Awesome Learning

AsapSCIENCE looks at one of life’s many imponderables… when you let one rip, is it possible to get out of the way fast enough that you neither hear nor smell it? We all know we can’t run at the speed of sound, but what’s the speed of stench?

Vsauce explains that infinity is not a number but a kind of number, and that some infinities are bigger than others. In fact, it appears you can stack infinities infinitely. Why? Because we say so. Math: the ultimate power trip.

Kursgezagt sums up the risks and benefits of building a space elevator. It presents a myriad of technological and engineering problems, and we can’t afford to screw it up even once. But its resulting cost savings might be too enticing for us to pass up.

While he was hanging out at the pool with The Backyard Scientist, engineer and YouTube celeb Mark Rober conducted a scientific experiment which demonstrates whether it’s better to be underwater or on land to escape a grenade blast. The results might surprise you.

Did you know that Wi-Fi wasn’t originally an acronym but a pun on Hi-Fi? How about the fact that most Americans who are online are browsing Facebook? Or that it’s faster to say World Wide Web than WWW? All those and more in this Mental Floss episode.

It used to be that most airplane wings were straight, but it turns out the design caused instability as flight speeds increased. Real Engineering takes a look at the science behind the swept wing design which is commonplace on today’s planes. Learn more here.

Gold is the most malleable metal, but it still takes a ton of manual labor to turn it into these silky sheets. This documentary by the Japan Science and Technology Agency shows how Japanese craftsmen painstakingly turn gold bars into gold (alloy) leaves.

“In movies, you don’t photograph the reality. You try and photograph the photograph of the reality.” Channel Criswell breaks down Stanley Kubrick’s brand of fillmmaking: expressing dark and high concepts by creating a surreal world where everything is a symbol.

Veritasium breaks down the most requested cosmetic procedure. The melanin in our hair (and skin) protect us by absorbing light. Laser hair removal takes advantage of that by overloading hair with short bursts of heat, enough to damage the cells that produce hair.

Did you know that speedometers in European vehicles usually indicate a speed that’s higher than the actual value? Or that speed bumps result in a lot of deaths because they slow down medical vehicles? All that and more in Today I Found Out’s video.

How to Make Everything takes on South America’s gift to the world: chocolate. They went to Mexico to harvest cacao, then fermented and roasted its beans and more. They also made their own sugar, peanut butter and caramel. More here.

AsapScience imagines what would happen if we all stopped eating meat. Or at least, stopped raising animals for food. In theory, we’d free up a ton of land, save incredible amounts of water and reduce greenhouse gases.

That funky mix of letters and numbers at the end of a YouTube URL is the unique pointer to any of the millions of videos on the site. Tom Scott ponders if and when they’ll run out of video IDs, and the rationale behind the current numbering scheme.

Kurzgesagt looks at the problem that science has created with the very cure that has saved millions of lives. The widespread use of antibiotics is resulting in evolutionary changes that are creating antibiotic resistant “superbugs.”

(PG-13) The first episode of Viceland’s music documentary series Noisey focuses on Kendrick Lamar and Compton, where everyone has the same dreams as the rest of America, but the paths they take are twisted by poverty and violence.

Ewoks, The Light Side of The Force, X-Wings, TIE Fighters. While these are all well-known parts of the Star Wars universe, it turns out that many terms we treat as common knowledge were never mentioned by name on screen.

Why is a rocks glass a rocks glass? And why do foo-foo drinks go in a V-shaped martini glass? Mike Rugnetta of PBS Idea Channel stops by Brooklyn cocktail bar Leyenda to get the skinny on the reasoning behind glassware selection from award winning bartender Ivy Mix.

Vox once again asking the right questions. The infamous Wingdings was never meant to be used as a substitute for letters. Like its predecessor, its characters are meant to be used to decorate a page. Some symbols also stand in for words, i.e. as emoticons.

RocketJump Film School director Clinton Jones defines the core processes that fall under visual effects, including compositing, tracking, 3D modeling, and the dreaded rotoscoping. The video’s description has links to tutorials for each VFX process.

Mehdi Sadaghdar uses the Seek Thermal infrared camera to explain the basics of thermal imaging, and why such consumer-grade versions are still useful even though they’re vastly inferior to professional equipment.

You’re stranded in the woods after eating a poisonous mushroom. A specific type of frog offers the antidote, and you must quickly find the female of the species. TED-ed explores how the math of conditional probability could help maximize our chances of survival.

Earlier this year Caltech astronomers shared mathematical observations that point to a ninth planet orbiting the Sun. Because we’re terrible at visualizing large numbers, Mark Rober made this simplified scale to show just how far Planet 9 is from us and the Sun.

BBC Earth Unplugged turns its macro lens on the house fly to show just how good they are at detecting impending doom, with their omnidirectional vision and fast reaction time. It’s fascinating footage, but we’re pretty sure they could have hit the fly if they tried harder.