Veritasium

Title: Our Greatest Delusion
Runtime: 7:39
Date posted: 11 years ago
Description: I am working on some big new projects I'm excited to share with you!

So this video is a little different from most of the others. The channel is an element of truth, after all, not an element of science. This is my truth. It may not be everyone's but that's ok too.

Clips included were from:
Chernobyl and Pripyat - drone shots from shooting Uranium
Obsidian dome, California
Panum Crater
El Capitan
The Pyramids of Giza
Toronto buildings
The Holocaust Memorial in Berlin
Abu Simbel temple at Aswan, Egypt
Sydney Harbour
Milky way time-lapse from the badlands of South Australia
Sunset over Warrnambool, Victoria
Big Bang animation courtesy of NASA
Sunrise over Bondi
Water off New Caledonia
Great white sharks in the Neptune Islands, South Australia
Crosswalk at Town Hall Sydney
EDUtubers at the YouTube EDU summit in San Francisco
Concert in Sydney
Jetpacki...

Evolutionarily Stable Strategies ft. Richard Dawkins

Title: Evolutionarily Stable Strategies ft. Richard Dawkins
Runtime: 4:29
Date posted: 11 years ago
Description: When evolution favours a stable ratio of traits rather than one dominant trait.
Check out Audible: http://bit.ly/AudibleVe
Animation by The Lyosacks: https://www.youtube.com/TheLyosacks

Hosting Neil Degrasse Tyson, info and tickets: http://bit.ly/NDTandVe
Aug. 22 in Sydney
Aug. 23 in Canberra

Special thanks to Richard Dawkins

Filmed at Academia Film Olomouc with help from Martyn Marek

Music by Kevin MacLeod www.incompetech.com 'Marty Gots a Plan' 'Sing Along with Jim'

Title: How to Launch a Nuclear Missile
Runtime: 7:41
Date posted: 11 years ago
Description: What was the procedure to launch a nuclear missile?
Uranium premieres: July 28 & 29 on PBS at 10pm ET/ 9pm Central
France and Germany: July 31 at 10pm on ZDF/arte
Norway: August 5 & 6 at 21:30 on NRK2
Australia: August 9, 16, 23 at 8:30pm on SBS
Sweden: TBD
Middle East: TBD

For more information on other screenings go to
https://www.facebook.com/uraniumtwistingthedragon
www.genepoolproductions.com

A big thank you to The Titan Missile Museum, Yvonne and Chuck.
http://www.titanmissilemuseum.org/

Space footage courtesy of NASA

Title: Backspin Basketball Flies Off Dam
Runtime: 3:01
Date posted: 11 years ago
Description: How far would a basketball with backspin go?
Rotor wing experimental aircraft: https://youtu.be/Ra8y6gGotwY
E-ship 1: https://youtu.be/qJ7haGqXs_E
Corner kick by Kyle: https://youtu.be/YIPO3W081Hw

How Ridiculous World Record Basket: https://youtu.be/H9SF2YIKRY8

Title: Should This Lake Exist?
Runtime: 7:16
Date posted: 11 years ago
Description: The Salton Sea is the largest body of water in California, home to the second most diverse group of birds in America and it exists by accident.
Another great video on the Salton Sea: https://youtu.be/otIU6Py4K_A
I used archive from this video.

Music by Kevin MacLeod, www.incompetech.com ‘Mirage’, ‘Hyperfun’, ‘Marty Gots a Plan’, ‘Past the Edge’

Title: Chernobyl - What It's Like Today
Runtime: 8:15
Date posted: 11 years ago
Description: This is what a nuclear disaster area looks like.
Check out Audible: http://bit.ly/AudibleVe
Broadcast locations and times:

North America: PBS, July 28 & 29 @ 10pm ET / 9pm Central
Europe: ZDF/arte, July 31 @ 10pm
Australia: SBS, August 6, 13, 20 @ 8:30pm EST

Not broadcast in your country? Contact your local broadcaster and/or email www.genepoolproductions.com

Music by Kevin Macleod http://incompetech.com 'Come Play With Me' & 'Lost Frontier'

Title: Uranium: Twisting the Dragon's Tail
Runtime: 3:31
Date posted: 11 years ago
Description: Uranium is a unique element, used in research, medicine, space travel, and of course weapons.
Not broadcast in your country? Contact your local broadcaster and/or email www.genepoolproductions.com

Documentary Dates:
US: PBS, July 28 & 29 @ 10pm ET / 9pm Central
France & Germany: ZDF/arte July 31 @ 10pm
Australia: SBS, August 6, 13, 20 @ 8:30pm EST

If you're wondering where the title comes from...
“A number of ingenious experiments were devised to test the speed of the fission reaction, and the limit was pushed. But even so, I thought it would be very nice to go one step nearer to a real atomic explosion. Dick Feynman, who was present, started to chuckle and to say that this is just like tickling the tail of a sleeping dragon.”
Professor Otto R Frisch, January 1969 Physicist, the Manhattan Project.

