commit graph
18:24The Holographic Universe Explained
3.5M views • 7 years ago
PBS Space Time
A PBS Space Time episode explaining the holographic principle: the idea that our 3+1 dimensional universe may be described by information on a lower-dimensional boundary. It walks through black hole entropy and the AdS/CFT correspondence.
8:38Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange
938K views • 14 years ago
Art of the Problem
A short explainer on the history and mechanics of public key cryptography and the Diffie-Hellman key exchange. It uses a mixing-paint-colors analogy to show how two parties can agree on a shared secret in public.
11:27CGA Graphics - Not as bad as you thought!
2.4M views • 10 years ago
The 8-Bit Guy
The 8-Bit Guy covers IBM's 1981 CGA graphics system, including how composite output and artifacting produced extra colors beyond the nominal palette. He argues CGA looked better in period than it does on RGB monitors.
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.
7:08How "oldschool" graphics worked Part 1 - Commodore and Nintendo
5.7M views • 11 years ago
The 8-Bit Guy
The 8-Bit Guy explains the color limitations of 1980s computers and consoles such as the NES and Commodore 64. It shows how sprites, attributes and palettes shaped the look of old games.
4:10'Zombie' Parasite Cordyceps Fungus Takes Over Insects Through Mind Control | National Geographic
6M views • 7 years ago
National Geographic
National Geographic footage showing the cordyceps fungus infecting ants and other insects and steering their behavior so it can reproduce.
5:15The UK Is a Country Made of Countries
25.1M views • 15 years ago
CGP Grey
CGP Grey's quick, witty explainer on the differences between the United Kingdom, Great Britain and England, and the countries that make up the UK.
5:06How secure is 256 bit security?
3.7M views • 9 years ago
3Blue1Brown
3Blue1Brown illustrates how enormous the 256-bit search space is, showing how infeasible it is to find a hash or key by guessing and checking.
6:24Wealth Inequality in America
26.7M views • 13 years ago
politizane
A short infographic video on the distribution of wealth in America, contrasting what people believe, what they consider ideal, and the actual numbers. It highlights how top-heavy US wealth is.
31:51Visualizing the 4d numbers Quaternions
5.6M views • 8 years ago
3Blue1Brown
3Blue1Brown builds visual intuition for quaternions, showing how to think about this four-dimensional number system using stereographic projection and rotations in 3D space. It is part one of a two-part series with an interactive companion site.
8:34Was YOUR vote counted? (feat. homomorphic encryption) - Numberphile
198K views • 10 years ago
Numberphile
Numberphile interviews cryptographer Ron Rivest about end-to-end verifiable voting. He explains how homomorphic encryption and receipts let a voter confirm their ballot was counted without being able to prove how they voted to anyone else.
6:40Overpopulation – The Human Explosion Explained
14M views • 9 years ago
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
A Kurzgesagt explainer on why the human population exploded and why growth is slowing, drawing on Our World in Data. It argues that birth rates fall as countries develop, easing overpopulation fears.
16:36Hacking at Quantum Speed with Shor's Algorithm | Infinite Series
238K views • 9 years ago
PBS Infinite Series
PBS Infinite Series explains how Shor's algorithm lets a quantum computer break RSA encryption, building on earlier episodes about cryptography and the math of quantum computers. It works through the idea step by step.
11:21How does a whip break the sound barrier? (Slow Motion Shockwave formation) - Smarter Every Day 207
6.5M views • 7 years ago
SmarterEveryDay
Smarter Every Day uses high-speed and Schlieren photography to show how a whip crack is a supersonic shockwave formed at the tip. It references academic papers on whip physics.
13:56Understanding the Russian mindset
994K views • 12 years ago
CaspianReport
CaspianReport explainer arguing that Russia's geography, especially its vast size and indefensible Moscow core, shapes its political behavior. It frames Russian security thinking through the lens of geographic determinism.
25:16But how does bitcoin actually work?
18.1M views • 9 years ago
3Blue1Brown
3Blue1Brown explains the math and mechanics behind Bitcoin visually: ledgers, digital signatures, proof of work and the blockchain, building up a decentralized payment system from first principles.
9:04Jackie Chan - How to Do Action Comedy
25.4M views • 11 years ago
Every Frame a Painting
Every Frame a Painting analyzes how Jackie Chan stages action comedy, with nine principles such as starting from a disadvantage, using the environment, clear shots, and keeping action and reaction in the same frame.
8:25Akira Kurosawa - Composing Movement
10.8M views • 11 years ago
Every Frame a Painting
An Every Frame a Painting video essay on how Akira Kurosawa used movement, weather and composition to tell stories. It draws on clips and interviews with other filmmakers.
10:58Flaw in the Enigma Code - Numberphile
5.4M views • 13 years ago
Numberphile
Numberphile's Dr James Grime explains the flaw in the Enigma machine, namely that a letter could never be encrypted to itself, and how that helped the Allies break the code. It touches on the Bombe and Alan Turing.
