Hey there! I’m John Green, and welcome to Mental Floss! Today, we’re diving into some life hacks to see if they really work. Let’s start with a fun one: making a cupcake sandwich. Just cut a cupcake in half, put the bottom on top, and enjoy! It’s a tasty success!
Next up, I tried making an ice cream sandwich. The ice cream wasn’t frozen enough, so it was a bit messy. Honestly, buying an ice cream sandwich is easier and cheaper. But hey, it technically worked!
Ever struggled to open a banana? Try opening it from the bottom instead of the stem. It’s much easier and works like a charm. Definitely a pass!
There’s a hack that says you can remove seeds from fruit by submerging it in water. I tried it, but it didn’t work as expected. The seeds didn’t all come out. So, that’s a fail.
If you’re making an omelette, use a pizza cutter to slice up your ingredients. It’s quicker than using a knife and works great. Pass!
They say old eggs float and fresh eggs sink. I tested it, and both old and new eggs sank. So, maybe not the best method to check egg freshness.
Want to dye eggs? Try using Kool-Aid instead of regular dye. It works, and using a whisk to hold the eggs makes it even easier. Double pass!
Got hard butter? Try grating it onto your toast. It works, and you get some butter on your bread. Pass!
Use a sticky note to clean your keyboard. It picks up some dirt, so it’s a marginal pass.
There’s a hack that says shaking your headphones will untangle them. I tried it, but it didn’t work. However, storing them in an empty tape container helps keep them untangled.
Need to make your phone louder? Use cups and a toilet paper roll. It really does amplify the sound. Pass!
Use Legos to make a phone stand. It works! But using a beverage holder for an iPad stand didn’t work well. Fail.
If you have a glass ketchup bottle, try using a straw to speed up the flow. It works with chili sauce too. Pass!
There’s a trick to twist chicken bones to make eating easier. It didn’t work for me, so just eat the chicken as usual.
When painting, use a rubber band around the paint can to wipe your brush. It keeps things neat. Pass! Also, use aluminum foil under your roller pan for easy cleanup. Pass!
Use a comb to hold a nail while hammering. It didn’t work for me, so that’s a fail.
Hand sanitizer can remove Sharpie from your skin, but it didn’t work well on clothing. The stain got darker.
To check if batteries are new, drop them. New ones bounce less. It worked for me, so pass!
Cutting bread with a dull knife is supposed to be easier upside down. It wasn’t for me, so that’s a fail.
Using a random object as a bottle opener didn’t work. Stick to a real bottle opener.
Use the top of a pea bag as a tie. It works, but buying a real tie is easier.
Chocolate-covered strawberries in an ice cube tray didn’t work. But making a popsicle with a Lime-A-Rita did, even if it wasn’t the best taste.
Microwaving limes for 30 seconds is supposed to make them juicier. They were just as juicy as regular limes.
Keeping ice cream in a zip lock bag doesn’t make it softer. It’s just as soft without it, thanks to a good freezer.
Doritos make great kindling, and so do toilet paper rolls with dryer lint. They work well, but the smell isn’t great.
Thanks for joining me on this life hack adventure! Remember, some hacks work, and some don’t, but it’s always fun to try them out. See you next time!
Try making your own cupcake sandwich by cutting a cupcake in half and placing the bottom on top. Share your creation with your classmates and discuss if it enhances the cupcake-eating experience.
Test the banana opening trick by attempting to open a banana from the bottom. Compare this method with the traditional stem-opening technique and discuss which one you find easier.
Create a phone amplifier using cups and a toilet paper roll. Test the sound amplification with your favorite song and compare it to the phone’s regular speaker volume.
Practice the painting hack by using a rubber band around a paint can to wipe your brush. Try using aluminum foil under a roller pan for easy cleanup and share your results with the class.
