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4:19How Special Relativity Makes Magnets Work
4M views • 13 years ago
Veritasium
Veritasium explains magnetism as a consequence of special relativity. Length contraction of moving charges makes a current in a wire attract or repel a nearby moving charge.
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.
12:46The Speed of Light is NOT About Light
7.1M views • 11 years ago
PBS Space Time
PBS Space Time argues that the speed of light is better understood as the speed of causality, the universal limit on how fast cause and effect propagate. Light travels at that speed because it is massless, but the limit itself is a property of spacetime.
4:34How Wolves Change Rivers
46.2M views • 12 years ago
Sustainable Human
George Monbiot narrates how reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone after about 70 years set off a trophic cascade. The wolves changed deer behavior, vegetation recovered, and rivers changed course.
6:33I, Pencil: The Movie
1.4M views • 13 years ago
I, Pencil
A short film from the Competitive Enterprise Institute adapting Leonard Read's 1958 essay I, Pencil, showing how no one person knows how to make a pencil and how many people cooperate without central planning.
17:52Holy Post - Race in America
1.7M views • 6 years ago
Holy Post Media
Phil Vischer of VeggieTales and Holy Post gives an 18-minute history of racial injustice in America, covering why anger persists despite civil rights laws. It is told from an evangelical Christian perspective and adapted from a class he co-taught.
16:07The Geometry of Causality
1.8M views • 9 years ago
PBS Space Time
PBS Space Time explains how spacetime geometry and light cones determine the order of events and what can cause what. It visualizes causality in special relativity.
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.
10:09RSA ANIMATE: The Secret Powers of Time
4.4M views • 16 years ago
Royal Society of Arts
An RSA Animate illustrating a lecture by psychologist Philip Zimbardo on how people's perspectives on time (past, present, future) shape work, health and well-being.
14:48Is 5G Spelling Our DOOM?! How EM Waves Can Hurt
4.2M views • 6 years ago
ElectroBOOM
ElectroBOOM examines whether 5G and other electromagnetic waves can harm people, explaining the EM spectrum and the difference between ionizing and non-ionizing radiation. It includes experiments and measurements in his usual humorous style.
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.
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.
Topic match · Stand-up & sketch comedy
8:00Edgar Wright - How to Do Visual Comedy
11.4M views • 12 years ago
Every Frame a Painting
An Every Frame a Painting video essay analysing how Edgar Wright creates visual comedy through framing, camera movement, editing, sound effects and music.
Topic match · Stand-up & sketch comedy
8:35Buster Keaton - The Art of the Gag
8.4M views • 10 years ago
Every Frame a Painting
An Every Frame a Painting video essay on Buster Keaton's visual comedy, examining how he built and framed his gags. It uses clips from his silent films to show the thinking behind them.
Topic match · Stand-up & sketch comedy
19:05Why No One Has Measured The Speed Of Light
24.3M views • 6 years ago
Veritasium
Veritasium explains why the one-way speed of light has never been measured, only the round-trip speed, since measuring it requires synchronized clocks that assume the answer. It explores the implications for relativity.
9:09England: South Sea Bubble - The Sharp Mind of John Blunt - Extra History - Part 1
3.5M views • 11 years ago
Extra History
The first part of Extra History's animated miniseries on the South Sea Bubble. It explains how England's government debt led Robert Harley to turn to financier John Blunt, whose schemes began inflating artificial demand for shares.
4:12How Wolves Change Rivers [REMASTERED HD] - George Monbiot
356K views • 4 years ago
Sustainable Human
A short narrated video describing how reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone triggered a trophic cascade that changed wildlife, vegetation and even river courses. This is a remastered HD version of George Monbiot's viral piece.
11:48Superluminal Time Travel + Time Warp Challenge Answer
1M views • 9 years ago
PBS Space Time
A PBS Space Time episode explaining why faster-than-light travel is equivalent to travelling back in time, using relativity and Minkowski diagrams for different observers.
11:57We all move at the Speed of Light
1.4M views • 8 years ago
ScienceClic English
ScienceClic explains why nothing can go faster than light by treating motion through space and time together, so everything moves at the speed of light through spacetime. It uses animated visuals to cover relativity basics in 12 minutes.
6:08Immigration, World Poverty and Gumballs
6.8M views • 16 years ago
NumbersUSA
Roy Beck's short gumball presentation using World Bank and Census data to argue that letting people immigrate to the US cannot solve world poverty because the numbers are so large. It is made by NumbersUSA, an immigration-restriction advocacy group.
