Applying high pressure to paper causes it to heat up to the point that its cellulose fibers can undergo partial pyrolysis turning it into a brittle charred mess
Applying high pressure to paper causes it to heat up to the point that its cellulose fibers can undergo partial pyrolysis turning it into a brittle charred mess
I can hear the “vat the fack”
This chemical reaction is extremely dangerous and very well could attack at any time, so we must deal with it.
This clip comes from [a video by the hydraulic press folks that](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuG_CeEZV6w) made it rounds here about year ago. This video came up on /r/askscience where someone asked what exactly happened to the paper. I got curious myself and looked into the question a bit. The short answer is that by pressing the paper so hard it started to heat up eventually the cellulose fibers started to break up at the molecular level (pyrolysis). Eventually this partially burned mess was compacted down into the brittle slab you see at the end.
In case you are looking for a somewhat more detailed answer, below is my original answer from /r/askscience:
____
1) Paper is largely made up of a forest of irregular [cellulose](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulose) fibers, [as shown here at high magnification](http://i.imgur.com/RVQtMJE.jpg). When pressure was first applied, the fibers became compacted together, but their internal structure did not significantly change.
2) A further increase in pressure caused rapid local heating.
3) The heating led to [pyrolysis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrolysis), i.e. a messy series of reactions that we throw together under the umbrella term “decomposition.” In the end what was probably left was a mess consisting of fibers in domains with different packing, some plastic-like patches, and bits of what is essentially char.
This result is in line with what materials researchers saw when trying to melt cellulose. For example,take [this paper](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10570-004-0344-3)^1, where they wanted to study how you can try to transform cellulose into a plastic. As the introduction explains:
>But when heating pulp or paper, the common experience is that they rather reveal incineration than plastification
These researchers observed a similar result when they just put cellulose to uniaxial pressure (i.e. pressing it on one axis, like in the video).
**Reference:**
1. Schroeter, J., et al. Melting Cellulose. *Cellulose* 2005: 12, pg 159-165. ([link](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10570-004-0344-3))
I had an uncle who had pyrolysis and he had to use a wheelchair
The paper burns? I assumed the grey coloring was from contacting the dirty pressing tools. Meaning I thought it was just metal imbedded in the paper.
Is there a subreddit for vids like this? Crushing things in an hydraulic press? I’d watch the hell outta these vids
make hydralic presses great again
Thank you! Ive seen the expolding paper videos on youtube so much but never found an explanation. Really cool, I wonder if people have done studies on paper under high pressure
So much for The Eightfold Path…
Imagine sticking your testicle there
You can do this with a hammer. I’ve done this to show transfer of energy to 8th graders.
Or as the intellectuals say it: “Wat te fuck it exploded”
I accidentally did this as a kid! I was obsessed with the folding paper 7 times thing, so I would fold paper as much as possible and then roll it flat under stuff. I used hammers, put it behind car tires, and even a jewelers anvil. It always crumbled and was covered in black, so I wrote it off as me screwing the experiment up. Years later, imagine my surprise.
Could have saved money and just let your mum sit on it..
Well, https://youtu.be/kRAEBbotuIE
Is that what happens to the iPhone charging cords too?
If you had used a live human hand, instead of paper, it would have broken the hand.
The way he handles that press doesn’t look very safe
Vat the fuck
me_irl
Actually, you can fold it up to 11 times if I remember correctly. It was done in Mythbusters, they made the paper bigger so the paper was thinner.
I was literally thinking about this today…
*Twilight Zone theme plays*
Imagine making origami but having this to press the folds
I learned about this from HPC. Happened when they crushed newspaper.
r/oddlysatisfying
Congolexicomatisation
Can we get a r/combinedgifs of this and a nuclear explosion?
We’re this close of nuclear fusion via press
I managed to do that to a bit of paper by sandwiching it in between my calculator and it’s cover on the back for like a month.
Wouldn’t that feel hot to the touch?
Pyrolysis, my word of the day.
That’s a lotta damage.
How much do presses like these cost?
Use a pusher stick! This guy is going to lose a finger very soon
When you do work on something you produce heat which is what causes the pyrolysis, thank you thermodynamics
Squished it
/u/stabbot
This clip is heavy
Pyrolysis seems like a really fancy word for “burning”
He coulda made coin with that on eBay.
“This is what happens to your dreams when the FCC loot boxes net neutrality.”
Well that just solved a question I had while laying in bed the other day.
Fuggin sweet.
When are they gonna put their fingers in it
flashblack friday to the week or two that people gave a shit about hydraulic press videos.
I tried using this, plus the whole “bend a paperclip a bunch and feel the heat”, arguments on /r/conspiracy to explain why massive internal ruptures during destruction of the WTC towers on 9/11 could cause some of the heat symptoms of steel deformation in the rubble. Got reported and downvoted into eternity. But it’s right there ^^^^.
AKA you physically can’t fold a piece of paper seven times….because it chemically reacts at the seventh fold.
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