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

Wednesday 30 November 2011

Magnetic Moment - Sixty Symbols

Check out Professor Bowtell's dodgy compass in this film explaining magnetic moments.

Other Sixty Symbols videos

Tuesday 29 November 2011

Parabolic mirrors

An optical illusion with parabolic mirrors. The image of the object is produced in the focus of bottom parabolic mirror.

Sunday 27 November 2011

Yale: Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics, Lecture 19

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

Omega and the End of the Universe



Omega is the actual density of the universe divided by its critical density:  if it is greater than 1, there will be a big crunch; if it is lesse than 1, the universe will expand forever.  Evaluating omega is not easy, partly because of dark matter (WIMPs:Weakly Interactive Massive Particles, and MACHOs:  Massive Astrophysical Compact Halo Objects).



Other lectures from this course


Saturday 26 November 2011

Three Incorrect Laws of Motion

Newton's Three Laws of Motion are a landmark achievement in physics. They describe how all objects move. Unfortunately most people do not really understand Newton's Laws because they have pre-existing ideas about the way the world works. This film is about those pre-existing ideas. By recognizing what people are thinking, it becomes easier to describe the correct scientific concepts of Newton's Three Laws and how they differ from this 'intuitive physics'.

Other Veritasium videos

Friday 25 November 2011

Conductivity of Solutions

We look at the conductivity of several solutions. Substances include tap water, distilled water, sodium chloride, hydrochloric acid, sodium hydroxide, sugar, vinegar, ethanol, and barium sulfate. The solutions are mixed to approximately the same ratios. The tester is a pair of stripped copper wires at line voltage in series with a 25W incandescent bulb. The probe is rinsed in distilled water between each test.

Harvard Natural Sciences Lecture Demonstrations

Thursday 24 November 2011

Muon Man - Backstage Science Q & A

Philip King from the Muon Group at ISIS tells us a little more about himself and his work.

Other Backstage Science videos

MIT 8.01 Classical Mechanics Lecture 29

MIT Physics Course

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

Examen review:  collisions, rotation, Kepler's laws, Doppler shift, rolling objects.

See other videos in this series.

Wednesday 23 November 2011

Dust Bunnies and Fractal Dimensions - Sixty Symbols

From fern leaves to lightning bolts, fractal dimensions are all around us... They're even under our beds.

Other Sixty Symbols videos

Other videos about fractals

Tuesday 22 November 2011

Proton Therapy - Accelerating Protons to Save Lives

Here's a very nice application of particle accelerators (unfortunately, the sound quality is awful!).

In 1946, physicist Robert Wilson first suggested that protons could be used as a form of radiation therapy in the treatment of cancer because of the sharp drop-off that occurs on the distal edge of the radiation dose. Research soon confirmed that high-energy protons were particularly suitable for treating tumors near critical structures, such as the heart and spinal column. The precision with which protons can be delivered means that more radiation can be deposited into the tumor while the surrounding healthy tissue receives substantially less or, in some cases, no radiation. Since these times, particle accelerators have continuously been used in cancer therapy and today new facilities specifically designed for proton therapy are being built in many countries. Proton therapy has been hailed as a revolutionary cancer treatment, with higher cure rates and fewer side effects than traditional X-ray photon radiation therapy. Proton therapy is the modality of choice for treating certain small tumors of the eye, head or neck. Because it exposes less of the tissue surrounding a tumor to the dosage, proton therapy lowers the risk of secondary cancers later in life - especially important for young children. To date, over 80,000 patients worldwide have been treated with protons. Currently, there are nine proton radiation therapy facilities operating in the United States, one at the Hampton University Proton Therapy Institute. An overview of the treatment technology and this new center will be presented.

Speaker: Dr. Cynthia Keppel, Hampton University Proton Therapy Institute
Date: October 25, 2011

Other lectures from Jefferson Lab Science Series

Monday 21 November 2011

Deformation of Continuous Media

Analysis of a circle becoming an ellipse:  deformation (lagrangian specification) and deformation rate (eulerian).

