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 December 2011

Yale: Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics, Lecture 21

Class begins with a review of the mysterious nature of dark matter, which accounts for three quarters of the universe. Different models of the universe are graphed. The nature, frequency, and duration of supernovae are then addressed. Professor Bailyn presents data from the Supernova Cosmology Project and pictures of supernovae taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The discovery of dark energy is revisited and the density of dark energy is calculated. The Big Rip is presented as an alternative hypothesis for the fate of the universe.

Other lectures from this course

Thursday 29 December 2011

Black Holes - Sixty Symbols

Crushing the Earth into a Black Hole and looking into the core of the Milky Way.

Other Sixty Symbols videos

Magnets and Their Attractions for Technology

How do scientists and engineers use magnets? What do magnets promise for the future? See for yourself what's involved in tapping one of nature's fundamental forces: electromagnetism.

Speaker: Dr. Leigh Harwood, CEBAF
Date: December 11, 1991

Other lectures from Jefferson Lab Science Series

Wednesday 28 December 2011

Afterschool Universe: Supernova Can Crunch

A soda can collapsing under atmospheric pressure is similar to a star collapsing when fusion no longer equilibrates gravitation.

Other Afterschool Universe videos

Engine Governor

A short animation showing how and why the centrifugal governor was invented by James Watt. The centrifugal governor was required to assist i the development of machines and technology and was necessary for the industrial revolution to occur.

Tuesday 27 December 2011

Marcus du Sautoy: Symmetry, reality's riddle

The world turns on symmetry -- from the spin of subatomic particles to the dizzying beauty of an arabesque. But there's more to it than meets the eye. Here, Oxford mathematician Marcus du Sautoy offers a glimpse of the invisible numbers that marry all symmetrical objects.

Other TED Talks

How Damaging is Radiation?

What is radiation? Are all types harmful? What are the most common sources of damaging radiation? Most people view radiation as harmful and negative without understanding what makes it potentially damaging and which forms should be avoided. For example, many felt radiation from mobile phones probably caused cancer but few focused on the carcinogenic effects of UV rays.

Other Veritasium videos

Monday 26 December 2011

MIT 8.01 Classical Mechanics Lecture 31

MIT Physics Course

Professor Walter Lewin

8.01 Physics  I: Classical Mechanics, Fall 1999

Forced Oscillations - Normal Modes - Resonance - Natural Frequencies - Musical Instruments

See other videos in this series.

Sunday 25 December 2011

Saturday 24 December 2011

Supercooled Water - Explained!

Many videos on YouTube show water freezing almost instantaneously. This video shows you how to replicate the experiment and it explains how the phenomenon works.

Other Veritasium videos

Friday 23 December 2011

Thursday 22 December 2011

What is the Wave/Particle Duality?

Wave Particle Duality and why quantum mechanics is weirder than anything we're used to in our daily lives!

Other Minute Physics videos



MIT 8.02 Electricity and Magnetism Lecture 11

MIT 8.02 Electricity and Magnetism, Spring 2002

Professor Walter Lewin

Magnetic field, Lorentz Force, Torques, Electric Motors (DC)

Other lectures from the same course


Wednesday 21 December 2011

Whiter than White, Blacker than Black and Greener than Green: The Perception of Color - UWM Science Bag

What do we mean when we say that a geranium is red, an orange is orange or white white? When, in fact, and why is white white, and what is color? Answers to these and other intriguing questions about the nature of light, the color of common objects, and the way in which the human eye perceives color can be found in this program.

Other UWM Science Bag videos

Tuesday 20 December 2011

Rheological Behavior of Fluids

Non-newtonian fluids, with Hershel Markovitz (Mellon Institute).

Produced in the sixties by the National Committee for Fluid Mechanics Films.

Other videos from this series

Monday 19 December 2011

World's Biggest Telescope - Sixty Symbols

We discuss the diameter of telescopes and plans to build one with a truly enormous mirror.

Other Sixty Symbols videos

Sunday 18 December 2011

Julius Sumner Miller - Center of Gravity

Other physics demonstrations by Julius Sumner Miller



Charge and Electric Field of a Hollow Conductor

A conducting sphere is charged with a Wimshurst Machine. Charge is removed from the outside of the sphere and placed on an electroscope, which deflects outwards. When the procedure is done for the inside of the sphere, it is found that no charge resides there. Conducting balls are used to examine the effect of the sphere's electric field on the displacement of charge. The field induces opposite charges on the balls and, again, the effect is shown using the electroscope.

Other demonstrations from MIT


Saturday 17 December 2011

Plasma: The 4th State of Matter

Plasma is widely considered to be the fourth state of matter due to its unique properties. Plasma is a gas in which the atoms are ionized, meaning there are free negatively charged electrons and positively charged ions. This collection of charged particles can be controlled by electromagnetic fields and this allows plasmas to be used as a controllable reactive gas. The electronics industry uses this concept to etch very small patterns into silicon to make our modern day devices smaller and more efficient.

This movie was produced by students Bobby Bruce and Michael Sweatt for the A. James Clark School of Engineering's 2008 Vid/Terp competition.


Minute Physics: What is Gravity?

The basic nature of gravity, one of the four fundamental forces in our universe.

