call stack
7:53Sand Castle Holds Up A Car! - Mechanically Stabilized Earth
5M views • 10 years ago
Practical Engineering
Practical Engineering explains Mechanically Stabilized Earth, where layers of reinforcement make soil strong enough to hold heavy loads, shown with a sand structure supporting a car. It notes that MSE walls are everywhere in infrastructure.
12:44We Were Taught to Call Death a Blessing
11.9M views • 8 years ago
CGP Grey
CGP Grey narrates an animated adaptation of Nick Bostrom's Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant. The story uses a dragon that demands a daily toll of lives as a metaphor for aging and society's acceptance of death.
21:36Fractals are typically not self-similar
4.6M views • 9 years ago
3Blue1Brown
3Blue1Brown explains fractal dimension and shows why many fractals are not strictly self-similar. Self-similarity turns out to be a special case of the broader idea of fractional dimension.
4:58You Actually Share Your Brain With a Silent Stranger
20.2M views • 10 years ago
CGP Grey
CGP Grey explains split-brain patients, where severing the corpus callosum lets the two hemispheres act independently. He uses this to explore the idea of two minds in one head.
44:13Doctor Dissects the Wim Hof Method - Cold Hard Science Analysis
1.8M views • 7 years ago
Medlife Crisis
A cardiologist runs a detailed, skeptical review of the Wim Hof Method, covering the research on cold exposure and breathing techniques. It also teaches how to read scientific statistics critically.
12:04Anagrams, but where you can break apart letters: "Anagraphs"
256K views • 8 years ago
suckerpinch
Tom Scott-style exploration by suckerpinch (Tom7) of generalized anagrams where letters can be broken into pieces, called anagraphs, with a whimsical computational approach.
23:53D/A and A/D | Digital Show and Tell (Monty Montgomery @ xiph.org)
647K views • 13 years ago
FL Studio
Monty Montgomery of Xiph.org gives real-time demonstrations of sampling, quantization, bit depth and dither using real audio equipment, including both digital analysis tools and vintage analog bench gear. It shows that sampled audio is not stair-stepped and corrects common misconceptions about digital audio.
15:01What Happened to Horses Is Happening to Us
19.8M views • 12 years ago
CGP Grey
CGP Grey's video "Humans Need Not Apply" argues that automation will make a large part of the workforce economically obsolete, much as engines did for horses. It surveys robots and software replacing both physical and mental labor.
4:48London Swallowed a City but Couldn't Digest It.
8.6M views • 14 years ago
CGP Grey
CGP Grey explains that the City of London is a tiny, separate entity with its own governance, history and privileges, distinct from the city called London. He covers its financial role and how it is run.
18:28The Antique Toaster that's Better than Yours
3.4M views • 7 years ago
Technology Connections
Technology Connections takes apart a 1940s Sunbeam Radiant Control toaster. It senses the toast's own browning and lowers and raises it automatically using purely mechanical parts and no electronics.
10:03The determinant | Chapter 6, Essence of linear algebra
5M views • 10 years ago
3Blue1Brown
A 10-minute 3Blue1Brown chapter explaining the determinant as the factor by which a linear transformation scales area or volume. It builds the idea geometrically with animations before any formulas.
42:3630 Weird Chess Algorithms: Elo World
965K views • 7 years ago
suckerpinch
Tom Scott-style absurdist tour by Tom7 of SIGBOVIK chess projects: a tournament of 30 weird chess algorithms used to rate a color- and piece-blind chess program. Topics include mirrors, arithmetic encoding, perverted game tree search and a diluted Stockfish.
14:34Visualization of Quantum Physics (Quantum Mechanics)
2.8M views • 9 years ago
udiprod
An animated visualization of basic quantum mechanics using a free particle, with simulations based on the actual equations. It covers waves, particles, and how measurement collapses the wavefunction.
14:58The Truth about Hydrogen
5.7M views • 8 years ago
Real Engineering
Real Engineering examines the efficiency of hydrogen as an energy carrier. It follows production, storage and fuel cell conversion losses and compares hydrogen cars with battery electric vehicles.
15:13The Golden Ratio (why it is so irrational) - Numberphile
3.9M views • 8 years ago
Numberphile
Numberphile's Ben Sparks shows why the golden ratio is the most irrational number, using seeds, continued fractions and rational approximations. He also explains why plants use it for spacing leaves and seeds.
8:39How to Move the Sun: Stellar Engines
19.5M views • 6 years ago
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
Kurzgesagt explains stellar engines such as the Shkadov thruster and Caplan thruster, which could move the Sun and solar system across the galaxy over millions of years to avoid hazards and reach new regions.
18:05The Crisis in Cosmology
1.1M views • 7 years ago
PBS Space Time
PBS Space Time explains the Hubble constant tension, in which two precise, independent methods of measuring the universe's expansion rate disagree. It covers why this calls some standard cosmology into question.
10:00Is The Alcubierre Warp Drive Possible? | Space Time | PBS Digital Studios
2.5M views • 11 years ago
PBS Space Time
PBS Space Time introduces Miguel Alcubierre's warp drive, explaining how spacetime itself could be warped rather than moving a ship through it, and whether it is physically possible.
19:59What Happens at the Event Horizon? | Space Time | PBS Digital Studios
3.2M views • 9 years ago
PBS Space Time
PBS Space Time explains what happens as you approach and cross a black hole's event horizon, using Penrose diagrams and light cones as the tool for understanding spacetime there.
