Can a Little Oil Really Calm the Ocean? 

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I hope this exploit won't get patched in the next update

What's crazy is that this works so well that scientists were worried about people using it to control the weather in the papers I read about the effect.

Oh my god finally. In my 12th grade physics, one of the practical applications of surface tension was to calm ocean waves. All of us students and the teacher was equally confused, and googling it didn't give answers. Thank you for solving a 6 year long mystery

It's blowing my mind that so little can create that big of an area of effect.

A sinking boat raises the flag "I'M SINKING!" A passing-by boat raises the flag "NOT MY PROBLEM"

science truly does feel like magic sometimes. if someone wrote this in a fantasy book, where people drop this alchemical substance into the ocean to near-instantly calm the waves, i would say they are being too unrealistic

me dumping 5 million tons of crude oil into the ocean: "my Amazon package will never sink now."

The gulf of Mexico was as calm as a bathtub during the BP oil spill. Nobody talks about it, but I was out there in the golf, and I can tell you there wasn’t a single wave to be found.

2:00 it took quite some time to realize the mirror-finish was NOT the bank of snow, but a near perfect reflection of it!

wtf...it seems so simple, yet in all my years I've never heard of this. Thank you!

Edit: apparently this comment is spoiling the video before people can watch it, and I apologize for that. When I read the thumbnail, I totally thought you were pulling our chains, but the fact that this actually works is mind-blowing. This is the best real-world example of the butterfly effect I've ever seen

The Coast Guard just needs to carry a 5 gal bucket of fish oil with them on rescue missions. Easy peasy.

Ben Franklin, letter to William Brownrigg, 1773: "I then went to the Windward Side, where they [the waves] began to form; and there the Oil tho’ not more than a Tea Spoonful produced an instant Calm, over a Space several yards square, which spread amazingly, and extended itself gradually till it reached the Lee Side, making all that Quarter of the Pond, perhaps half an Acre, as smooth as a Looking Glass."

This used to be well known amongst sailors. Once a sailing yacht starts to get overpowered even with just small storm sails up, a "sea anchor" (like a small parachute) is let out via a line from the bow of the yacht for some distance, and sails taken down. This keeps the bow facing oncoming waves. If waves were breaking , a very small amount of oil could be released via the head (toilet) periodically, which would calm the sea as the yacht drifted downwind with the oil slick, bow on to the now-calmer waves.

Also worth noting is that the danger to ships in the sea isn't really the size of a wave, but the wave breaking onto or into the side of a boat. The oil film helps prevent waves from breaking, meaning that while the waves are still tall they aren't as 'pointy', or steep - and thus much less dangerous.

I have used a small amount of vegetable oil to prevent water from boiling over when cooking pasta for as long as I've been cooking. I think this explains why this trick works.

Benjamin Franklin was notorious for using oil to calm water. He described this in his autobiography (great read). He loved it so much that he had the top of his walking cane turned into a small oil container so that we would have oil on hand (or under) at all times.... Great video demonstration. As I recall, Ben used whale oil.

"While at sea in 1757, Franklin took particular interest in a stark difference between the wakes of certain ships compared to others. Franklin consulted his captain and learned that one ship’s cook threw refuse oil over the side of the boat, turning the water tranquil-a phenomenon he had likewise learned about in his youth from the writings of Pliny, the ancient natural historian. It was at sea that Franklin fully contemplated “the wonderful Quietness of Oil on agitated water"

Using powder on water to measure the volume of drop of oil on a pin / needle was an experiment that I saw 50y ago. The oil spreads out forming a circle in the powder and the maths is simple to estimate the volume of the drop. I have known of the oil on water from my sailing days; I am very impressed by you experiment, I thought it would need a gallon of oil.

That's the coolest sh!t i've learned this year

Yachtsmen in the 1950s carried perforated bags in which were rags which could be soaked in oil and which could be trailed from a boat when stopped in a storm. This created a slick to windward. I seem to remember the use of oil is described in the book Heavy Weather Sailing, and in 19th century sailing books such as the Voyage of the Tilikum and Sailing Alone around the World.

Wow, I wasn't expecting it to actually work!

The visual at the end describing the feedback loop is excellent!

