Une Petite Goutte d’Huile Peut Calmer l’Océan

Sympa

Avez-vous déjà remarqué comment une minuscule goutte d'huile peut faire des miracles ? Lorsque l'huile touche l'eau, elle se répand et forme un film super fin à la surface. Ce film brise les vagues et lisse la surface, un peu comme une nappe d'huile magique. Les vagues perdent leur énergie, et soudain, c'est comme si l'océan prenait une pilule relaxante. Alors, la prochaine fois que vous renversez une goutte d'huile, rappelez-vous simplement que vous pourriez être en train de calmer tout l'océan !  Animation créée par Sympa. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Musique par Epidemic Sound https://www.epidemicsound.com   Pour ne rien perdre de Sympa, abonnez-vous!: https://goo.gl/6E4Xna​ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nos réseaux sociaux : Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sympasympacom/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sympa.officiel/  Stock de fichiers (photos, vidéos et autres): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Si tu en veux encore plus, fais un tour ici:  http://sympa-sympa.com

Transcript

00:00 The English expression "pour oil on agitated waters" seems very strange.

00:05 It means the opposite of the French expression "throw oil on fire".

00:10 The origin of this expression is very literal.

00:13 Indeed, we can calm the most violent waves with oil.

00:18 Just as we season a salad with oil to give it a good taste,

00:22 we can season the sea to soothe it.

00:26 At the end of the 19th century, several ship captains shared their experience in the New York Times.

00:32 They used oil to calm an agitated sea.

00:35 One of them, Captain Olsen of the Norwegian three-mast Villehelmine,

00:39 described in his letter what he did to save his crew and his ship during storms.

00:44 Despite the difficulties, using oil proved to be decisive

00:48 because it allowed to dry the part of the bridge exposed to the weather

00:51 and to continue sailing in case of heavy winds.

00:55 There seemed to be something magical in these canvas bags filled with ordinary animal oil.

01:00 He used them several times.

01:03 And, each time, the technique worked wonderfully.

01:07 Once, his crew wiped off violent mud during a trip to Belfast.

01:13 These gusts of wind were good for ravages,

01:16 but they managed to stay safe thanks to this ingenious invention.

01:20 As soon as they had released the bag from the bridge head,

01:23 the part exposed to the weather dried in a blink of an eye,

01:26 even though the sea was still swirling.

01:29 It was quite impressive. The idea worked perfectly.

01:32 And it was not even necessary to check if the bag was empty.

01:36 A real life-saving board.

01:38 Their boat was still shaking from time to time and was taking water on one side,

01:41 but without this trick, things would have been much worse.

01:44 Captain Jenkins of the British steam ship Francisco

01:48 used a similar method to calm the sea during his trip to Hull, England,

01:52 to Boston.

01:54 They had to face strong gusts of west wind and huge waves.

01:58 As they did not want to go further north,

02:00 they decided to stop the engines and rest a little.

02:03 They put soot in the pipes of the cupboards and filled them with oil.

02:07 And it worked like a charm.

02:10 The sea calmed down near the ship,

02:12 the big waves disappeared, and they stayed dry.

02:18 In total, 12 captains said they had successfully used oil against the violent waves,

02:24 and only one said it had not worked as planned.

02:27 Storm oil, as well as the one appointed to the sailors,

02:30 was a proven method to protect the crew,

02:33 the cargo and the cattle from the harsh sea conditions.

02:36 The hardest thing they had to face was a little bit of a mess.

02:40 The methods were slightly different from one ship to another,

02:44 but all using oil.

02:46 What made storm oil so effective?

02:49 First, let's clarify one point.

02:51 Storm oil is not an ordinary supermarket olive oil.

02:55 To be really effective, the oil must have a thick consistency,

02:59 almost insoluble in water.

03:01 Technically, it acts like an active tension.

03:04 This practice is very old and has been used for centuries.

03:08 Man pours oil to calm the waves of the ocean since antiquity.

03:12 It is poured to the surface of the seas to reduce the intensity of the waves

03:16 and facilitate rescue operations and navigation.

03:19 This oil accumulates on the surface and creates a concentration gradient

03:24 that increases the dispersion and damping of the waves in motion.

03:28 In the past, steam ships and rescue boats from all over the world

03:32 had to transport storm oil,

03:34 and this practice continued until the end of the 20th century.