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

Other videos from this series

Sunday 20 November 2011

What is Antimatter?

Fermilab scientist Don Lincoln describes antimatter and its properties. He also explains why antimatter, though a reality, doesn't pose any current threat to our existence!

Other Fermilab videos

Thursday 17 November 2011

The coffee-powered engine - Sixty Symbols

In this video about work, the Sixty Symbols team shows a small Stirling engine which can run on hot coffee or water ice.

Other Sixty Symbols videos

Wednesday 16 November 2011

Expansion of the Universe and Red Shift of Cosmic Background

As the universe expands (represented by the expanding balloon) the cosmic background (represented by the wavy line) gets stretched out to longer and longer wavelengths (distance between peaks on the wavy line).

Other animations by Penn State Schuylkill

Monday 14 November 2011

MIT 8.01 Classical Mechanics Lecture 28

MIT Physics Course

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

Hydrostatics - Archimedes' Principle - Fluid Dynamics - What Makes Your Boat Float? - Bernoulli's Equation

See other videos in this series.


What's new @CERN? number 2: LHC performance

In this second episode: LHC performance, a journey to the particle source and this past month's news. Guests: Steve Myers and Yves Schutz.

Other "What's new @ CERN" videos

Sunday 13 November 2011

Musical Nails: How Musical Instruments Work - UWM Science Bag

This is no ordinary music lesson. The familiar out of the unfamiliar..."weird and wonderful things"...a magician pulling sounds out of the air...a heightened sense of physical principles and possibilities—all of these, and more are at play in "The Clarinet, The Washtub, And The Musical Nails: How Musical Instruments Work." Physicist Robert Greenler uses an eclectic set of materials and an abundance of spontaneous humor to explore the basic elements in the creation of music.

Other UWM Science Bag videos

Thursday 10 November 2011

Vectors - Sixty Symbols

Rulers, hammers and a piece of string - what could possibly go wrong in this film about vectors?

Other Sixty Symbols videos

Wednesday 9 November 2011

Is There Gravity In Space? (Why Are Astronauts Weightless?)

If you've seen footage from the International Space Station or any of the space shuttle missions, you know that astronauts float around as they orbit the Earth. Why is that? Is it because the gravitational force on them is zero in space? (Or nearly zero?) The truth is that the strength of the gravitational attraction is only slightly less than it is on Earth's surface. So how are they able to float? Well, they aren't floating - they're falling, along with the space station. They don't crash into the Earth because they have a huge orbital velocity. So as they accelerate towards the Earth, the Earth curves away beneath them and they never get any closer. Since the astronauts have the same acceleration as the space station, they feel weightless. It's like being in a free-falling elevator (without the disastrous landing).

Other Veritasium videos

Tuesday 8 November 2011

Burning wirewool with a 9 volts battery

A simple wirewool wisp starts burning as soon as it touches both poles of a 9v battery.

More info here.


Yale: Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics, Lecture 18

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

Hubble's Law and the Big Bang

Other lectures from this course


Monday 7 November 2011

Surface Tension

Surface tension in the kitchen sink. At Berkeley Lab's Molecular Foundry, scientists study surface tension to understand how molecules "self-assemble." The coin trick in the video uses the re-arrangement of water molecules to seemingly create order out of disorder. The same principle can be used to create order in otherwise hard-to-handle nano materials.

Scientists can then transfer these ordered materials onto surfaces by dipping them through the air-water interface, or (as we've recently shown) squeeze them so that they collapse into the water as two-molecule-thick nano sheets.

I found this one on the Physics and Physicists blog.


Sunday 6 November 2011

Afterschool Universe: Life Cycle of Large Star

Kinesthetic activity about the life cycle of a large star (learning astrophysics while dancing?).

Other Afterschool Univervse videos

Eulerian and Lagrangian Descriptions in Fluid Mechanics

The National Committee for Fluids Mechanics Films, 1968.
John L. Lumley , Pennsylvania State University.

