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 30 September 2011

Thursday 29 September 2011

The Sun - Sixty Symbols

It's a pretty ordinary star, but everyone's heard of it!

Other Sixty Symbols videos

Wednesday 28 September 2011

Tuesday 27 September 2011

Accelerator Physicist - Backstage Science Q & A

Peter Williams is an accelerator physicist, working on prototype particle accelerators at the STFC's Daresbury Laboratory.

Other Backstage Science videos

Monday 26 September 2011

3 Phase Rectifying Circuit

This animation shows the flow of current in 3-phase AC to DC rectification circuit, a well as a plot of the three input currents and the output current.

Other animations by Penn State Schuylkill

Saturday 24 September 2011

Dr. Svetlana Barkanova: Physicist

Dr. Svetlana Barkanova, a physicist at Acadia University, talks about her job.

Neutrino Faster Than Speed of Light

On Thursday, the world's biggest physics lab unveiled a shocking finding: that one type of subatomic particle was clocked going faster than the speed of light. If true, it could undercut Einstein's theories. (Sept. 23)

Beer Levitation - Sixty Symbols

A bit of fun as we look at the serious science of magnetic susceptibility.

Other Sixty Symbols videos

Friday 23 September 2011

Physics Lesson: Vector Addition (Graphically) for high school

Earl Haig Secondary School, North York, Ontario, Canada.


Displacement (Brigthstorm)

Displacement is the change in a position vector. It is not the same as distance, which is a scalar measurement. The net vector of multiple displacment vectors if found according to the rules of vector addition.

Source:  Brightsorm

See other Brighstorm videos

Thursday 22 September 2011

MIT 8.01 Classical Mechanics Lecture 25

MIT Physics Course

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

Static Equilibrium - Stability - Rope Walker

See other videos in this series.



Why Does the Moon Orbit Earth?

It takes the moon about 27 days to orbit the Earth. What makes it go round? It is the gravitational attraction of the Earth on the moon. Due to the moon's velocity, the Earth keeps pulling the moon towards it without the moon actually getting closer to the Earth. This is similar to how satellites orbit the Earth.

Other Veritasium videos

Wednesday 21 September 2011

Yale: Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics, Lecture 17

ASTR 160 - Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics
Professor Charles Bailyn
Spring 2007
Source: Yale University, Open Yale Courses
  • Review of Magnitudes
  • Implications of Hubble's Discoveries on the Aging Universe
  • Conceptualizing a Three-Dimensional Universe
  • Q&A: The Big Bang, the Expansion, and the Big Crunch
Other lectures from this course

Tuesday 20 September 2011

Brian Cox: What really goes on at the Large Hadron Collider

"Rock star physicist" Brian Cox talks about his work on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Discussing the biggest of big science in an engaging, accessible way, Cox brings us along on a tour of the massive complex and describes his part in it -- and the vital role it's going to play in understanding our universe.

Other TED Talks

Monday 19 September 2011

Frames of Reference

A nice movie from the sixties made by the "Physical Science Study Committee" (PSCC) series on the laws of physics, inertia, and special relativity in different frames of reference.



Sunday 18 September 2011

Lucianne Walkowicz: Magnetic Stars, Space Weather and Life: Stellar Activity and its Effect on Planets

Lucianne Walkowicz presents a public talk at UC Berkeley on June 19, 2010, as part of the Science@Cal Lecture Series .

Sunspots are some of the oldest astronomical phenomena observed by human beings. These "freckles" on the the face of our Sun may look innocuous, but they are actually the footprints of huge magnetic loops that protrude from our star. These loops sometimes twist and snap, causing spectacular solar flares that send radiation and energetic particles hurtling towards Earth. These flares are responsible for beautiful aurorae, but they can also cause the troubling disruption of satellites and other infrastructure. Similar phenomena are observed on many other stars in our Galaxy, with some stellar flares being even more powerful than those of the Sun. What is it like to be a planet around those stars? How do flares and starspots affect a planet's ability to support and sustain life?

Other Science@Cal lectures


Saturday 17 September 2011

Uniformly accelerated motion

A green ball is thrown upward. We show its position vector, position vs time graph, velocity vector, velocity vs time graph, acceleration vector, acceleration vs time graph and energies (mechanical, potentiel and kinetic) vs time graph.

