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Cool science videos

I like to see scientific principles at work in everyday activities. Here are a few videos that illustrate this. Enjoy the weekend!

Galileo postulated that objects fall at the same speed in a vacuum, regardless of their weight. When we got to the moon, they did this experiment on live TV:

Here’s a bar trick that involves simple density physics:

Another bar trick involves simple dimension estimations:

Handling molten glass is an art and science onto itself. Molding it into shape, whether by blowing into it or by using tools, while it’s still white hot, takes knowledge about materials, temperatures, talent and a lot of hard work. It looks easy in this video, but it isn’t.

The Aardvark is designed to take out land mines. Its action is simple. It rotates chains with attached deadweights at high speed, combing through the ground. When it hits a landmine, they go off. The vehicle is heavily plated, and incurs no damage. It’s really cool to see physics and chemistry in action. Can you spot the different forces at work?

This next video shows what happens when water freezes: it expands. Because in this particular location the water is surrounded by rocks, the extra volume of ice has no place to go but up. It’s an unsettling sight, but it’s just a simple natural phenomenon.

The ferrofluid sculpture you’re about to see made the rounds a while ago. It’s a crowd pleaser, but it works based on magnetic forces. The fluid is filled with iron particles, which are magnetized. Electricity is likely used to create a magnetic field which varies in size and force, allowing the artist or a programmable chip to control the fluid’s movement.

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Cool science videos

Here’s what happens when Alka-Seltzer gets added to a water drop in space:

Want to see an aluminum foil ship float on “nothing”? (It’s not quite nothing, but it’s still pretty cool.)

Asimo, the robot made by Honda, ran at the 2007 CES:

The blind learn to see with their tongue:

Boeing conducted a 777 ultimate wing load test:

Here’s another Boeing 777 test, the maximum rejected takeoff:

I’m an airplane sucker. Here’s a Boeing 777 on final approach in high cross winds:

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A new perspective on the Earth

Last week, I got the following photos sent to me by email, but I don’t know who put them together. But I think you’ll agree they’re interesting enough to share. They are progressive views of our planet, doing side-by-side comparisons of it and other planets and stars, in order to give us an idea of their relative size. We are truly just a speck of dust in the universe!

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How To

Getting back to Archimedes

In 1906, a German scholar discovered some of Archimedes’ long lost works in a medieval prayer book. A 10th century scribe had transcribed them from an even earlier manuscript, but in 1229, the pages were erased and used to make a prayer book. Normally, I haven’t got anything against prayer, but I think a priceless piece of history is worth more than a medieval prayer any time, period.

At any rate, science can now rectify this reckless destruction of knowledge. Using a synchrotron, which accelerates electrons to nearly the speed of light to produce x-rays, and has only a 50-micron wide beam, Stanford physicists can read under the misbegotten prayers to get at the hidden knowledge of the Greek mathematician. Gives a new meaning to reading between the lines!

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Thoughts

Evolution, Creation and Logic

If you’re looking for a cogent comparison of evolution and creation, then watch this video. Dr. Doug Batchelor does a great job of presenting both topics in as fair a light as each deserves.

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