Okay. Oops.
NARRATOR: What happens when a bullwhip
collides with a soda can?
Cheapest form of rhinoplasty ever.
NARRATOR: What happens when a hockey pro takes a slap shot?
Aw!
NARRATOR: And what happens when man's best friend shakes it up?
I think I'm wet now.
NARRATOR: What happens?
Time warp.
Uh-oh.
[Laughter]
NARRATOR: Take two guys whose slow-mo cameras
can stop the world in its tracks...
It starts out pretty asymmetric.
It has to move the mass of this thing out of the way.
Joseph, I need the widest-angle lens we have.
I'm gonna shoot this landing right here.
NARRATOR: ...add a high-tech laboratory,
where anything can and will happen...
...and some of the world's wildest talents.
What happens?
And now for the right stuff.
Chuck Yeager was the first man to break the sound barrier
on October 14, 1947,
while flying the Bell X-1 at Mach 1
at an altitude of 45,000 feet.
But did you know you can break the sound barrier
with your feet firmly planted on the ground?
All you need is a whip.
That's right.
A bullwhip breaks the sound barrier every time it cracks.
The crack you hear is, in fact, a sonic boom.
But what happens when a bullwhip cracks?
Can we actually see a whip break the sound barrier?
Utilizing our time-warp cameras, we just might.
So, let's get cracking.
[Cracking]
Adam Winrich is a world-champion whip artist
who holds multiple Guinness World Records.
And as you can clearly see, Adam likes to whip it good.
[Cracking]
We bet you know where that all began.
I watched "Indiana Jones" too much as a kid.
That's what happened there.
Emulating one of your heroes. Now, is any of that stuff real?
Some of it's real.
Like wrapping a whip around a person
or taking a knife out of someone's hand is real.
You actually do that?
But the one stunt everybody sees that everyone wants to do
is, "Oh, I want to swing from a tree."
Can't really do that one. That's a Hollywood stunt.
NARRATOR: We've frozen flowers.
Now we're going to whip one.
All right.
NARRATOR: Do we need to say it? Hope not.
But just in case...
ALL: Don't try this at home.
Here we go.
[Groans]
That's a little closer than you said it was gonna be.
Seriously, that's ridiculous.
What else can we put in someone's mouth?
Oh, we got pretzels.
-We can use those. -That sounds good.
Matt, why don't you take a shot at this?
I'm gonna shoot some camerawork.
Oh, of course it's something smaller.
Yeah, but you like food.
You have the little, dainty nose.
I got this.
-Oops. - [Groans]
-There we go. -He said "Oops."
No, I was gonna do it again. Don't move.
No way.
NARRATOR: Yes way.
After some coaxing, Matt got back in there for another take.
WINRICH: Just don't move.
I'm trying not to move.
So, the trick to this part is,
as I will start out just on the outside of the pretzel
and I just work my way in.
And I feel my muscle memory come in just a little bit.
You got it.
No, no. A little bit more there.
-Oh, my God. -That's pretty good.
NARRATOR: Okay, we know you're wondering
where our high-speed cameras were during all of this.
LIEBERMAN: Wow, that's great.
NARRATOR: Rolling.
[Laughter]
KEARNEY: That's still pretty amazing.
Well, the interesting thing is, you know, I do blink,
but that's totally based on a visual cue
because the sound actually hasn't reached me yet.
NARRATOR: This view is being filmed
at 5,000 frames per second.
Flower power.
All right, now it's my turn.
LIEBERMAN: You actually look a little calmer than I did.
Could you shave a little off right there for me next time?
Cheapest form of rhinoplasty ever.
[Laughter]
NARRATOR: Enough of these easy tricks.
Let's really test this guy.
First up, whip meets soda can.
The 11-foot-long kangaroo-leather bullwhip...
...makes easy work of this 12-ounce aluminum pop can.
WINRICH: Oh, my gosh. Cool.
KEARNEY: That was cool.
We just littered. I'm gonna get that.
NARRATOR: The can shreds so violently,
half of it flies into the water about 40 feet away.
