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11:11The Agricultural Revolution: Crash Course World History #1
17.7M views • 14 years ago
CrashCourse
The first episode of Crash Course World History, in which John Green covers the shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture and how it shaped civilization. It is delivered fast and with jokes.
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.
11:23How 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.
8:41Invisibility Training for Motorcyclists
1.8M views • 8 years ago
FortNine
FortNine's tongue-in-cheek guide to why drivers fail to see motorcyclists and how riders can make themselves more visible. It touches on perception psychology, including the role of saccades.
9:36Motorcycle Airbags Exist – But No One Uses Them?
5.9M views • 5 years ago
FortNine
FortNine surveys motorcycle airbag technology and explains why airbags have not reached mainstream adoption. It breaks down gear such as the Helite Turtle, Dainese D-Air and Alpinestars Tech-Air.
12:08Tesla Model 3's motor - The Brilliant Engineering behind it
8M views • 5 years ago
Sabin Civil Engineering
An engineering explainer on why Tesla abandoned the induction motor for the Model 3 and used an IPM-SynRM design. It covers the reluctance torque and permanent magnet principles behind the choice.
17:13India's Semiconductor Failure
1.6M views • 5 years ago
Asianometry
Asianometry explains why India, a chip design powerhouse, cannot fabricate chips, tracing the 1980s government attempt to build a national semiconductor champion and how it collapsed. It includes the sabotage at the SCL fab.
17:49How Japan Learned Semiconductors
228K views • 4 years ago
Asianometry
Asianometry traces the 30-year rise and peak of Japan's semiconductor industry from the 1950s to the 1980s, covering how a postwar country gained competence in an emerging technology.
8:35Tesla Autopilot Crashes into Motorcycle Riders - Why?
1.1M views • 4 years ago
FortNine
FortNine looks at why Tesla Autopilot has rear-ended motorcyclists, speculating that the vision system misreads motorcycle taillights as a distant car. It argues that radar and other sensors would help.
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.
19:26history of the entire world, i guess
185.5M views • 9 years ago
bill wurtz
A fast, absurdist 19-minute animated run through the history of the whole world, narrated and scored by Bill Wurtz in his distinctive style. It compresses millennia of events into jokes, songs and quick visuals.
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.
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.
27:13The Longest Year in Human History (46 B.C.E.)
7.4M views • 7 years ago
Historia Civilis
Historia Civilis tells the story of 46 BCE, the 445-day year in which Julius Caesar reformed the Roman calendar. It covers the political context, including the civil war, Cato and Cicero.
12:09I promise this story about microwaves is interesting.
9M views • 5 years ago
Tom Scott
Tom Scott investigates the claim that the microwave was invented to heat hamsters, and interviews James Lovelock about freezing and microwave-thawing hamsters in the 1950s. It traces early magnetron uses beyond radar.
42:42Why Are Emulators Legal? Dolphin vs. Nintendo, and the Fate of Emulation [Great Emu War Pt. 1]
410K views • 3 years ago
Moon Channel
Moon Channel, run by a lawyer, explains the legal basis for emulation, including the history of emulation case law and Nintendo's takedown of Dolphin's Steam release. It argues the legality of emulators is more fragile than most people assume.
9:20An astonishing old calculator - Numberphile
794K views • 8 years ago
Numberphile
Cliff Stoll shows and explains his two Friden EC-132 electronic calculators for Numberphile. The video covers how these early machines worked, including their unusual acoustic delay line memory.
11:45The History of Europe: Every Year
33.9M views • 8 years ago
Cottereau
An animated map showing the borders and populations of European countries for every year since 400 BC. Vassal states and colonies are excluded from population counts.
21:32Alexander Pope Wrote a 35-Page Takedown of a Historian
10.3M views • 5 years ago
CGP Grey
CGP Grey tells the story of Alexander Pope's long takedown of a historian, Thomas Hearne, framed around the quirks of library books and archival research. It is a funny, digressive video essay about literary feuds and tracking down original sources.
7:09A New History for Humanity – The Human Era
10.1M views • 9 years ago
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
Kurzgesagt explains the Holocene or Human Era calendar, which adds 10,000 years to the current year to anchor dates to the start of human civilization. It argues this gives a more sensible frame for human history.
58:53Pounds, shillings, and pence: a history of English coinage
1.2M views • 5 years ago
Lindybeige
Lindybeige gives an hour-long history of English coinage and the problems of maintaining a trustworthy currency. It ends with an explanation of why the pounds, shillings and pence system worked so well.
9:39What Happened Before History? Human Origins
24.3M views • 10 years ago
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
Kurzgesagt's animated overview of human origins and the vast prehistory before recorded history. It covers how modern humans emerged and spread.
24:26Batteries aren't the only way to store energy. Here's another.