The Truth About Toilet Swirl - Southern Hemisphere

Title: The Truth About Toilet Swirl - Southern Hemisphere
Runtime: 8:03
Date posted: 11 years ago
Description: SYNCHRONIZE WITH DESTIN’S VIDEO: http://bit.ly/NorthernSwirl
Both videos on one page (for desktop): http://bit.ly/ToiletSwirl
Subscribe to Smarter Every Day: http://bit.ly/SubscribeSED
Click to tweet: http://bit.ly/ToiletSwirlTWT

Some notes:
We each repeated the experiment 3 times, and got the same results every time. For those of you who might be skeptical, great! A right circular prismatic kiddie pool is only $10 and you can do the experiment for yourself at your latitude. There's really no reason you shouldn't do it for yourself.

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Patreon Support Link: http://www.patreon.com/smartereveryday
Twitter: http://twitter.com/smartereveryday
w...

Title: Ice Spikes Explained
Runtime: 4:01
Date posted: 12 years ago
Description: Why do spikes form on ice cubes? Without them the world would be vastly different.
Awesome Jingle by Accent: http://bit.ly/AccentVe
Thanks to Prof. Stephen Morris from UofT: http://bit.ly/1GFANBE

Filmed in part by Martin Marek in Olomouc, Czech Republic

Time lapse of a growing ice spike by Lesley Hill, Russ Sampson and Edward Lozowski, with technical help by Kenny Lozowski.

Ice spike image by Dan and Lynn Wolaver: http://wolaver.org/log/09.11.29.htm

Concerned ice spike video by rocknut420: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwM0we_t94c

Earth footage courtesy of NASA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4BPOEmugtM

Ice vase image by PgunnG: http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1voeqk/so_i_walked_outside_this_morning_and_found_this/

Second ice vase image by A K Haart: http://akhaart.blogspot.com/2015_01_01_archive.html

Title: Extended: Beaker Ball Balance Problem
Runtime: 1:58
Date posted: 12 years ago
Description: Watch this first! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD3hbVG1yxM
Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/veritasium
Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/veritasium

Special thanks to the Department of Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences, especially Gary for helping source the equipment and Raquel for filming.

Title: What I Wish I Knew When I Was Younger
Runtime: 8:51
Date posted: 12 years ago
Description: Learned helplessness can prevent people from achieving their goals, something I've experienced first hand.
Check out Audible: http://bit.ly/AudibleVe
More walk and talk videos: http://bit.ly/2Veritasium

Title: Explained: Beaker Ball Balance Problem
Runtime: 2:28
Date posted: 12 years ago
Description: This is the solution to: http://youtu.be/QD3hbVG1yxM
Watch this first!

Title: Beaker Ball Balance Problem
Runtime: 2:01
Date posted: 12 years ago
Description: Acrylic Ball: http://bit.ly/BBBacrylic
Ping-Pong Ball: http://bit.ly/BBBpingpong
Balanced: http://bit.ly/BBBbalanced

This problem has made the rounds on the internet but I felt it deserved a treatment like this.

Special thanks to Gary and the Department of Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences at UCLA, to the students for participating, to Ivy for helping me coordinate everything and to Raquel for filming.

Music by Kevin MacLeod, http://incompetech.com "Monkeys, Spinning Monkeys"

Title: How Do Chameleons Change Color?
Runtime: 5:42
Date posted: 12 years ago
Description: New research shows chameleons actively tune nano-crystals to change their color.
For a 10-day free trial, check out http://lynda.com/veritasium
Chameleon research in Nature Communications: http://bit.ly/1FacHO2
"Photonic Crystals Cause Active Colour Change in Chameleons"

This research was carried out by Jérémie Teyssier, Suzanne V. Saenko, Dirk van der Marel & Michel C. Milinkovitch at the University of Geneva Department of Quantum Matter Physics and the Laboratory of Artificial and Natural Evolution (LANE)

Original videos of chameleons are here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIRiCwHlUd8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdQvtP8EKrM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSH7EmXFMac
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egwueh6wj1E

Additional details available at: http://www.lanevol.org/LANE/chameleon_colour_change.html
For correspondence: Michel C. Milinkovitch, Laboratory of Artificial & Natural Evolution (L...

