MinutePhysics
What is Sea Level
An oblate spheroid is a special case of an ellipsoid where two of the semi-principal axes are the same size.
SciShow
The Electric Light Bulb Was Invented Centuries Before Edison
Thomas Edison often gets credit for the invention of the light bulb, but a good argument can be made that they were around centuries earlier in the form of barometric light.
PBS
Is The Universe Finite?
Every time you walk out the door, light from the Big Bang strikes your face, enters your eyes. This is the cosmic microwave background radiation - the left-over heat-glow from the very early universe. We can’t see this microwave light...
SciShow
What Shape Are Black Holes? Yes.
What shape is the event horizon of a black hole? Well, the answer to that question changes if our universe is hiding an extra dimension (or more). Black holes could come in an infinite number of shapes — including a precisely spinning...
SciShow
Earth's Not-So-Juicy Center
Hank takes us on a journey to center of the Earth to explain both how the solid core formed and why it is so important for life as we know it.
SciShow
Astronomy’s Unsung Hero is a Plain Ol’ Aluminum Ball
In 1965, MIT's Lincoln Laboratory saw their Lincoln Calibration Sphere 1 (LCS-1) launched into Earth orbit. It was an empty aluminum sphere and couldn't do any science of its own. But the world's most boring disco ball has played a huge...
PBS
A Breakthrough in Higher Dimensional Spheres
Higher dimensional spheres, or hyperspheres, are counter-intuitive and almost impossible to visualize. Mathematician Kelsey Houston-Edwards explains higher dimensional spheres and how recent revelations in sphere packing have exposed...
Bozeman Science
Why Are Cells Small?
The lower half of Mr. Andersen's head explains why cells are small. This video begins with a simple geometry problem and ends with a discussion of Allen's Rule and reasoning for the microscopic nature of cells.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Could we harness the power of a black hole? | Fabio Pacucci
Imagine a distant future when humans reach beyond Earth, forge cities on planets thousands of light-years away, and maintain a galactic web of trade and transport. What would it take to make that leap? And where would we get enough...
PBS
The Mathematics of Quantum Computers
What is the math behind quantum computers? And why are quantum computers so amazing? Find out on this episode of Infinite Series.
TED-Ed
The woman who stared at the sun | Alex Gendler
In 1944, amateur astronomer Hisako Koyama's latest endeavor was sketching the sun's shifting surface. She spent weeks angling her telescope towards the sun and tracking every change she saw with drawings. Little did she know, these...
PBS
How to See Black Holes + Kugelblitz Challenge Answer
Quasars, X-ray Binaries and Supermassive voids at the center of our galaxies .... black holes take many forms. In this episode Matt tells us what these different types of black holes are and how scientists are using VLBI, Very Long...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Is there a center of the universe? - Marjee Chmiel and Trevor Owens
It's been a long road to the discovery that Earth is not the center of the Solar System, the Milky Way, or the universe; great thinkers from Aristotle to Bruno have grappled with it for millennia. But if we aren't at the center of the...
TED Talks
Nick Sears: Demo: The Orb
Inventor Nick Sears demos the first generation of the Orb, a rotating persistence-of-vision display that creates glowing 3D images. A short, cool tale of invention.
PBS
Why is the Earth Round and the Milky Way Flat?
Our universe is not a very diverse place when it comes to shapes. Large celestial bodies become spheres, galaxies become discs, and there is little room for variation. Why is this? Well it turns out physics has some pretty strict rules...
SciShow
Why Do Nuclear Bombs Make Mushroom Clouds?
If you've ever put your feet up on a warm summer's day and played "spot the shape in the cloud," you might've seen a kangaroo, a guy preparing to facepalm, maybe a mushroom... On second thought, hopefully not that last one.
TED Talks
Li Wei Tan: The fascinating science of bubbles, from soap to champagne
In this whimsical talk and live demo, scientist Li Wei Tan shares the secrets of bubbles -- from their relentless pursuit of geometric perfection to their applications in medicine and shipping, where designers are creating more efficient...
SciShow
The First-Ever Map of Mars’s Interior
We’ve done a surprising amount of exploration on Mars, from its atmosphere, to its surface, and miles deep into its canyons. But mapping its insides has been a quandary that we hadn’t been able to solve until last week!
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The high-stakes race to make quantum computers work - Chiara Decaroli
Get to know the unique properties of quantum computers and the obstacles that have prevented this theoretical technology from becoming a reality. -- Quantum computers could eventually outstrip the computational limits of classical...
TED Talks
Doris Kearns Goodwin: Lessons from past presidents
Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin talks about what we can learn from American presidents, including Abraham Lincoln and Lyndon Johnson. Then she shares a moving memory of her own father, and of their shared love of baseball.
TED Talks
Eric Berlow: Simplifying complexity
Ecologist Eric Berlow doesn't feel overwhelmed when faced with complex systems. He knows that more information can lead to a better, simpler solution. Illustrating the tips and tricks for breaking down big issues, he distills an...
Be Smart
Why Nature Loves Hexagons (featuring Infinite Series!)
From spirals to spots to fractals, nature is full of interesting patterns. Many of these patterns even resemble geometric shapes. One of the most common? Hexagons. Why do we see this six-sided shape occur so many times in nature? This...