03:37 It was in the US Marine Service Training Manual

03:41 that it became an essential element for rescue boats.

03:44 British ships were forced to transport it until 1988.

03:48 Often, vegetable oil or fish oil was used for economic reasons.

03:53 However, these options were not as effective,

03:56 because the oil's consistency was absolutely essential.

04:00 Storm oil has a damping effect on water.

04:06 It absorbs part of the energy of the waves.

04:09 It forms a thin layer on a large part of the surface

04:12 and prevents the wind from lifting the swell.

04:15 Oil used to calm the waves of the ocean dates back to antiquity.

04:19 Aristotle and Pliny the Elder even talked about its action.

04:23 Benjamin Franklin studied the damping properties of oil on waves

04:27 during his 18th century travels to England.

04:30 The correspondence between Franklin, William Brown Rigg, and Sir John Pringle

04:35 allowed to study this phenomenon in depth.

04:38 Agnes Pockels also contributed significantly

04:41 to the study of storm oils thanks to her experiments in Germany.

04:45 She suggested that the damping effect of oil on water

04:48 was not limited to reducing surface tension.

04:51 Oil definitely changes the game when it comes to calming agitated seas.

04:56 But any oil is not enough.

04:58 You have to use the right type of oil and apply it in the right way.

05:02 Forget engine oil and other oil products.

05:05 They are not effective.

05:07 Fish oil is the best, especially thick oils.

05:11 The problem is that we no longer transport it nowadays,

05:14 and sailors therefore have to use engine oil and salt oil.

05:18 It is therefore not surprising that it does not work as well as expected.

05:22 In the past, coast guards transported a small oil tank

05:26 for their rescue missions at sea.

05:28 But they abandoned this practice a long time ago.

05:31 It is not enough to pour oil on the water.

05:33 It must be let flow progressively, drop by drop.

05:37 The best way is to hang a bag of Morue fish oil

05:40 or a similar product on the side of the boat.

05:43 The oil flows from the bag on the surface of the water and softens the waves.

05:47 Not only does the oil calm the swell,

05:50 but it also prevents the wind from disturbing the surface.

05:54 A small amount of oil, about 4 liters,

05:57 allows to smooth a relatively vast surface around a ship.

06:01 Believe it or not, pouring oil into the sea was once allowed.

06:05 Steamboats and rescue boats had to be equipped with a device

06:09 to slowly evacuate their oil in case of a storm.

06:13 The Titanic's rescue boats were subject to the 1894 British law

06:17 stipulating that they had to transport oil in case of bad weather.

06:21 And now, back to science.

06:23 Oil reduces the surface tension of the water,

06:26 thus preventing the waves from breaking.

06:28 By adding an invisible layer on the water, you make it more flexible.

06:32 When you pour oil into water, the molecules do not agglutinate,

06:36 they spread out to form a very thin layer.

06:39 These oil molecules do acrobatics.

06:42 They reverse and align on the water molecules, like magnets.

06:46 This creates a film on the surface of the water

06:49 that is no longer a molecule of thickness.

06:52 You can determine the size of an oil molecule yourself by trying this method.

06:56 For example, by using a small spoon,

07:00 you can spread a huge oil stain on water.

07:03 If you do the math, you will see that a molecule is incredibly small.

07:08 Usually, the wind creates waves by moving the surface of the water,

07:13 but a layer of oil molecules is enough to create a membrane

07:17 and prevent the wind from creating waves.

07:20 This rather cool trick has been used by a large number of people

07:23 throughout history for various reasons.

07:26 I have already mentioned that Benjamin Franklin studied this phenomenon,

07:30 but he also liked to make jokes.

07:32 He claimed to be able to calm a lake shaken by a simple stroke of a cane.

07:36 He placed a small oil vial at the bottom of his cane.

07:39 The vial slowly emptied on the surface of the water.

07:42 Thanks to this, he made his audience believe that he had magical powers,

07:46 that he could control the water.

07:49 By the way, the science behind this trick is still used today.

07:53 By placing a thin layer of oil or magnesium fluoride on glass,

07:58 it is possible to make its surface invisible by reducing the reflections.

08:02 This type of glass is used for smartphones, tablets,

08:06 portable computers and glasses.

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