Title: An Affordable 3D-Printed Arm
Runtime: 7:47
Date posted: 12 years ago
Description: Students at UCF are designing an inexpensive 3D printed arm for kids.
To find out more and to get involved, check out: http://office.tumblr.com

Big thanks to Microsoft and the Collective Project for introducing me to Albert and his amazing team. They are continuing to help people around the world one hand at a time and they could use your help.
Learn more and see how you can get involved by checking out The Collective Project on Tumblr, follow @MSONeNote on Twitter or head over to http://Onenote.com/collectiveproject

Title: An Astronaut's View of Earth
Runtime: 4:00
Date posted: 12 years ago
Description: What it's like to see the Earth from orbit.
Special thanks to Col. Chris Hadfield for chatting with me. http://chrishadfield.ca/

Space imagery courtesy of NASA and the ESA
http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/
http://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Videos

Music by Kevin MacLeod "New Frontier" http://incompetech.com
And "Eureka" by Huma-Huma

Title: Do Cell Phones Cause Brain Tumors?
Runtime: 7:50
Date posted: 12 years ago
Description: Inspired by this article by Prof. Emily Oster: http://bit.ly/Cellcancer
Check out Audible: http://bit.ly/AudibleVe
Featuring Physics Girl: http://bit.ly/PhysGirl

Special thanks to Chris Gale and Physics Girl for filming this video.

Music by:
Amarante Music "One Last Time": http://bit.ly/VeAmarante
Kevin McLeod, Incompetech.com "Harlequin"

Quantum Entanglement & Spooky Action at a Distance

Title: Quantum Entanglement & Spooky Action at a Distance
Runtime: 9:16
Date posted: 12 years ago
Description: Does quantum entanglement make faster-than-light communication possible?
What is NOT random? http://bit.ly/NOTrandoVe
First, I know this video is not easy to understand. Thank you for taking the time to attempt to understand it. I've been working on this for over six months over which time my understanding has improved. Quantum entanglement and spooky action at a distance are still debated by professors of quantum physics (I know because I discussed this topic with two of them).

Does hidden information (called hidden variables by physicists) exist? If it does, the experiment violating Bell inequalities indicates that hidden variables must update faster than light - they would be considered 'non-local'. On the other hand if you don't consider the spins before you make the measurement then you could simply say hidden variables don't exist and whenever you measure spins in the same direction you always get opposite results, which makes sense since angular momentum...

Title: Would You Take This Bet?
Runtime: 7:19
Date posted: 12 years ago
Description: How much would it take for you to risk $10?
Check out Audible: http://bit.ly/AudibleVe
Can you solve this? http://bit.ly/248Ve
Regression to the mean: http://bit.ly/VeRTTM

Help translate Veritasium videos into other languages: http://veritasium.subtitl.us

Psychological literature shows that we are more sensitive to small losses and than small gains, with most people valuing a loss around 1.5-2.5 times as much as a gain. This means that we often turn down reasonable opportunities for fear of the loss. However over the course of our lives we will be exposed to many risks and opportunities and this invariably means that taking every small reasonable bet will leave us better off than saying no to all of them.

NOTE: The video is not saying to accept every bet, only those with reasonable odds (preferably in your favour), and those which if you lose would not cause significant financial or other damage. In those cases it is wise to be l...

Title: The Most Radioactive Places on Earth
Runtime: 11:17
Date posted: 12 years ago
Description: Who on Earth is exposed to the most ionizing radiation?
Check out Audible: http://bit.ly/AudibleVe
I'm filming a documentary for TV about how Uranium and radioactivity have shaped the modern world. It will be broadcast in mid-2015, details to come. The filming took me to the most radioactive places on Earth (and some places, which surprisingly aren't as radioactive as you'd think). Chernobyl and Fukushima were incredible to see as they present post-apocalyptic landscapes. I also visited nuclear power plants, research reactors, Marie Curie's institute, Einstein's apartment, nuclear medicine areas of hospitals, uranium mines, nuclear bomb sites, and interviewed numerous experts.

Notes about measuring radiation:
Sieverts are a measure of 'effective dose' - that means they measure the biological impact of the energy transferred to tissues from radiation.

Obviously I owe a debt to the fantastic chart made by xkcd, which inspired my visual approach...

Title: The Most Persistent Myth
Runtime: 7:23
Date posted: 12 years ago
Description: Many technologies have promised to revolutionize education, but so far none has. With that in mind, what could revolutionize education?
These ideas have been percolating since I wrote my PhD in physics education: https://ve42.co/phd
I have also discussed this topic with CGP Grey, whose view of the future of education differs significantly from mine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vsCAM17O-M

I think it is instructive that each new technology has appeared to be so transformative. You can imagine, for example, that motion pictures must have seemed like a revolutionary learning technology. After all they did revolutionize entertainment, yet failed to make significant inroads into the classroom. TV and video seem like a cheaper, scaled back film, but they too failed to live up to expectations. Now there is a glut of information and video on the internet so should we expect it to revolutionize education?

