Physics
An assortment of topics from physics
Terence Tao on how we measure the cosmos | Part 1The Cosmic Distance Ladder, how we learned distances in the heavens.Feb 8, 2025
How are holograms possible? | Optics puzzles 5Holograms store 3d scenes on 2d film, here we explore how, with a lesson on diffraction along way.Oct 4, 2024
The barber pole effect | Optics puzzles 1How shining polarized light through sugar water results in colored diagonal stripesSep 1, 2023
Explaining the barber pole effect from origins of light | Optics puzzles, 2How light can be described by a force due to the delayed effect of an accelerating charge, and how it can be used to explain the demo from the previous lesson.Aug 31, 2023
Why light can “slow down”, and why it depends on color | Optics puzzles 3The origins of the index of refraction, and why it depends on colorNov 30, 2023
How light can appear faster than c, why it bends, and other questions | Optics puzzles 4Answering a few viewer questions about the refractive index.Dec 3, 2023
Some light quantum mechanics (with minutephysics)An introduction to the quantum behavior of light, specifically the polarization of light. The emphasis is on how many ideas that seem "quantumly weird" are actually just wave mechanics, applicable in a lot of classical physics.Sep 13, 2017
Feynman's Lost Lecture (ft. 3Blue1Brown)This video recounts a lecture by Richard Feynman giving an elementary demonstration of why planets orbit in ellipses. See the excellent book by Judith and David Goodstein, "Feynman's lost lecture”, for the full story behind this lecture, and a deeper dive into its content.Jul 20, 2018
The Brachistochrone, with Steven StrogatzA classic problem that Johann Bernoulli posed to famous mathematicians of his time, such as Newton, and how Bernoulli found an incredibly clever solution using properties of light.Apr 1, 2016
Snell's law proof using springsA clever mechanical proof of Snell's law.Apr 1, 2016
Why 5/3 is a fundamental constant for turbulenceA look at what turbulence is (in fluid flow), and a result by Kolmogorov regarding the energy cascade of turbulence.Nov 7, 2018