Sound + Fire = Rubens' Tube 

guess you can say that mix tape was fire

The Rubens' Tube was my first introduction to just how amazing physics really is. I saw a different video of one about five years ago, and I asked a professor at my school if we could build one. We did, and I have been hooked on physics ever since. Now I will start my physics PhD in the fall. If feels good to look back on my original inspiration. Thank you so much for the great videos, Derek! And thank you for inspiring others to think about physics.

Imagine playing Dubstep on this.

That music was "lit".

If you look really closely , You can see that it's not acctualy him singing

@mrhashbrowns the effect is something called a standing wave - where the traveling waves are bouncing back and forth in the tube and creating a consistent pattern.

Imagine cavemen like lining up their torches in a row and then start singing....prehistoric audio visualizer.

Hey vsauce michael here

it is both a longitudinal wave and a standing wave. A standing wave just means there is a forward-going (compression) wave and a backward-going (compression) wave to produce points of maximum wave amplitude (anti-nodes) and points of no wave amplitude (nodes).

i need this with death metal...

why is that veritasium guy acting as if he had no idea of anything ? :o

sound waves compress and spread out the air, so they do affect the air and gas pressure.

I made one of these for my high school Physics class. I used sin waves to test it and calculated a reasonably accurate speed of sound. It was really cool.

that's right because here they are forming a 'standing wave'

Now that is SO COOL. I've always wondered how to visually represent longditudinal pressure standing waves! Wow, that sounded geeky! But very true ... Not sure if I should admit that ...

"All the other kids with the pumped up kicks You better run, better run, outrun my gun"

Now to just put on some dubstep and DROP. THE. BASS

This is one of the coolest video I've evere seen in my life...i love this channel :)

3:17 if you look closely you can see that's not him singing

Best way to demonstrate standing wave ever!

One word. Dubstep.

my physics teacher did this last year and he played dubstep on it. possibly the coolest experiment with soundwaves in physics. this is why i love science

Imagine this in raves to look like a sound visualizer omg xD

This was so Great! The addition of Mozart's Queen of the night at the end made this video. Couldn't have picked a better song to show this thing off

when they were lip syncing I couldn't watch the flames out of laughter

That was amazing demonstration of sound waves in air!

This is ironic because thats exactly what the wave visualizer looks like in media players

Because, the source of the sound is coming from the left, and traveling to the right, but with the constant tones for example, the exact same wave length is being sent through the tube. Because it is the same each time, it hits the same highs and lows at each point, so that it doesn't appear to move. if you could see other other things, like the vibrations traveling through the tube, instead of the sound waves, you would be able to see them (the vibrations that is) traveling from left to right

That eye contact. otp

about 60 years of natural gas left and you guys are doing this...love it.. :D

I'M WEARING HEADPHONEZZZ I AM GONNA DIEEEE

Mixed compressions traveling through a tube with small holes with burning gas = Awesome priceless visual equalizer.

is better with dubstep

These are mechanical waves, they spread out through matter, like air, gas, water, etc. as you push the particles together they have a higher pressure, and when you pull them apart they have lower pressure. Waves are just the switching of high and low pressures, when something vibrates it compresses and discompresses air.

lame lip sync sucks. ...an alliteration that aspires to avoid the event entirely.

this is just beautiful and out right ingenious

Omg they are so nerdy 😂😂😂

this was uploaded in my b-day!!!

Who's here from grandayy?

Fantastic video, thank you!

Wow. That sound sure is annoying.

music plus fire = AWESOME!!!!!

THey should show sound waves like this in school - seriously visual and getting people to sing or change the sond and see the results coudl really help - heck it coudl help music lessons. awesome.

they sing so beautifully!

yeah, there is a copyrighted piece of music near the end. I'm thinking about cutting it out and reposting it...

You guys are such geeks, love it.

So that is how those equalizer things on the stereo works. They are pumping digital gas thru my stereo! Genius!

Equalizer visualizes the the strength of output signal (in db) per frequency. Whereas Oscilloscopes does exactly what the tube in the video does: it shows actual sound wave (pressure of air) per time units.

The orchestra bit sold it for me.

I want that in my room! at night! with a couple of little love making tunes and the lights out ;)

coolest experiment I've seen yet

Because the wave length of the lower frequencies is about 20 meters - way longer than the pipe, so you would only see a slight upward or downward slope. It would basically be like a seesaw. Then the higher frequencies wouldn't be strong enough to counter-act the lower ones, so they wouldn't do much. Lastly, since you'd probably have the bass up too far, the flames would likely be extinguished before too long.

That... is.... awesome!!!! I need one right this second....

BEST. VISUAL EQUALIZER. EVER.

I cant believe that both of you guys produce the same voice!

That was some amazing singing!

this is youtubeing done right! Loved this one!

Boston - More than a feeling I am sure it would be perfect.

they make a very good orchestra

Not counting the two dudes that obviously didn't like each other, this was awesome

That's probably a standing (or stationary) wave. This is also the reason why some frequencies are not shown, the column of gas cannot vibrate that way in that volume.

best visualization ever.

i remember this guy in like the first or second leanback, i subscribed ever since

So badass. Great Video, nice explanation!

My science teacher in 7th grade did this. He played some metal, and it was just plain epic.

Best visualization ever

I'd LOVE to see that!!!

Wow you sing like an angel!😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

Did this in highschool and it was awesome, we had a piano hooked up to it :D

I made this with a friend last year. It is simply awesome!

best visualizer eva!

Bloody brilliant!

My friend made one of these in his physics class. His teacher gave him a 100% on his semester exam because it was so well done.

they sing like angels

Mind Blown !

Ruben's tubes is awesome with dubstep :D

this will make a sick music video

that is the most awesomest thing I've ever seen...

this + dubstep = awesome

I was 6 years old when this was uploaded. Tomorrow I will be 19 years old. God damn.

The Magic Flute. How appropriate!

This. Is. Amazing.

Interesting illustration of vibrato actually.

you can't see the wave itself but that doesn't mean it is not material, wind is invisible, but it is material and probably work in a very simmilar way: High pressure and low pressure create movement of air that results in winds that sometimes knock people down or even destroy houses... so if you could manipulate sound you could basically create a weapon :D

BRILLIANT isn't a big enough word for this stuff, not even capitalized. :)

Woow... beautiful!!

does anybody else notice how very focus this man is on his fire pipe throughout the video?

Great voice!

this with drum and bass would be epic

I've actually seen this at someones house during a party. Really cool

This is beautiful. Thank you!

oh,wow,that's amazing!!!! i would love to have this in my home as a fireplace

@cballet315 One of the magic flute pieces

I've watched a video with this with dubstep now. You're wrong. It looks awesome.

Ok, now I want to see that at the next concert I go to.

i get a feeling that the guy in red shirt thought you were stupid or something as he explained everything about waves and stuff very simply.. i liked how you shutted him up by using the correct terms instead of his first grade explanations

this is amazing!

I'm not quite sure what gas they're using here (probably propane), but my guess would be that if you used a gas that had a wider range of flammable concentrations then the flame would be harder to put out by the changes in pressure caused by the sound waves. Hydrogen has one of the largest ranges of flammable concentration, so if the experiment could be rerun with hydrogen then you might get better results.

Beautiful

awesome ending !!