In Göttingen, Germany, there's a four-tonne steel ball that can be raised up a 14-metre tower -- and then dropped in less than two seconds, crashing back to earth. It makes tiny, artificial earthquakes: here's why. Thanks to all the team at Wiechert'sche Erdbebenwarte Göttingen! You can find out more about them here: https://www.erdbebenwarte.de/ Three things I had to cut out of this video, because they didn't quite fit into the story or because I couldn't film them: The reason the steel ball survived two world wars is because the university's records listed it by use as a "rock-ball", not by composition as a "steel ball" - so no-one melted it down for weaponry. The observatory team refill that pit every year to make the ground flat, and the ball just digs a hole again. The rock's just being compressed underneath. They joke that, somewhere in Australia, there's a slowly growing hill... And finally, the ground steams for a little while after the ball hits: it gets rather warm... Edited by Michelle Martin (@mrsmmartin) 🟥 MORE FROM TOM: https://www.tomscott.com/ (you can find contact details and social links there too) 📰 WEEKLY NEWSLETTER with good stuff from the rest of the internet: https://www.tomscott.com/newsletter/ ❓ LATERAL, free weekly podcast: https://lateralcast.com/ null ➕ TOM SCOTT PLUS: null 👥 THE TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES: null