MinutePhysics
Why It's Impossible to Tune a Piano
Pianos can't be perfectly tuned - it's a mathematical fact!
MinutePhysics
How to Turn Sound Into Light - Sonoluminescence
How to Turn Sound Into Light - Sonoluminescence
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why don't "tough" and "dough" rhyme? | Arika Okrent
Spelling reformers have been advocating for changes to make English spelling more intuitive and less irregular. One example of its messiness: take the “g-h” sound from “enough,” the “o” sound from “women” and the “t-i” sound from...
TED Talks
TED: Welcome to the world of audio computers | Jason Rugolo
In an exclusive preview of unreleased technology, designer and inventor Jason Rugolo unveils an entirely new kind of computer you can talk to like a friend. This "audio computer" — which can augment the sounds around you, translate...
SciShow
How to Move a Mountain
Almost 50 million years ago, the biggest landslide in Earth's history occurred in Wyoming. An entire mountain slid 45 kilometers at one-third the speed of sound. But how could this happen when the slope was only 2 degrees?
SciShow
The Surprisingly Useful Physics of Desk Toys
How do Newton's Cradles connect to cancer treatments? Let's unpack the physics of some of our favorite desk toys, from dippy birds to perpetual motion machines, and explore how these scientific principles can be used beyond an office desk.
SciShow
Can a Plug-In Really Improve Your Cat's Behavior?
Have you ever seen cat pheromones, sometimes branded as Feliway, that promise to address problem behaviors like cat scratching, fighting, and stress? These products are based on real science. But do they work?
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How advanced is whale talk? | David Gruber and Shane Gero
Soon after whaling ships began operating in the North Pacific, an interesting trend emerged. Within just a few years, whalers saw a 58% drop in their successful strikes. Sperm whales had suddenly become harder to kill— they had begun...
TED Talks
TED: Photographing nature beyond the limits of human perception | Doris Mitsch
Artist Doris Mitsch invites us to revel in the wonders of nature through her dazzling photography: stacked images of starlings in flight, hawks surfing thermal updrafts, bats echolocating through the night sky and more. Revealing the...
SciShow
Are Space Sounds Lies?
If a tree falls in space, and it's frequency is modulated by multiple octaves and digitized, does it make a sound?
SciShow
Boom Boom Thump: How to Make Quieter Supersonic Planes
Supersonic jets like the Concorde face concerns over safety, high carbon output, and cost. They also make loud sonic booms so loud that only transoceanic flights are legal. Now one NASA program is trying to make a quiet supersonic plane...
SciShow
Eavesdropping On Other Worlds
We usually only get to use our sense of sight in exploring the universe, but that hasn’t prevented scientists from trying to listen in.
SciShow
Hacking the Brain to Treat Tinnitus
Start speaking a new language in 3 weeks with Babbel. Get up to 60% off in your subscription here: https://go.babbel.com/t?bsc=1200m60-y... Tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, often accompanies hearing loss, and usually has no treatment....
PBS
Building Black Holes in a Lab
Black holes are about the worst subjects for direct study in the universe. But at this stage, it’s all we can do to convince ourselves of their existence. Actually studying the physics of real black holes is much, much harder. I mean, we...
PBS
How Are Quasiparticles Different From Particles?
The device you’re watching this video on is best understood by thinking about positive and negative charges moving around a circuit of diodes and transistors. But the only elementary particle actually flowing in the circuit is the...
PBS
How to Communicate Across the Quantum Multiverse
In the Many Worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, the universal wavefunction is the reality, encompassing all possible histories and futures and all exist. But we are only sensitive to a slice of the wavefunction corresponding to...
PBS
Sound Waves from the Beginning of Time
Invisible to the naked eye, our night sky is scattered with the 100s of billions of galaxies the fill the known universe. Like the stars, these galaxies form constellations – hidden patterns that echo the reverberations of matter and...
PBS
When Crocs Thrived in the Seas
While dinosaurs were dominating the land, the metriorhynchids were thriving in the seas. But taking that plunge wasn’t easy because it takes a very special set of traits to fully dedicate yourself to life at sea.
TED Talks
TED: Could an orca give a TED Talk? | Karen Bakker
What if we could hear nature's ultrasonic communication -- and talk back? From a bat's shrill speech to a peacock's infrasound mating call, conservation technology researcher Karen Bakker takes us through a sound bath of animal noises...
TED Talks
TED: How AI art could enhance humanity's collective memory | Refik Anadol
With data as his paintbrush, media artist Refik Anadol trains AI algorithms to visualize the disappearing wonders of nature. He gives a beautiful tour of his recent work -- imagery of artificial coral reefs, flowers, rainforests -- and...
SciShow
The Wildest Noises in Wildlife… and Dunes
Nature can be pretty noisy, but there's some stuff that's just quiet all the time - right? Well, thanks to advances in audio equipment, researchers are finding out that everything from plants to bacteria have a lot more to say that we...
SciShow
What Do Parrots Think They’re Saying?
You ever see a parrot mimicking humans words, and wonder if they really get what they're talking about? They're smarter than they look - there's a lot of meaning in every squawk and chirp that parrots make. Not bad for a bird brain.
SciShow
There's Water on...the Sun?
With an effective surface temperature of roughly 5,500 degrees Celsius, you might think water couldn't survive on the Sun. Well, scientists debated whether or not it was there for nearly a century, and it turns out, it can!
MinuteEarth
When 90dB is LOUDER than 120dB
We often use decibels, a measure of sound pressure, to describe how loud something is - but loudness is caused by how we perceive sounds, and the two often don't line up.