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This Is What Would Happen If Your Kid Jumped Into A Pool Filled With Orbeez

Whatever floats your boat.

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Swimming In 25 Million Water Balls
YouTube / Mark Rober

Orbeez are like water balloons if you shrunk them down and injected them with science. They are made out of super absorbent polymers and used in everything from spas, to diapers, to kid’s toys, to Mark Rober’s latest video. The NASA-engineer-turned-coolest-uncle-ever is back and ready to settle a 25 million Orbeez bet with his coworkers, specifically about whether he’ll sink or swim when jumping into a pool full of them.

With the help of the Backyard Scientist’s actual backyard (and, more importantly, pool), Rober tested his hypothesis: That he’ll only sink to his waist. Technically, Rober lost the bet, but that doesn’t necessarily mean his coworkers won. If there are any winners in this video, it’s Rober’s nephews, who he invited over for a swim after proving himself wrong. At least, this time, he’s not pelting them with a snowball machine gun.

With only a little bit of the summer left, you can conduct a similar experiment with your kid, too. But Nerdist broke down the math and it could take upwards of 167,000 packets of Orbeez and 15,600 gallons of water to achieve similar results. In other words, if you live in California, trying this is going to make you look like a real dick. But if water is not an issue, you’re still going to need a pool … and a crap load of patience.

[H/T] Gizmodo

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