Take Off Show Luxembourg | chemical madness 🚀 Episode 9 | S.1 |

Big Science project shows in front of an audience and a jury on the subject of natural phenomenons. Unfortunately, Joseph is drowning. One candidate who mesmerised her audience and won a 3.000 euro trip to southern Italy. A thrilling first duel between two members of Team Red... and the surprising departure of our brilliant candidate Nicole. It's Alex! In any case, it was a great experience. All this happened in last week's episode of TAKE OFF, Luxembourg's first Science Challenge Show. We have

reached half-time for the TAKE OFF show. In the beginning, they were twelve, and now there are six of you left in the race. We're back in our studio, which means more science challenges for you. What I can reveal to you is that the difficulty level will be adapted...From now on it will be even more challenging. This episode's theme is chemistry. This is the science in which substance properties change. When they announced today's theme, I went "yes!". I hope my somewhat modest chemistry notions

get me through this. Many people imagine the typical chemistry lab experiences, so we thought we could not miss out on those. I thought it was important to improve the image of chemistry, I'm also thrilled that you can use chemistry to solve puzzles. Behind you, you find a saline solution with an unknown salt. Your task is to determine which salt it is. If you believe you found the correct answer, you hit the buzzer and log in your formula here. You better think twice before entering your formul

a, as the others can learn from your mistakes. The winning candidate in this challenge is not automatically safe from a duel, but he or she will have a huge strategic advantage in the next round. We're ready for the complex but fascinating world of chemistry. For our first challenge... 3 - 2 - 1 - TAKE OFF! Last week's chemistry did not really work out, it can only get better. Salt is made of two components, cations and anions. Our candidates find instructions on their desks on how to determine

them. With the help of these graphics, they can advance pace by pace, depending if the salt solution reacts with something or not. If they do this correctly and draw the right conclusions, they will find out which salt we are looking for. Today, there's a higher risk that I might be eliminated. In previous challenges, my arse was often saved by people standing next to me. Let's try this first... I first try to find out what this salt is soluble with and what not. Okay, something is happening. I

designed a plan in my head, it was important to come up with some kind of idea. This means I add two drops of... two drops... one...two... there's nothing... there's no sediment at the bottom... ...one...two... here we have red... ...this is a plus... let's stir it a bit more... Jamie did something which is a big no-no, he did something that cannot be reversed. He contaminated his main solution, he should not have done this, he should have divided it between several test tubes and get reactions

that way. Never ever try this in the big beaker. Oh no, I am so stupid... ...so stupid, I did not use the right one. One salt you know for sure... cooking salt.... chemists call it sodium chloride. This does not mean it's the only existing salt, Joseph will provide further details. All salts have something in common, they're made of differently charged particles. Sodium chloride, our cooking salt is made of positively charged sodium ions and of negatively charged chloride ions. But there are sc

ores of those ions. The combination of various ions results in all sorts of different salts. Our candidates have got ferric chloride in their unknown solution. Depending on what they add to their solution, they obtain different reactions. For example a change of colour or a sediment. With the help of their tables and their observations, they can determine what's in their unknown solution. Silly me...finally! This looked like Chinese to me... there were scores of letters and numbers... no idea wh

ere they came from... now it turned brown. I think Alex does not really know what to do, I wonder if he'll come up with something or if he has no plan whatsoever for this challenge. I don't believe you can be 100 percent sure after such a short amount of time. I'm surprised that Polina gave us such a quick answer, I believe she's a fan of chemistry. The others seem a bit nervous, some of the candidates look a bit shaky. For me, chemistry is a bit like Chinese mixed with Latin characters. Your an

swer is... wrong! Polina's answer was not entirely wrong. Several candidates found the Fe3+ cation, but they're still struggling with the anion. It was about adding a few more or a bit less drops, there might or might not be a small precipitate, determining this is really difficult. It's a bit silly to test every possibility, I have to shorten the testing. Lenny, your answer is... incorrect! I try to save what can be saved. I don't know what else to do. Science is a lot about theory, so practica

l work is pretty cool. You can mix things, stuff is happening and you wonder why is this happening? And finally the amazing explanation of it all! Wicked! I took the thing, experimented and swirled it a bit, I heated it up, but no idea, I came to no conclusion. There must be some kind of logic, it can't be that difficult. This gives 1, so it is 3... F... Come here, Jamie, your answer is... wrong! I realised at a certain point that I wouldn't find a solution. I had never even looked at the other

sheets. I'd say it's more brown than orange. NH3...nothing happens... I must add AgNO3. Polina was confused because her first iron answer was incorrect, she thought the cation was wrong, but it was correct after all, it was the anion that was wrong. They added NaOH and the result should have been orange, yet orange and brown colours are pretty close, depending on the amount of drops you used, you can go wrong. If they were thinking brown, they were on the wrong track, but if they pursued with or