KEARNEY: Where'd it go?
There's a little bit left.
Ahh.
That's how you drink a soda.
NARRATOR: Okay, we've killed the can.
What's next?
WINRICH: That shows the power of the whip,
but nothing is flashier than a fire whip,
a whip that we're gonna actually take,
soak it in fuel, and light it on fire.
And what are we gonna do with that whip?
We're gonna crack it and make a fireball with it.
Really? Okay, well --
Any time we can add danger to danger, I'm all for it.
NARRATOR: So, we'd really recommend
that you reconsider the idea
of cracking 20-foot-long, gasoline-soaked,
supersonic flaming fire whips at home.
This has been a public service announcement.
KEARNEY: All right.
LIEBERMAN: Here it comes.
Oh! [Laughs]
NARRATOR: As if a guy with a 20-foot whip isn't scary enough,
now it's on fire.
Let's watch that again at 1,000 frames per second this time.
See, here, we can really see where the fuel
starts to peel off and ignites.
Fire ignites right behind it. That's just so awesome.
LIEBERMAN: You can even see
what is the critical velocity that the whip has to hit
to start spewing vapor all over the place?
'Cause it doesn't happen right near the handle end.
The further you get down,
the faster it sprays that vapor away.
So at the end, you're spraying vapor
3 or 4 feet away from the whip tip,
but that flame is gonna make its way over there.
The vapor's just kind of floating in midair.
WINRICH: Right.
NARRATOR: Now, this is where Chuck Yeager comes in.
[Cracking]
Our time-warp high-speed cameras
are able to capture all this bullwhip action
like you've never seen before.
Almost all the action.
See, a whip breaks the sound barrier.
That crack you hear is actually a sonic boom.
I haven't actually seen, like, the sonic boom itself,
like, the waves coming off.
NARRATOR: Could it actually be possible
to see what a sonic boom looks like?
We know where to go to find out.
Jim Bales at MIT's Edgerton Center
works with a little-known photographic setup
called a schlieren.
The schlieren can actually capture light
when it's distorted by air,
which is exactly what a sonic boom does.
To do this, the intricate setup
must bounce light off mirrors and into our high-speed camera.
Push in a little bit.
There you go.
NARRATOR: Adam's target will be a lit candle.
The trick will be to blow it out with a single crack of his whip.
If done right, the schlieren camera
should show us the whip's sonic boom.
All we got to do is have you get right at the target,
and we'll be able to see everything.
All right.
We're cued up, Matt, so go ahead and crank it.
I'm ready.
NARRATOR: Let's see how the expert fares under pressure.
Nice. You got it.
-Let's see this one. -What does that look like?
NARRATOR: This guy doesn't even flinch, but everyone else does.
[Chuckles] And he's got game.
Wow.
Look at that.
NARRATOR: Then the moment we've been waiting for.
BALES: Right there, you can see the moment it breaks
the sound barrier as you come through.
LIEBERMAN: Not only is it twisting, but you can see
each individual tassel create its own little wave.
So, I'm seeing almost 10 waves through there.
NARRATOR: Look again.
What we are seeing is distortion
caused by the sound barrier breaking.
This wave can be heard as a crack or a boom.
And the difficulty of penetrating this barrier,
seen here in microcosm,
is what made Chuck Yeager's -- remember him? --
accomplishment so amazing.
That was really slick.
I didn't think I'd see anything quite like that
in schlieren system.
All it takes is a whip with the right aim
and about 30 seconds of time, and we're set.
NARRATOR: So, let's recap.
We took a guy who could destroy things...
LIEBERMAN: There it is.
NARRATOR: ...and throw fireballs with a bullwhip.
And we confirmed he also breaks the sound barrier daily.
LIEBERMAN: There it is.
NARRATOR: You know, he might have a future in Hollywood,
if he decides to lose the hat.
Man gives us Murphy's Law.
[Siren wails]
And the long arm of the law.
I'm sorry, but I'm gonna have to give you a ticket.
NARRATOR: Nature gives us the laws of physics.
MAN: And an apple falls to the ground.