My view is that it won't, for two reasons: 1. Te...

Title: How Were the Pyramids Built?
Runtime: 6:31
Date posted: 12 years ago
Description: Key aspects of pyramid construction from quarry to completion.
Check out Audible: http://bit.ly/AudibleVe
Live show in Alabama: http://bit.ly/VeRAOI

The most common misconception about the pyramids is that they were built by slaves. Recent archeological evidence suggests they were instead constructed by paid workers. Some may have performed this work as a form of tax payment for several months of the year. Skilled engineers would have planned and orchestrated the building. An estimated 10,000-20,000 people would have been working on a pyramid at any one point in time. They were well fed and provided with shelter near the pyramids. Plus their burial sites close by indicate they were respected and were not slaves.

Much of the limestone was quarried from the Giza plateau itself, meaning the stones did not need to be transported far. The granite casing of Menkaure's pyramid, on the other hand, was transported from Aswan, around 600 miles, or 1000 km up...

Sparks from Falling Water: Kelvin's Thunderstorm

Title: Sparks from Falling Water: Kelvin's Thunderstorm
Runtime: 3:40
Date posted: 12 years ago
Description: The physics behind Kelvin's Thunderstorm explained. No, it is not a practical way of generating electricity, which is why we use turbines at hydro stations.

This video goes into more detail about the phenomenon demonstrated in this Hunger Games collab video: http://youtu.be/Rwa26CXG1fc

CapitolTV's DISTRICT VOICES - District 5: Electric Sparks From Falling Water

Title: CapitolTV's DISTRICT VOICES - District 5: Electric Sparks From Falling Water
Runtime: 3:20
Date posted: 12 years ago
Description: Panem finds power in the radiance of the sun, and the water which rains down upon us! District 5’s Chief Energy Researcher Derek Muller takes CapitolTV on a tour of our nation's cutting edge renewable technologies, and demonstrates one of the largest ‘Kelvin’s Thunderstorm’ experiments ever built to date… all for a brighter and more efficient Panem.

Sanctioned by the Capitol Ministry of Information, DISTRICT VOICES was made with friends from Google - http://artcopycode.com/campaign/lionsgate

For more of Panem’s finest programming, and to register for updates, visit http://CapitolTV.pn
#CapitolTV - #DistrictVoices

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 – In theaters November 21
http://TheHungerGamesExplorer.com
#Mockingjay

Title: 13 Misconceptions About Global Warming
Runtime: 6:50
Date posted: 12 years ago
Description: Donate to the IPCC to prevent climate change → https://ve42.co/donateIPCC
Common misconceptions about climate change.
Check out Audible: http://bit.ly/AudibleVe
References below:

For CO2, sea levels, Arctic sea ice, Antarctic and Greenland land ice:
http://climate.nasa.gov

Satellite data shows that ground-based stations underestimate recent warming: Cowtan and Way, 2014
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/qj.2297/full

For papers published on climate change during the 1970's, see Peterson, 2008
http://ams.confex.com/ams/pdfpapers/131047.pdf

For solar and temperature data see NASA GISS,
PMOD: http://www.acrim.com/tsi%20monitoring.htm
Krivova et al. 2007:
http://www2.mps.mpg.de/projects/sun-climate/data.html

CO2 ratio of Carbon-13:Carbon-12 decreasing. IPCC AR4:
http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/ch2s2-3.html

CO2 emitted by vol...

Title: Climate Change is Boring
Runtime: 4:56
Date posted: 12 years ago
Description: Have your voice heard at the UN Climate Summit in NYC, September 23: http://bit.ly/WhyNotVe

Interview filming by Chris Cassella: http://bit.ly/ScienceAlertVe

Title: Explained: 5 Fun Physics Phenomena
Runtime: 6:11
Date posted: 12 years ago
Description: Explanations for http://youtu.be/1Xp_imnO6WE
Follow me on twitter: http://bit.ly/VeTwitter
or Instagram: http://bit.ly/VeInsta
or Facebook: http://bit.ly/FBVeritasium
For more on deflecting polar streams with electric fields, see:
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ed077p1520

I'm in Hobart for a live show on Friday at UTAS followed by gigs in Sydney and Canberra next weekend.

Title: 5 Fun Physics Phenomena
Runtime: 5:28
Date posted: 12 years ago
Description: Five cool physics tricks, but how do they work?
Explanations: http://youtu.be/jIMihpDmBpY
Check out Audible.com: http://bit.ly/AudibleVe
Leave your ideas in the comments below or subscribe for the answers next week.

Chris Hadfield in AUS: http://sciencealert.com.au/spaceoddity/
All tickets now sold out.

The Cane Balance:
Slide your fingers in from the ends of a horizontal cane to find its centre of mass.