Other videos from this series


Saturday 5 November 2011

3 shorts animations about superconductivity

Conductor vs superconductor:



Meissner effect:



Formation of a superconducting state:

Wednesday 2 November 2011

NASA | Solar Cycle

The number of sunspots increases and decreases over time in a regular, approximately 11-year cycle, called the sunspot cycle. The exact length of the cycle can vary. It has been as short as eight years and as long as fourteen, but the number of sunspots always increases over time, and then returns to low again.

Tuesday 1 November 2011

Afterschool Universe: Stellar Fusion Demonstration

Stellar fusion, from hydrogen to iron.

Other Afterschool Univervse videos

Salman Khan: Let's use video to reinvent education

Salman Khan talks about how and why he created Khan Academy, a carefully structured series of educational videos offering complete curricula in seversl subjects. He shows the power of interactive exercises, and calls for teachers to consider flipping the traditional classroom script -- give students video lectures to watch at home, and do "homework" in the classroom with the teacher available to help.

OK, there is no physics in this video...but using videos to teach something is the goal of this blog...

Other TED Talks

Monday 31 October 2011

Which Hits The Ground First, Something Light or Heavy?

A basketball and a 5kg medicine ball are dropped simultaneously. Which one hits the ground first? It seems obvious that the heavy one should accelerate at a greater rate and therefore land first because the force pulling it down is greater. But this is forgetting inertia - the tendency of mass to resist changes in motion. Therefore, although the force on the medicine ball is greater, it takes this larger force to accelerate the ball at the same rate as the basketball.

Other Veritasium videos

Sunday 30 October 2011

Spencer Klein: Neutrino Astronomy in Antarctica

Spencer Klein presents a public talk at UC Berkeley on August 21, 2010, as part of the Science@Cal Lecture Series .

For the past 50 years, scientists have been studying cosmic-ray air showers consisting of billions of particles, produced when an ultra-high energy particle strikes the earth.  Despite enormous effort, we still have not found the cosmic accelerators that create these particles.

One way to find these accelerators is to search for the neutrinos that they produce. Neutrinos travel cosmic distances in a straight line, interact weakly, and can reach us even through dust clouds or other obstructions. Because of their weak interactions, huge detectors are required to observe these neutrinos. Antarctic ice is an attractive material, and several neutrino detectors are being built there. The 1-cubic-kilometer IceCube neutrino observatory is already in partial operation at the South Pole. The proposed 100 cubic-kilometer ARIANNA detector will be located on the Ross Ice Shelf, about 20 miles offshore.

Other Science@Cal lectures

Michio Kaku on the space elevator

Now that the shuttle has been retired, the hunt is on for revolutionary technologies to economically lift cargo and humans into space. And a space elevator just may be the answer. According to renowned physicist Michio Kaku, recent developments in nanotechnology may make this technological marvel a reality by the end of this century.


Saturday 29 October 2011

Working as a Physicist

Physicist Paul Burton, talks about his career.

A Magic Number - Sixty Symbols

It's a tricky concept linked to chaos, but the Feigenbaum Constant is a special number which appears everywhere in nature.

Other Sixty Symbols videos

Friday 28 October 2011

Liquid Nitrogen Experiments: The Rubber Stopper

What happens when a rubber test tube stopper is placed in a pool of liquid nitrogen? Sometimes, materials behave in unexpected ways!

Other Frostbite Theater videos


Thursday 27 October 2011

Sound Wave Interference (MIT Demo)

Two speakers, mounted on the table and facing each other, are driven by a function generator. A microphone is introduced between the speakers and the sound waves are displayed on an oscilloscope. This demonstrates the effect of interference and the resulting phase shift on sound waves over a fixed distance. Three different frequencies are demonstrated; 880Hz (A5), 440Hz (A4) and 523.3Hz (C4).

