Welcome


The title says it all: this blog features physics videos found everywhere on the web: animations, demonstrations, lectures, documentaries.
Please go here if you want to suggest other nice physics videos, and here if I mistakingly infringed your copyrights. If you understand French, you'll find a huge selection of physics videos in French in my other blog Vidéos de Physique.

Friday 29 April 2011

Eureka! Episode 14 - The Screw and The Wheel

This program provides examples and definitions of a screw and a wheel; a screw is simply a twisted inclined plane; a wheel is simply a circular lever, whose fulcrum has become an axle.

Other Eureka episodes

Thursday 28 April 2011

MIT 8.01 Classical Mechanics Lecture 14

MIT Physics Course
Professor Walter Lewin
8.01 Physics  I: Classical Mechanics, Fall 1999

Various subjects: escape velocity, circular orbits, power, various forms of energy.

See other videos in this series.

Gravity and Branes

Does the weak force of gravity offer evidence of a 10 dimensional world?

Other Cassiopeia Project videos

Wednesday 27 April 2011

IBPH Episode #4 - Types of Motion

Uniform motion, uniformly accelerated motion, uniform circular motion, simple harmonic motion - what is the difference between all these types of motion? This episode covers the most common types of motion one may come across while studying physics in high school.

Source: Horatiu Pop

Other videos by Horatiu Pop


IBPH Episode #4 - Types of Motion from Horatiu Pop on Vimeo.

Tuesday 26 April 2011

Speed of Light - Sixty Symbols

Various physicists talk about the speed of light.

(Why the symbol "c":  because it comes from the word "celerity"?)


Monday 25 April 2011

Yale: Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics, Lecture 11

ASTR 160 - Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics
Spring 2007
Source: Yale University, Open Yale Courses


General relativity, curvature of space time.

See other lectures in this series.


Sunday 24 April 2011

Saturday 23 April 2011

Superconductivity: a far-reaching theory

In this interview with physicsworld.com, Frank Wilczek of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology discusses superconductivity and how its impact is felt across seemingly disparate areas of physics.

Source:  PhysicsWorld

Fission and Fusion

Documentary explaining fusion and fission, by Cassiopeia Project.

Other Cassiopeia Project videos

Friday 22 April 2011

Eureka! Episode 13 - Mechanical Advantage and Friction

Professors A and B compare the mechanical advantage of an inclined plane with that of a lever.

Other Eureka episodes

Introductory NMR & MRI: Video 05: Field Homogeneity

Paul Callaghan gives an introduction to NMR and MRI. This is the 5th video of the series and Field Homogeneity is explained. 10 episode series produced by Magritek Ltd.

View other videos of this series.

Thursday 21 April 2011

IBPH Episode #3 - Describing Motion: Speed, Velocity and Acceleration

If you want to describe the motion of a moving body, you have at hand three important physical quantities: speed, velocity and acceleration. How is each one of them defined? What's the difference between average and instantaneous velocity? The answers and more in this third episode.

Source:  Horatiu Pop

Other videos by Horatiu Pop


IBPH Episode #3 - Describing Motion: Speed, Velocity and Acceleration from Horatiu Pop on Vimeo.

Wednesday 20 April 2011

Introduction to LIDAR

Measuring the shape of mountains and craters with LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging).
By NASA.

Tuesday 19 April 2011

MIT 8.01 Classical Mechanics Lecture 13

MIT Physics Course
Professor Walter Lewin
8.01 Physics  I: Classical Mechanics, Fall 1999

Potential energy and simple harmonic motion.

See other videos in this series.

Monday 18 April 2011

Rock in 11 Dimensions: Where physics and guitars collide

The Institute of Physics Schools and Colleges Lecture 2008.   Delivered by science presenter and rock guitarist Dr Mark Lewney.  Rock guitars, superstrings, 11 dimensions and the world's largest and highest energy accelerator are the prime ingredients for the loudest lecture to date. This lecture reveals how:  rock guitars make their distinctive sounds;  string vibrations might answer questions about the Big Bang;  the LHC may let us peek into extra dimensions.

By the Institue of Physics.


Sunday 17 April 2011

Rutherford Gold Foil Experiment - Backstage Science

Ernest Rutherford's famous gold foil experiment involves the scattering of alpha particles as they pass through a thin gold foil.  It led to a better understanding of the structure of atoms.  It's also known as the Geiger--Marsden experiment, after Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden who performed it under Rutherford's supervision.

Particle physicist Bruce Kennedy explains with this modern re-creation.

Other Backstage Science videos


Eureka! Episode 12 - The Lever

Eureka! demonstrates the principle of the lever: "The longer the arm of the lever to which force is applied, the less that force need be."

