McGuyver Meets Mendeleev

in these everyday, chemistry inspired tricks

to make your life a little easier, with all

the evidence you need to back it up.

Now let's get started.

Quick Cold One

Doggone it, company’s going to be here

in 30 minutes and the brews

are sitting still in the garage.

You want to be a good host,

so here’s a quick tip to get those beers

down to blissful frosty goodness

in no time at all.

Take a bucket and fill it with water.

Then, add a whole bunch of salt.

Go ahead, just twist the lid off

the salt-shaker and dump it all in there.

Then, when the salt is dissolved in the water,

add a whole lot of ice.

Swish it around, stick your beers in there

and they’ll be chilled in under 20 minutes.

When salt molecules are dissolved in water,

they have the ability to significantly

reduce its freezing point.

Normally, when water freezes at 0°C, its

molecules begin to crystalize and form ice.

Salt molecules interrupt this development,

which means the water will cool lower

than its normal freezing point.

With beer cans fully submerged,

the entire surface area is covered

by freezing cold water, which means it

will cool faster than just being on ice.

Gnat a Problem

Fruit flies have been buzzing around the kitchen

and you’ve come to realize that there are

few and far things in this life as annoying.

It’s time to make a change and move on

to a fruit fly free existence.

Here’s what you do.

Take a small dish and pour a little bit

of apple cider vinegar in it.

Then, add a couple drops of dish soap.

Put the dish near the fruit fly fiasco,

and wrap the top tightly with saran wrap.

The final step is to poke several holes

in the saran wrap lid, to keep the flies

from flying out when they enter.

Those little guys are very much

attracted to the scent of vinegar.

This is because their larvae feed on

bacteria that grow in fermenting environments.

Then that addition of dish soap breaks

the surface tension of the vinegar.

So in other words, when a fly steps into

the trap and checks out the vinegar,

it falls right in, rather than being propped up

by the surface tension of the vinegar.

Holy Burgers

You want to be the grill master of year,

but you can’t seem to get your burgers right.

Either they’re too pink in the middle,

or you’ve gone overboard and burnt them to a crisp.

Good news for you, we’ve got a technique

for the prefect burger, without any health risks.

When you squish your patties together,

poke a quarter-sized hole right in the middle.

When you grill this style of patty,

it will cook evenly throughout.

Every tiny bit of ground beef in that patty may

have potentially been exposed to germ and bacteria.

So when cooked, you got to get everything

up to a safe 160 degrees fahrenheit.

As your grilling your burgers the browning

patties are going through a tasty chemical

transformation known as a maillard reactions.

When food is heated a reaction occurs between

sugars and amino acids that gives cooked food

its color and its excellent flavor.

So by poking those holes in the patties,

you open up the center of the burger

for more equally spread heat, which means

that they’ll cook faster inside,

without the unnecessary charring outside.

And the best part, is the hole will

close up when it’s fully cooked.

Stink Sponge Syndrome

There’s no doubt about it,

you’ve gotta keep those dishes clean,

but half the time you wonder to yourself

what’s the point when your kitchen sink

smells like mildew all the time.

That sponge of yours reeks, and

it’s time to do something about it!

Here’s a quick fix. Double up your sponges.

Use one for the first half of the day,

and the other for the second half.

After every time you use a sponge,

it’s important to thoroughly rinse

it with water and let it dry before future use.

With two sponges, you can always be certain

to start with a dry sponge.

You see, when your sponge stinks, it’s due

to certain odorous chemicals that are produced

by bacteria that thrive in wet environments.

If you do your best to keep the sponge dry,

chances are high that you won’t suffer

from Stinky Sponge Syndrome any longer.

Big shout out to Jim Hasak for the

Stinky Sponge Syndrome lifehack.

If you have any other chemistry life hacks

of your own, post them down there in

the comments and we’ll try to work them

into future Chemistry Life Hacks videos.

Thanks for watching folks!

We’ll see you again soon.