Other demonstrations from MIT


Wednesday 26 October 2011

MIT 8.01 Classical Mechanics Lecture 27

MIT Physics Course

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


Fluid Mechanics - Pascal's Principle - Hydrostatics - Atmospheric Pressure - Over Pressure in Lungs and Tires


See other videos in this series.


Tuesday 25 October 2011

Monday 24 October 2011

Newton's Laws of Motion

Newton's three laws of motion.

Calculating Gravitational Attraction (Veritasium)

Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation can be summarized as "all mass attracts all other mass." But if this is true, why don't we notice the gravitational force of attraction between everyday objects? The reason is because the gravitational force is quite weak.

Other Veritasium videos

Sunday 23 October 2011

Quantum levitation

Suspending a superconducting disc above or below a set of permanent magnets. The magnetic field is locked inside the superconductor ; a phenomenon called 'Quantum Trapping'.

Superconductivity Group, Tel-Aviv University, Israel


Saturday 22 October 2011

Friday 21 October 2011

Wednesday 19 October 2011

MIT 8.02 Electricity and Magnetism Lecture 8

MIT 8.02 Electricity and Magnetism, Spring 2002

Professor Walter Lewin

Capacitors, dielectrics, Van de Graaff generator.



Tuesday 18 October 2011

Liquid Nitrogen Experiments: The Balloon

What happens when a balloon full of air is plunged into a container full of liquid nitrogen?

Other Frostbite Theater videos

Medical Imaging: Getting Under Your Skin

This is a very good lecture!

Sound, motion, and a bit of fury pulse through this dynamic investigation into several imaging techniques used to examine the human body. Physicist Paul Lyman immediately captures the attention of his audience with his entrance, bumping down the long flight of lecture-room stairs to the front of the room on his bicycle. He hops off, removes his helmet and plunges into the world of X rays, computer tomography (CT scan), nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and ultrasound.

Source:  UW-Milwaukee Science Bag

Other UWM Science Bag videos

Monday 17 October 2011

Newton's Third Law (Veritasium)

There is a gravitational force of attraction between the Earth and the moon, but is it mutual? That is, are the forces on the Earth and the moon equal? Most people would say no, the Earth exerts a greater force of attraction because it is larger and has more mass. This is a situation in which Newton's Third Law is relevant. Newton's Third Law says that for every force, there is an equal and opposite reaction force. So the force the Earth exerts on the moon must be exactly equal and opposite the force the moon exerts on the Earth. But how can that be - that the same size force keeps the moon orbiting, but barely affects the Earth? The answer is inertia - the tendency for all objects with mass to maintain their state of motion. Since the Earth has much more mass than the moon, it has greater inertia and therefore experiences much less acceleration for the same amount of force.

Other Veritasium videos

Sunday 16 October 2011

String Theory for the Scientifically Curious with Dr. Amanda Peet

Toronto, February 26 2010. Physicist Amanda Peet, Professor at the University of Toronto explains string theory.  ( Centre for Inquiry )

String theory, a part of modern theoretical physics, has wiggled its way into the popular consciousness during the past decade. While the details are technically complicated, the basic idea is stunningly simple - that the fundamental Lego blocks making up matter and force are tiny vibrating strings (rather than infinitely small particles). Some people presenting string theory to the public, like Brian Greene, emphasize its mathematical beauty. By contrast, this presentation will focus on the powerful physics motivations for the invention and development of string theory.

Ideas on the menu include: explaining the epic clash between quantum mechanics and general relativity, string theory basics, extra dimensions of space, D-branes and duality, the LHC, the origin and ultimate fate of the universe, and the black hole information paradox. This presentation is largely self-contained; no physics or math background is assumed, other than a layperson's curiosity about physical science.



Saturday 15 October 2011

Producing X-rays at the APS

An introduction and overview of the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory, the technology that produces the brightest X-ray beams in the Western Hemisphere, and the research carried out by scientists using those X-rays.

I found the video on this blog:  Physics and physicists

Atom Bombs and Dimensional Analysis - Sixty Symbols

How did a magazine photograph help a physicist crack one of the secrets of the atom bomb?

