rf
16:26Why Adults Can't Develop Perfect Pitch
1.8M views • 9 years ago
Rick Beato
Rick Beato argues that adults cannot develop true perfect pitch, which he ties to critical-period brain plasticity and language acquisition. He says it can only be developed in young children, and discusses the research behind this.
18:20FIXING the ENTIRE SM64 Source Code (INSANE N64 performance)
3.2M views • 4 years ago
Kaze Emanuar
Kaze Emanuar explains how he rewrote and optimized the Super Mario 64 source code so it runs far faster on real N64 hardware. He covers performance bottlenecks and fixes in detail for his ROM hacks.
15:09Why you DON'T want Perfect Pitch
2.5M views • 5 years ago
Adam Neely
Adam Neely explains what perfect (absolute) pitch is, how it differs from relative and quasi-absolute pitch, and why he would not want it. He covers its drawbacks, including drift with age.
17:51Does "land area" assume a country is perfectly flat?
859K views • 6 years ago
Stand-up Maths
Matt Parker of Stand-up Maths asks whether a country's reported land area accounts for hills and mountains, working through how surface area depends on the resolution of elevation data. It follows up on a question from a viewer and work by researchers who measured it.
13:39How is this Website so fast!?
2.4M views • 2 years ago
Wes Bos
Wes Bos breaks down the techniques behind the McMaster-Carr website's speed: server-rendered HTML, prefetching, CDN and service worker caching, preloading, critical CSS and fixed-size images. He also notes its old-school jQuery and YUI JavaScript.
Topic match · Software performance & optimization
19:25New computers don't speed up old code
187K views • 1 year ago
Matthias random stuff
Matthias Wandel tests old and new code on a range of PCs, including a new mini PC, to measure how much faster modern hardware really is. He also shows optimization techniques such as branchless code, with benchmark programs on GitHub.
Topic match · Software performance & optimization
11:05How to Win an Interstellar War
13.3M views • 2 years ago
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
A Kurzgesagt video exploring how advanced civilizations might wage war across light years. It looks at weapons such as relativistic beams and what they would do.
Topic match · Military history & warfare
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.
15:09Mouse Cursor History (and why I made my own)
3M views • 8 years ago
Posy
Posy gives a short history of the computer mouse cursor, from early straight pointers to the tilted arrow, comparing Apple and Windows designs. He then explains why he designed his own cursor set and offers it as a free download.
Topic match · GUI, HCI & interface history
7:19Cyclists' hearts: can you be so fit that you die?
2.2M views • 8 years ago
Medlife Crisis
Medlife Crisis examines why some elite endurance athletes die in their sleep, covering extremely slow heart rates and the effects of performance-enhancing drugs that thicken blood. It uses cyclist Marco Pantani as an example.
Topic match · Sports & athletics
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.
Topic match · GUI, HCI & interface history
4:30Traffic Has a Perfect Solution. Humans Are the Problem.
44.6M views • 10 years ago
CGP Grey
CGP Grey explains how traffic jams come from human driving behavior such as tailgating and reaction delays, and how leaving gaps and smoothing speed would reduce congestion. It also touches on self-driving cars.
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.
17:403D Gaussian Splatting! - Computerphile
273K views • 2 years ago
Computerphile
A Computerphile video in which Dr Mike Pound and PhD student Lewis Stuart explain 3D Gaussian splatting, a quick technique that turns photos of a scene into a 3D model without much compute. It includes a demo and compares the approach to NeRFs.
8:44A4 Paper Is Too Perfect
10.5M views • 5 years ago
CGP Grey
CGP Grey explains the elegant ratio of A4 and the metric paper sizes, then zooms out across scales from the Planck length to the observable universe.
9:07The Absurdity of Detecting Gravitational Waves
7.9M views • 9 years ago
Veritasium
Veritasium explains in detail how LIGO detects gravitational waves, with a laser interferometer measuring displacements smaller than a proton. The video focuses on the extreme precision and the techniques needed rather than the general discovery story.
5:17The IGF-1 Trade-Off: Performance vs. Longevity
517K views • 13 years ago
FoundMyFitness
A short FoundMyFitness explainer on the trade-off between growth hormone/IGF-1 and longevity. Higher IGF-1 helps muscle and cognition, while lower levels are linked to longer lifespan and stress resistance.
5:25Does the language you speak change how you think?
1.6M views • 3 years ago
Tom Scott
Tom Scott, with linguists Gretchen McCulloch and Molly Ruhl, examines whether the language you speak changes how you think. The short answer is mostly no, with caveats about the weak version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.
6:18Fear the Boom and Bust: Keynes vs. Hayek - The Original Economics Rap Battle!
8.9M views • 16 years ago
Radical Discourse
A rap battle in which John Maynard Keynes and F. A. Hayek debate the causes of boom and bust, stimulus, and bailouts. It was produced by Econstories to teach the two schools of thought.
Topic match · Music performance & songs
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.
Topic match · Neuroscience & the brain
6:00Super Pointy Sprint Missile - 0 to Mach 10 in 15 Seconds - 100Gs & 6000°F
459K views • 6 years ago
Dark Footage
A short video on the US Sprint anti-ballistic missile, which accelerated to around Mach 10 in seconds under extreme g-forces and heat. It includes striking launch footage and a brief development history.
Topic match · Military history & warfare
10:50The most feared song in jazz, explained
10.6M views • 7 years ago
Vox
Vox Earworm explains why John Coltrane's Giant Steps is so hard to improvise over: it is fast and moves through three keys. Musicians Braxton Cook and Adam Neely walk the host through the underlying music theory.