Learnt about this back in my school days many many years ago. Apparently certain ships and lifeboats were required to carry oil that could be slowly released into the sea during storms in order to do exactly this. Utterly amazing that something so small can do so much!

oil dispersal on the water was a standard heavy weather tactic used by captains back in the day. Ships carried barrels of oil specifically for this. The oil was dispensed by continious drip buckets.

In French we have the expression "une mer d'huile" which we use when the water (ocean, lake etc.) is like a mirror.

It's like that famous Simon and Garfunkel song, "Fish Oil Over Troubled Waters".

I've seen this while lake fishing. After casting a hook with potski's eggs, there'd be a smooth spot about 8 feet around. And that was just from the residue on two little eggs.

"You can see the smoothness spread out in a semicircle from where I put it in." Wise words to be remembered by every husband.

I Started watching your videos recently. These videos are really knowledgeable. I appreciate your work man. Keep it up!

One of your best vids yet. Keep this format please. The goal of 10 min clearly can push you to fill it with oodles of notes and facts as you've demonstrated.

My dude here is getting better at making awesome videos, the infographics wow!!!

Fascinating! I did not realise that the type of oil had a measurable impact. I recall a TV demonstration on a lake in the UK many years ago. They rowed out, tipped a small amount of oil over the boat and waited as the flatness spread out from them. I don't recall any mention of the type of oil (mineral vs. vegetable/animal)

Ok, I have to admit not often I see something on the internet, that is really new that I didn't see before. Everything seems to be just a re-upload about the same phenomena over and over again. But this I truly see for the first time.

this one was both fascinating and mind-blowing! thanks!

I know I got a lot to learn about the world, but you just blew my mind! Thank You!

Alright, I’ve been watching for a while and I’m gonna go ahead and subscribe. I’m surprised, engaged, amused, entertained, this is cool.

Over 50 years and never heard of this phenomenon, super interesting and very well explained, also the graphic explaining the feedback loop, well done! Thankyou

Impressive experiment, it's intriguing how a small amount of oil can calm the waves. The underlying science behind it is well explained and the historical anecdotes really make it more interesting.

This solves a long standing personal mystery that I've had for years (at least, I think it does.) My grand father lived near me and had a pond that was a few acres in size. I spent many summer days fishing on the lake. One of the things I noticed, and still have noticed, is that from time to time there would be patches like this on the water. The water would be more still in a some-what circular area, and the rest of the pond would have waves you'd expect depending on the wind. I'm guessing that something either died and seeped oil OR it might have been from bait, from time to time. Regardless, I'm assuming the calm patches were from some form of minimal oil introduced to the surface.

The oceans can have a little oil, as a treat

I would have never believed this without the amazing camera angles. Thank you!!!

Absolutely incredible. What an episode. I had no idea that this was even a thing.

I reside close to the Mediterranean Sea, where I often ponder the occurrence of smooth patches on its calm surface. after watching this video, I've come to understand that these patches are likely caused by motor oil from small boats. Wow! I didn't expect that to be the reason.

I love that I have never heard about this before. Amazing.

this was a really interesting video with great storytelling, keep up the good work!

Another brilliant video.... keep up the good work... Always entertaining and educational.

It's been a long time since I got such a new and and just mind blowing information. I was really excited to watch him revealing the secret.

We appreciate how well you articulate your insights. Keep up the good work.

After watching all your videos for months...this is the best one.

Dude!! This is very informative, I didn't know this could happen, probably most people on the earth don't know this. Great work with another exceptional video👍

They did this in my hometown with lower quality whale oil. The good stuff was very useful but the remaining bits were stored for calming the waves on the port and letting the fishing vessels go in or out

It calms down because old Greek gods like oil in their salad so they get too distracted by munching to do anything else. Much less a storm.

I'd never heard of this, truly fascinating. Thankyou for the practical demonstration and clear explanation.

Over here in the UK we used to have a BBC2 science program in the 1990's called 'Local Heroes' (by Adam Hart Davis) and this oil-on-water effect was detailed in one of the episodes (some of the episodes are here on RU-vid). On one of his visits to Britain, Benjamin Franklin stayed in the Lake District with William Brownrigg and they performed this experiment on Derwentwater. Lakes and ponds are one thing but to know this effect has been witnessed for the last two and a half millennia on rough seas is mind blowing... thankyou for making this effect more widely known.

