Beaker Ball Balance Problem
AdultsInternet CulturePhysicsMath...This problem has made the rounds on the internet but I felt it deserved a treatment like this.
What Color is the Universe?
AdultsPhysicsSpaceAstronomy...When you stare up at the night sky, you might think that the universe is really black, but that's just because our eyes aren't sensitive enough to see the billions and billions of multicolored stars out there. Ever wonder why certain stars are certain colors? And what color is our sun, really? If we looked at enough stars, could we figure out the average color of the universe?
How fast & how far do bullets go?
AdultsPhysicsTechnologyScienceJames May imparts his wisdom on all things bullets.
Dark matter: The matter we can't see
AdultsPhysicsSpaceScience...The Greeks had a simple and elegant formula for the universe: just earth, fire, wind, and water. Turns out there's more to it than that -- a lot more. Visible matter (and that goes beyond the four Greek elements) comprises only 4% of the universe. CERN scientist James Gillies tells us what accounts for the remaining 96% (dark matter and dark energy) and how we might go about detecting it.
If superpowers were real: Super speed
AdultsHumanPhysicsScience...What if super speed wasn't just the stuff of epic comic book stories? Is it scientifically possible to be super speedy? In this series, Joy Lin tackles six superpowers and reveals just how scientifically realistic they can be to us mere mortals.
Exploring other dimensions - Alex Rosenthal and George Zaidan
AdultsPhysicsScienceBooks...Imagine a two-dimensional world -- you, your friends, everything is 2D. In his 1884 novella, Edwin Abbott invented this world and called it Flatland. Alex Rosenthal and George Zaidan take the premise of Flatland one dimension further, imploring us to consider how we would see dimensions different from our own and why the exploration just may be worth it.
Project Loon - Google's Internet Balloons - Future Thinking - Head Squeeze
AdultsInternet CulturePhysicsTechnology...We are becoming increasingly more dependent on the internet to help run our lives. But much of the planet is outside the web, zones that are without web coverage. Ordinarily, this is more of a nuisance than a calamity. But in the aftermath of disasters, restoring internet coverage can be the difference between life and death.
The fundamentals of space-time: Part 2 - Andrew Pontzen and Tom Whyntie
AdultsMathPhysicsScience...Light always travels at a speed of 299,792,458 meters per second. But if you're in motion too, you're going to perceive it as traveling even faster -- which isn't possible! In this second installment of a three-part series on space-time, CERN scientists Andrew Pontzen and Tom Whyntie use a space-time diagram to analyze the sometimes confounding motion of light.
There's No Such Thing As Cold
AdultsPhysicsWeatherScience...You've felt cold before. Sometimes it's cold outside. But what if I told you that "cold" isn't real? There's no substance or quantity called "cold" in science. We can't measure the amount of "cold" in something. Instead it's about what's NOT there. In this week's video, learn the difference between heat and temperature, why a wind makes us feel colder, and what it's like to live as a mass of jiggling atoms. This is the physics of cold.
Quantum Entanglement & Spooky Action at a Distance
AdultsPhysicsScienceTechnologyDoes quantum entanglement make faster-than-light communication possible?
Sparks from Falling Water: Kelvin's Thunderstorm
AdultsPhysicsTechnologyScience...The physics behind Kelvin's Thunderstorm explained. No, it is not a practical way of generating electricity, which is why we use turbines at hydro stations.
Why Does Time Go Forward?
AdultsFuturePhilosophyScience...The past is different from the future. Why?
How many universes are there?
AdultsScienceSpacePhysics...The fact that no one knows the answer to this question is what makes it exciting. The story of physics has been one of an ever-expanding understanding of the sheer scale of reality, to the point where physicists are now postulating that there may be far more universes than just our own. Chris Anderson explores the thrilling implications of this idea.
Why Van Gogh's "Starry Night" Is Actually An Art Of Science
AdultsArtSciencePhysicsPhysicist Werner Heisenberg said, "When I meet God, I am going to ask him two questions: why relativity? And why turbulence? I really believe he will have an answer for the first." As difficult as turbulence is to understand mathematically, we can use art to depict the way it looks. Natalya St. Clair illustrates how Van Gogh captured this deep mystery of movement, fluid and light in his work.
Astronauts Grow a Water Bubble in Space
AdultsGadgetsPhysicsSpace...During Expedition 40 in the summer of 2014, NASA astronauts Steve Swanson and Reid Wiseman - along with European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst - explored the phenomenon of water surface tension in microgravity on the International Space Station. The crew "submerged" a sealed GoPro camera into a floating ball of water the size of a softball and recorded the activity with a 3-D camera.
Brian Cox visits the world's biggest vacuum chamber
AdultsPhysicsScienceExperimentsWatch a bowling ball and a feather fall in the giant vacuum chamber. A simple experiment but it's really amazing.
These Amazing Energy Facts Will Blow Your Mind
AdultsData SciencePhysicsEnergy...1 calorie = 4.2 joules, wait what?!