Shot and Edited by Pierce Cook at the YouTube Space LA.

Music by Amarante: http://bit.ly/VeAmarante

Title: What is NOT Random?
Runtime: 10:00
Date posted: 12 years ago
Description: Is the future of the universe already determined?
Vsauce tackles "What is Random?": https://youtu.be/9rIy0xY99a0

Special Thanks to: Prof Stephen Bartlett, Prof Phil Moriarty, Prof Andrea Morello, Prof Tim Bedding, Prof Michio Kaku, A/Prof Alex Argyros, Henry Reich, Vanessa Hill, Dianna Cowern, George Ruiz and Mystery Cat. Views expressed in this video are not necessarily those of the amazing experts listed above but their advice was invaluable in making this video.

Quantum simulation by PhET:
https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/quantum-tunneling

Music by
Jake Chudnow: https://soundcloud.com/jakechudnow
Amarante Music: https://soundcloud.com/amarantemusic

DNA animations by http://www.wehi.tv

Space animations by NASA

Topic inspired by The Information - a history, a theory, a flood by James Gleick

Filmed on location at the University of Sydney, Washington DC and LA

Title: How Much Information?
Runtime: 5:47
Date posted: 12 years ago
Description: How much information is there in Spanish vs English, you vs the world? Check out Audible: http://bit.ly/AudibleVe
Huge thanks to all the amazing people who made this possible:
Christina Ochoa - Spanish https://twitter.com/christina_ochoa
Vanessa Hill - Filming https://www.youtube.com/braincraftvideo
Henry Reich - Filming, cameo http://youtube.com/minutephysics
Cara Santa Maria - Set design http://carasantamaria.com
Michael Stevens - cameo http://youtube.com/vsauce
Crystal Dilworth - consultation https://twitter.com/PolycrystalhD

Thanks also to MinutePhysics for wardrobe and lending the use of the amazing "Things to do when it's really cold outside" video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3Gs6tyiNX4

More on this theme to come in the main collaboration with Vsauce.

Title: Why Women Are Stripey
Runtime: 5:17
Date posted: 12 years ago
Description: Epigenetics means women have different active x-chromosomes in different cells. Animation courtesy of http://wehi.tv
Music by Amarante: http://bit.ly/VeAmarante
Animation: Etsuko Uno
Art and Technical Direction: Drew Berry
Sound Design: Francois Tetaz & Emma Bortignon
Scientific Consultation: Marnie Blewitt
Courtesy of Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research: http://wehi.tv

When a female embryo is four days old it consists of just 100 cells. At this point the x-chromosome from Mom and the one from Dad are both active. But in order for proper development to occur, one of the x chromosomes must be switched off.

Through a tiny molecular battle within each cell, one of the x-chromosomes wins and remains active while the loser is deactivated.

This is done by wrapping the DNA tighter around proteins, modifying histone tails, and DNA methylation - molecular markers to indicate this DNA should not be read.

Title: Misconceptions About the Universe
Runtime: 5:46
Date posted: 13 years ago
Description: Can we see things travelling faster than light?
Check out Audible: http://bit.ly/AudibleVe
Music by Amarante "One Last Thing" http://bit.ly/VeAmarante
Awesome animations by http://youtube.com/minutephysics
Thanks to Prof. Geraint Lewis for input on earlier drafts of this video.

The expanding universe is a complicated place. During inflation the universe expanded faster than light, but that's something that actually happens all the time, it's happening right now. This doesn't violate Einstein's theory of relativity since nothing is moving through space faster than light, it's just that space itself is expanding such that far away objects are receding rapidly from each other. Common sense would dictate that objects moving away from us faster than light should be invisible, but they aren't. This is because light can travel from regions of space which are superluminal relative to us into regions that are subluminal. So our observable universe is bigger ...

Title: Buoyancy Quiz
Runtime: 1:54
Date posted: 13 years ago
Description: Can you predict what happens to the golf ball?
Stays where it is: http://bit.ly/buoyStay
Goes down: http://bit.ly/buoyGoDown
Goes up: http://bit.ly/buoyGoUp

In this experiment we see that a golf ball is denser than detergent (it is also denser than pure water incidentally, which is why water hazards are so effective at ruining a golfer's day on the course). But, a golf ball is less dense than a saturated salt solution. Now the question is: if you pour the detergent on top of the golf ball in the salt solution, what will happen to the golf ball?

Special thanks to Duane Merrell for the idea, which I saw demonstrated at BYU back in February. Thanks to Emil Malmsten for excellent filming, and his Stockholm colleagues who were game to have a chat to me about this experiment.

