. I've got 'em all.

And these are my favorite.

Super rare, limited edition, mint condition,

first printing rookie cards.

Check 'em out.

Willem Kolff and Robert Jarvik, biomedical engineers.

They led the team that invented the Jarvik-7,

the world's first artificial heart implanted in a human.

Or how about this one, Harold Rosen, electrical engineer.

He's known as the father of communication satellites.

Television, radio, telephones, the Internet,

it all works today because of these satellites.

And finally, look at this one Bill Baker,

structural engineer.

Bill worked on the Burj Khalifa,

the tallest structure ever built.

It has 163 floors, 57 elevators,

and Bill Baker figured out how to make it all stand up.

KIRBY: So they're builders?

CHARLIE: Like you.

KIRBY: But what do test engineers do?

CHARLIE: Well they build and create methods to test

products over and over and over to make sure they're safe

and follow specifications.

KIRBY: Ok, but here's my question.

KIRBY (off-screen): Why are they so important?

If a product is already developed,

why does it have to be tested?

CHARLIE: Well it's so often that a product doesn't perform

the way it's supposed to.

Or, in some cases, it's a total fake.

Let me show you something.

Here's some examples of why we need test engineers.

CHARLIE (off-screen): Let's start with this one.

Ladies and gentlemen. We've burst the worst.

Reversed the curse. History will know that I was the first.

Have I got a product for you, this right here is the

cure for diabetes!

CHARLIE (off-screen): Takes out the bad stuff and fills you with glad stuff.

It never fails!

KIRBY: But there's no cure for diabetes.

CHARLIE: Exactly.

See the truth is, some guy mixed together a bunch of

plant extracts and lied about it being a cure!

KIRBY: He was ripping people off!

CHARLIE: Yeah, but now test engineers test products like

this to make sure that we're not duped.

And in other cases the product "failures" were completely accidental.

Ladies and gentleman.

CHARLIE (off-screen): Built to astound, travelers abound.

Takes you clear across the Puget Sound.

Have I got a product for you, this right here is the

Narrows Bridge, Pride of Tacoma!

CHARLIE (off-screen): No town or city has seen a bridge so pretty.

It never fails!

It did fail.

It couldn't handle the wind, which made it so wobbly that

eventually it just broke apart.

But now, test engineers test bridge designs in wind tunnels

to make sure they're safe.

Test engineers also test little things that just might

need a tweak or two.

Ladies and gentlemen.

CHARLIE (off-screen): Before the glow, you'll be in the know.

Saves the house, the yard, the whole chateau.

Have I got a product for you, this right here is the smoke detector!

(beeping)

It spots the smoke and gas before the flames amass.

It never fails!

It never failed.

But it was absurdly expensive.

Nobody could afford it.

So, by testing different versions over decades and

decades, they were able to create one that

everybody could afford.

See, test engineers help in a whole bunch of ways.

KIRBY: They help us from getting duped,

they make things safer, and they can fine tune things to

make them even better.

CHARLIE: So we have a game plan!

KIRBY: Wait, we do?

CHARLIE (off-screen): Yeah!

You build an egg protector, which we can test and test and

test and test until we're sure it can break the record.

KIRBY: But we don't know how to test things.

CHARLIE: We don't know how to test things yet, Kirb.

But the answer is always out there!

And I think I know where ours is today.

Guys, we're heading to Penn State University.

CHARLIE (off-screen): We're off to visit the research lab

at Penn State's College of Engineering to learn from the pros.

They're experts in testing products.

KIRBY (off-screen): Weird but true.

CHARLIE: Hey, guys!

We made it to State College, Pennsylvania,

home of Penn State University.

Penn State!

KIRBY: We're here to meet with Dr. Memari,

who's a professor of civil and architecture engineering,

and the director of the Pennsylvania Housing Research Center.

CHARLIE (off-screen): His favorite Weird But True fact

is, the glue like substance on stick it notes is actually a

failed super adhesive invention.

His research focuses on testing materials that can

help buildings withstand extreme weather.

KIRBY (off-screen): So if he can help a skyscraper withstand a

hurricane, maybe he can help me with my egg drop design.

CHARLIE: Let's go say hi.

KIRBY: Let's go.

CHARLIE: Dr. Memari, it's nice to meet you.

