live demo
18:40Drone Delivery Was Supposed to be the Future. What Went Wrong?
2.8M views • 4 years ago
Wendover Productions
Wendover Productions explains why drone delivery has not become the future once promised. It covers no-fly zones, costs and the difficulty of the final drop-off.
5:04Liquid Democracy In Simple Terms
76K views • 13 years ago
pxi
A five-minute animated explainer of liquid democracy, in which voters can delegate their vote to trusted people. It starts from the origins of democracy and contrasts direct and representative models.
21:08Demographic Collapse — China's Reckoning (Part 1)
3M views • 5 years ago
PolyMatter
PolyMatter's first part of a series on China's demographic collapse, covering the effects of the one-child policy, shrinking workforce and economic consequences.
11:46Zipline - How Rwanda Built A Drone Delivery Service
1.6M views • 7 years ago
Real Engineering
Real Engineering explains how Zipline built a drone delivery network for medical supplies in Rwanda. It covers the fixed-wing drones, catapult launch, parachute drop and the logistics behind the service.
10:51Is olive oil safe at high heat? Does it taste bad?
1.9M views • 6 years ago
Adam Ragusea
Adam Ragusea examines whether olive oil is unsafe for high-heat cooking and whether it tastes bad when heated. He cites studies showing it is among the most stable cooking oils and that smoke-point worries are overblown.
32:17The lamps you're not allowed to have. Exploring the Dubai lamps
6.6M views • 5 years ago
bigclivedotcom
Big Clive tears down the Dubai lamp, a Philips LED bulb developed with Dubai's ruler for maximum efficiency and long life. He examines its construction and circuitry, including underrun LEDs and many filament strips.
7:55Is the EU Democratic? Does Your Vote Matter?
5.6M views • 7 years ago
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
Kurzgesagt explains how the European Union is governed, how its officials are elected or appointed, and whether a citizen's vote actually matters.
14:47SOUTH KOREA IS OVER
15.9M views • 1 year ago
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
A Kurzgesagt animation on South Korea's record-low fertility rate and rapidly aging population. It explains why a demographic collapse looks hard to reverse and projects the population shrinking sharply by 2060.
23:34Why Democracy Is Mathematically Impossible
10.1M views • 2 years ago
Veritasium
Veritasium explains why no voting system can be perfectly fair, drawing on Arrow's theorem and the work of Eric Maskin. It looks at problems with systems like first-past-the-post and ranked-choice voting.
7:19The Lively & Liveable Neighbourhoods that are Illegal in Most of North America
2M views • 6 years ago
Not Just Bikes
Not Just Bikes explains how small pockets of shops and restaurants inside residential Dutch neighbourhoods create liveliness and help reduce traffic. It argues this kind of mixed-use design has been illegal in most of the US and Canada for a century because of zoning, and should be brought back.
19:20The Constitution of Athens
1.5M views • 8 years ago
Historia Civilis
Historia Civilis explains the constitution of ancient Athens, including its assembly, offices and use of sortition to choose leaders. It draws on Aristotle and Plutarch.
5:48Most Cities Got More Democratic. This One Didn't.
6.1M views • 14 years ago
CGP Grey
CGP Grey explains the City of London's unusual governance, including the Lord Mayor, guilds, and how it differs from the rest of London.
11:01How Bankrupt American Cities Stay Alive - Debt [ST04]
2M views • 5 years ago
Not Just Bikes
Not Just Bikes explains how many American suburbs, built all at once rather than incrementally, cannot cover their infrastructure costs and survive on growing debt. It draws on Strong Towns' work on the growth Ponzi scheme.
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.
4:20Why Snow and Confetti Ruin YouTube Video Quality
10.4M views • 10 years ago
Tom Scott
Tom Scott explains why confetti and snow wreck video quality, using interframe compression and bitrate. He demonstrates it live by changing the quality on screen.
14:18The Only* Car-Free Neighbourhood in Canada (and why you can't live there)
1.1M views • 4 years ago
Not Just Bikes
Not Just Bikes visits the Toronto Islands, home to Canada's only car-free neighbourhood. He explains the waiting list and strict ownership rules and asks why more such places aren't built.
23:05World's Strongest Magnet!
16.4M views • 3 years ago
Veritasium
Veritasium visits the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory to see the world's strongest magnets and demonstrate effects like eddy currents. It covers what intense magnetic fields do to materials and objects.
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.
Topic match · Robotics
5:077 Minutes of Terror: Curiosity Rover's Risky Mars Landing | Video
1.2M views • 14 years ago
VideoFromSpace
NASA's animated explanation of the Curiosity rover's Mars landing, which relied on a complex automated sequence taking about seven minutes. It features NASA engineers discussing the risks before the 2012 landing.
