The nutrient content of food is declining. Is it because of soil depletion, selective breeding, or… something else? Watch my new documentary, VITAMANIA: http://ve42.co/vita I came across this story as I was making the film Vitamania. When you ask sellers of vitamins why you should take vitamin supplements even if you eat a healthy diet,
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Silicone oil droplets provide a physical realization of pilot wave theories. Check out Smarter Every Day: http://bit.ly/VeSmarter Support Veritasium on Patreon: http://bit.ly/VePatreon Huge thanks to: Dr. Stephane Perrard, Dr Matthieu Labousse, Pr Emmanuel Fort, Pr Yves Couder and their group site http://dualwalkers.com/ Prof. John Bush: http://math.mit.edu/~bush/ Dr. Daniel Harris Prof. Stephen Bartlett Looking Glass Universe:
In space, metals can weld together without heat or melting. Check out Audible: http://bit.ly/AudibleVe Support Veritasium on Patreon: http://bit.ly/VePatreon Written by Joh Howes and Derek Muller Yes, it’s pronounced Gemini (ee not eye) because that’s the way everyone pronounced this mission. Thanks to Patreon supporters: Bryan Baker, Donal Botkin, Tony Fadell, Saeed Alghamdi References: Gemini
My entry to the techNyou Science Ambassadors competition, visit www.facebook.com/talkingtechnology and www.youtube.com/technyouvids to find out more about these guys.
Hope this was worth the wait! So many people helped with this video: Prof John Sperry, Hank Green, Henry Reich, CGP Grey, Prof Poliakoff, my mum filmed for me in beautiful Stanley Park and Jen S helped with the fourth version of the script. Prof John Sperry http://biologylabs.utah.edu/sperry/john.html Hank Green (SciShow) http://www.youtube.com/user/scishow Henry Reich (minutephysics)
Is punishment or reward more effective as feedback? Do new medical treatments really work? What about streaks in sport? Without considering regression to the mean, we are prone to making significant errors. Check out Audible.com: http://bit.ly/ZJ5Q6z Filmed at Perimeter Institute: http://pitp.ca Is punishment or reward more effective for helping people learn. A lot of people
Without neutrons, harnessing nuclear energy would be impossible. Try Audible free for 30 days: http://audible.com/veritasium I have a new documentary coming out in a few months – sign up here to be notified and see a sneak preview: http://vitamaniathemovie.com Special thanks to Patreon supporters: Tony Fadell, Donal Botkin, Michael Krugman, Jeff Straathof, Zach Mueller, Ron
Epigenetics means women have different active x-chromosomes in different cells. Animation courtesy of http://wehi.tv Music by Amarante: http://bit.ly/VeAmarante Animation: Etsuko Uno Art and Technical Direction: Drew Berry Sound Design: Francois Tetaz & Emma Bortignon Scientific Consultation: Marnie Blewitt Courtesy of Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research: http://wehi.tv When a female embryo is four
Raw interviews: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dcw98B2Nzg The question has arisen often enough that I thought I’d answer it. If you hold views that are consistent with the majority of the population, does that make you stupid? I don’t think so. Science has uncovered a lot of counterintuitive things about the universe, so it’s unsurprising that non-scientists hold beliefs
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
Boredom makes you more creative, altruistic, introspective, and helps with autobiographical planning. This video was sponsored by LastPass: http://bit.ly/2wAsdUu I feel like this video might come across as condescending but the person I’m really talking to is myself. Despite the fact that I know how useful it can be to be bored, I still find
NOTE: This video will appear in a playlist on Smarter Every Day hence the references to Veritasium. Destin does lots of cool science stuff – check out his channel if you haven’t already http://www.youtube.com/destinws2 We have been collaborating on rotational motion, which is timely for some of the videos I’ve been doing lately. In this
It’s a little shaky but if you average out the oscillations I think the result is clear. Again, huge thank you’s to A/Prof Emeritus Rod Cross, Helen Georgiou, Alex Yeung, and Chris Stewart, Tom Gordon, the University of Sydney Mechanical Engineering shop, Duncan and co. Ralph and the School of Physics.
The Higgs Boson is awesome but it’s NOT responsible for most of your mass! Thanks to audible.com for supporting this episode: http://bit.ly/ZJ5Q6z The Higgs mechanism is meant to account for the mass of everything, right? Well no, only the fundamental particles, which means that electrons derive their mass entirely from the Higgs interaction but protons
Microwave grape plasma: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwTjsRt0Fzo Northern Lights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knwiWm4DpvQ Nanodiamonds in candle flames: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzOkuGQC3Rw Relight Candle Trick: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tXPVTIisl0 Is a flame really a plasma? Well it depends on your definition of plasma, but there are certainly ions in a flame, formed as molecules collide with each other at high speed, sometimes knocking electrons off of their atoms.