8:42Michael Bay - What is Bayhem?
3.3M views • 12 years ago
Every Frame a Painting
An Every Frame a Painting video essay on Michael Bay's style, 'Bayhem', covering his camera movement, composition, color and editing. It argues that even if you dislike his films, they teach something about visual perception.
9:32Disney's Practical Guide to Path Tracing
914K views • 10 years ago
Walt Disney Animation Studios
Walt Disney Animation Studios' short introduction to path tracing, showing how rays are traced and bounced through a virtual scene to simulate light. It explains how this approach is used in animated films.
17:31How Quantum Computers Break Encryption | Shor's Algorithm Explained
3.4M views • 7 years ago
minutephysics
MinutePhysics explains Shor's algorithm, showing how a quantum computer factors large integers by finding the period of a number modulo N. It walks through the modular arithmetic and number theory that give the exponential speedup over classical factoring, and why this threatens encryption.
4:42The US-Canada Border Is 5,500 Miles of Pure Nonsense
37.4M views • 13 years ago
CGP Grey
CGP Grey walks through the odd history and quirks of the US-Canada border, including how it was surveyed and its irregularities such as exclaves.
5:24Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange
547K views • 14 years ago
Art of the Problem
A short Art of the Problem clip explaining Diffie-Hellman key exchange, using a paint mixing analogy for one-way functions and touching on modular arithmetic and discrete logarithms.
15:30The Black Hole Information Paradox
1.1M views • 8 years ago
PBS Space Time
PBS Space Time episode on the black hole information paradox, covering how black holes seem to destroy information, the no-hair conjecture and the proposed role of the event horizon. It is part of a series on black holes.
11:13What if you could only see the world in UV?
5.6M views • 8 years ago
Veritasium
Veritasium shows what the world looks like through a UV camera. It covers how pigments absorb UV, how fluorescence works, and how UV imaging reveals sunscreen effectiveness and skin damage.
11:54The Most Complex International Borders in the World
7.9M views • 12 years ago
WonderWhy
WonderWhy surveys complex international borders, including enclaves like Vatican City, San Marino and Lesotho, the enclave-within-enclave town of Baarle, and the India-Bangladesh Cooch Behar region.
3:59The Lava Lamps That Help Keep The Internet Secure
4.3M views • 9 years ago
Tom Scott
Tom Scott visits Cloudflare's San Francisco office to show the wall of lava lamps whose camera feed is used as a source of entropy for random number generation. It is a short explainer on how this helps secure internet encryption.
12:24The 1988 VIDEO Floppy Disk Camera: Canon Xap Shot RC-250
452K views • 8 years ago
LGR
LGR looks at the 1988 Canon Xap Shot, a still video camera that records photos to a floppy disk as analog NTSC signal rather than digital data.
12:24Elliptic Curve Back Door - Computerphile
554K views • 8 years ago
Computerphile
Dr Mike Pound explains the suspected backdoor in the Dual_EC_DRBG random number generator and how elliptic curve constants could let someone predict its output.
4:31Why Photos of the Eiffel Tower at Night are Illegal
12.1M views • 9 years ago
Half as Interesting
Half as Interesting explains why the Eiffel Tower's night-time lighting is under copyright, which makes publishing photos of it at night legally problematic.
4:00The Netherlands Is Not 'Holland.' It Never Was.
13.9M views • 13 years ago
CGP Grey
A short CGP Grey explainer on why 'Holland' is wrong as a name for the whole country of the Netherlands. It covers the country's provinces and its constituent territories.
8:25Why Trains Suck in America
6M views • 10 years ago
Wendover Productions
Wendover Productions explains why US passenger rail lags behind other countries. It covers freight companies owning most of the track, geography and population density, and the economics of competing with flying.
9:13World's Largest Batteries - (Pumped Storage)
1.9M views • 7 years ago
Practical Engineering
Practical Engineering explains pumped storage hydropower, which makes up most grid-scale electricity storage. It covers how it works and why it fits only certain geographies.
11:11RSA ANIMATE: Crises of Capitalism
3.3M views • 16 years ago
Royal Society of Arts
An RSA Animate video that illustrates a talk by geographer David Harvey on the crises of capitalism. It covers creative destruction, wage stagnation masked by credit, and the search for a more just economic order.
2:28Lies on the London Underground
4.6M views • 13 years ago
Tom Scott
Tom Scott and Matt Parker investigate some of the small deceptions and oddities of the London Underground, such as misleading signage and map distortions.
9:41How Steve Jobs got the ideas of GUI from XEROX
272K views • 12 years ago
Ringo Pebam
A short video telling how Xerox PARC invented the graphical user interface and how Steve Jobs's 1979 visit influenced Apple's Lisa.
1:14Sound of the dialup modem explained
512K views • 13 years ago
bialasiczek
A short animation that pairs the sound of a dialup modem handshake with a graphic explaining what each phase of the sound means.