18:48Connecting Solar to the Grid is Harder Than You Think
2.4M views • 2 years ago
Practical Engineering
Practical Engineering explains why connecting solar and other inverter-based generation to the grid is hard. It covers grid stability, load balancing and the behind-the-scenes engineering challenges of renewables.
6:47The US Has More Tribes Than the World Has Countries
7.3M views • 6 years ago
CGP Grey
CGP Grey explains why "Indian" is often preferred over "Native American" in the United States, especially near reservations, and how many tribes exist in the US. He draws on conversations with people who identify as Indian.
18:20The Problem with Solar Energy in Africa
8.1M views • 5 years ago
Real Engineering
Real Engineering looks at why Africa's abundant solar potential is hard to turn into usable power, especially for Europe. It covers the transmission, infrastructure and economic obstacles, and the pivot from concentrated solar to photovoltaics.
12:42How To Terraform Venus (Quickly)
22.8M views • 5 years ago
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
Kurzgesagt lays out a speculative plan to terraform Venus, covering its hostile atmosphere and how it might be made Earth-like, with a sources page linked.
12:39Why Trains are so Expensive
3.2M views • 9 years ago
Wendover Productions
A Wendover Productions explainer on why train tickets, especially Amtrak in the US, cost so much compared with flying. It breaks down staffing, speed and the cost components behind a ticket.
7:38How We’re Fooled By Statistics
3.8M views • 12 years ago
Veritasium
A short Veritasium video explaining regression to the mean and how ignoring it leads to wrong conclusions about punishment versus reward, medical treatments and sports streaks. It uses the example of flight instructors who believed criticism works better than praise.
4:10Where Do Trees Get Their Mass?
2.5M views • 14 years ago
Veritasium
Veritasium asks people where a tree's mass comes from, then explains that most of a dry tree's mass originates from carbon dioxide in the air. It combines street interviews with a short explanation of photosynthesis.
14:28Superpositions, Sudoku, the Wave Function Collapse algorithm.
764K views • 6 years ago
Martin Donald
Martin Donald explains the Wave Function Collapse algorithm using Sudoku-like constraint solving and shows how he implemented it with Blender and Godot. It links demos and reference articles.
6:04Stop Signs Suck and We Should Get Rid of Them
906K views • 6 years ago
Not Just Bikes
Not Just Bikes argues that stop signs are a poor traffic control, drawing on Dutch practice and the Idaho stop to show intersections can be safer without them, especially for cyclists.
17:34The Halo Drive
526K views • 7 years ago
Cool Worlds
Astrophysicist David Kipping presents the halo drive, a proposed way to propel a starship to a good fraction of light speed by gaining energy from a black hole. The video is based on his peer-reviewed paper and explains why energy is the main obstacle to interstellar flight.
14:21The Antique Microwave Oven that's Better than Yours
2.7M views • 5 years ago
Technology Connections
Technology Connections examines an old feature-rich microwave and shows how it uses a humidity or steam sensor and lookup data to cook food well, arguing it beats many modern ones.
7:49The Immune System Explained I – Bacteria Infection
54.7M views • 12 years ago
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
A Kurzgesagt animation of how the immune system responds to a bacterial infection, depicting immune cells as an army defending the body.
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.
8:17PHILOSOPHY - Michel Foucault
3.9M views • 11 years ago
The School of Life
A School of Life short introducing Michel Foucault, who questioned assumed progress in how society treats madness, medicine and sexuality.
10:14Is Meat Really that Bad?
9.2M views • 4 years ago
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
A Kurzgesagt animated explainer on the climate and environmental cost of meat. It covers how beef drives deforestation and emissions, and how this compares with plant-based foods.
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.
11:17The Most Radioactive Places on Earth
24.9M views • 11 years ago
Veritasium
Veritasium visits Chernobyl, Fukushima and other places to find who on Earth is exposed to the most ionizing radiation. The answer turns out to be surprising and puts radiation risk in context.
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.
6:26Games Should Not Cost $60 Anymore - Inflation, Microtransactions, and Publishing - Extra Credits
678K views • 8 years ago
Extra Credits
Extra Credits explains from a game developer's perspective why AAA games have stayed at $60 despite inflation, and how that pressure drives DLC, microtransactions and loot boxes.
12:07Why We Can't Have Small Trucks Anymore - Blame the EPA
2M views • 3 years ago
All Cars with Jon
All Cars with Jon explains how EPA fuel economy rules, especially the footprint-based CAFE formula, push automakers away from small trucks.