Veritasium

A recent survey of scientific literacy in Australia found 30% believe it takes one day for the Earth to go around the sun. This video provides qualitative evidence for the finding from Sydney's Eastern beaches.

There are a few persistent misconceptions about what causes the seasons. Most believe it is the distance between the Earth and sun which varies to give us seasonal temperature variations. However it is actually the directness of the sun's rays leading to more intense sunshine in summer and less in winter.

This is the first Veritasium science video. It addresses one of the most fundamental concepts in science: the idea that all things are made of atoms, tiny particles that are in perpetual motion. They attract each other when a little distance apart and repel when squeezed together.

JJ Thomson proposed the first model of the atom with subatomic structure. He had performed a series of experiments and was credited with the discovery of the first sub-atomic particle, the electron. He therefore proposed a new model of the atom called the plum pudding model. In this model, the plums represent negatively charged electrons which can be plucked out of the atom, leaving behind some positively charged pudding. In this film, cherry tart is used as a delicious substitute for plum pudding.

In the mid 1800's scientists successfully passed an electric current through a vacuum in a glass tube. They saw a glow from the tube that seemed to emanate from the negatively charged plate called the cathode. Since scientists didn't know what the glow was they called it a cathode ray. There was debate over whether the cathode ray was a wave phenomenon like light or a stream of negatively charged particles. JJ Thomson effectively resolved the debate in 1897 by performing a clever experiment that determined the charge to mass ratio of the particles making up the cathode ray. He also showed that this same particle was in all different cathode materials so it must be a constituent common to all atoms. This changed our understanding of the atom from the previous billiard ball model to Thomson's plum pudding model of the atom.

Scientists have to work with some very large and some very small numbers. To represent these numbers more easily, they use scientific notation. Scientific notation relies on powers of 10. This video gives examples of how to represent a large and small number and explains powers of ten.

🎶Well an atom's made of protons, neutrons, and electrons... 🎶

If the sun were entirely made of protons, how many would there be in the sun? How can this be worked out using the Google search field?

A planet has been predicted to orbit the sun with a period of 10,000 years, a mass 5x that of Earth on a highly elliptical and inclined orbit. What evidence supports the existence of such a strange object at the edge of our solar system?

The misconception is that electrons carry potential energy around a complete conducting loop, transferring their energy to the load.

Digital computers have served us well for decades, but the rise of artificial intelligence demands a totally new kind of computer: analog.

To make antivenom, you first need to collect venom from the world’s most deadly snakes. Huge thanks to the Australian Reptile Park for having us over to film – special thanks to Zac Bower for milking all of these snakes for us and Caitlin Vine for organizing the shoot.

One scientist caused two environmental disasters and the deaths of millions. A part of this video is sponsored by Wren.

This video is sponsored by Brilliant.

This is an image of the supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*, at the center of our Milky Way galaxy.

Astronomers think there should be 5 times as much dark matter as ordinary matter – a shadow universe that makes up most of the mass in the universe. But after decades of trying, no experiments have found any trace of dark matter – except one. This video is sponsored by Brilliant.

Adhesives based on gecko skin can hold huge weights – without sticking to anything.

Welcome to Micromouse, the fastest maze-solving competition on Earth.

People don’t understand the scale of the Universe.

How a rainfall simulator saves millions of lives.

The blue LED was supposed to be impossible—until a young engineer proposed a moonshot idea.

How do QR codes work? The checkerboard patterns taking over the world, demystified.