NARRATOR: And man's best friend
gives us the Canis familiaris laws of dog dynamics,
which states that a wet dog will always shake.
And a corollary to that is, of course,
a wet dog will always shake right next to you.
I think I'm wet now.
NARRATOR: Wet dogs shake because a lack of opposable thumbs
make using a blow-dryer difficult.
But how exactly does a wet dog shake?
And do all wet dogs shake the same?
Is it the shake or the kind of hair they wear?
The time-warp machine
has gone to Kimberly Weiner's Wags 4 Walks to find out.
-All right. -Hey, Paka.
It may sound weird, but there's a lot going on with this fur.
Kind of go against the grain here and see what I can get.
-Right around here? -Yep.
Sort of a focus point. Up, up, up.
NARRATOR: Time-warp cameras reveal two types of hair on Mia,
large, stiff, outer hairs called guard fur
that repel dirt and water away from her underfur,
which helps keep her warm.
Awesome.
Did that feel good, baby? I think Mia likes you now.
Let's bring Wyatt in and do a short hair,
see if there's a contrast.
Look at that.
Just give me sort of an against-the-grain little brush.
NARRATOR: Wyatt, a short-haired dog,
has less guard hair and more underfur than Mia.
LIEBERMAN: Mia has got probably 10 times as much insulation.
NARRATOR: Let's put the shaking to the test.
KEARNEY: I always wanted to say this.
Release the hounds.
You ready, puppy? All right, go in the water.
NARRATOR: As the law dictates, wet dogs shake.
And lucky for us, we get a variety of wet fur to evaluate.
First up, Bailey.
She's a golden retriever, a type known for its love of water.
They have medium to long fur
that is virtually water-repellent.
Did you blink?
Let's watch it in slo-mo.
LIEBERMAN: Yeah, it's like 20 times as slow.
Oh, my God, that's really cool.
LIEBERMAN: I'm surprised how much it all comes from the head.
WEINER: It looks like she's contorted.
That can't be good for her spine.
NARRATOR: Let's take a closer look.
Her head turns a complete 180.
It's this motion that propels the rest of her body,
creating a ripple effect going all the way down to her tail.
The different parts of her body aren't moving independently,
but as a whole.
It's pure transference of energy.
Water is scattered at least 2 feet high and over 2 feet out.
Now for our number-two subject, Monty,
a curly haired Labradoodle with only a single layer of fur.
No underfur to keep her warm.
Now in warp time.
If Bailey's shake was like ringing a sports towel,
Monty's is like wringing out a mop.
Such a difference because Monty has curly hair.
NARRATOR: Her fur has clearly absorbed more water.
WEINER: That is so cool. It looks like her head rolls.
I think that's the whole thing
is just kind of twisting the head back and forth,
and that whole thing sends a little wave
back through the whole body.
I never realized how much energy it probably takes to do that.
NARRATOR: Our slo-mo reveals that because Monty expends
more energy in her shake than the thinner-furred Bailey,
she is expelling more water.
Our last high-speed analysis focuses on an English bulldog.
All right, this one is my personal favorite.
I don't know that we had to slow down Rosie.
[Gasps] Oh, my goodness.
Oh.
The biggest thing on her are her jowls.
NARRATOR: We have made an incredible discovery.
We have high-speed proof
that Winston Churchill has been reincarnated.
Now, Rosie has fine, short hair and a lot of loose skin,
which adds momentum to her shaking action,
allowing her to shed more water quickly
and with much less energy than either Bailey or Monty.
So, there we have it. All dogs do not shake the same.
It takes an amazing amount of force
and, you know, exactly the right muscles,
especially, it looks like, in the neck,
to be able to do this kind of shake.
I don't think humans have any capability to do that.
I'm not so sure about that.
NARRATOR: Well, speaking of humans transforming into dogs,
as you can see, most of the motion here is with the head.
But unlike a dog's, Matt's shaking
isn't transferring energy through the rest of his body.
The movement of his jowls, while strikingly similar to Rosie's,
comes from the side-to-side motion of his head.