Conduct the battery bounce test by dropping different batteries to see if new ones bounce less. Record your observations and discuss the effectiveness of this method for checking battery freshness.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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Hi, I’m John Green. Welcome to Mental Floss! It’s time for another Life Hacks video. These are my favorite, so we’re going to start with a cupcake to celebrate. We’re going to cut it in half, and then the internet tells me that if I make a cupcake sandwich, it will be delicious. And it is! That’s a pass. Solid life hack. The first of many that I’m going to test for you today.
I am now going to attempt to make an ice cream sandwich by using this ice cream. So far, I feel that it’s perhaps inadequately frozen. Let me submit that while technically a pass, there is an easier and less expensive way to acquire an ice cream sandwich called “buying an ice cream sandwich.”
Here’s a life hack that will actually change your life. How do you open a banana? Oh no, I can’t open it — what? Oh, you open a banana THIS way. That’s the easy way to open a banana. PASS!
There’s a lot of seeds in here, but supposedly if you submerge the halved fruit in water, all the seeds will come out. Except no, because there’s a floating seed and a lot of the pith is… FAIL.
I’ve also read that if you’re making an omelette, it’s easier to use a pizza cutter to slice up your meats than to use a knife — and look at that, it truly is. Pass!
Speaking of omelettes, I’ve heard that old eggs float and new eggs sink. Old eggs? Pretty sink-y. New eggs? Also sink-y. But maybe you don’t want to eat eggs; maybe you just want to dye them. Why not try using Kool-Aid instead of traditional dye? You want to stir it up, and then your eggs are ready to dye. Or are they? We’re going to find out.
Second life hack, I’ve heard that putting the eggs inside a whisk allows you to retrieve them easily when you’re dyeing them. So, double life hack time. And wait 60 seconds. Double pass! Plus, with traditional egg dye, you can’t do this. Mmm, delicious.
Now this is super hard butter. You can’t spread it on toast, but maybe you could grate it into toast? I mean, it kind of works. There’s some butter. Pass.
I have a computer. I also have a post-it note. But can this post-it note clean this computer keyboard? You know, it did remove some dirt! I’m going to say marginal pass!
So if you’re like me and you run between 5 and 10 miles per day — sometimes you get your headphones tangled. But I have read that if you just grab a point in the middle and shake vigorously, they will become untangled. Yeah, no. That’s just not the case. I really want this one to be true, so I’m going to try again. Oh God, no, still no. Still no, but I did almost trip.
But apparently, an empty tape container can be a good storage system for non-tangled headphones. Sort of. You know what’s a fantastic storage system for non-tangled headphones? A drawer somewhere.
Well, it wouldn’t be a life hacks video if we didn’t try to amplify the sound from a phone using college kid cups and a toilet paper roll as well. So let’s try it out — that is significantly louder! Pass!
Do you need a fancy iPhone holder? Not if you have Legos, at least according to the internet. Oh, pass! I’ve also read that you can use one of these beverage holders as a stand for your iPad so you can watch movies comfortably. First off, it’s not the right size. Also, it definitely doesn’t work vertically. If I just like, wedge it in there – no. We’re going to try with an iPad mini, because we’re not giving up on this life hack. No. Fail.
Now if you have one of the last glass ketchup bottles on earth, I have read that sticking a straw in will speed the flow. We actually have chili sauce instead of ketchup, but it’s functionally the same. Could be faster.
Now a meat life hack, supposedly you can kind of twist the bones around to make it easier to eat. No? Did I not do it right? I mean, just eat the chicken.
Ok, let’s say that you have to paint a board. Why? Because you’re making a life hacks video. I have read on the internet that you can paint, paint, paint. And then you want to make sure your brush is clean, just use the rubber band that you put around the paint container and you have a much nicer brushing experience. There we go. You know, I have to say – pass!
But let’s say you’ve got a paint job of the roller variety. Then maybe put down some aluminum foil underneath your roller pan, so when you’re all done instead of having a dirty pan, you can just fold it up. It works pretty well — clean hands, clean roller. Pass!
