I’m way behind, but I figured it would be best to go over the new stuff while it’s still fresh.  Don’t worry, I’m still going to do the old stuff.

Episode 301: Improvise

A whole bunch of DIY stuff

(various, mostly real)

I don’t know how much stuff to go over at the beginning of the episode.  Clearly MacGyver has been working hard in this village and there are all sorts of DIY stuff.  Let’s just leave it at that.

Water pump

(mechanics, real)

So, you need water from a well – right?  That’s where a water pump comes into play.  Let’s just talk about pumps in general.  There are really two types of water pumps. There is a suction pump and a spinning pump.

For the suction pump, air is removed from a tube above the water.  This reduces the pressure on top of the water.  There is still air pressure pushing on the rest of the water – and this air pressure (from the atmosphere) pushes the water up the tube.  Once the column of water produces the same pressure as the atmosphere, the column of water stops rising.  This means you can pump water up 33 feet.

For the spinning pump (not its actual name), there is something that spins and pushes the water.  Think of this as a water fan blade.  The blade spins and pushes the water up the tube.

Quartz and steel to make a spark

(chemistry, real)

Note: you can barely see this hack – it’s fast.  But it’s there.

Yes, you can make a spark with quartz rock and steel.  The key thing is that the quartz is strong enough to chip off super tiny pieces of steel.  These super tiny pieces are hot enough and small enough to react with the air and get super hot.

Here is a video.