(classical music)
- Hey, everybody. I'm Ben.
- I'm Lauren. This is Brain Stuff.
- Oh, right, yeah.
- And today's, yeah that's why we're here.
Today's question is how does popcorn work.
- Yeah, it's weird.
You take a pouch that's
no bigger than a wallet.
You put it in the microwave
oven for three minutes
and suddenly it's
expanded to 40 or 50 times
its original size.
What?
- It's pretty wild but
there are actually three
really simple elements
that make it work this way.
So, first, you've got, there's
moisture inside the kernel.
Then, you've got starch,
also inside the kernel.
And then, the kernel itself is
a hard but not too hard shell
that's completely surrounding
everything else in there.
- Oh, okay.
So, when a popcorn kernel heats up,
either in a popcorn popper
or in a microwave oven,
that moisture inside the
kernel turns into steam,
and it tries to expand.
- Right, right.
But it's prevented from
doing so by that hard shell.
Eventually, when the
pressure builds up enough,
it will explode.
- Okay. Well, that part
seems kinda normal.
I don't wanna be sketchy or anything,
but a lot of things explode
when you need them, right?
- Not that we know
anything about that here.
- Right, yeah.
Okay, but the, yeah. Be cool.
The strange part is the white solid stuff
that forms during this process, right?
- Well, it's not really that weird either.
Bread and muffins do that,
albeit at a much slower pace,
and technically, that's
a chemical reaction,
not a physical one.
- If you really want to
see popcorn in action,
there are three
experiments you can perform
to get a better understanding
of these principles.
I forgot the first one.
- The first one, and it's
really experiments of in-action.
You can take a pushpin or a needle
and use that to puncture the shells
of some popcorn kennels.
Wear safety goggles when you do this.
It's harder than it looks.
But yeah, so, these things won't pop
once they've been punctured
because the pressure cannot
build up inside the shells
enough to do so.
- Oh, and the second one,
you can let new kernels stand
in a warm oven or in
the sun for a few hours,
and then try popping them, right?
- Right, because that will dry them out.
- Yep, and they won't pop nearly as well.
- Yeah, no, I mean, really, really low
ineffective rate of popping, really.
- Minimum poptitude.
Third, you can try to pop
popcorn at a low temperature,
like below 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Which is 149 Celsius.
- Good call.
It won't pop.
The moisture inside the
kernel will turn to steam
at water's boiling point, which is.
- 100 degrees Celsius, a.k.a.
212 degrees Fahrenheit.
- You are crazy good at this.
And it will liquefy the starch,
but it has to get above 300 degrees
for the pressure inside the
kernel to build to that point
where the shell explodes.
- Right, once it does so,
the soft starch will burst out,
and due to the relatively
cool air outside of it,
it will cool down really rapidly
to form that unique popped kernel
that we all know and love.
- Which is like a snowflake
that you can eat at the movies.
- I love delicious
snowflakes. That's great.
- I mean, if we could
put butter on snowflakes,
this would be a whole different show.
- This would. It would
be a different universe.
- Thank you guys so much for watching.
We hope that you have
enjoyed this explanation
of the science behind popcorn.
If you like this video,
why not make it official
and click the Like button down there?
- Or leave us a comment,
or if you have really enjoyed
it, then hit Subscribe
so that you won't miss the next one.
- Yeah, that was good.
- Yeah, cool.