Now you might remember earlier that we have a half-painted board, but we need to put a nail in that board now. Why? Well, because I was told to. So according to the internet, you can use this comb to hold the nail — no you can’t. Does the comb hold the nail? Nope. Let’s see how long this takes. And done. Fail.
I’ve also been told that hand sanitizer can remove sharpie from clothing. I happen to know that hand sanitizer can remove sharpie from your face, but I don’t know about clothing yet. I would say if anything it’s become somewhat darker.
Two new batteries, two old batteries. Supposedly the new batteries will only bounce once, the old batteries will bounce more than once. Ready? Not much of a bounce at all. Fairly significant bounce actually — pass!
When cutting bread with a dull knife, apparently it’s easier to do it when upside down because this side is softer. Oh, good Lord. Ok, I have a sense of how hard that was. Very. Now let’s find out how hard it is on this side. Maybe equal or possibly less – fail.
I was told “I don’t know how, but this is supposed to be a bottle opener.” So we’re going to give it a try. The moment of truth — fail.
If you slice the top off of your bag of peas, you can then use the top as a tie for your bag of peas. You know what, if my life depended on it, pass. But I’m probably going to spend a little on an actual tie.
Alright, speaking of frozen food, let’s take this to the kitchen. Now I’m going to open the freezer where some life hacks experiments have been prepared for me. Including chocolate-covered strawberries from an ice cube tray. Alright, let’s see. Nope. Fail.
And now we’re going to tie the Lime-A-Rita popsicle. Is it like a margarita? Apparently, it’s like a Bud Light, but a popsicle! How did I get so lucky? Oh, I mean technically pass, but at what cost?
Maybe that popsicle would taste better with some limes. And according to the internet, microwaving these limes for 30 seconds will make them juicier. But are they juicier than real limes? Let’s measure juiciness. They’re exactly as juicy as real limes.
And lastly, we’re going to test whether keeping ice cream in a zip lock bag keeps the ice cream soft. You know what? This is pretty soft ice cream. Yum, it’s good. But for purposes of science, I have to test it against the ice cream that hasn’t been in a zip lock bag. And that’s when you discover that it’s just as soft and delicious either way, thanks to our fantastic freezer.
Now we know from a previous life hacks video that Doritos make excellent kindling, but apparently, so do toilet paper rolls that contain dryer lint. Oh, look at that! Aside from the worrisome odor, that’s a complete pass!
Thanks for watching Mental Floss here on YouTube, which is made with the help of all these nice people. Every week we endeavor to answer one of your mind-blowing questions, but now we answer those questions in a separate show hosted by my friend Craig Wheezy Waiter. So check that out. Thanks again for watching, and as we say in my hometown, don’t forget a real bottle opener because a coat hanger will not work.
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Let me know if you need any further modifications!
Life – The existence of an individual human being or animal – Learning how to fix things yourself can make your life much easier and more fulfilling.
Hack – A clever solution or trick to make a task easier – Using a rubber band to keep a paint can lid secure is a great DIY hack.
Egg – An oval or round object laid by a female bird, reptile, fish, or invertebrate, usually containing a developing embryo – In science class, we learned how to carefully crack an egg to study its structure.
Butter – A solid dairy product made by churning cream – You can make your own butter at home by shaking cream in a jar until it thickens.
Paint – A colored substance that is spread over a surface and dries to leave a thin decorative or protective coating – We decided to paint the old chair to give it a fresh, new look.
Phone – A device used for voice communication – I used my phone to look up a DIY tutorial on how to build a birdhouse.
Ice – Frozen water, a brittle, transparent crystalline solid – We used ice in our science experiment to observe how it melts at room temperature.
Fruit – The sweet and fleshy product of a tree or other plant that contains seed and can be eaten as food – We learned how to make a simple fruit salad as part of our DIY cooking project.
Juice – The liquid that comes from fruits or vegetables – Squeezing fresh juice from oranges is a fun and healthy DIY activity.
DIY – Do It Yourself; the activity of making, repairing, or decorating things yourself instead of paying someone else to do it – My first DIY project was building a bookshelf for my room.