DR. MEMARI: Nice to meet you, same.

CHARLIE: Kirby's got a big egg drop project,

and we're trying to figure out how to test the devices that

she's creating so we can guarantee that she can break

the school record and protect an egg from the biggest drop.

And we heard that a lot of what you do is testing materials.

DR. MEMARI: We like to break things so that we learn from them.

So we test like a column, or a beam, or a wall, or a glass,

or a window.

DR. MEMARI (off-screen): We test them to failure.

We understand their capacity.

And then we throw in the factor of safety,

so that when you put it on the building it doesn't actually fail.

DR. MEMARI (off-screen): You have a buffer.

It's safe.

KIRBY: So you guys are trying to break the stuff?

DR. MEMARI: Absolutely.

KIRBY: You're trying to see. DR. MEMARI: Absolutely.

KIRBY: What's the absolute heaviest.

DR. MEMARI: And we get a kick out of that, by the way.

CHARLIE (off-screen): Dr. Memari has us set up our

own test, so he can evaluate our techniques.

So this is the lab guys, where they test the strength of glass.

KIRBY: So let's go through some potential scenarios where

your windows might be damaged.

CHARLIE: For example, a group of gorillas breaks out of the

local zoo and tries to break into your house!

CHARLIE (off-screen): What is the result, Kirb?

KIRBY: Bananas do not break windows.

KIRBY (off-screen): The chimps failed.

For the next few experiments, we're gonna need a lab assistant.

CHARLIE: Introducing Architectural and

Engineering PhD candidate, Mehrzad.

Thank you for contributing to the scientific community today.

MEHRZAD: Thank you for having me.

CHARLIE: Weird but true, they use chickens to test the strength

of airplane windshields,

which is probably something exactly like this!

KIRBY (off-screen): Oh, that was so gross.

CHARLIE (off-screen): Oh man.

Chickens do not break windows.

Now we know.

El Nino sweeps up a farmer's market stand in California and

brings watermelons all the way to your house!

Watermelon didn't break the glass either.

KIRBY: Based on our data, I'd say glass is indestructible.

CHARLIE: It's the only logical explanation.

CHARLIE (off-screen): Now Dr. Memari and his right hand

man, Paul Kremer, review our testing protocols.

We just collected some pretty great data that we think could

really help you guys out.

KIRBY: Charles took a slingshot, big slingshot.

CHARLIE: Pow.

KIRBY: And he loaded it with watermelons, bananas,

bunch of stuff.

DR. MEMARI: To do what?

KIRBY: Slung it at the glass.

CHARLIE: To see when it would break and when it would not break.

DR. MEMARI: Wow. Paul what do you think of this?

PAUL: Well, it seems like maybe there are some things

you could do if you're trying to really be more accurate

about when the glass is going to break.

CHARLIE: What are you saying?

Is our, do we not have an accurate experiment here?

PAUL: We have to think about each and every variable that we're working with.

How is it that I'm going to be able to control this variable

during the experiment?

DR. MEMARI: That's where Paul's expertise comes in the picture.

Because he has to come up with the equipment that actually

throws the right size, at the right speed at the right distance.

CHARLIE: It seems much more regimented, these tests,

than we kind of thought.

Is that right?

DR. MEMARI: Scientific Method governs really any testing

that we do.

CHARLIE: All right guys, the Scientific Method,

it's kind of like a set of guidelines,

or protocol that scientists follow every time they do an experiment.

Let's look into that just a bit more closely.

Welcome, to the super serious science laboratory where we do

everything by the book.

KIRBY: By the book!

CHARLIE: We follow the Scientific Method!

KIRBY: To a T!

CHARLIE: Today's super-secret highly classified scientific

experiment is about: bright blue bouncy balls.

First we make an observation.

KIRBY: These bright blue bouncy balls do not bounce

to the same height!

CHARLIE: We ask a question.

KIRBY: Does size affect bouncy ball bounce-ability?

CHARLIE: And form a hypothesis.

KIRBY: I hypothesize that if a bright blue ball is larger it

will bounce higher.

CHARLIE: And we design an experiment to test our

hypothesis that keeps everything.

KIRBY: Everything.

CHARLIE: Everything the same, except the one variable we are testing.

KIRBY (off-screen): We're comparing two bouncy balls

that are the same color, same brand,

made out of the same material, dropped from the same height,

bouncing at the exact same spot.