Title: Musical Fire Table!
Runtime: 6:34
Date posted: 13 years ago
Description: Standing waves of fire!
Check out Audible: http://bit.ly/AudibleVe
Fysikshow: http://bit.ly/Fysikshow - I'm hosting Michio Kaku in Melbourne ONLY: http://bit.ly/VeKakuTickets

Rubens' Tube is an awesome demo and here we take it to the next level with a two-dimensional 'Pyro Board'. This shows unique standing wave patters of sound in the box.

The pressure variations due to the sound waves affect the flow rate of flammable gas from the holes in the Pyro Board and therefore affect the height and colour of flames. This is interesting for visualizing standing wave patterns and simply awesome to watch when put to music. Thank you to Sune Nielsen and everyone at Aarhus for sharing this demonstration with me! And thanks for having me at your conference.

Music by Kevin MacLeod, www.Incompetech.com "Ice Flow"

Why Trees Are Taller Than They Need To Be

Title: Why Trees Are Taller Than They Need To Be
Runtime: 3:57
Date posted: 13 years ago
Description: A forest is like a meadow on useless stilts.
Most amazing thing about trees: http://bit.ly/TFilQ8

We often imagine that unregulated competition produces optimal outcomes, behaviours, efficiencies, but trees and baggage carousels are two examples where the stable solution is worse for everyone than another strategy. This I find surprising and interesting - that evolution doesn't come to the best solution, it comes to the most stable one.

The Forest of Friendship was a concept I first came across in Richard Dawkin's book "The Greatest Show on Earth." One point I'd like to clarify is that being taller comes with a cost - having a longer trunk requires costly expenditure of energy. However, in a forest of uniformly short trees, being a little taller conveys an advantage. That is until all the other trees catch up, at which time the extra height no longer provides a benefit. So over time as the whole forest rises up the conditions are getting worse for each t...

Title: Anti-Gravity Wheel Explained
Runtime: 4:03
Date posted: 13 years ago
Description: It's a little shaky but if you average out the oscillations I think the result is clear. Again, huge thank you's to A/Prof Emeritus Rod Cross, Helen Georgiou, Alex Yeung, and Chris Stewart, Tom Gordon, the University of Sydney Mechanical Engineering shop, Duncan and co. Ralph and the School of Physics.

Title: Anti-Gravity Wheel?
Runtime: 5:42
Date posted: 13 years ago
Description: Explanation of gyro precession: http://bit.ly/U4e8HQ
More: http://bit.ly/GyroMORE
Less Than: http://bit.ly/GyroLESS
Equal To: http://bit.ly/GyroEQUAL

Huge thanks to A/Prof Emeritus Rod Cross, Helen Georgiou for filming, Alex Yeung, and Chris Stewart, the University of Sydney Mechanical Engineering shop, Duncan and co. Ralph and the School of Physics.

In this video I attempt to lift a 19kg (42 lbs) wheel over my head one-handed while it's spinning at a few thousand RPM. This replicates an earlier experiment by Professor Eric Laithwaite. He claimed the wheel was 'light as a feather' and could not be explained by Newton's Laws. I wanted to find out for myself what I really felt like.

Music By Kevin MacLeod www.Incompetech.com "Tempting Secrets"

Title: The Most Common Cognitive Bias
Runtime: 4:44
Date posted: 13 years ago
Description: Can you figure out the rule?
Did you see the exponents pattern? http://youtu.be/AVB8vRC6HIY
Why do you make people look stupid? http://bit.ly/12Fmlpl

How do you investigate hypotheses? Do you seek to confirm your theory - looking for white swans? Or do you try to find black swans? I was startled at how hard it was for people to investigate number sets that didn't follow their hypotheses, even when their method wasn't getting them anywhere.

In the video I say "when people came to Australia..." by which I meant, "when Europeans who believed all swans were white came to Australia..." I did not mean any offence to Indigenous Australians who were already in Australia at that time. Please accept my apologies for the poor phrasing if you were offended by it.

This video was inspired by The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb and filmed by my mum. Thanks mum!

Partly my motivation came from responses to my Facebook videos - social media mark...

Testing if 60 minutes of silence drives you crazy

Title: Testing if 60 minutes of silence drives you crazy
Runtime: 10:33
Date posted: 13 years ago
Description: *Watch with headphones on!
Is 45 minutes really the longest anyone can stay in a perfectly silent, pitch-black room?
Support Veritasium on Patreon http://bit.ly/VePatreon
Check out Audible: http://bit.ly/AudibleVe
Want to watch the whole hour of silence? http://youtu.be/jr1UMFC9DV0

Many stories have circulated claiming the longest anyone has stayed in an ultra-quiet anechoic chamber is 45 minutes, the reason being any longer would drive you insane. To me this sounded like unsubstantiated rubbish, like the claim the Great Wall is the only manmade structure visible from space. So I put my own psyche on the line, subjecting myself to over an hour of the most intense quiet on Earth. No, this was not THE quietest room on Earth (-9dB) but it is one of the quietest, and the truth is once you put a person inside, they are by far the loudest thing in there so the sound rating of the room is irrelevant.

