MinutePhysics
Why Are Airplane Engines So Big?
The answer to this question has everything to do with drag & kinetic energy vs momentum change (thrust) ie, a bigger engine fan allows for a larger air mass to be accelerated a smaller amount to give the same thrust as you'd get from a...
MinutePhysics
The Physics of Car Crashes
How is the chemical energy of gasoline transformed into kinetic energy of a moving car? And where does that kinetic energy go when the car crashes into something and stops moving?
MinutePhysics
The Most Burly Hurls
Which is the most intense Olympic throwing event? Shot put? Hammer? Discus? Javelin?
MinutePhysics
Picture of the Big Bang (a.k.a. Oldest Light in the Universe)
Where does all the stuff in the universe come from?
MinutePhysics
Magnets: How Do They Work?
How do magnets work? Why do they attract and repel at long distances? Is it magic? No... it's quantum mechanics, and a bit more, as we explain in this, the longest MinutePhysics video ever.
TED Talks
TED: The missing piece of the clean energy transition | Sheila Ngozi Oparaocha
The clean energy transition has a major blind spot, says energy equity expert Sheila Ngozi Oparaocha: it ignores millions of people without access to energy. Highlighting grassroots women's organizations leading the charge towards...
TED Talks
TED: The invisible networks shaping your everyday life | Deb Chachra
The basic infrastructure that controls plumbing, electricity and more is vital to your individual agency, says engineering professor Deb Chachra. She offers a crash course on how these systems connect to shape our lives — and suggests...
TED Talks
TED: The secret force for limitless energy? Lasers | Tammy Ma
In 2022, physicist Tammy Ma and the team at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory achieved a scientific breakthrough decades in the making: fusion ignition, or the combining of two atoms to generate more energy out of a reaction than...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The tech that seems to break the laws of physics | Anna Rothschild
Typically, with any piece of technology, you pump one unit of energy in and you get about one out. That’s just the first law of thermodynamics: energy has to be conserved. But there’s a piece of technology called a heat pump, where for...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Could we build a miniature sun on Earth? | George Zaidan
Stars have cores hot and dense enough to force atomic nuclei together, forming larger, heavier nuclei in a process known as fusion. In this process, the mass of the end products is slightly less than the mass of the initial atoms. But...
SciShow
We Don’t Know What the Sun Is Made Of
Unlike Earth, our Sun is a giant ball of mostly hydrogen and helium. Astronomers managed to figure that one out roughly 100 years ago. But after all this time, they still can't come to an agreement on what "mostly" means, precisely.
SciShow
Four Weird Ways to Make Electricity
When you think of newer ways to make electricity, solar cells and wind turbines may come to mind. But scientists can make the stuff from just about anything. And they're working on some truly bizarre ways to generate power.
SciShow
Is Liquid Nitrogen the Future of Clean Energy?
Liquid nitrogen (LN2) might slow down a T1000 for a bit, and it definitely helps make yummy ice cream during a classroom demo, but it has a lot of applications you may have never considered. Maybe one day it'll help astronauts stay...
SciShow
The Universe’s Second, Bigger Bang
In 2023, a team of researchers proposed that our universe experienced not one, but TWO Big Bangs about a month apart from one another. The first for the stuff described by our Standard Model of Particle Physics. And the second for that...
SciShow
The Volcanoes That May Have Started Life on Earth
The nitrogen cycle is essential to life on Earth, but biological nitrogen must be fixed before it can be used. Scientists aren't sure how the first nitrogen became available... but it might have been volcanoes.
SciShow
The Surprisingly Useful Physics of Desk Toys
How do Newton's Cradles connect to cancer treatments? Let's unpack the physics of some of our favorite desk toys, from dippy birds to perpetual motion machines, and explore how these scientific principles can be used beyond an office desk.
SciShow
Photonic Propulsion: Mars in 3 Days?
We can get to Mars in 3 days, . . .sort of, maybe. In this episode of SciShow Space Reid Reimers explains the possibilities of photonic propulsion in use with space travel.
TED Talks
TED: The human cost of coal mining in China | Xiaojun "Tom" Wang
Xiaojun "Tom" Wang grew up in the Chinese province of Shanxi, the world's largest coal producer. Each year, more than a billion tons of coal are dug out of Shanxi's mountains, and the impacts are devastating — from massive landslides to...
TED Talks
TED: Leadership in the age of AI | Paul Hudson and Lindsay Levin
Leaders can't be afraid to disrupt the status quo, says pharmaceutical CEO Paul Hudson. In conversation with TED's Lindsay Levin, he shares how AI eliminates "unglamorous work" and speeds up operations while collaborations across...
TED Talks
TED: The 5 tenets of turning pain into power | Christine Schuler Deschryver
A supportive community is the key to cultivating resilience and unlocking healing. Sharing the story of a transformative recovery program for survivors of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, human rights activist...
TED Talks
TED: Can a simple brick be the next great battery? | John O'Donnell
The world relies on manufacturing, and manufacturing relies on heat — a massive contributor to global carbon emissions, responsible for a quarter of the world's fossil fuel use. Energy entrepreneur John O'Donnell has figured out a...
TED Talks
TED: Enough red tape — we need to say yes to clean energy | Rich Powell
Climate innovation leader Rich Powell dives into the bureaucracy, bottlenecks and not-in-my-backyard attitude preventing the US from achieving its green energy goals, warning that we need about 10,000 new clean energy projects to be...
SciShow
Relative Humidity Isn't What You Think It Is
Have you ever wondered why 75% humidity in the summer feels sticky, but 75% humidity in the winter feels super dry? Turns out, the common definition of humidity is inconvenient and confusing. But there is a better way!