From: veritasium
Inspired by public curiosity following a video about shade balls on an LA reservoir, a creator embarked on an experiment to determine if it’s possible to swim in them [00:00:24]. Despite the initial thought that swimming in a drinking reservoir was obviously not allowed [00:00:34], 10,000 shade balls were purchased directly from the manufacturer to conduct a private test [00:00:43].
Safety Concerns and Logistics
The manufacturer of the shade balls explicitly advised against swimming in them, considering it “a bit dangerous” [00:01:15]. They regularly refuse requests from residential customers for this reason and initially did not want to sell the shade balls for this purpose [00:01:23]. The inherent danger of shade balls stems from them being half-full of water, making them heavy [00:01:42]. A bag of 1,200 shade balls weighs 300 kilograms (660 pounds) [00:01:48]. The 10,000 shade balls required a U-Haul truck and a moving company for transport and deployment into a swimming pool [00:01:54].
Initially, 6,000 shade balls were released, covering nearly the entire pool in a single layer [00:02:38]. These balls self-arranged into “crystal structures” with close packing and boundaries between “grains” [00:02:47].
Swimming in a Single Layer of Shade Balls
Upon entering the single layer of shade balls, it was observed that swimming was possible, but challenging [00:03:40].
Observations
- Light Penetration: Despite their purpose to block sunlight, a surprising amount of light still gets through. This is because spheres, even when packed tightly, only cover about 91% of the water surface [00:03:51]. Light passing through cracks and reflecting off the balls created interesting patterns on the pool’s bottom [00:04:01].
- Noise: Moving through shade balls creates significant noise close to the head, making it almost impossible to hear anything else [00:04:17].
- Drag: Swimming in shade balls significantly increases drag, the force opposing motion through a fluid [00:04:57]. If the shade balls are considered particles of their own fluid, the faster one moves, the more balls are encountered per second, and the faster they move relative to the swimmer, increasing their impact [00:05:07]. This explains why drag is proportional to velocity squared [00:05:22].
- Physical Impact: Swimmers reported getting hit in the face with balls [00:03:40] and feeling “knocked around like in a rock tumbler” [00:04:53].
Swimming Strokes
- Breaststroke: Possible, but results in many balls hitting the face [00:03:36].
- Front Crawl/Freestyle: Attempting this stroke led to impacts, including a potential bloody lip [00:04:30].
- Butterfly: This stroke proved even more challenging because it requires pushing the balls forward, down, up, and out [00:05:40]. It looked incredibly difficult [00:06:14].
Swimming in Multiple Layers of Shade Balls
After determining that swimming was difficult but possible in a single layer, the remaining 3,600 shade balls were added to create multiple layers, mimicking how most of the LA reservoir is covered [00:06:23].
Attempts to float or run across the surface of the multi-layered shade balls were unsuccessful [00:06:53]. Each ball, being almost half full of water, only supports about 300 grams when fully submerged [00:07:26]. To support an average body entirely above the water, more than 260 shade balls would be needed underneath [00:07:32].
Sinking and “Quicksand” Effect
In multiple layers, the balls get trapped against each other, acting more like a solid and providing significantly more resistance than in a single layer [00:08:58]. While it initially feels like floating on a ball pit [00:00:09], the experience quickly turns into a “quicksand” effect [00:00:19]. If motionless on the surface, one can float [00:09:53]. However, once movement begins, the balls gain enough energy to shift, causing the swimmer to sink deeper [00:09:58]. Swimming in multiple layers is extremely difficult, bordering on impossible, requiring an “unorthodox style” mostly beneath the surface of the shade balls [00:08:09].
Conclusion
The experiment demonstrated that while it is technically possible to perform some swimming strokes in a single layer of shade balls, it is highly strenuous and potentially dangerous due to the physical impact of the balls and increased drag [00:03:40]. Swimming in multiple layers of shade balls is significantly harder, creating a quicksand-like effect where movement leads to sinking [00:09:48]. This highlights the physical challenges of moving through shade balls. The creator ultimately decided to sign and mail out all 10,000 shade balls to Patreon supporters [00:10:07].