The only difference is the size.

CHARLIE: We analyze our results.

KIRBY (off-screen): We dropped each ball 50 times,

and calculated our average bounce height.

CHARLIE: And we revisit our hypothesis.

KIRBY: We accept our hypothesis and conclude that

when dropped from the same height onto a wooden plank,

a large bright blue bouncy ball will bounce higher than a

small bright blue bouncy ball.

CHARLIE: There you go. KIRBY: Science.

CHARLIE: Boom. KIRBY: It's amazing.

CHARLIE: Woohoo! Back to the lab!

DR. MEMARI: For the more scientific testing we use a

compressed air cannon.

CHARLIE (off-screen): In this new trial to test the glass,

we'll keep everything constant except the pressure from the

air cannon, which controls the speed and direction that the

ball bearing will travel, also known as velocity.

PAUL (off-screen): Before we have you shoot,

we establish the distance consistently that you'll shoot from.

PAUL (off-screen): I'm thinking we'll start with a low velocity,

and then have you move up at progressively higher speeds

with the ball and, and see what kind of damage we get.

CHARLIE: Sounds good. PAUL: Okay.

PAUL (off-screen): So I'll hand you the ball and let you do the honors of shooting.

I've dialed in to the regulator,

a pressure of 40 PSI.

Just hold the cannon level.

PAUL (off-screen): Ok we're good.

CHARLIE (off-screen): Three, two, one.

(shoots cannon)

Okay, we got a nice little uh what's the name of that?

PAUL: That a Hertzian cone.

CHARLIE: A nice little Hertzian cone.

CHARLIE (off-screen): Cool science word.

Hertzian cone: an expanding cone of glass that's ejected

on the opposite side of the glass from the impact.

So it hits it and the nub pops out.

PAUL (off-screen): The backside, right.

CHARLIE (off-screen): That's so cool.

PAUL (off-screen): So this next pressure, I'll do, is 80 PSI.

CHARLIE: Three, two, one.

(shoots glass)

Ohh. There we go.

PAUL (off-screen): Right.

CHARLIE: Woo!

PAUL (off-screen): So we see that the fracture patterns emanate

out quite a bit from the impact zone.

CHARLIE: So in this experiment we were testing different

velocities of the same size ball.

We were trying to control everything and the only thing

that was changing was the velocities.

CHARLIE (off-screen): Now, we're gonna try different size balls.

So we're trying to keep the velocity the same and testing

small to larger sizes.

And I think Kirby's gonna give that one a shot.

KIRBY: You ready? PAUL: Yep.

(shooting ball)

KIRBY: Yes!

PAUL: That was exciting.

PAUL (off-screen): And the interesting thing is, this ball went 70 feet per second.

So, much larger ball, much lower velocity at the same pressure.

KIRBY: Wow.

PAUL: But yet, it caused a failure where the other

ball size couldn't.

CHARLIE: So that ball that I shot was like the size of a

pea and the one that Kirby shot was the size of.

KIRBY: Uh.

PAUL: Maybe a meatball. KIRBY: Yeah, a meatball.

CHARLIE: Maybe a meatball?

Holy cow, that wrecked the thing.

CHARLIE (off-screen): It all comes down to control.

KIRBY: Mm-hm, and through all these trials we got more data.

KIRBY (off-screen): We got to figure out the breaking point,

or the success point.

And I think we can use that for the egg drop.

CHARLIE: All right, Paul, thanks so much for teaching us today.

PAUL: You're welcome, you're welcome, yes.

CHARLIE: Thanks so much for hanging out with us.

KIRBY: Thank you so much.

CHARLIE: All right, guys, looks like we got a lot

of work to do.

We're going to head back to HQ and start putting together

some egg-protecting contraptions.

KIRBY (off-screen): Weird but true.

CHARLIE: Hey guys.

We just got back from the testing lab at Penn State.

KIRBY: Super cool place.

CHARLIE: And now it's time for Kirby to work her magic.

All right Kirb, I already know you can build a

sweet egg protector.

Now all we have to do is apply what we learned and test our

way to a record setting design!

KIRBY: I think I might be able to do this.

Alright.

(deep breath)

Deep breaths.

And it's time to hit the workshop.

All right Kirb, you got this.

