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.

Monday 29 October 2012

Hewitt-Drew-it! 21. Newton's Third Law

Paul and wife Lil illustrate that one cannot touch without being touched — with supporting examples.

Other Hewitt-Drew-it! videos

 

Sunday 28 October 2012

Rainbows and Double Rainbows - Sixty Symbols

The physics of rainbows with Professor Mike Merrifield.

Other Sixty Symbols videos

 

Liquid crystals: a new type of LCD display screen

These very low power screens will have a variety of uses in the market in the future. They can be update wirelessly and the first place you can expect to see them is in a supermarket near you. Dr Cliff Jones, Shaun Gray and Dr Emma Wood of ZBD Displays Ltd, winner of the 2012 Innovation Award, awarded by the Institute of Physics for developing and commercialising a novel e-paper display for use in shelf-edge labelling in supermarkets and other retail settings. ZBD has created an e-paper display by applying a sub-micron texture onto the glass surface of a liquid crystal display, allowing it to hold an image even when the power is removed. The work is the product of world-leading research at the liquid crystal research centre at DERA.

http://www.iop.org/activity/business/innovation/page_53257.html

 

Hewitt-Drew-it! 20. Skydiver Problem

Paul poses and solves a problem involving Suzie Skydiver, who dives and attains terminal velocity.

Other Hewitt-Drew-it! videos

 

Sunday 21 October 2012

Higgs Boson Update From CERN

"For a report on ABC's Catalyst program (http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/), I visited the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland to find out what is being done now that the Higgs Boson has been discovered.

 Although its mass has been measured around 125-126 GeV most of the other properties of the particle remain unknown. Its spin appears to be 0 or 2 but more results are required to nail this down. If it is the standard model Higgs, the spin should be 0, resulting in a fairly symmetric distribution of decay products in the detectors.

 We may know this year if it's not the standard model Higgs - this would be the case if it doesn't decay into specific particles with the expected frequency. However if it is the standard model Higgs, it may take many more years to be certain. The large hadron collider will be shut down in 2013 for upgrades so that higher energies up to 14 TeV can be tested. Right now the LHC is operating at 8 TeV. The next announcement is expected in December."

Other Veritasium videos

 

You Already Know This Physics!

From a research path that includes a little bit of rocket science, under sea measurements, radiation detection and measurement, space experimentation and two expeditions to the Antarctic, Mr. McKisson brings a different view of how much physics most people already know from observing the world around them. With a minimal amount of math, attendees will learn a little of the history of physics and may discover that they know more than they thought about what some view as an inscrutable subject.

 Speaker: Mr. Jack McKisson, Jefferson Lab
Date: October 9, 2012

 

How to Measure the Wavelength of Laser Light

Diffraction.


Saturday 20 October 2012

5 Rules of the Electric Field

Electric field lines.

 

What can you do with a physics degree?

Where do physics majors end up, besides broke and teaching the next mob of physics majors? How many physics majors end up working in History and English right out of school?

 

Friday 12 October 2012

Pressure demonstration

A man standing on 6 balloons.

Peter Kruger talks about the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics won by Serge Haroche and David Wineland.

Other Sixty Symbols videos

 

Thursday 11 October 2012

2012 Nobel Prize: How Do We See Light?

What was the 2012 Nobel Prize in physics given for? Capturing a single photon of light!
Congrats to Serge Haroche and David Wineland

Other Minute Physics videos

 

Butterflies and metamaterials with Professor Roy Sambles

Professor Roy Sambles from the University of Exeter, winner of the 2012 Faraday Medal awarded by the Institute of Physics for his pioneering research in experimental physics. Inspired by intricate microscopic structures in butterfly and moth wings giving their vivid colours, Roy has created 'metamaterials' to manipulate microwaves and RFID tagging in unusual ways, opening up new areas of research with direct practical applications. Roy's infectious enthusiasm for physics has inspired thousands of people - "How does it all work? That's it really, isn't it? How does it all work"

 

Hewitt-Drew-it! 19. Newton's Second Law

A video of Paul in the classroom is followed up with a discussion of force, mass, and the acceleration of freely-falling rocks.