1.5M views • 5 years ago
Technology Connections
Technology Connections explains how a home can act as a thermal battery by pre-cooling or pre-heating when electricity is cheap or abundant. He shows how this shifts load off-peak and eases strain on the grid.
24:57The Man Who Accidentally Killed The Most People In History
43.5M views • 4 years ago
Veritasium
Veritasium tells the story of Thomas Midgley Jr., who introduced leaded gasoline and CFCs, and covers the science behind lead exposure and ozone damage. It also touches on isotope geochemistry used to uncover the history.
19:48How Dollar Stores Quietly Consumed America
4.2M views • 3 years ago
Wendover Productions
A Wendover Productions video on how dollar store chains expanded across America and why they displace grocery stores in small towns. It covers their business model and supplier leverage.
4:51The UK Election Results Were the Worst in History
8.1M views • 11 years ago
CGP Grey
CGP Grey explains how the 2015 UK general election showed the flaws of first-past-the-post voting, with parties like UKIP winning many votes but few seats.
9:16What Happened When This City Banned Housing Investors
96K views • 3 years ago
Oh The Urbanity!
Oh The Urbanity! tests the theory that banning housing investors would fix affordability, using Rotterdam's ban as a case study. The video finds mixed results.
17:16Eigenvectors and eigenvalues | Chapter 14, Essence of linear algebra
6.4M views • 10 years ago
3Blue1Brown
3Blue1Brown's chapter on eigenvectors and eigenvalues in the Essence of Linear Algebra series. It builds a visual intuition for what they mean, why an eigenbasis is useful, and ends with a puzzle.
16:41Movie Accent Expert Breaks Down 32 Actors' Accents | WIRED
15.8M views • 9 years ago
WIRED
Dialect coach Erik Singer analyzes how accurate the accents are of 32 well-known actors, including Brad Pitt and Will Smith, in WIRED's breakdown.
3:39(1/4) Intro/History: Introducing a 100-year-old mechanical computer
476K views • 11 years ago
engineerguy
The first of four short videos from Bill Hammack (engineerguy) introducing and giving the history of a 100-year-old mechanical computer, Michelson's harmonic analyzer. The series goes on to explain Fourier synthesis, analysis and operation of the machine.
22:40This 30-Year-Old Terminator VFX BLEW OUR MINDS!
10.6M views • 5 years ago
Corridor Crew
Corridor Crew dive into the visual effects of Terminator 2 and try recreating the T-1000 bars scene with modern tools. They explain how the original effects were achieved.
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.
49:02Is SpaceX's Raptor engine the king of rocket engines?
5.4M views • 7 years ago
Everyday Astronaut
Everyday Astronaut explains the basic physics of rocket engines, the main engine cycles and fuel types, then compares SpaceX's methane-fueled full-flow staged combustion Raptor to other engines. It runs nearly 50 minutes with chapter markers.
4:07Why do competitors open their stores next to one another? - Jac de Haan
7.4M views • 14 years ago
TED-Ed
A short animated TED-Ed lesson in which two competing ice cream vendors on a beach illustrate why rival shops cluster together. It introduces game theory and the Nash equilibrium through the Hotelling model.
24:32How We Solved the Worst Minigame in Zelda's History
1.1M views • 6 years ago
Linkus7
Linkus7 explains how a community reverse-engineered The Wind Waker to predict its random number generator and beat the Sploosh Kaboom battleship minigame consistently. It includes d3 animations by Peter Schmidt-Nielsen.
14:23The Long, Twisted And Slightly Ridiculous Story of Avgas Part 1
291K views • 4 years ago
AVweb
AVweb's Paul Bertorelli explains why general aviation has failed to replace leaded avgas, blaming industry inertia, bureaucratic delay and an exemption that removes the incentive. This is part one of two.
15:16The Long, Twisted and Slightly Ridiculous Story of Avgas Part 2
169K views • 4 years ago
AVweb
AVweb's Paul Bertorelli explains in part two of a series why general aviation has not replaced leaded avgas. He covers industry inertia, bureaucratic delays and the exemption that lets the industry keep using lead.
3:58What if you swam in a nuclear storage pool?
3.2M views • 2 years ago
xkcd's What If?
Randall Munroe of xkcd answers what would happen if you swam in a spent nuclear fuel pool, and how much radiation you would receive at the surface versus at depth.
18:39Resveratrol – The Unfortunate (& Scandalous) Story
208K views • 4 years ago
Dr Brad Stanfield
Dr Brad Stanfield recounts the research history and scandal around resveratrol, the supposed anti-aging supplement, including problems with the original studies.
16:51Suburbs that don't Suck - Streetcar Suburbs (Riverdale, Toronto)
2.2M views • 5 years ago
Not Just Bikes
Not Just Bikes explains that car-dependent suburbs are not the only option, using Toronto's Riverdale as an example of a pre-war streetcar suburb. These walkable neighborhoods are popular but are now effectively illegal to build.