I was not surprised to find that I could st...

Title: Facebook Fraud
Runtime: 9:00
Date posted: 13 years ago
Description: Evidence Facebook's revenue is based on fake likes.
My first vid on the problem with Facebook: http://bit.ly/1dXudqY
I know first-hand that Facebook's advertising model is deeply flawed. When I paid to promote my page I gained 80,000 followers in developing countries who didn't care about Veritasium (but I wasn't aware of this at the time). They drove my reach and engagement numbers down, basically rendering the page useless. I am not the only one who has experienced this. Rory Cellan-Jones had the same luck with Virtual Bagel: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18819338

The US Department of State spent $630,000 to acquire 2 million page likes and then realized only 2% were engaged. http://wapo.st/1glcyZo

I thought I would demonstrate that the same thing is still happening now by creating Virtual Cat (http://www.facebook.com/MyVirtualCat). I was surprised to discover something worse - false likes are coming from everywhere, including Canada, the ...

Title: Will This Go Faster Than Light?
Runtime: 6:40
Date posted: 13 years ago
Description: Physics of contraptions meant to go faster than light.
Audible: http://bit.ly/AudibleVe
My video about the problem with Facebook: http://bit.ly/PwFB

Special thanks to MinutePhysics for visual effects and Prof. Geraint Lewis for revisions to earlier drafts of this video.

Title: We Tagged a Great White Shark!
Runtime: 7:50
Date posted: 13 years ago
Description: Veritasium second channel: http://bit.ly/2Veritasium
Rodney Fox Shark Attack Story: http://bit.ly/1frAwlI
Check out Audible: http://bit.ly/AudibleVe

For this video I went off the coast of South Australia to an island frequented by great white sharks. Here they hunt seals and fish. I've never been scuba diving before but I got into a cage and filmed the sharks under water. It was an incredible experience. Then we came back on the surface to tag the sharks.

Title: Bullet Block Experiment Result
Runtime: 2:56
Date posted: 13 years ago
Description: SEE THE SETUP FIRST: http://bit.ly/bulletblock
Click here for the explanation: http://bit.ly/1dHPk2K
Spinning Tube: http://bit.ly/Va43Z6
Spinning Disk: http://bit.ly/14MSKsT
Chain Drop: http://bit.ly/1713VQO
Spool: http://bit.ly/14wkxfn

Special Thanks to:
Henry (MinutePhysics): http://www.youtube.com/minutephysics
Destin (Smarter Every Day): http://www.youtube.com/smartereveryday
Greg and Mitch (ASAP Science): http://youtube.com/asapscience
Elise Andrew (I F***ing Love Science): http://youtube.com/iflscience

Thanks to everyone at RIT and Dickinson College who helped with the making of this video:
Rochester Institute of Technology
Robert Teese, Katelyn Wilkerson, Andrew Gillie, Andrew Stidwill

Dickinson College
This experiment was the brainchild of David Jackson based on a demo at Princeton.
Priscilla Laws, Catrina Hamilton-Drager, Maxine Willis

High-speed ca...

Title: How We’re Fooled By Statistics
Runtime: 7:38
Date posted: 13 years ago
Description: Is punishment or reward more effective as feedback? Do new medical treatments really work? What about streaks in sport? Without considering regression to the mean, we are prone to making significant errors.

Check out Audible.com: http://bit.ly/ZJ5Q6z
Filmed at Perimeter Institute: http://pitp.ca

Is punishment or reward more effective for helping people learn. A lot of people would say different incentives motivate different people, or in different circumstances, but in psychology there is a sizable body of evidence that in order to learn skills, positive feedback is more effective. This fining has been verified not just with humans, but also with other species.

It was strange then that after Daniel Kahneman discussed this research with Israeli fighter pilot instructors that he was met with resistance. They found the opposite was true: when they reprimanded a cadet for performing poorly, he invariably improved, but if they praised a cadet for...

How a Shark Attack Survivor Invented Cage Diving

Title: How a Shark Attack Survivor Invented Cage Diving
Runtime: 6:18
Date posted: 13 years ago
Description: Thank you to Rodney Fox for sharing his story. He was attacked by a shark 50 years ago - Dec. 8 1963. If you're interested in his book or in going shark cage diving in South Australia, check out: http://bit.ly/rodneyfox

Title: 10 Facts About Great White Sharks
Runtime: 3:40
Date posted: 13 years ago
Description: Remarkably little is known about great white sharks, but they are similar to humans in a lot of ways - they give birth to live young, maintain a higher body temperature than their surroundings and they are apex predators. There are also many misconceptions about these sharks: people think they don't get cancer and that they reside mainly in shallow waters near beaches. In this video I summarize some of the most interesting things I learned about sharks on my cage diving adventure.

