“And the cursed pumpkin rose up from the earth, carried to the sky by the spirits of All Hallows’ Eve.” Or in other words, Andy put a superconductor in a pumpkin and levitated it on a magnetic track.
I know, Halloween is done. But Ri Science did some pretty amazing things with pumpkins that I thought you needed to see. If the levitation wasn’t enough, here’s some more:
In the top pumpkin, the reaction between iron oxide (rust) and aluminium powder, set off by a strip of magnesium to provide enough heat, produces iron and aluminium oxide.
The reaction is incredibly exothermic, occurring at about 2000 degrees Celsius. At this temperature, the iron melts and is spewed out in a rain of fire, and flows out as a river of molten metal into the poor head below. This is more than enough to set off the gun cotton in the second pumpkin, which bursts into a healthy fireball.
Okay, so…pretty frequently I see people wondering why some artists are as popular as they are when they’re “not actually good at art” or whatever. Speaking as someone who has had these thoughts as well, insofar as I can tell, possible factors in artistic popularity (at least fandom-wise) are as follows:
1. Prodigious technical skills, based on a traditional interpretation of the term “skill”. Aesthetically-pleasing, well-made art. Stellar craftsmanship. Et cetera. This is not strictly necessary, however, if you have one or more of these in addition to even decent technical skills: 2. Niche appeal. A unique style, a favorite character/ship a fraction of the fandom is passionate about, or a skill few other people have acquired (like animation, for instance). 3. Powerful concept. Not just making pretty doodles, but art with a narrative or a wealth of extra details or thought-provoking features. 4. Wow value. I think this really only works in combination with a really good concept, but if you can really power through something huge and impressive that other people wouldn’t generally have the dedication for, they tend to sit up and take notice. 5. Prolific creation. Making a lot of stuff keeps people interested, even if all of it isn’t super-wow-awesome. 6. Being nice to people doesn’t hurt.
This isn’t meant to be a guide to popularity–rather, next time you’re like “why is that person’s art so popular? I think they suck”, you might consider these points and maybe ease off a bit. The artist, after all, is just doing what they enjoy. You may think everyone who likes their stuff is having some kind of mass hallucination, but that’s their business.
