Introduction: The Chemical History of a Candle by Michael Faraday (1/6)

His "Chemical History of a Candle" Christmas lecture is a masterpiece in science education. Narrated here by Bill Hammack - the engineerguy: ▶ this video

How would you demonstrate that observationally? Science isn't just asking "what if...?" It's following up with "... and how could I demonstrate that?" The third step is then "how do I communicate that to others?" In the domain of chemistry, there's a wonderful example of that in Michael Faraday's "The Chemical History of a Candle". YouTube's EngineerGuy (Bill Hammack) has a wonderful recreation of Faraday's public demonstration of these properties. It seems obvious and pedestrian now, but that's because Faraday introduced us to these concepts and convinced us, collectively, of their fundamental truth. He gives us the hypothesis, he gives us the observable consequence, and he then demonstrates that consequence. Six-part series starting here: ▶ this video I've already answered your question, as it happens: Looking out in space is looking back in time. Numerous phenomena support very strong consistency of physical constants to all observable levels. lizknope mentioned on HN recently naturally-occurring fission reactions on Earth about a billion years old or so. Those provide direct physical validation of physical constants as well. That is, we have zoomed out time, using telescopes, looking back in the Universe 13.772 billion years (9.2 billion older than the Earth's own age). And there's no observable change in any of the fundamental physical constants that we can detect over this range. But since you've repeated the question twice: why do you ask?

Bill Hammack, engineerguy on YouTube, did a video series based on these lectures that are a very good. ▶ this video

If you haven't watched all of Bill's videos, you should put them on your list right right now. His early stuff was a great mixture of goofy humor and fascinating explanations of the engineering behind various everyday objects. His more recent stuff has (unfortunately, in my opinion) dropped most of the comedy, but really stepped up the overall quality. Some highlights: His series on Faraday's Chemical History of a Candle lectures: ▶ this video His series on Albert Michelson’s Harmonic Analyzer (a century old device that can mechanically perform Fourier transforms) link I'd also really recommend his book on R101, the last great British airship. link