Other animations by Yves Pelletier

Friday 16 September 2011

Dark Energy Camera Construction Timelapse

The Dark Energy Camera is a 570-Megapixel digital camera being built at Fermilab. Once the mechanics of the support are tested and approved, the unit will be disassembled and shipped to its final assembly and mounting location at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. This time-lapse consists of 6 percent of the images captured from January through October of 2010. Information on this international project.

Other Fermilab videos

MIT 8.02 Electricity and Magnetism, lecture 6

MIT 8.02 Electricity and Magnetism, Spring 2002

Professor Walter Lewin

High-Voltage Breakdown
Lightning
Sparks - St. Elmo's Fire


Thursday 15 September 2011

Charge - Sixty Symbols

Professor Roger Bowley puts on bit of a magic show in this light-hearted look at electrical charges.

Other Sixty Symbols videos

Wednesday 14 September 2011

What is a Higgs Boson?

Fermilab scientist Don Lincoln describes the nature of the Higgs boson. Several large experimental groups are hot on the trail of this elusive subatomic particle which is thought to explain the origins of particle mass.

Other Fermilab videos

Monday 12 September 2011

Transparency and Opacity

A material that is transparent in one part of the spectrum may be opaque in another. Here, we see normal window glass is transparent to visible light (obviously) but opaque to the thermal infrared, as shown by an infrared camera. Similarly, a garbage bag blocks visible light but passes infrared.

Sunday 11 September 2011

Lucianne Walkowicz: Finding planets around other stars

How do we find planets -- even habitable planets -- around other stars? By looking for tiny dimming as a planet passes in front of its sun, TED Fellow Lucianne Walkowicz and the Kepler mission have found some 1,200 potential new planetary systems. With new techniques, they may even find ones with the right conditions for life.

Other TED Talks

Saturday 10 September 2011

Relativity in Motion (Brightstorm)

The motion of any object is only meaningful when given relative to something else. Relativity in motion assures us that the laws of Physics don't vary depending on how much inertia an object has. This is important because everything has some amount of inertia. Standing on the surface of the earth, we feel that we are not in motion, but because the earth is moving, so are we. If we measure the speed of a ball thrown atop a train, we can either measure the speed of the ball with respect to the train’s motion or with respect to the motion of the Earth.


Source:  Brighstorm

See other Brighstorm videos


Scanning Electron Microscope: Pt 6 of 6

Other videos in this series


Friday 9 September 2011

MIT 8.01 Classical Mechanics Lecture 24

MIT Physics Course

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

Rolling motions, gyroscopes

See other videos in this series.


Wednesday 7 September 2011

Brazil Nut Effect - Sixty Symbols

Ever notice how larger objects (like Brazil nuts) end up at the top of your cereal packet!? Physics can explain this. Ratio of acceleration to gravity.

Tuesday 6 September 2011

The Forces On You (Introducing Normal Force)

What forces (i.e. pushes or pulls) are acting on you right now? Most people can identify the gravitational force down, but there must be something else otherwise you would accelerate down towards the center of the Earth. The other main force on you is called the normal force. It is a force perpendicular to the surface that supports you, like the ground or the seat of your chair. You compress this surface and it acts like a spring, pushing you up.

Other Veritasium videos

Monday 5 September 2011

Tesla coil and Faraday cage

Inside de Faraday cage, this person is not affected by the electric discharges coming from the Tesla coil.

Physics of the trumpet 2

Standing waves on a string, PVC didgeridoo,PVC trumpet, effect of the mouthpiece.


With Nick Drozdoff.

Other videos in this series


Sunday 4 September 2011

Eureka! Episode 30 - Radiation Spectrum

Viewers learn that the waves of heat energy radiated by the sun come in many forms, which together make a band, or spectrum, of energy waves.

Other Eureka episodes



Saturday 3 September 2011

Photons - Sixty Symbols

Why is a photon like a cricket ball? Find out in this video about "light particles".

Other Sixty Symbols videos

Friday 2 September 2011

MIT 8.02 Electricity and Magnetism Lecture 5

MIT 8.02 Electricity and Magnetism, Spring 2002


Professor Walter Lewin


E = -grad V
More on Equipotential Surfaces
Conductors
Electrostatic Shielding (Faraday Cage)




Thursday 1 September 2011

Electromagnetic induction

These animations show a magnet approaching a conducting coil, then getting farther. The magnetic field lines caused by the magnet change color when they get through the coil. The inducted current in the coil is represented by red spheres in motion (they move in the direction of conventional current).

Other animations by Yves Pelletier