PBS
Secrets of the Cosmic Microwave Background
Hook up an old antenna to your TV and scan between channels. The static buzz you hear is mostly due to the ambient radio produced by our noisy pre-galactic civilization. But around one percent of that buzz is something very different –...
PBS
100 Years of Relativity + Challenge Winners!
The results are in - on this weeks episode of Spacetime we reveal the answer to our Asteroid Challenge, as well as our T-shirt winners! Check out who saved the world!
PBS
Loop Quantum Gravity Explained
The holy grail of physics is to connect our understanding of the tiny scales of atoms and subatomic particles with that of the vast scales of planets, galaxies, and the entire universe. To connect quantum physics with Einstein’s general...
PBS
How Does Gravity Warp the Flow of Time?
There’s a deep connection between gravity and time - gravitational fields seem to slow the pace of time in what we call gravitational time dilation. And today we’ll explore the origin of this effect. And ultimately, we’ll use what we...
PBS
Will Constructor Theory REWRITE Physics?
The people behind the greatest leaps in physics - Einstein, Newton, Heisenberg, all had the uncanny ability to see the fundamentals - see the deepest, underlying facts about the world, and from simple statements about reality they built...
PBS
The Truth About Beauty in Physics
The great physicist Hermann Weyl once said: "My work always tried to unite the true with the beautiful, but when I had to choose one or the other, I usually chose the beautiful." But is this actually good advice for doing physics?
PBS
Does Gravity Require Extra Dimensions?
It’s been 120 years since Henry Cavendish measured the gravitational constant with a pair of lead balls suspended by a wire. The fundamental nature of gravity still eludes our best minds - but those secrets may be revealed by turning...
PBS
How Luminiferous Aether Led to Relativity
As the 19th century came to a close, physicists were feeling pretty satisfied with the state of their science. The great edifice of physical theory seemed complete. A few minor experiments remained to verify everything. Little did those...
PBS
The Strange Universe of Gravitational Lensing
Niels Bohr, a Danish Physicist said “Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded .” Is what we see perceived to be real or is it an illusion? In the world of our mind’s eye, light travels in a straight line. In...
PBS
Does Time Cause Gravity?
We know that gravity must cause clocks to run slow on the basis of logical consistency. And we know that gravity DOES cause clocks to run slow based on many brilliant experiments. But I never explained WHY or HOW gravity causes the flow...
PBS
Will the Universe Expand Forever?
Throughout history, there has been much speculation about what the fate of the universe would be. Many theorized that the universe would eventually succumb to the pull of gravity, and reverse its expansion in what was being called ‘The...
Be Smart
Where On Earth Do You Weigh The Least?
You may have heard that a kilogram of feathers weighs the same as a kilogram of steel, but that all depends on where you weigh them. This video is all about the difference between mass and weight, and how weirdly awesome Earth’s gravity...
Be Smart
The Transcontinental Burrito Hypertunnel (a Very Serious Science Video)
The finest burritos in the world are made in San Francisco’s Mission District. But how can you get a hot & fresh one in New York City in time for lunch? Physics, that’s how. For this very serious and scientific video, we dug a classic...
PBS
The Future of Gravitational Waves
On September 14th, 2015 LIGO announced the first detection of a gravitational wave. This was hailed at the time as the dawn of gravitational wave astronomy. However that’s only true if the we ever detect another gravitational wave. Now...
PBS
Juno to Reveal Jupiter's Violent Past
On July 4th 2016, the Juno spacecraft entered orbit around the planet Jupiter after leaving earth five years ago. The Juno probe will tell us what lies inside the mysterious gas giant and with this information we’ll better understand the...
PBS
What Happens to a Helium Balloon in Freefall?
Hey Everyone! This week’s episode isn’t a full episode, but you should DEFINITELY STILL WATCH because we’re giving t-shirts away to a few of those who can correctly guess the answer to the challenge question. Watch this week’s episode to...
PBS
What's the Most Realistic Artificial Gravity in Sci-Fi?
2001: A Space Odyssey introduced a lot of people to the idea of rotation based artificial gravity, but in sci-fi, it’s far from the only one to implement the idea! Babylon 5, Halo, and Ringworld also used rotation-based artificial...
PBS
What If Our Understanding of Gravity Is Wrong?
What if there is no such thing as dark matter? What if our understanding of gravity is just wrong? New work is taking another shot at that Einstein guy. Let’s see if we’ve finally scored a hit with Modified Newtonian Dynamics aka MOND.
SciShow
Most Planets Don't Orbit Stars!?
Hunting for rogue planets is like hunting for an invisible needle in a haystack. But we're getting a much clearer view thanks to gravitational microlensing surveys. And it looks like there are a LOT more of them out there than we thought.
MinutePhysics
Geosynchronous Orbits are WEIRD
This video is about the physics of geosynchronous and geostationary orbits, why they exist, when they don't, when they're useful for communication/satellite TV, etc.
MinutePhysics
How to Simulate the Universe on your Laptop
One Minute Physics provides an energetic and entertaining view of old and new problems in physics -- all in one minute!
MinutePhysics
General Relativity Explained in 7 Levels of Difficulty
This video covers the General theory of Relativity, developed by Albert Einstein, from basic simple levels (it's gravity, curved space) through to the concepts of how curved spacetime is represented by psuedo-Riemannian manifolds with...
MinutePhysics
3 Simple Ways to Time Travel (& 3 Complicated Ones)
One Minute Physics provides an energetic and entertaining view of old and new problems in physics -- all in one minute!
MinutePhysics
Minute Physics: What is Gravity?
In this episode, we discuss the basic nature of gravity, one of the four fundamental forces in our universe.