Other Eureka episodes

Saturday 16 April 2011

Why is glass transparent?

Professor Phil Moriarty (University of Nottingham) discusses transparent glass and energy gap.

PS MESSAGE FROM PROF MORIARTY: "I misspoke for the last sentence of the video. What I meant to say is that the photons don't have enough energy to excite electrons across the energy gap and therefore light is transmitted. What I said was precisely the opposite, contradicting everything else in the video. Apologies for any confusion caused."

Source: Sixty Symbols

Friday 15 April 2011

Carbon Dating

How carbon-14 is used to estimate the age of carbonaceous materials.

Source:  Cassiopeia Project

Other Cassiopeia Project videos

Thursday 14 April 2011

Life at a Synchrotron - Backstage Science Q&A

Interview with scientist Claire Pizzey, who works at the Diamond Light Source, a huge synchrotron in Oxfordshire.

Other Backstage Science videos

Wednesday 13 April 2011

IBPH Episode #2 - Working with Vectors

The topics covered in this second episode are: displacement, vector addition, vector subtraction, products of vectors, components of a vector.

Source:  Horatiu Pop

Other videos by Horatiu Pop



IBPH Episode #2 - Working with Vectors from Horatiu Pop on Vimeo.

Tuesday 12 April 2011

Isaac Newton - Sixty Symbols

Sir Isaac Newton is one of history's greatest scientists. But what was he like as a man?

Source: Sixty Symbols

Monday 11 April 2011

Particle Accelerators - Backstage Science

ALICE and EMMA are prototype particle accelerators at the Daresbury Laboratory, run by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC).

Peter Williams showed us around during a daily shut down, when the high energy electron beam was shut down.

Other Backstage Science videos

Sunday 10 April 2011

The Oscilloscope (MAKE magazine)

Oscilloscopes are surprisingly easy to use once you've located a few basic controls. They can provide newcomers with a whole new way to view the world of electronics & electricty.

Saturday 9 April 2011

MIT 8.01 Classical Mechanics Lecture 12

MIT Physics Course
Professor Walter Lewin
8.01 Physics  I: Classical Mechanics, Fall 1999

Non-Conservative Forces - Resistive Forces - Air Drag - Terminal Velocity

See other videos in this series.

Friday 8 April 2011

Introductory NMR & MRI: Video 04: Acquiring a Free Induction Decay (FID)

Paul Callaghan gives an introduction to NMR and MRI. This is the 4th video of the series in which the acquisition of an FID is explained.

Source:  Magritek

View other videos of this series.

Thursday 7 April 2011

Eureka! Episode 11 - The Inclined Plane

This program demonstrates how an inclined plane allows you to trade increased distance for decreased force.

Other Eureka episodes

Yale: Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics, Lecture 10

ASTR 160 - Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics
Spring 2007
Source: Yale University, Open Yale Courses


This particular lecture is about introductory special relativity (there is no real application to astrophysics).

See other lectures in this series.

Wednesday 6 April 2011

Block and spring system

Hooke's Law: force exerted by a spring

Hooke's law: the magnitude of the force exerted by a spring is directly proportional to the distance the spring has moved from equilibrium.




Conservation of energy

The block slides on a horizontal frictionless surface. K is kinetic energy. U is elastic potential energy and E is total mechanical energy. While potential energy is converted to kinetic energy (and vice versa), total mechanical energy remains constant.



Other animations by Yves Pelletier

Garik Israelian: What's inside a star? (TED Talks)

Garik Israelian is a spectroscopist, studying the spectrum emitted by a star to figure out what it's made of and how it might behave.

Pink Floyd fans will appreciate his reference to Dark Side of the Moon:  "The power of spectroscopy was actually realized by Pink Floyd already in 1973. Because they actually said that you can get any color you like in a spectrum. And all you need is time and money to make your spectrograph. "

Other TED Talks


Tuesday 5 April 2011

Modern Physics: Special Relativity Lecture 1 (Standford/Susskind)

Lecture 1 of Leonard Susskind's Modern Physics course concentrating on Special Relativity. Recorded April 14, 2008 at Stanford University.

Sunday 3 April 2011

Hall Effect - Sixty Symbols

Professor Roger Bowley from University of Nottingham is back in the lab explaining the Hall Effect, which involves electric current and magnetic fields.

Source:  Sixty Symbol

Saturday 2 April 2011

Gyroscope in space

Here's a nice demonstration in the international space station.


Friday 1 April 2011

Eureka! Episode 10 - Potential Energy

A rock teetering on the edge of a cliff is shown to have potential energy - the energy of position.

Other Eureka episodes