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This Boba Lid Lied to Me and I Don't Understand Why

2022-12-30 · letter vlog · Hank · 4:00 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Everyday life (also: Science & nature) · mode: Curiosity & trivia

Hank shows John a Taiwanese hot-boba lid, the HY90M5, labelled 'heat 110 degrees Celsius' with the two ones in different fonts; since liquid water cannot exceed 100 degrees Celsius, he finds the number baffling, and learns the label once said 120, lowered to another impossible temperature; he asks viewers for a less infuriating explanation.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — The HY90M5 hot-boba lid: 'heat 110 degrees Celsius', with the ones in different fonts

  • ★ Hank notes they had said they might skip videos this week (week of 26 December 2022), but he found something he wanted to share: a tea lid. — 00:00:00 · John Green
  • ★★ The HY90M5 hot-boba lid says 'heat 110 degrees Celsius', which Hank finds odd, and its two ones are in different fonts. — 00:00:29

00:00:58 — Water cannot exceed 100 degrees Celsius; the number must just mean 'hot'; the lid is from Taiwan

  • ★★★ Hank explains that liquid water, and so tea, cannot get hotter than 100 degrees Celsius unless the pressure is raised in a pressure vessel. — 00:00:58
  • ★ Water especially cannot reach that in Montana, which is well above sea level. — 00:00:58 · Montana
  • ★★ Hank says the only sensible meaning is that the drink is hot, re-emphasizing the 'caution hot' text, though 110 Celsius does not sound hot to an American. (playful) — 00:01:27
  • ★★ Hank looked it up: the lid is from Taiwan, where they use Celsius; Americans have not been on the hot-boba train long. — 00:01:56
  • ★★ Hank's mistaken theory: the label first said 100 degrees and someone pasted in a one in another font, without the original document, to stress it is hotter than boiling. (playful) — 00:01:56

00:02:26 — Hank's photoshop theory, and the discovery that the lid used to say 120 degrees

  • ★★★ Online, Hank found the HY90M5 used to say 120 degrees Celsius and was changed to the lower but also impossible temperature. — 00:02:55
  • ★★ Hank assumes a pedant like him objected that tea cannot be 120 degrees, it would be steam and explode, so they lowered it to another impossible number. (playful, hedged) — 00:02:55

00:03:41 — Ask for theories; sign-off until 2023

  • ★★ Hank asks anyone with a theory that explains the lid less infuriatingly to let him know. — 00:03:41

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description thanks Faith, who ordered the hot boba and reported the strange double-fonted number to Hank. — video description

Humor (dominant)

  • Hank asks viewers for help with the lid mystery — 00:00:29

    “I'm turning to the power that I have and should not abuse in this way”

  • 110 degrees is meant to sound extra hot, but not to Americans — 00:01:27

    “which to an American does not sound very hot, so that's a problem.”

  • The lid once said 120 degrees and a pedant complained, so they fixed it — 00:02:55

    “And so, they lowered it to an also impossible temperature!”

  • Hank sums up the change of label — 00:03:41

    “Making sure that extra work was done so that no one would be happy.”

Mentioned

Central: HY90M5

Also: boiling point · Montana · Taiwan

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