ShmoopTube

Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.

Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos


History of Technology Videos 160 videos

History of Technology 1: Windmills
283 Views

What's the deal with wind? And why does it have to be so...windy?

History of Technology 2: Wheels
213 Views

How did people move stuff around before the wheel was invented? More importantly, why didn't they take a break for a few minutes from moving stuff...

See All

History of Technology 5: Plastic 8 Views


Share It!


Description:

Time to learn about plastic, unoriginal Barbie jokes, and Ryan Gosling. All part of a typical Shmoop day.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:01

No In domestic technology the line between industrial and post

00:07

industrial is settled There are no giant a bombs no

00:11

massive information technology revolutions know Hey lookee there It's A

00:16

modern highway system thing These Yeah Instead the modernization of

00:21

domestic technology was a series of new materials and little

00:24

discoveries Plastic is at the top of the list of

00:27

stuff that suddenly altered our lives We bet there are

00:30

some skeptics out there So let's play a game let's

00:33

Imagine there's a giant magnet in the room that on

00:37

ly sucks up plastic Oops There goes the computer because

00:40

well that's ninety percent plastic Oh and there go most

00:44

of the other electronics too Whoa Now we've got rubber

00:47

erasers power chords old happy meal toys that we were

00:51

saving man are closed too well they were all polyester

00:55

rayon and spandex So now we're all naked and thankful

00:59

for the anonymity of the internet can sometimes provide all

01:02

right Well the point's been made abundantly clear Plastic is

01:06

everywhere But what is it exactly Well technically it's any

01:10

sort of material that could be moulded are shaped in

01:12

any form Our heart's desire There are some naturally occurring

01:15

Plastics but the vast majority of them are made by

01:18

humans It's a kind of our thing chemists can make

01:22

about a jillion different kinds of plastic We need a

01:25

much longer video to get into the nitty gritty of

01:27

how they do it but long story short they take

01:30

some oil rearrange the molecules in fun ways and glad

01:34

oh we've got plastic all right one of the more

01:38

useful things about most plastic is that it's chemically inert

01:41

All right well this means that when it comes into

01:43

contact with certain other chemicals it's like whatever this is

01:48

why we can store gas acid water alcohol soap and

01:52

all kinds of other things in plastic containers without those

01:55

containers dissolving The other thing that makes plastic as irresistible

02:00

as ryan gosling is that plastic can we molded in

02:03

a pretty much any shape we want name a thing

02:06

and we can probably figure out how to make it

02:08

out of plastic bottles cups utensils avengers action figures lifesize

02:14

replicas of ryan gosling Well we can make it all

02:17

out of plastic though some might question the Wisdom Of 00:02:20.918 --> [endTime] at least 1 of those things

Related Videos

GED Social Studies 1.1 Civics and Government
39794 Views

GED Social Studies 1.1 Civics and Government

Fake News
11938 Views

How do you tell fake news from real news?

Jane Eyre Summary
123033 Views

When you're about to marry the love of your life, not many things could stop you. However, finding out that your future hubby is keeping his crazy...

What is Shmoop?
91405 Views

Here at Shmoop, we work for kids, not just the bottom line. Founded by David Siminoff and his wife Ellen Siminoff, Shmoop was originally conceived...

ACT Math 4.5 Elementary Algebra
492 Views

ACT Math: Elementary Algebra Drill 4, Problem 5. What is the solution to the problem shown?