Is it possible that jesus dumped a vase of fish oil and prayed to God, before commanding the ocean to be calm? Who wouldve known? It's a Miracle!

Every rescue boat/helicopter should have a bucket of fish oil on board

I've seen the oil/wave phenomenon many times. Thanks for revealing how it actually takes place.

This is one of the craziest science videos I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot. I just can't believe I've never heard of this! Thanks for demonstrating and explaining so well!

9:30 the best line ❤❤❤

This was amazing!

Over 20 years in the Navy and I never knew this. Awesome!

Nice video sir ❤❤ love you from India 🇮🇳🇮🇳❤❤❤

I've been dumping my used motor oil in the ocean for decades. People always give me sh!t and never believe me when I tell them why. Thanks for setting the record straight.

I don't know how I've never heard about this. Great explanation!

How much fish oil do i need to calm the pacific ocean?

Sacrifice a soul?? The god eat the sacrifice. mmmm thank you for your sacrifice. And the god will calm the seas.

I've learned so much from you and this is one of the cooler and informational ones 😊😊😊

This is the sort of content I come here for. :) Thanks for sharing.

Rather than have an app to help choose whose propaganda to follow, would it not be better to ignore all Main Stream Media?

That is a very cool feedback loop. I subbed for this one, well done.

I read about this technique in a very old power squadron manual, thought it was awesome but not something I'd ever be in a situation to actually use. Really cool

I wouldn't have known. Thanks for telling us about it!

I'm learning. Love it. Thank you again .

Swimming pool has lane dividers that quell the waves, there are quite a few different designs of plastic dampers. Our 50m pool can be divided in to three smaller pools that can have different depths. The extra pool walls rise up with hydraulics, they do this most days at 9am and it takes 30min for the staff to deploy three sets of shorter lane dividers.

Boy did I learn something! Thankyou!

Your videos are so well done. You totally make 'nerd' look cool. Keep up the good work. 😎

Thought it was another of your well illustrated think pieces but wow, it actually works.

This is amazing. Thank you for explaining…

I never new this. I love learning new stuff ❤

Fascinating, I recall learning this as a child and then I totally forgot but it's still amazing it's true.

Thank you for the very interesting video. Again, top-notch material from The Action Lab.

That was super cool, thanks for the education.

I was just watching this random video about this random topic when i casually stumble upon a video of one of my hometown's beaches, Empa beach in Ericeira, Portugal. Great video

We used to use something similar for swimming pools, it was used for the tiles where the water rested but has the same effect. Was very satisfying in a swimming pool

Really interesting topic!

Wow, how did I not come across this earlier, amazing!

Great video man. Learnt something new and cool

We always learn something from your videos ❤

This is deep deep on a social level. Good work

It's usually the breaking of the "smaller" waves that's the most danger. The underlying long period swells that originates hundreds to thousands of km away will still remain. They will not readily break without wind effects in water deeper than half its wavelength and is much easier to deal with when in smaller ships.

Crazy I did not think that this would actually happen!

Amazing video! It also explains why in my country (Greece) people refer to calm waters as the sea looks like oil today! Thank you!

When I vacuum a pool. I squirt some deluded dish soap on the water. And that keeps the ripples down so I can see what I'm vacuuming. It's extra helpful on windy days. It's also good to clear the small debris from the middle of the pool to the side to make it easier to net it out.

This property has been used in underwater oil prospecting from satellites. Natural oil seeps create patches of somewhat calmer water. With the right radar wavelength those sea surface patches show up quite well.

Make it a bit thicker, ya it makes sense that it wouldn't get pushed around as much- kinda like turning the ocean into temporary mud, the wind doesn't blow mud around so much and a thicker liquid should behave similarly. I've wondered about this for a long time- neat to see that someone actually did an experiment to test if this is real. I thought it'd take a lot more than that to calm the water though. That's kinda crazy. Seems like rescue ships and the coast guard should carry a bit of oil to drop around hazard areas! Thought I was subbed already... either way I am now!

I love the cruel irony that oil spills from capsized vessels end up fixing the problem the caused them.

ok this is weri cool , I dont know how this chanel keeps comeing up with ideas like this, but respect

This is THE MOST INSANE thing I've ever seen in RU-vid science video. Absolutely amazing.😮