ange, it became very clear, it lead to a very characteristically red reaction so they should easily have found the iron. It must be either this one, or this, or this, or this one... As it was definitely not FeI3, I'll just try FeCl3...why not? As I got closer to my solution, I wasn't sure if it was FeI3 or FeCl3, but luckily, Polina's FeI3 had been wrong, so I just tried to find out if FeCl3 was correct. He gave the exact same answer as the person before. No idea, I could be wrong. It's incredib

ly close, Polina and Matthieu slammed the buzzer almost at the same moment. Polina was slightly faster, but was she right? If she was, Matthieu won't stand a chance. Polina's second attempt. Polina, your answer is... wrong! Come over here. Matthieu... the solution we see here, is... correct! Madame Thill, I DID IT! Madame Thill!!! So Matthieu prevailed in the first challenge, but his space on TAKE OFF is not safe yet... Of course I'm glad I won the first challenge. I keep thinking about the chem

istry test I have to take this week. I hope this will kind of help me. Our individual candidates will be put into two teams again. This challenge will determine the team that must sent two of its candidates into the final duel. You probably wonder what today's first challenge was good for? To put it simply - Matthieu you won the first challenge, so you can assemble your own team. My three team favourites would be Karim, Jamie and Lenny: Karim, because we worked well together in our team, Jamie,

because I get along with him and Lenny, because I respect him a lot because he's incredibly fast. I want to be in Matthieu's team, no matter who else is in it. So far, I had to fight two duels against Team Purple members, and I don't want to face a third duel against the team, that's why I pick Jamie and Lenny. I'm kind of sad that Matthieu didn't choose me, yet I understand him, as I'm not the one with the greatest ideas. Thus Polina, Karim and Alex end up as the opposing team for the second ch

emistry challenge. On your desks, you find five glasses filled with liquids in various concentrations. Their job consists in finding a way to measure them and to sort the numbered vessels in the correct order, from the lowest to the highest colour concentration. The fastest team moves automatically to the next round and will avoid the duel. Ready for the second challenge... 3 - 2 - 1 - TAKE OFF! I believe that colours with a higher concentration also have a higher resistance. So the darker it is

, less goes through... we have to look through it with the light and build a blackbox, to get as little reflection as possible. It is impossible to recognise the concentration with the naked eye. The higher the concentration, the less light passes through, so the lower the concentration, the more light passes through. They can measure this with the photocell. We must build a box where everything around it, is dark and only use this as light-source. Okay, resistance? - Yes! Do you know the photo

meter and how it's used by scientists? Lucie has prepared a few explanations. A photometer works as follows: Light is sent through a liquid and a photocell measures on the other side how much light came through. The higher the concentration in a liquid, the more particles inside block the light and the less light makes it to the photocell on the other side. This can be measured. The photocell's resistance changes depending on the light that reaches it. A photometer is not only used to determine

concentrations, but also to follow biochemical processes for new substances. It's almost like a live broadcast into a chemical reaction. Do it on the bottom... When you remove your hand, the resistance is lower. We have not even looked at the numbers. Polina is coming over. No way did they get it right in such a short amount of time. Had they gotten it right off the bat, we wouldn't even have had a result. This was pretty close, they almost got it right, but they forgot that we got lots of studi

o lights in here, and they falsify the results. Our problem was that we looked at it the wrong way and that we used the wrong position. Position it here and look at the light. We should get as little light as possible from the outside. Not from underneath, move it to the other side. It must always be on the same height. It don't know if it will work, as they only shield it from one side, there is quite a lot of light coming in sideways. But the idea isn't bad. We will not accept if they just loo

k at it with the pocket lamp, we wanted them to measure with the photo cell and the multimeter. Write the numbers down. The smallest concentration, must be the brightest. 15324...The greatest resistance means the least light, so this must be the strongest. - 15324...are your sure? -Yes! Go ahead and try. Less light, higher resistance, more light, less resistance, it also means less concentration, as more concentration means more resistance. The idea of the challenge is to build a device that ca

n ideally be operated by just one person. Just build a cardboard tube, make a spot in the middle for your test tube and shield it from light on one side to use the photosensor and on the other side you have your torch in a fixed position, which cannot move and you need a holder for the tube. This would provide precise results. It had to be this, we just refined our initial method. We were pretty sure about the result. Third attempt. I hope they're filming, because they want to show our reaction