Other Sixty Symbols videos

Friday 14 October 2011

Laminar flow demonstration

This apparatus allows for the visual examination of a fluid undergoing laminar flow. Initially, within the apparatus, various colored droplets are suspended in a fluid (corn syrup) and all are in a state of equilibrium where the different fluids are distinctly separated. When the apparatus is rotated the fluids revolve in a controlled manner and the droplets seem to become completely intermixed yet still divided from the outer fluid. After several rotations the apparatus is then operated in the reverse direction. Since the Reynolds number within this apparatus is less then one, an almost complete reversal of the previous laminar flow is undertaken. The result is that after the same amount of rotations in the opposite direction, the droplets return to their initial, distinctly separated, forms.

Filmed at the University of New Mexico - Physics Department. This apparatus was developed by John DeMoss and Kevin Cahill of the Department of Physics & Astronomy



Thursday 13 October 2011

Wednesday 12 October 2011

Falling Faster Than g

A hinged board rotates under the force of gravity and the free end accelerates at a rate faster than g. This board is 1 meter long and starts at an initial angle of just under 35 degrees. A steel ball bearing sits on a golf tee about 2 cm above the end of the board.

Other Harvard demonstrations

Tuesday 11 October 2011

Fourier Analysis (and guitar jammin') - Sixty Symbols

A physics professor uses an electric guitar (and wah pedal!) to explain the workings of waves.

Other Sixty Symbols videos

Monday 10 October 2011

What Is Gravity?

People have a lot of different ideas about what gravity is: a downward force that stops you from flying off into space, an attraction smaller objects experience towards larger objects, or a mutual attraction between all masses. It is the last of these ideas that best reflects a scientific conception of gravity.

Other Veritasium videos

Sunday 9 October 2011

The Stern-Gerlach experiment

A beam of particles moves through a magnetic field.   Quantized angular momentum.

MIT 8.01 Classical Mechanics Lecture 26

MIT Physics Course

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

Elasticity - Young's Modulus.  There is an interesting demonstration where he slowly increases the mass suspended to a string and measures the elongation until the string breaks.

See other videos in this series.



Friday 7 October 2011

Prof Alan Watson - IOP Award winner: on cosmic rays

Faraday Medal of the Institute of Physics
Professor Alan Andrew Watson, University of Leeds

For his outstanding leadership within the Pierre Auger Observatory, and the insights he has provided to the origin and nature of ultra high energy cosmic rays.

Ring Falling in a Magnetic Field (MIT Tech TV)

Three aluminium objects are dropped through a magnetic field. The objects move slower entering and leaving the field due to changes in the flux through the object. The change in the flux through a conductor results in a force which opposes additional flux change. As a result the force opposes the motion and slows the object's fall. This demonstration illustrates Faraday's and Lenz's law.

See other MIT physics demos

Thursday 6 October 2011

Field of a Sphere and an Infinite Plane

A Mylar balloon is held near a charged Van de Graaff generator. The balloon is moved radially away from the sphere and its deflection from the vertical is observed to decrease with distance. The same procedure is done with a conducting "infinite" plane. When the balloon is moved outwards from the plane, its deflection from the vertical remains constant. When the balloon is very far from the plane, edge effects conspire to decrease its deflection.

See other MIT physics demos

Wednesday 5 October 2011

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2011

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2011 was awarded "for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae" with one half to Saul Perlmutter and the other half jointly to Brian P. Schmidt and Adam G. Riess.



MIT 8.02 Electricity and Magnetism Lecture 7

MIT 8.02 Electricity and Magnetism, Spring 2002

Professor Walter Lewin

Capacitance and field energy.




Tuesday 4 October 2011

TED Talks: Adam Sadowsky and his Rube Goldberg machine

The band "OK Go" dreamed up the idea of a massive Rube Goldberg machine for their next music video -- and Adam Sadowsky was charged with building it. He tells the story of the effort and engineering behind the labyrinthine creation that quickly became a YouTube sensation.