Special thanks to Rodney Fox Shark Expeditions for making this trip possible: http://bit.ly/rodneyfox

Thanks also to Tourism South Australia for facilitating the trip: http://bit.ly/1aq9MgV

Chris Cassella or C² as he is known after this trip was a shark spotter extraordinaire. He also took some of the best shark footage in this video. It was his idea to go on this expedition, which was definitely a once in a lifetime experience, so I am in his debt. Chris, I look forwar...

How Special Relativity Makes Magnets Work

Title: How Special Relativity Makes Magnets Work
Runtime: 4:19
Date posted: 13 years ago
Description: MinutePhysics on permanent magnets: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFAOXdXZ5TM
Subscribe to Veritasium: http://bit.ly/SuBVe
Support Veritasium- get a t-shirt: http://dft.ba/-vetshirt
Subscribe to MinutePhysics: http://bit.ly/1eVPynh

Magnetism seems like a pretty magical phenomenon. Rocks that attract or repel each other at a distance - that's really cool - and electric current in a wire interacts in the same way. What's even more amazing is how it works. We normally think of special relativity as having little bearing on our lives because everything happens at such low speeds that relativistic effects are negligible. But when you consider the large number of charges in a wire and the strength of the electric interaction, you can see that electromagnets function thanks to the special relativistic effect of length contraction. In a frame of reference moving with the charges, there is an electric field that creates a force on the charges. But in the lab fram...

Title: Bullet Block Explained!
Runtime: 9:51
Date posted: 13 years ago
Description: Watch the bullet block experiment first: http://bit.ly/bulletblock
Click for a free audiobook from Audible: http://bit.ly/ZJ5Q6z
An interactive vignette of the bullet block http://ivv.rit.edu/bby/

Can you figure out the spinning disk? http://bit.ly/spinningdisk

Thank you all for the awesome video responses and comments!!

Simulation: http://bit.ly/19SCVnl
Web comic: http://bit.ly/17o8HrR
Wired Blog: http://bit.ly/17o9Dwu
Science Blogs: http://bit.ly/17o9au3
Scientific American: http://bit.ly/19SDoWC
Le's Blog: http://bit.ly/18q1m8a

Video responses from which I borrowed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hup-l4_Qt_U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwZ1Mhy0BS0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgylTbknFdM

Thanks to everyone at RIT and Dickinson College who helped with the making of this video:
Rochester Institute of Technology
Robert Teese, Katelyn Wilkerson, A...

Title: The Bullet Block Experiment
Runtime: 1:52
Date posted: 13 years ago
Description: Higher: http://bit.ly/blockhigher
Same height: http://bit.ly/SameHeight
Lower: http://bit.ly/BlockLower

Special Thanks to:
Henry (MinutePhysics): http://www.youtube.com/minutephysics
Destin (Smarter Every Day): http://www.youtube.com/smartereveryday
Greg and Mitch (ASAP Science): http://youtube.com/asapscience
Elise Andrew (I F***ing Love Science): http://youtube.com/iflscience

Thanks to everyone at RIT and Dickinson College who helped with the making of this video:
Rochester Institute of Technology
Robert Teese, Katelyn Wilkerson, Andrew Gillie, Andrew Stidwill

Dickinson College
This experiment was the brainchild of David Jackson based on a demo at Princeton.
Priscilla Laws, Catrina Hamilton-Drager, Maxine Willis

High-speed camera support:
Charles Zwemer and Bria Antoine

Slow-Mo Non-Newtonian Fluid on a Speaker

Title: Slow-Mo Non-Newtonian Fluid on a Speaker
Runtime: 6:34
Date posted: 13 years ago
Description: Subscribe to Veritasium - it's free! http://bit.ly/YSWpWm
Support Veritasium - get a t-shirt: http://dft.ba/-vetshirt
Happy Geek Week! http://bit.ly/16wdDuk

Everyone has played with a mixture of corn starch and water (or at least I hope they have). This was one of my favorite experiments as a kid. Your hand slides into the slime easily when moving slowly but the mixture behaves as a solid if you hit it quickly. That is what is meant by 'non-Newtonian' - the fluid's properties change depending on its relative motion. These properties can be exploited to dramatic effect as has been shown on speaker cones before. Here I wanted to understand what is going on, what frequencies and amplitudes work best so I used a slow-mo camera.

Thanks to everyone at the YouTube Space LA for helping me film this. I couldn't have done it without you.

Music licensed from http://www.cuesongs.com
Love Lost (Instrumental) by Temper Trap
A Life in the...

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