as we win. Okay, they're wrong. Matthieu chose the right people and yet he lost. We might not be the best but we still won. So yes, it's cool. I expected more from chemistry, I thought I would manage, but I had a few problems. There are two strong opponents in my team, this means that a duel will be difficult. Lenny, Matthieu or Jamie, two of you will be in the final duel. This will be the end of TAKE OFF for one of you. Lucie and Joseph, who do you send into the duel? Jamie... We picked Jamie,

as he fouled up the first challenge as he did what he was not supposed to do. I guess I was the worst in the team, I understand their choice, as I screwed up the first test. I think that was the reason for their choice. It was difficult to pick Jamie as he had been in many duels before, but in all fairness, we could not consider that. This will be Jamie's fourth TAKE OFF duel. Will this be the first duel that you lose or will you prove yet again that you cannot be kept down? This will depend on

your opponent, of course. And your opponent will not be chosen by Lucie or Joseph... Yes, I may decide, because I won the first contest... but by the team that won the previous challenge. Two people from the other team were Red, so I thought, no problem... they will pick Matthieu. So who will fight Jamie in the final duel? We thought that the one we choose must be pretty good, as we want the strongest candidates to be eliminated to improve our chances. We are really sorry... but we choose Lenny

. It's a relief that I move to the next round. Yikes, it's not gonna be easy, Lenny is a real fighter and he wants to win as much as I do. Showdown between Jamie and Lenny. Jamie who is quite familiar with this kind of situation, while Lenny must withstand the pressure for the first time. The theme for the duel is still chemistry, a complex topic for many people, but very useful in everyday life. The five containers in front of you are filled with water, but only one contains clean drinking wate

r. You must find out which one. When you think you found the right answer, you hit the buzzer. Should your answer be wrong, you will be blocked until your opponent logs in his answer. So try and be sure about your answer. Please serve us the clean water. 3 - 2 - 1 - TAKE OFF! I gathered my thoughts before I began. Drinking water has got several criteria, the pH level, it must be neutral and may not contain too much phosphate or nitrate. They have tests at their disposal to confirm all the criter

ia. And this is the case for only one of the containers. We had glass tubes, test tubes, we had special paper to check high and low pH levels, we had chemicals to verify colour variations in the water and to determine phosphate and nitrate levels. We needed to mix the chemicals with a spoon, We mixed the chemicals with a spoon, just like in a chemistry kit. They are both making a mistake by not labelling their tubes. They will not remember which tube came from which container. This is actually r

ule number one. I began by testing the pH value, I told myself this was the fastest way. I took a water sample and made a huge mistake yet again by not labelling the glass tubes which I did not recognise later on. Is this 1 or 2, I don't remember? These kinds of tests are very important to us, as we must constantly check if tap water is safe to drink. It's also important for flora and fauna. In water bodies, for instance in the reservoir up north if phosphate or nitrate values are too high, you

get algae, which could put the entire ecosystem into turmoil. This must be constantly surveilled. We now have a protection zone around the reservoir up north, where no cows or fertilisers are allowed, to keep those values in check. Ideally, you test pH values for the five samples, this will immediately eliminate two of the samples, as they were contaminated with acid or base. This even happens in nature sometimes. The other samples were contaminated with nitrates or phosphates, those tests are m

ore complicated and take a bit longer. Then I tried to make the nitrate test and I concluded that there were only two possibilities left. So I decided for number 2. In my opinion, the drinking water... is sample number 4, sorry number 2. And that answer is... incorrect! That answer is... wrong! They are labeling now. I am so stupid! I don't think the cameras catch our real stress levels. It's really stressful when you know that you're on your own and that there 's a 50/50 chance of being elimina

ted. My brain is in a turmoil, you just don't want to be kicked out, but you also worry about your opponent. It's really tough to keep cool and to work properly. Okay for Lenny... and your answer number 5 is... My two last answers were also 5 or 4, when he said 5, I thought, yes, it could be that. ...wrong! Jamie buzzered right after you. In that case it is number 4. Would you drink that water yourself? - By all means! - Are you sure? - 100 percent! In that case, pour me a glass. The answer is c

orrect ! He did his best, but it wasn't enough. I feel sorry for him, but I'm glad for me... it's every man for himself after all. I'm definitely the master of disaster, I always seem to get past the most difficult tasks. One might call it luck, or someone might be standing next to me and help me out, telling me to do this or that. There are five of you left for the grand prize of TAKE OFF, Luxembourg's first Science Challenge Show. Which candidate keeps his nerve under high voltage will be reve

aled in our next episode. Never try this at home! I understand nothing. He could not even see the light. That's how it works. Only two left in the race. I must win this. I'm doing it wrong. Translation and subtitles Jean-Pierre THILGES TAKE OFF - an initiative of André Losch Foundation and Luxembourg National Research Fund.