Last week we showed you the beautiful and strange reaction that occurs when you poor molten aluminium into a lava lamp, and so we thought we'd back it up with the only experiment we could find that was even more random - a demonstration of what happens when you mix coke with molten lead. And it's definitely not what we expected.
To begin with, YouTuber TAOFLEDERMAUS heats up his pan of lead to around 327 degrees Celsius or 621 Fahrenheit until it's completely melted (a little note on safety here: this experiment is dangerous and TAOFLEDERMAUS is equipped with some serious equipment to protect him, including a respirator, so DON'T try this at home).
He then starts out small by adding a few little drops of coke to the mix. Incredibly, these droplets actually levitate just above the surface of the molten lead, thanks to a phenomenon known as the Leidenfrost effect. This occurs when a liquid comes in near contact with something that's much hotter than its boiling point, producing an instant vapour layer that acts as a buffer and keeps the droplet from evaporating.
So far, so good. But what happens when you pour in a couple of cans of soft drink? We don't want to give away the ending so check out the video above to find out. But let's just say that the coke doesn't boil as you might expect. In fact, what it does to the lead instead is pretty damn beautiful. Science = art.
You can find out more about the very cool Leidenfrost effect in the SciShow episode below: