Devil’s toothpaste: The world’s most colorful explosion
What do you do when someone breaks your world record for the largest elephant’s toothpaste experiment? If you’re engineer/inventor/YouTuber Mark Rober, you devote 18 months of your life to regaining your title. In his quest for perfection, Rober conducted over 150 experiments to ensure the perfect chemical ratio, and, with a little help from his friends and a ton of Flex Tape, overengineered a vessel to send elephant’s toothpaste rocketing into the sky. He also, inadvertently, create a new mixture that is much stronger and more explosive than traditional elephant’s toothpaste which he dubbed devil’s toothpaste. The resulting explosion of food coloring and foam is more impressive than any special effect from a Hollywood movie. Warning: The chemical reactions in this video are highly exothermic, causing the foam to reach temperatures of 200 °F and higher. Please, don’t try this at home. In a recent video, YouTuber Mark Rober illustrates the enormous power of devil’s toothpaste while reclaiming his world record title.
About the Author
Alexis GajewskiAlexis Gajewski
Senior Content Strategist
Alexis Gajewski is a manufacturing writer and editor with nearly 20 years of experience covering the people, practices, and technologies that keep industrial facilities running. For more than a decade, she served as Senior Content Strategist for Plant Services, creating content for plant managers, engineers, and maintenance professionals on a variety of industrial topics.
During her tenure, Alexis worked to develop the brand’s digital strategy and helped launch and produce Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast. She also created The Lighter Side of Manufacturing, a weekly blog that explored the inventive and sometimes humorous side of the industry.
Alexis co-founded Influential Women in Manufacturing, a recognition program that honored 49 women in its first two years, earned an industry award for Best Product Launch, and received a proclamation from Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and a commendation from U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth.
She also led newsroom operations and development at a large media company where she set editorial standards, developed training curriculum, and helped support AI adoption for more than 150 editors across 80+ brands spanning manufacturing, industrial processing, automation, and more.
Additionally, Alexis works as a freelance writer and editor, and her areas of interest include continuous improvement, the skilled workforce, and the role of emerging technology on the plant floor.
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