Other TED Talks

Monday 3 October 2011

What's new @CERN ? Higgs boson, standard model, SUSY and neutrinos

What's new @CERN ? a new video programme launched on webcast.cern.ch , every first Monday of the Month. For the first one, the themes are the results of the LHC experiments about Higgs boson, standard model and supersymmetry, and also neutrinos of OPERA experiment faster than the speed of light.

Other "What's new @ CERN" videos

Hidden Worlds - Hunting for Quarks in Ordinary Matter

Dr. Timothy Paul Smith - Dartmouth College
February 26, 2003

How can scientists know anything about quarks, particles which are 100,000 times smaller than atoms? How do quarks arrange themselves to make ordinary matter? Learn about the hidden world of quarks, the particles which are inside of everything, everywhere!

Other lectures from Jefferson Lab Science Series

Sunday 2 October 2011

Saturday 1 October 2011

How a Capacitor Works - by Dr. Oliver Winn

Diagrams, graphics with explanation by Dr. Oliver Winn - pioneer in GE's capacitor and battery technologies. Electrolytic and Dielectric Capacitors explained, how its made using polypropylene. electrons enter the top plate creating a negative charge, this repels electrons in the bottom plate, energy is stored in the dielectric via the field. Dr. Winn worked in Fort Edward/Hudson Falls and Columbia, South Carolina GE plants. His work improved the efficiency of capacitors by 3x while reducing production cost. They made their own aluminum foil and plastics.

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



Wednesday 31 August 2011

Coriolis effect

The merry-go-round analogy to explain Coriolis effect.




Tuesday 30 August 2011

Faraday's Law: Levitator

This Apparatus is a magnetic levitator, illustrating Lenz's law. The levitator can support an aluminum bowl about a foot in mid air in stable equilibrium.

Scanning Electron Microscope: Pt 5 of 6


Other videos in this series

Monday 29 August 2011

Eureka! Episode 29 - Radiation Waves

Viewers learn that one of the chief ways in which heat energy moves is in the form of waves. This kind of heat transfer is called radiation.

Other Eureka episodes

Sunday 28 August 2011

Saturday 27 August 2011

Physics of the trumpet 1

Resonance, standing waves in a string with both ends fixed, penny whistle.

With Nick Drozdoff.

Other videos in this series

LHC particles fined for speed?

How fast do particles travel in the LHC?

Friday 26 August 2011

Sean Carroll: Distant time and the hint of a multiverse

At TEDxCaltech, cosmologist Sean Carroll attacks -- in an entertaining and thought-provoking tour through the nature of time and the universe -- a deceptively simple question: Why does time exist at all? The potential answers point to a surprising view of the nature of the universe, and our place in it.

Other TED Talks

Wednesday 24 August 2011

What is a Force?

Force is a central concept in physics. By analysing the forces on an object, its resulting motion can be determined. But what exactly is a force? The word force is used in everyday language in a variety of contexts, only some of which reflect the scientific definition of force. In this video, people at Victoria Park in Sydney are interviewed on their ideas of force and the forces that act on them.

Other Veritasium videos

Tuesday 23 August 2011

Antimatter

Is it safe to shake the hand of a person made of antimatter?

Monday 22 August 2011

Sunday 21 August 2011

Reflection from an impedance discontinuity

Two segments of the Bell Labs apparatus are connected. The segments have different impedance. When a pulse travels from high impedance to low impedance, it is reflected with positive polarity and transmitted with positive polarity. When a pulse travels from low impedance to high impedance, it is reflected with negative polarity and transmitted with positive polarity.

Source:  MIT TechTV

See other MIT physics demos

Saturday 20 August 2011

MIT 8.01 Classical Mechanics Lecture 23

MIT Physics Course

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

Doppler effect, binary stars, x-ray binaries,  neutron Stars and black holes

See other videos in this series.