24:28Euler's formula with introductory group theory
2.8M views • 9 years ago
3Blue1Brown
3Blue1Brown builds intuition for Euler's formula, e^(pi i) = -1, using the core ideas of group theory. It treats exponentiation geometrically as rotation and scaling instead of repeated multiplication.
18:28w
3.7M views • 7 years ago
jan Misali
jan Misali traces the history of the letter W, including why it is called double u. The video is part of a series of deep dives into individual letters.
7:50ASTOUNDING: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + ... = -1/12
9.8M views • 12 years ago
Numberphile
A Numberphile video in which physicists Tony Padilla and Ed Copeland show a seemingly astounding result that 1+2+3+4+... equals -1/12. The argument is informal and has drawn criticism for glossing over what the result actually means.
2:58Why Britain Uses Separate Hot and Cold Taps
6.8M views • 12 years ago
Tom Scott
Tom Scott explains why Britain historically has separate hot and cold taps rather than mixer taps, tracing it to how water was stored in tanks. He notes why the hot tap is not safe to drink from.
5:01How a Laser-Shot Disk Defeats Hackers & Pirates (Coding Secrets)
132K views • 8 years ago
GameHut
An episode of Coding Secrets by Jon Burton on retro copy protection, in particular physically damaging a disk with a laser so copies fail. It explains how this defeated hackers and pirates.
13:09Moon Landings Faked? Filmmaker Says Not!
1.4M views • 13 years ago
VideoFromSpace
A filmmaker explains why the Apollo moon landing footage could not have been faked in a studio, based on the video and film technology of the late 1960s. He walks through the limits of cameras, frame rates and effects of the era.
3:26How Highways Almost Destroyed Amsterdam - Plan Jokinen
408K views • 7 years ago
Not Just Bikes
A short Not Just Bikes video on the 1960s plans (Plan Jokinen) to cut highways through Amsterdam to accommodate cars. It shows how radically different the city would look had they succeeded.
21:40The LED's Challenge to High Pressure Sodium
1.6M views • 8 years ago
Technology Connections
A Technology Connections video weighing LED streetlights against high pressure sodium lamps, covering efficiency, color, cost and light pollution. It is a follow-up to his earlier explanation of why street lights are orange.
14:49The Bizarre Behavior of Rotating Bodies
14M views • 7 years ago
Veritasium
Veritasium explains the Dzhanibekov effect, also called the tennis racket theorem, where a spinning object flips unexpectedly about its intermediate axis. The video gives an intuitive account of the underlying rotational dynamics, drawing on Terry Tao's explanation and the original papers.
8:26AT&T Archives: The Step-By-Step Switch
774K views • 15 years ago
AT&T Tech Channel
A 1951 Bell System training film showing how telephone calls are routed through a step-by-step (Strowger) switching office.
6:16The Artificial Intelligence That Deleted A Century
2M views • 7 years ago
Tom Scott
A speculative-fiction video by Tom Scott, framed as coming from a future, about an AI called Earworm that enforces copyright so aggressively that humanity ends up forgetting a century of pop culture. It is animated and narrated as part of his series of videos from a future.
6:21Your Body's Molecular Machines
5.1M views • 8 years ago
Veritasium
Veritasium short showing Drew Berry's scientifically accurate animations of the molecular machines that drive cell division. It walks through mitosis, chromosomes and motor proteins.
3:54The moiré effect lights that guide ships home
3.1M views • 8 years ago
Tom Scott
Tom Scott investigates moire-effect beacons, called Inogon leading marks, a Swedish invention from the 1980s that shows different patterns depending on the viewer's position. He visits one used to mark an undersea cable and tracks down its history.
5:13Overview of Illumina Sequencing by Synthesis Workflow | Standard SBS chemistry
2.7M views • 10 years ago
Illumina
Illumina's 3D animation of its sequencing-by-synthesis workflow, from sample preparation and cluster generation to sequencing on a flow cell and data analysis.
5:26Neural Network Learns The Physics of Fluids and Smoke | Two Minute Papers #118
209K views • 9 years ago
Two Minute Papers
Two Minute Papers covers a paper on speeding up fluid and smoke simulation with convolutional networks. It contrasts the approach with earlier regression forest methods.
9:12Uncovered - Dangerous Secrets of the DOT Helmet Standard
1.1M views • 8 years ago
FortNine
FortNine argues that the US DOT motorcycle helmet standard (FMVSS 218) is badly outdated and weak. It compares it with Snell and ECE standards and points to where you can look up test reports for your own helmet.
4:56Britain's largest battery is actually a lake
2.2M views • 8 years ago
Tom Scott
Tom Scott visits Dinorwig Power Station in Wales, a pumped-storage hydro plant often called Britain's largest battery. He explains how it works and how its role has shifted from TV pickup spikes to balancing wind and solar.
4:21An elevator that actually goes sideways
4.3M views • 9 years ago
Tom Scott
Tom Scott visits ThyssenKrupp's test tower in Rottweil to see the Multi, a rope-free elevator that uses linear motors to move cabins sideways as well as vertically.
5:49Can Japanese Actually Write Japanese Kanji?
5.5M views • 10 years ago
That Japanese Man Yuta
Yuta asks whether native Japanese speakers can actually write kanji by hand, showing that many struggle to recall characters from memory.