Other Hewitt-Drew-it! videos

Tuesday 9 October 2012

Quantum-Physics Pair Wins 2012 Nobel Physics Prize

Frenchman Serge Haroche and American David Wineland won the 2012 Nobel Prize in physics for their research on quantum particles, light and matter. WSJ's Gautam Naik explains their work and its uses. Photo: Reuters, AP

 

Interview: The 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics

Professor Per Delsing was interviewed by freelance journalist Joanna Rose about the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics, awarded jointly to Serge Haroche and David J. Wineland "for ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems."

 

Real World Telekinesis (feat. Neil Turok)

About fields.

Other Minute Physics videos

Hewitt-Drew-it! 18. Acceleration Units

Paul clarifies the equivalence of m/s^2 and N/kg, and leads to Earth's gravitational field g.

Other Hewitt-Drew-it! videos

Levitating Barbecue! Electromagnetic Induction

At the Palais de la Decouverte in Paris, they showed me this experiment where a 1kg aluminium plate is levitated above a large coil of wire that is being supplied with 800A of alternating current at 900Hz. This is by far the best demonstration of electromagnetic induction I have ever seen. Back in London, I visited the magnetic lab of Michael Faraday in the basement of the Royal Institution. It was here that he did his groundbreaking work on induction. People had previously observed that current in a wire causes a compass needle to deflect, but more exciting was the prospect of using a magnetic field to generate current. Faraday created his famous induction ring by winding two coils of insulated wire onto an iron ring. When he connected a battery to one coil, a small pulse of current was induced in the other. When the battery was disconnected, current was induced in the other direction. This led Faraday to the conclusion that current was induced in the second coil only when the magnetic field through it was changing. And if they hadn't been wrapped on the same ring, Faraday may have noticed that the two coils repel each other when the current is induced due to the interaction of their magnetic fields. This is the same thing that is happening with the aluminium plate, except we're using alternating current to create a continually changing magnetic field. This induces an alternating current in the plate, producing an opposing magnetic field which levitates the disk.

Other Veritasium videos

 

Monday 8 October 2012

Nikola Tesla: Great Minds

Hank brings us the tale of the bizarre and eccentric genius with the crazy eyes who spent his life increasing awesome wherever he went, and contributed in some way to pretty much every cool invention you can think of. Nikola Tesla spoke eight languages and, at the time of his death, held over 700 patents and was being investigated by the US government for claiming to have invented a 60 million volt death ray. Tesla was an undisputed genius, and SciShow gold.

Other Sci-Show videos


How Much Does a Shadow Weigh?

Light pressure, Cherenkov radiation, photonic boom and more!

Other Vsauce videos

Sunday 7 October 2012

ESOcast 48: Building Big

Big telescopes.

KEZAKO: What is the difference between phosphorescence and fluorescence?

Kezako is the serie that addresses issues of science in a few minutes. The episode "What is the difference between fluorescence and phosphorescence?" addresses the two apparently different phenomena found with fluorescent markers, stickers, glow-worms or fireflies.

 

Saturday 6 October 2012

KEZAKO : How can we create electricity with light?

"How can we make electricity with light?" addresses the phenomena of absorption of photons and releasing electrons. It also explains the principle of Grätzel cells.

 

Misconceptions About Falling Objects - ABC Catalyst

A basketball and a 5 kg ball: which one will hit the ground first?
This is a remake of this video.

Other Veritasium videos

 

Hewitt-Drew-it! 17.Mass/Weight

Paul distinguishes between mass and weight in a video from his classroom, then breaks strings attached to a ball in ways that clarify the distinction.

Other Hewitt-Drew-it! videos

Thursday 4 October 2012

The Standard Model

Fermilab scientist Don Lincoln describes the Standard Model of particle physics, covering both the particles that make up the subatomic realm and the forces that govern them.

 

From physics to probabilities: Pokerstars' Liv Boeree

Liv Boeree has always been passionate about astrophysics and gained a First Class Honours degree in Physics from Manchester University. She became involved in the poker industry after graduation, making a name for herself by winning the European Poker Tour in 2010 in San Remo. Liv's substantial career winnings and work in the television industry prove that a physics degree can be applied in a less orthodox way. This video is to help promote the shortfall of girls studying physics