The physics behind Kelvin’s Thunderstorm explained. No, it is not a practical way of generating electricity, which is why we use turbines at hydro stations. This video goes into more detail about the phenomenon demonstrated in this Hunger Games collab video: http://youtu.be/Rwa26CXG1fc
The solution to 4 rotation-related riddles, including the mystery cylinder, bike pedal pulling puzzle, track problem, and train part going backwards. Thank you to everyone who responded, liked, shared, or made a video response. Please fill out this short survey for research: http://ve42.co/Rresearch Special thanks to: Mathematician George Hart: http://georgehart.com/ For allowing me to use
Stained glass is thicker at the bottom – so is it a liquid? Earth’s mantle enables plate tectonics, so is it a liquid? Check out Audible: http://bit.ly/AudibleVe Sign up for the mailing list: http://www.veritasium.com Pitch drop experiment: http://www.thetenthwatch.com Thanks to Meg Rosenburg for scripting and animation, Raquel Nuno for filming and Aaron White for script
Can we see things travelling faster than light? Check out Audible: http://bit.ly/AudibleVe Music by Amarante “One Last Thing” http://bit.ly/VeAmarante Awesome animations by http://youtube.com/minutephysics Thanks to Prof. Geraint Lewis for input on earlier drafts of this video. The expanding universe is a complicated place. During inflation the universe expanded faster than light, but that’s something that
Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle tells us that it is impossible to simultaneously measure the position and momentum of a particle with infinite precision. In our everyday lives we virtually never come up against this limit, hence why it seems peculiar. In this experiment a laser is shone through a narrow slit onto a screen. As the
Back in 2012, we all met for the first time at BrainSTEM – a conference of science YouTubers, instigated by Henry of MinutePhysics (Thank You Henry!!!) bringing together the most awesome STEM personalities from around the world. People like Vsauce, John Green, Vihart, Destin from Smarter Every Day, CGP Grey, Brady Haran of Numberphile et
A pulsing black hole in the centre of a distant galaxy sheds light on black hole and galaxy formation. How fast are black holes rotating and how does that rotation change over its life-span? Huge thanks to Prof. Geraint Lewis and study author Dr. Dheeraj Pasham. A loud quasi-periodic oscillation after a star is disrupted
Why is there a bright spot behind spherical objects? Be the first to find out about new projects: http://www.veritasium.com Filmed by Nathan Watkins and Raquel Nuno, animation by Meg Rosenburg. Music by Kevin MacLeod, http://www.incompetech.com ‘Scissors’ ‘Mirage’ ‘ Marty Gots a Plan’. Special thanks to Laura Vican for helping with the experiment. References: http://www.princeton.edu/~rvdb/images/Questar/PoissonSpot.html Why
Does quantum entanglement make faster-than-light communication possible? What is NOT random? http://bit.ly/NOTrandoVe First, I know this video is not easy to understand. Thank you for taking the time to attempt to understand it. I’ve been working on this for over six months over which time my understanding has improved. Quantum entanglement and spooky action at
Increasing entropy is NOT the only process that’s asymmetric in time. Check out the book: http://WeHaveNoIdea.com This video was co-written by Daniel Whiteson and Jorge Cham You can also check out PhD Comics: http://phdcomics.com Special thanks to Patreon supporters: Tony Fadell, Donal Botkin, Michael Krugman, Jeff Straathof, Zach Mueller, Ron Neal, Nathan Hansen, Joshua Abenir
Can you figure out the rule? Did you see the exponents pattern? http://youtu.be/AVB8vRC6HIY Why do you make people look stupid? http://bit.ly/12Fmlpl How do you investigate hypotheses? Do you seek to confirm your theory – looking for white swans? Or do you try to find black swans? I was startled at how hard it was for
Made for ABC TV Catalyst http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/ as an extended version of my Comparing Temperatures video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNGJ0WHXMyE
A head-vaporizing laser with a perfect wavelength detecting sub-proton space-time ripples. Huge thanks to Prof Rana Adhikari and LIGO: http://ligo.org Here’s how he felt when he learned about the first ever detection: https://youtu.be/ViMnGgn87dg Thanks to Patreon supporters: Nathan Hansen, Donal Botkin, Tony Fadell, Saeed Alghamdi, Zach Mueller, Ron Neal Support Veritasium on Patreon: http://bit.ly/VePatreon A
We have just seen the first image of a black hole, the supermassive black hole in the galaxy M87 with a mass 6.5 billion times that of our sun. But what is that image really showing us? This is an awesome paper on the topic by J.P. Luminet: Image of a spherical black hole with
Einstein’s classic thought experiment involves sitting on a train travelling at the speed of light. If you hold a mirror in front of your face, will you see your reflection in a mirror? How could light from your face reach the mirror if the mirror is travelling away from you? But it would be a
