Stop what you're doing and watch this. No, really. Clear your schedule for the next seven minutes and have a seat. This here's the story of Prince Rupert's Drop – and if you're into physics, high-speed video, explosions, or the feeling of your jaw falling open in an involuntary expression of sheer wonderment, it's a story you definitely need to hear.


Your guide is Destin from Smarter Every Day. If you aren't familiar with Destin or his YouTube channel, do yourself a favor and check it out. It is, consistently, some of the best informational science content out there today. That being said, this might be our favorite SED video ever. In it, Destin explores the bizarre and breathtaking properties of Prince Rupert's Drop, a teardrop-shaped glob of glass that is at once remarkably strong and explosively fragile. With the help of a camera with an obscenely high framerate (over 100,000 fps), Destin delivers the most lucid and entertaining explanation of the Drop's contradictory properties that we've ever had the pleasure of receiving.

We can't emphasize this enough: watch this now. You will not be disappointed.

[Smarter Every Day]