It starts with a flop, and ends with a bang, and not once does Professor Julius Sumner Miller's faith in physics falter.

That's a (very rough) description of Professor Sumner Miller's 1964 attempt to crush a metal drum with a dash of water and the power of physics.

The beloved presenter of Why Is It So? graced Australian television screens from 1963-1986, sharing his passion for physics through a variety of entertaining experiments.

This one, however, went a little awry.

First, he boiled water in the drum.

Soon after, it started spewing steam and the Professor and an assistant sealed it up.

Next, he doused it with a watering can, and later, ice.

Then he waited … and waited … but the drum remained disappointingly intact.

He returned to his lesson to explain what may have gone wrong, when an almighty bang thundered through the set.

"It went! It went! Oh ho! … Mamma mia did it go!" Professor Miller exclaimed in shock and delight.

"I had given it up."

He used the developments as reminder to have "faith in physics", before moving on with his show.

Professor Miller, born in 1909, was his Eastern European parents' ninth child.

He grew up on the family farm in the United States, before pursuing his passion for physics.

The ABC has compiled a series of the funniest, most entertaining segments from Why Is It So?