- To prove his face mask worked, YouTuber "Uncle Rob" performed an experiment with a homemade "Coronavirus gun" and a blowtorch.
- In the video, Uncle Rob sprayed flammable liquid through a mannequin head—both with a mask on and off—to see if it would light a propane can on the other side of his yard.
- The lesson: Masks do work. But please don't try this experiment out at home.
While public health organizations like the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization have recommended face masks to stop the spread of COVID-19, a vocal minority of the U.S. population still remains skeptical of the science behind the cloth coverings.
So YouTuber "Uncle Rob" is here to settle the debate once and for all—with two mannequin heads, a few masks, flammable liquid, a little bit of propane, and his imagination. Uncle Rob's hypothesis: If the propane tank shoots out fire like a blowtorch, masks don't work. If nothing happens, they do work.
🔥 You like fire. We like fire. Let's try some fun s#!@ together. 🔥
Okay, so maybe Uncle Rob's method doesn't exactly follow the scientific method or stand up to rigorous peer review. But his demo is pretty damn convincing of the efficacy of face masks.
First, Uncle Rob had to figure out how far a spit or cough travels, so he took a swig of Miller Lite and spit it out in a forward trajectory—again, not exactly empirical, but acceptable for his backyard laboratory. He then stretched out a measuring tape and attached it to a post with a masked mannequin head atop. After spitting out the beer, Uncle Rob reckoned the droplets traveled about 8 feet.
Next, he looked for household sprays that could shoot product about the same distance—eight feet, give or take. Spray paint and isopropyl alcohol didn't exactly cut it, so he eventually settled on an ether-based spray, which is a flammable liquid normally used as a starting fluid for fires.
Then, Uncle Rob got really creative: He cut out holes in a second mannequin head, such that when he attached it to the can of ether with a spray attachment, he could simulate a cough or sneeze. The mannequin head had a mask on, just as a real person would, so the mask should have been able to stop most of the droplets that traveled through the holes in the mannequin head—if the protective coverings really work.
It kind of checks out. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is about 120 nanometers in diameter, and Uncle Rob said the molecules in his ether starter fluid were about 0.56 nanometers in diameter.
To complete his setup, Uncle Rob stuck a propane tank to a stake, right next to the first mannequin's face, and lit it. For the final step, he conducted a few tests with his so-called "Coronavirus gun" and compared results.
From 8 feet away, with a mask over the "Coronavirus gun," nothing happened after Uncle Rob sprayed the ether a few times to simulate a cough. From the same distance with the mask off, still nothing. Ditto from 6 feet away with the mask. But from 6 feet away without the mask, he finally produced flames.
Uncle Rob tested a few more distances, simulating two people in even closer proximity, and found the mask prevented the blowtorch going off at a distance of 4 feet, and even from 2 feet away and 6 inches away.
As for his simulation of a person from 2 feet away, coughing without a mask? The Coronavirus gun not only lit the blowtorch, but caught the other mannequin's face on fire in the process. Surely that must be a metaphor for something ...
Anyway, our backyard scientist Uncle Rob had a few wise parting words to share about his experiment: "So I've proven definitively whether masks work or not, make your own decision, but uh, I think I'm going to wear one."