As a result of this experiment,
we hereby declare an addendum
to all laws man, physics, or canine.
Leave the shaking to the dogs.
[Barking]
Here's a time-honored recipe
for making long, cold winters go by in a flash.
A bunch of long wooden sticks.
One hard rubber puck.
A few good friends.
Add water, and freeze.
For generations, kids have done this
to get them through four months of deep chill.
But in recent years, the scene on backyard ice
has taken on a slicker feel.
[Record scratches]
Wedge it in place.
NARRATOR: High-tech composite sticks of graphite and Kevlar...
Just give that a twang first.
NARRATOR: ...marketed to deliver power and accuracy
to hockey's most explosive weapon, the slap shot,
have replaced wood at every level of the game.
We invited Boston Bruin left winger Shawn Thornton,
known in the NHL as an enforcer.
He's going to be our one-man control group.
When did you get started playing?
I was about 7, kind of late for a Canadian kid.
LIEBERMAN: What has changed in the game?
THORNTON: Mainly the sticks, I think.
We used to go to the gas station,
grab $10 just crappy sticks out of a barrel
and go to the rink and use them.
Now kids are using $200 graphite sticks.
It's pretty crazy.
So, what do you think?
Big difference between old-school wood
and new composite?
NARRATOR: Now it's time for Shawn
to get the puck out of here in two tests
that will settle the age-old sports-bar controversy,
which is better, wood or graphite?
I'm hoping that the composite's way more effective
because I switched over years ago,
and they're pretty hard to find -- wood sticks -- nowadays.
So, why don't we get started with the wood one,
work our way up to the modern science?
Sounds good.
NARRATOR: Shawn is used to a bit more expansive rink,
but he'll make do.
MAN: Aw!
LIEBERMAN: You all right?
NARRATOR: Only a flesh wound. Let's keep going.
If we could just get like three shots of each type.
-Give it my best. -All right.
NARRATOR: Here, Shawn demonstrates
everything there is to see
about an explosive slap shot off wood or graphite.
And if we can't determine which stick is truly superior,
well, at least we can get him to sign one.
And here we go.
NARRATOR: Let's watch the graphite stick.
Wow, can we go back, actually, to the contact point?
Just from hitting the ground, there's a huge amount of drag,
but when you make contact with the puck,
there's this great shock wave comes right up
and twists the whole thing.
And that's taken less than .001 of a second to get through.
KEARNEY: That's a tremendous amount of bend in that stick.
LIEBERMAN: Right at that point?
Yeah, right before it leaves the ground.
NARRATOR: Now let's warp the wood stick.
KEARNEY: You're pretty consistent, I would say.
You hit pretty much the exact same place.
When you take this slap shot with a wood stick,
how is it different from your normal composite?
Wood's a lot heavier in my hands.
That's about the only difference.
I haven't used a wood stick in years,
so I can't really give you a good comparison.
That was the first time in a long time.
I know composite's a lot lighter.
LIEBERMAN: It looks really similar,
and it's still taking about 11 or 12 frames
to get across that one foot,
so we're looking at almost exactly the same speed
between the sticks.
NARRATOR: So, wood or graphite?
As this side-by-side comparison shows,
they both get the puck going at the same rate of speed.
Maybe I should switch back to wood, then, huh?
It seems like the big difference
is that wood is gonna bend over time.
You're gonna have these stress fractures that form inside it.
They probably make composites not just for the speed,
but you're gonna be able to use it for a much longer time.
NARRATOR: Whether wood or composite,
Matt is not going to pass up his shot at a lifelong fantasy,
playing with the pros.
-Does this make me look fat? -No, your [bleep] does.
All right, you ready?
NARRATOR: Oh!
Well, celebrity aside,
there's just nothing like playing with your own pals.
While Matt and Jeff indulge in some manly horseplay,
a reminder.
If there is something you want to see warped,
check us out on the Discovery Channel Website --
discovery.com/timewarp,
and the warp you see just might be your own.
I can see you're bored with the science stuff on this show.
Me too. Let's go play.