Our host Dr. Shini Somara introduces us to the ideas of motion in a straight line. She talks about displacement, acceleration, time, velocity, and the definition of acceleration. Also, how does a physicist discuss speed as opposed to a police officer? And did you deserve that ticket? You can figure it all out with the help of Physics!
I'm sure you've heard of Isaac Newton and maybe of some of his laws. Like, that thing about "equal and opposite reactions" and such. But what do his laws mean? And how do they help us understand the world around us?
Did you know that at a certain point on a moving wheel... there's no motion? I mean, kinda... it's all relative, right? Prepare to have your mind blown in this episode as Shini delves into the world of rotational motion!
In this episode, Shini talks to us about a particular mistake made in engineering the Millennium Bridge which allows us to talk about simple harmonic motion.
Did you know that centrifugal force isn't really a thing? I mean, it's a thing, it's just not real. In fact, physicists call it a "fictitious force." Mind blown yet? To explore this idea further, this week Shini sits down with us to discuss centripetal force, centrifugal force, and a few other bits of physics to help us understand uniform circular motion.
Shini introduces the ideas of vectors and scalars so we can better understand how to figure out motion in 2 dimensions. But what does that have to do with baseball? Or two baseballs?
When you hear the word "work," what is the first thing you think of? Maybe sitting at a desk? Maybe plowing a field? Maybe working out? Work is a word that has a little bit of a different meaning in physics and today, Shini is going to walk us through it. Also, energy and power!
Shini leads us through how integrals can help us figure out things like distance when we have several other essential bits of information. Say, for instance, you wanted to know how far your window was off the ground. You can figure that out by using integrals, a tennis ball, and a stopwatch!
Explore how our understanding of planetary orbits has changed throughout history in this video about Kepler's laws of planetary motion. Animations show the geocentric model of the solar system and the heliocentric model.
This video asks the question: if you placed a camera at a fixed position, took a picture of the sky at the same time every day for an entire year, and overlaid all of the photos on top of each other, what would the sun look like? It makes a ‘figure 8’ pattern, known as the Sun’s analemma.
This video illustrates how Van Gogh's painting "Starry Night" captured turbulence, or the state of movement, fluid and light. Learn about how this relates to concepts in physics and mathematics.
Why is it hard to move a heavy bookcase across a carpeted floor? And why is it easier to keep it moving than it was to get it started moving? You might think it's all about weight, but actually it's about friction. In today's episode, Dr. Shini Somara tells us about Static and Kinetic friction; how they work and how they're different.
Why does wearing a jacket in the cold keep you warmer? What is happening to all the heat inside your body? In this episode, Shini talks about the physics of heat!
Have you ever heard of a perpetual motion machine? In this episode, Shini talks to us about thermodynamics and entropy. Also, we learn about isovolumetric, isobaric, isothermal, and adiabatic processes.
What is torque? In this episode, Shini sits down with us to discuss what torque is, how it works, why it works, and what it all has to do with this thing called "moment of inertia."
In this activity, you relate gravitational force to masses of objects and distance between objects. In addition, you learn about Newton's third law for gravitational forces. You can visualize the gravitational force that two objects exert on each other.
In 2012, scientists at CERN discovered evidence of the Higgs boson, one of two types of fundamental particles and a game-changer in the field of particle physics, proving how particles gain mass. This animated video explains the exciting implications of the Higgs boson.
To help us understand the Higgs boson (a magic particle) and the Higgs Field, this video outlines an analogy of a large dinner party, a loud group of physicists, and Peter Higgs himself.
In the third act of "Swan Lake", the Black Swan pulls off a seemingly endless series of turns, bobbing up and down on one pointed foot and spinning around and around and around ... thirty-two times. How is this move — which is called a fouetté — even possible?
COLLISIONS! A big part of physics is understanding collisions and how they're not all the same. Mass, momentum, and many other things dictate how collisions can be unique. In this episode, Shini sits down to lead us through an understanding of collisions.
How the heck do we map out a planet without oceans? NASA had to figure that out when we sent the Mariner 9 probe to Mars. There's some tricky, yet fascinating science behind all of it! In this episode, Shini talks to us about sea level, kinetic theory, and phase changes.
Try this amazing tool for learning the concepts of motion, forces, electricity, magnetism, light, and so much more. You can bounce and slide your way through the developed levels or get creative and make your own level.
This video is a quick and entertaining look at how space and time exist together. Go to the Think section for nine related activities and Dig Deeper to learn more about the history of this theory.
Try out this activity by moving the boat around the water by changing the magnitude and direction of the boat's speed (blue vector) or the magnitude and direction of the water current (red vector). Try to land the boat on the island without hitting the walls,
What is sound? And how does it travel? And what is this doppler effect that we've heard so much about? In this episode, Shini goes over some of the basics (and some of the not-so-basics) of the Physics of Sound.
Whether you just like to listen or you enjoy playing an instrument, music is powerful. So what is music? How does it work? What are the physics of music? In this episode, Shini talks to us about how music functions in terms of waves and how these waves interact with our ears.
Everything from earthquakes to music! Ropes can tell us a lot about how traveling waves work so, in this episode, Shini uses ropes to talk about how waves carry energy and how different kinds of waves transmit energy differently.
A realistic mass and spring laboratory. Hang masses from springs and adjust the spring stiffness and damping. A chart shows the kinetic, potential, and thermal energy for each spring.
Guitar masters are capable of bending the physics of waves to their wills, plucking melody from inspiration and vibration. But how do guitars translate into rhythm, melody, and music?