Other Minute Physics videos

Friday 16 December 2011

Atoms and Isotopes

Most people recognize that atoms are the fundamental building blocks of all matter around us. An atom itself is composed of protons, neutrons and electrons. The simplest atom is the hydrogen atom because it consists of only one proton and one electron. If a neutron is added to the nucleus, the atom is still hydrogen, just a more massive version. Atoms of the same element (i.e. those with the same number of protons) but different numbers of neutrons are called isotopes.

Other Veritasium videos

Thursday 15 December 2011

Bouncing Balls - Sixty Symbols

Collisions between tiny balls creates a curious effect in this film about the so-called "coefficient of restitution".

Other Sixty Symbols videos

Wednesday 14 December 2011

Comic Book Physics

Even superheroes must obey the laws of physics - or do they? Exactly how much force does it take to leap a tall building in a single bound and what does that tell us about Superman's home planet? Did Spider-Man accidentally cause the death of the falling Gwen Stacy when he caught her with a web? Discover what's right - and wrong - with the physics in the world of comics.

Speaker: Dr. Jim Kakalios, University of Minnesota
Date: March 25, 2003

Other lectures from Jefferson Lab Science Series

Tuesday 13 December 2011

Yale: Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics, Lecture 20

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

This lecture introduces an important concept related to the past and future of the universe: the Scale factor, which is a function of time. With reference to a graph whose coordinates are the Scale factor and time, the problem of dark matter is addressed again. Cosmological redshifts are measured to determine the scale of the universe. The discovery of the repulsive, anti-gravitational force of dark energy is explained. The lecture concludes with discussion of Einstein's biggest mistake: the invention of the cosmological constant to balance gravity.

Other lectures from this course

Monday 12 December 2011

Higgs Boson: How do you search for it?

Fermilab scientist Don Lincoln describes the concept of how the search for the Higgs boson is accomplished. 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

Saturday 10 December 2011

An Application of Faraday's Law of Induction

This is an illustration of an application of Faraday's Law to a single loop moving through a magnetic field.

Other animations by Penn State Schuylkill

MIT 8.01 Classical Mechanics Lecture 30

MIT Physics Course

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

Simple Harmonic Oscillations, physical pendulum, liquid in a U-tube, torsional pendulum.

See other videos in this series.

Afterschool Universe: Infrared Detection Circuit

Constructing a simple infrared detection circuit.

Other Afterschool Universe videos

Friday 9 December 2011

Minute Physics: What is Dark Matter?

Minute Physics provides an energetic and entertaining view of old and new problems in physics -- all in one minute!

In this episode, we discuss Dark Matter, an exotic type of matter we know very little about, despite the fact that it makes up around 80% of all matter in the universe!

Other Minute Physics videos

Thursday 8 December 2011

Energy - Sixty Symbols

It's one of the most important concepts in physics - but defining energy is not the easiest task.

Other Sixty Symbols videos

Wednesday 7 December 2011

Khan Academy and the Effectiveness of Science Videos

It is a common view that "if only someone could break this down and explain it clearly enough, more students would understand." Khan Academy is a great example of this approach with its clear, concise videos on science. However it is debatable whether they really work. Research has shown that these types of videos may be positively received by students. They feel like they are learning and become more confident in their answers, but tests reveal they haven't learned anything. The apparent reason for the discrepancy is misconceptions. Students have existing ideas about scientific phenomena before viewing a video. If the video presents scientific concepts in a clear, well illustrated way, students believe they are learning but they do not engage with the media on a deep enough level to realize that what was is presented differs from their prior knowledge. There is hope, however. Presenting students' common misconceptions in a video alongside the scientific concepts has been shown to increase learning by increasing the amount of mental effort students expend while watching it.

Other Veritasium videos

Tuesday 6 December 2011

MIT 8.02 Electricity and Magnetism Lecture 10

MIT 8.02 Electricity and Magnetism, Spring 2002

Professor Walter Lewin


Batteries, EMF, Energy Conservation, Power, Kirchhoff's Rules, Circuits, Kelvin Water Dropper.


Other lectures from the same course


Myopia, Hyperopia & Astigmatism Explained

Learn about how the eye sees and why myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism can cause your vision to appear blurry.

Monday 5 December 2011

How the Sun works: Fusion and Quantum Tunneling

In this episode, we learn about how the sun can burn for billions of years without running out of fuel.

Other Minute Physics videos

What's new @CERN ? n°3 GRID computing

Hundreds of millions of collisions per second -- Detectors collecting data to analyse 24/7 : the LHC and its experiements generate millions of gigabytes of data. The Computing Grid, a huge, worldwide network of computers was invented to manage, process and store these phenomenal volumes of data. How does it work? Who uses it ? What is its performance since the LHC started up nearly two years ago? What are its other applications outside particle physics ? We're going to review all this with Oliver Keeble, Computing engineer at CERN who works on the computing Grid.

Other "What's new @ CERN" videos

Sunday 4 December 2011

MIT Physics Demo -- Magnetic Deflection of a TV Image

An cathode ray tube (CRT) television is connected to a video camera. When a strong magnet is brought close to the television screen, the image becomes warped and discolored.

While many new televisions use flat screen technology, older CRTs produced images by firing electron guns (one red, one green, one blue) through the television body onto the back of the screen. When a magnet is brought close to the screen, it deflects the paths of the electron beams and distorts the picture. A strong enough magnetic field can even create a hole in the electron beams, causing a black spot on the picture.

This TV has been subject to many magnet encounters, which has permanently damaged the picture.


Other demonstrations from MIT

Saturday 3 December 2011