For more on spin, check out: http://youtu.be/v1_-LsQLwkA This video was supported by TechNYou: http://bit.ly/19bBX5G A quantum computer works in a totally different way from a classical computer. Quantum bits or ‘qubits’ can exist in a superposition state of both zero and one simultaneously. This means that a set of two qubits can be in a
If there’s a hotel with infinite rooms, could it ever be completely full? Could you run out of space to put everyone? The surprising answer is yes — this is important to know if you’re the manager of the Hilbert Hotel. ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ References: Ewald, W., & Sieg, W. (2013). David Hilbert’s Lectures on the Foundations
How does a transistor work? Our lives depend on this device. Support Veritasium on Patreon: http://bit.ly/VePatreon Subscribe to Veritasium – it’s FREE! http://bit.ly/YSWpWm When I mentioned to people that I was doing a video on transistors, they would say “as in a transistor radio?” Yes! That’s exactly what I mean, but it goes so much
MinutePhysics on permanent magnets: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFAOXdXZ5TM Subscribe to Veritasium: http://bit.ly/SuBVe Support Veritasium- get a t-shirt: http://dft.ba/-vetshirt Subscribe to MinutePhysics: http://bit.ly/1eVPynh Magnetism seems like a pretty magical phenomenon. Rocks that attract or repel each other at a distance – that’s really cool – and electric current in a wire interacts in the same way. What’s even more
How far would a basketball with backspin go? Rotor wing experimental aircraft: https://youtu.be/Ra8y6gGotwY E-ship 1: https://youtu.be/qJ7haGqXs_E Corner kick by Kyle: https://youtu.be/YIPO3W081Hw How Ridiculous World Record Basket: https://youtu.be/H9SF2YIKRY8
Explanations for http://youtu.be/1Xp_imnO6WE Follow me on twitter: http://bit.ly/VeTwitter or Instagram: http://bit.ly/VeInsta or Facebook: http://bit.ly/FBVeritasium For more on deflecting polar streams with electric fields, see: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ed077p1520 I’m in Hobart for a live show on Friday at UTAS followed by gigs in Sydney and Canberra next weekend.
Used in everything from bullet-proof vests to the walls of the Pentagon, polyurea’s strength comes from its long-chain molecules. Check out How Ridiculous: http://bit.ly/VeHowRidiculous Snatoms magnetic molecules: http://bit.ly/VeSnatoms Veritasium on Patreon: http://bit.ly/VePatreon Special thanks to South Bay Line-X: http://southbaylinex.com/ Thanks to Patreon supporters: Nathan Hansen, Bryan Baker, Donal Botkin, Tony Fadell, Saeed Alghamdi Filmed by
Lift is an important concept, not only in flying but also in sailing. This week I’m talking to Olympic Sailor, Hunter Lowden. But before I get to the physics of sailing I thought I would explain lift since it’s generally poorly understood. minutephysics http://bit.ly/Muh6CC 1veritasium http://bit.ly/MrupzL efit30 http://bit.ly/O4CMme appchat http://bit.ly/NxAMlX erikaanear http://bit.ly/MdyUzQ whoisjimmy http://bit.ly/LtFzpW numberphile
What happens when you decrease the pressure around a liquid? It boils. Water boils at room temperature once the pressure is low enough. What is interesting is that this decreases the temperature of the liquid. The fastest molecules escape, leaving the slower ones behind. Using this trick with liquid nitrogen, it is possible to create
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. Molecular illustrations are courtesy of: PhET Interactive Simulations University of Colorado http://phet.colorado.edu.
Huge thanks to the Royal Institution, Professor Frank James, and Katie Atmore for filming. For the Sixty Symbols version of this experiment click http://bit.ly/RGfLY5 Michael Faraday created the first electric generator in 1831 using a coil of wire and a permanent magnet. When the magnet was moved relative to the coil, current was induced in
How long is the coastline of Australia? One estimate is that it’s about 12,500 km long. However the CIA world factbook puts the figure at more than double this, at over 25,700 km. How can there exist such different estimates for the same length of coastline? Well this is called the coastline paradox. Your estimate
The best and worst predictions in science are both based on the same underlying physics Check out the Great Courses Plus: http://ow.ly/cePe303oKDM Support Veritasium on Patreon: http://bit.ly/VePatreon Special thanks to: Prof. Sean Carroll Prof. Brian Schmidt Prof. Stephen Bartlett Prof. Geraint Lewis More on this topic: http://wke.lt/w/s/XDkwi Patreon supporters: Bryan Baker, Donal Botkin, Tony Fadell,
When pressure is applied to ice, its melting point is reduced so it turns to water. When the pressure is removed, however, it turns back into ice. This process is called ‘regelation.’ Big thanks to Art of Ice Sculptures www.icesculpture.com.au who donated the beautiful block of ice.
Complete unedited interviews: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dcw98B2Nzg Trees can weigh hundreds or even thousands of tons, but where do they get this mass from? A few common answers are: the soil, water, and sunlight. But the truth is the vast majority of a dry tree’s mass comes from the air – it originated as carbon dioxide