Category Archives: Science

Mr. Feynman goes to Washington

BBC: The Challenger Disaster. (YouTube, 1.5 hours)

This movie tells the story of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986 and Richard Feynman‘s work in the Rogers Commission.

By the way, you can watch the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident Hearing of February 25, 1986, on YouTube – all 5.5 hours of it. And here is Feynman’s demonstration that the O-rings lose their flexibility in ice water (YouTube, 1:16min).

Kürzlich lief in der ARD eine deutsche Synchronfassung des Films unter dem Titel Challenger – ein Mann kämpft für die Wahrheit. (ARD Mediathe, 1,5 Stunden, verfügbar bis 28.11.2021 05 Uhr)

Along which way does the energy go?

Veritasium: The Big Misconception About Electricity. (YouTube, 14:47min) “The misconception is that electrons carry potential energy around a complete conducting loop, transferring their energy to the load.”

From cubic equations to the Schrödinger equation

Veritasium: This Problem Broke Math (and led to quantum physics). (YouTube, 23:28min) “A general solution to the cubic equation was long considered impossible, until we gave up the requirement that math reflect reality”. The video description contains uselful links to cubic equations and their solutions.

The Hubble Sphere, the Cosmic Event Horizon and the Observable Universe

Physics Girl: These Move Faster than the Speed of Light. (YouTube, 11:52min) “How is it possible for galaxies and objects in space to move away from us faster than the speed of light? Will we ever see those objects?”

The chances are about 1 in 100 billion per year

NPR: A meteorite crashes through a home in Canada, barely missing a woman’s head. “It turns out that the 2.8-pound space rock, about the size of a small cabbage, was part of a meteor shower identified by Alan Hildebrand, a planetary scientist in the Department of Geoscience at the University of Calgary, and his colleagues. The group said the trajectory of the meteorite that hit Hamilton’s house would have made it visible throughout southeastern British Columbia and central and southern Alberta.”

Victoria News: B.C. woman awakes to a hole in her roof and a space rock on her pillow.

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