The idea's out there, you just don't know it yet.

Why does the egg break?

Mr. B. mentioned this in class once.

What was it?

CHARLIE: As the egg falls, it has a certain amount of

kinetic energy in the form of speed.

After it hits the ground it has no speed.

So no kinetic energy, but where does it go?

Well it turns into a force that is applied to the egg

causing it to crack.

So if you think about it, if you're able to slow down the

egg as it falls it will have less kinetic energy and

there'll be less of a force applied to the egg.

And it might not break.

KIRBY: I need to slow the egg down!

And build something like a parachute!

KIRBY (off-screen): If we take a little cloth,

add some string, a little holder for the egg and, boom.

CHARLIE: Test number one!

Remember guys, in order for this to be a perfectly

accurate test, we have to control everything.

Every time Kirby's gonna hold out her hand and drop her egg

contraption from three different heights.

First the top of the stairs.

Then the first layer of our tree house and if we can make

it, the second layer of our tree house.

Breaking Casey's record.

Every single time it's gonna fall onto the same service, the ground.

All right Kirb. Give it a shot!

CHARLIE (off-screen): Ooh!

Let's see what we got.

(screams)

Casey's record has not been broken.

KIRBY: Yet, I can try again.

What else did Mr. B. talk about?

CHARLIE: To reduce the force on the egg you could also give

it some sort of protective armor or skeleton.

When this breaks, it uses up some of the energy.

So less of a force is applied to the egg, and again,

it might not break.

KIRBY: A skeleton! I can do that.

KIRBY (off-screen): When it hits the ground,

these straws will break, using up some of the energy.

CHARLIE: Test number two!

Same test, same height, same everything.

The only difference is the egg contraption that we're dropping.

Let's go, Kirb.

KIRBY: Oh! It worked!

CHARLIE: Success!

KIRBY: Let's go to the next level Charles!

Come on! Here we go!

Cross your fingers!

Ohh! Success again!

KIRBY: Yes!

We're going up Charles!

No one's done it on the top level.

Come on, hand it up, we're gonna beat Casey's record!

I'm so excited!

This is it. Let's go.

Egg Drop Champ!

It's happening!

CHARLIE (off-screen): Ohh!

The record has not been broken.

KIRBY: Yet!

I'm on a role! One more time.

C'mon, Mr. B.

I know there was one more thing.

CHARLIE: Have you ever fallen on the sidewalk?

It hurts.

But have you ever belly flopped onto a mattress?

It doesn't hurt as much, that's because it cushions you.

So if we can give the egg a cushion,

it'll function by lengthening the duration of the impact.

So that at any given time there's less of a force

applied to the egg.

And again, it might not break.

KIRBY: A cushion!

Where's the foam?

It's beautiful.

I think this is the one.

I might have done it!

CHARLIE: Test number three.

CASEY: Hey guys.

KIRBY: Casey? CHARLIE: Casey!

CASEY: Casey!

I just got back from donating a femur.

You guys aren't doing an egg drop back here are you?

KIRBY: No, no, no, no.

CASEY: You know, I've got the.

KIRBY: School record?

No I didn't know that.

CASEY: Hey, I've still got my egg protector.

I can go grab it and we can do some egg drops.

CHARLIE: Ooh, ho, ho, ho!

Buckle up and grab your popcorn everybody because we

got a sister-sister egg drop duel!

Don't go anywhere cause this is the best thing to ever

happen ever.

CHARLIE (off-screen): Here it is folks, the duel of the century.

Sister versus sister.

The school record on the line.

CHARLIE (off-screen): Three, two, one, drop.

Casey's egg.

Ooh, did not make it.

CHARLIE (off-screen): Kirby's egg?

An intact egg!

KIRBY: Yes!

Victory!

CHARLIE: We have a new school record!

She beat you, Case.

CASEY: I know. She's a good builder.

You know, I've got this bridge that I've been working on to

try and help some baby ducks cross the highway.

Maybe she can help me out.

CHARLIE: Yeah, for sure.

All right guys, looks like we got a new project on our hands.

But thanks so much for stopping by!

Come by again when we discover more things that are weird.

CASEY: But true. CHARLIE: Well, see ya later! Baby ducks?

CASEY (off-screen): Really small.

Captioned by Cotter Captioning Services.