Topic match · Robotics
18:24The Uncanny Valley Is Wrong
236K views • 6 years ago
This Place
This Place argues that the uncanny valley is a flawed concept, since 'human likeness' is too broad and the supporting evidence is cherry-picked. It proposes that the creepiness really comes from how animated characters and robots move.
Topic match · Robotics
8:16Why Asimov's Laws of Robotics Don't Work - Computerphile
873K views • 11 years ago
Computerphile
Rob Miles explains for Computerphile why simple rule sets like Asimov's Three Laws cannot make robots and AI safe. Terms like harm and human are too ambiguous to specify precisely.
Topic match · Robotics
15:28The Braitenberg Vehicles
65K views • 10 years ago
Brian Douglas
Brian Douglas introduces Braitenberg vehicles, simple robots whose sensors are wired directly to motors yet show surprisingly lifelike behavior. He draws on Valentino Braitenberg's book Vehicles.
Topic match · Robotics
5:08How many robots does it take to run a grocery store?
8M views • 5 years ago
Tom Scott
Tom Scott tours Ocado's automated grocery warehouse, where thousands of robots move boxes on a grid called the Hive, and asks whether they are individual robots or a hive mind.
Topic match · Robotics
28:32Teardown of an IKEA Koppla USB power supply.
730K views • 10 years ago
bigclivedotcom
Big Clive takes apart an IKEA Koppla USB power supply to assess its safety, looking at isolation and transformer construction.
15:14The most deadly project on the Internet
6.8M views • 4 years ago
bigclivedotcom
BigClive explains why microwave oven transformer projects are extremely dangerous, since the high voltage and high current can kill. He contrasts them with spot welder builds where the secondary is replaced by low-voltage heavy wire.
10:56Model Y E36: The Octovalve Episode
317K views • 6 years ago
Munro Live
Munro Live's Model Y episode 36 has Sandy Munro walk through the disassembled Tesla Octovalve and heat pump system. He explains how the components are made and what each one does.
12:27Mach-E Thermal System Part 2: A Detailed Comparison to the Model Y
225K views • 5 years ago
Munro Live
Munro Live's team breaks down the thermal management system of the Ford Mustang Mach-E and compares it with the Tesla Model Y. They look at parts count, coolant loops and heating approaches.
6:31Why Your Vote Doesn't Count
7.9M views • 15 years ago
CGP Grey
CGP Grey explains first-past-the-post voting and why it pushes elections toward two dominant parties. It is the first in his series on electoral systems.
23:11Eating less Meat won't save the Planet. Here's Why
5.8M views • 5 years ago
Joseph Everett - WIL
Joseph Everett, with Dr. Frank Mitloehner, argues that eating less meat will not do much for the climate. He covers beef's water footprint, land and feed use, and methane.
14:12How Harley-Davidson Killed Itself
5M views • 6 years ago
FortNine
FortNine explains how Harley-Davidson ended up in decline, from a narrow lifestyle niche and an aging customer base to the pandemic hitting a company already in trouble.
17:56A Physics Professor Bet Me $10,000 I'm Wrong
26.3M views • 5 years ago
Veritasium
Veritasium recounts a $10,000 bet with a UCLA physics professor over whether a vehicle can travel downwind faster than the wind. He presents the professor's reasoning and demonstrations, including one without aerodynamics.
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.
7:40The Original Double Slit Experiment
10.2M views • 13 years ago
Veritasium
Veritasium revisits Thomas Young's original double slit experiment with light, showing how interference supports the wave nature of light. It uses a pond-wave demonstration to explain the pattern.
8:18Why the US Drops 14.7 Million Worms On Panama Every Week
3.5M views • 2 years ago
Half as Interesting
A Half as Interesting explainer on the US program that drops millions of sterile screwworm flies over Panama every week to keep the parasite out of North America.
4:49BBC - The Code - The Wisdom of the Crowd
395K views • 15 years ago
timb6
Marcus du Sautoy of the BBC demonstrates the wisdom of the crowd, showing that averaging many guesses of jelly beans in a jar lands near the true count.
5:36Why all solar panels are secretly LEDs (and all LEDs are secretly solar panels)
2.5M views • 7 years ago
Steve Mould
Steve Mould shows that LEDs and solar panels are both diodes made from semiconductors, so a solar panel can emit light and an LED can generate electricity. He demonstrates a small solar panel lighting up.
9:31Around The Corner - How Differential Steering Works (1937)
22.3M views • 17 years ago
US Auto Industry
A 1937 GM-produced film explaining how the automobile differential lets wheels turn at different speeds around a corner. It uses clear animations and cutaway demonstrations to build the idea from first principles.
35:15Heat Pumps: the Future of Home Heating
4.8M views • 5 years ago
Technology Connections
Technology Connections explains how heat pumps work as reversed air conditioners and why they can deliver several times the heat of resistive heating per unit of energy. It also tackles common myths such as poor cold-weather performance.
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.
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.