Topic match · Music performance & songs
4:26British Plugs Are Better Than All Other Plugs, And Here's Why
7.6M views • 12 years ago
Tom Scott
Tom Scott explains the design of the British BS 1363 plug and socket, including fuses, shutters and safety features, and why he thinks it beats other plugs.
Topic match · Electronics & circuit design
11:23How a transistor works
847K views • 11 years ago
Ben Eater
Ben Eater gives a detailed look at how an NPN bipolar junction transistor works and what it does. It is an eleven-minute explanation aimed at building real understanding of the device.
Topic match · Electronics & circuit design
12:23Xanadu Basics 1a - VISIBLE CONNECTION
20K views • 8 years ago
TheTedNelson
Ted Nelson explains the original Xanadu hypertext idea of visible connection, the notion that links between documents should be shown and preserved. He argues that the Web and current document standards lost this concept.
Topic match · GUI, HCI & interface history
18:15So... the minute hand shows progression — apparently we think of time in wildly different ways
706K views • 4 years ago
Technology Connextras
A Technology Connections video essay on how analog and digital clocks shape different mental models of time, with the minute hand acting as a progress indicator.
Topic match · UX & UI design
12:44Rapping, deconstructed: The best rhymers of all time
16.3M views • 10 years ago
Vox
Vox breaks down how great rappers build rhymes, from Kurtis Blow's simple bars to Biggie's smooth flow and Kendrick Lamar's dense, fast delivery. It uses on-screen visualizations of rhyme structure.
Topic match · Music performance & songs
11:48RSA ANIMATE: The Divided Brain
2.2M views • 15 years ago
Royal Society of Arts
An RSA Animate summary of Iain McGilchrist's lecture on the divided brain, arguing the brain's two hemispheres attend to the world differently and that this has shaped culture and society.
Topic match · Neuroscience & the brain
12:31The Superheterodyne Radio: No really, that's its name
987K views • 7 years ago
Technology Connections
Technology Connections explains why the superheterodyne radio has its name and how mixing frequencies lets it tune stations well. It walks through the underlying wave phenomena and algebra and why the design solved a hard tuning problem.
Topic match · Electronics & circuit design
13:20How Kodak Exposed Nuclear Testing
6.7M views • 6 years ago
Veritasium
Veritasium tells how Kodak film was fogged by radioactive fallout from the first atomic tests, letting the company detect nuclear testing before anyone announced it. The video also covers the deal to keep it quiet and how fallout contaminated packaging.
Topic match · Military history & warfare
4:12Why this British crossroads was so dangerous
3.9M views • 6 years ago
Tom Scott
Tom Scott explains why Ipley Cross in England's New Forest was one of Britain's most dangerous junctions. The angled crossroads lets a car's A-pillar hide approaching traffic and cyclists because there is no relative motion in the driver's view.
Topic match · UX & UI design
7:41Why Life Seems to Speed Up as We Age
8M views • 10 years ago
Veritasium
Veritasium explores why time seems to speed up as we age, covering chronoception and several competing explanations beyond the common proportional-theory argument.
Topic match · Neuroscience & the brain
13:14How Analog Color TV Works: The Beginnings
503K views • 8 years ago
Technology Connections
Technology Connections explains the early history of analog color television, from the 1954 start of modern color broadcasting, and how shadow masks work in CRTs. It is the first in a series on how analog color TV works.
Topic match · Electronics & circuit design
18:14The US Military’s Massive Global Transportation System
3.2M views • 4 years ago
Wendover Productions
Wendover Productions explains how the US military moves people and materiel worldwide, including prepositioned equipment, sealift and airlift. It shows the scale of the logistics system behind US force projection.
Topic match · Military history & warfare
13:38Why Japan had NO Chance in WW2
835K views • 7 years ago
Military History Visualized
Military History Visualized charts ship production by the United States and Japan from December 1941 to September 1945. The growing numbers show why Japan, despite a stronger starting navy, could not win a long war.
Topic match · Military history & warfare
6:00Rhyme: Why Eminem is one of the most impressive lyricists ever
3.7M views • 13 years ago
Library of Alexandria
A re-upload of a video breaking down Eminem's rhyme schemes, showing multi-syllable and internal rhymes in songs such as Lose Yourself. It aims to show why he is considered a standout lyricist.
Topic match · Music performance & songs
5:51This Is Your Brain On Stale Air
4.2M views • 7 years ago
Tom Scott
Tom Scott features Kurtis Baute inside a sealed homemade biodome as carbon dioxide builds up, showing how stale air with elevated CO2 affects cognitive function. Sources include studies on CO2 and cognitive scores.
Topic match · Neuroscience & the brain
4:40This 1970s tank simulator drives through a tiny world
12M views • 4 years ago
Tom Scott
Tom Scott visits the Swiss Military Museum to see the last surviving 1970s tank-driving simulator. It uses a real camera moving over a miniature model landscape rather than any computer graphics.
Topic match · VR, AR & spatial computing
19:31Math Magic
14M views • 10 years ago
Vsauce
Vsauce explores math through card tricks and big numbers, including an animation of how enormous 52 factorial, the number of deck orderings, really is.
Topic match · Magic, puzzles & curiosities
11:18The simple, clever sensor behind automatic windshield wipers
1.8M views • 2 years ago
Technology Connections
Technology Connections explains how automatic windshield wiper rain sensors work, using an infrared light source and total internal reflection in the glass.
Topic match · Electronics & circuit design