Awesome Veritasium

If you zoom in closer and closer on an object, you will eventually see individual atoms. Veritasium explains how technology allows us to achieve just that. But it’s not just a matter of magnification – atoms can’t be seen under visible light. Fortunately, scientists figured out how to manipulate electrons to help us observe these building blocks of the universe.

Veritasium and Rob Scallon take us inside one of the most remarkable musical instruments in the world. Located in Virginia’s Luray Caverns, it makes music by striking ancient limestone with electromechanical mallets. The stalactites reverberate when struck, and electric guitar pickups capture the sounds and feed them to an amplifier.

We’ve been rewatching Breaking Bad and just saw the episode where Walt and Jesse used thermite to break into a chemical company. As you’ll see from this video from Veritasium, the mixture is every bit as reactive as seen in TV and movies. Along the way, you’ll learn about the history of thermite and see some incredibly revealing footage of its fiery behavior.

Veritasium explains how even a moderately skilled hacker can intercept and redirect a phone call or text message. But before that, you need to understand the history of phone networks and the flaws in their call-routing systems. It turns out that many calls are still routed using an antiquated system that dates back to the 1980s.

Can you open an airplane door mid-flight? Do we really need “airplane mode” on our phones? Derek from Veritasium digs into these and other things that people generally don’t understand about airplanes and air travel. We always assumed planes flew so high to avoid turbulence, but it’s actually to reduce drag and save on fuel consumption.

Japanese swordsmiths have been making bladed weapons for centuries. Veritasium offers a scientific explanation of the process, starting with a charcoal smelting method that produces steel from tiny deposits of iron sand collected from riverbeds. After that, a swordsmith forges, folds, and welds different kinds of steel to create a beautiful and sharp blade.

The universe is made up of countless galaxies, planets, stars, and moons. But do you know how those all relate to each other in terms of size? In this man-on-the-street video from Veritasium, he asked people to sort them in order of size. Not everyone got it right, but instead of making fun of their misunderstandings, Derek helps educate his audience.

Do you have to replace your gadgets more often than you think you should? You’re not alone. While some products wear naturally, others have been engineered to last a specified time. Veritasium host Derek Muller digs into the sordid history of planned obsolescence, including how a cartel of companies conspired to make light bulbs last less time.

Bowling has been around in one form or another for roughly 7000 years. Veritasium explores some of the significant technological advancements that the seemingly simple sport has experienced in the last few decades, along with the physics at play in the design of bowling balls, pins, and alleys.

Derek from Veritasium visited the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory to check out the strongest magnet on Earth. With a rating of 45 Tesla, it’s 15 times more powerful than an MRI machine. Along the way, you’ll learn about the strange ways that eddy currents affect objects in such an intense magnetic field.

Geckos can climb up smooth surfaces and even walk upside-down, thanks to the microscopic structures that have evolved on their skin. Derek from Veritasium met with Stanford mechanical engineering professor Mark Cutkosky to learn about synthetic materials he’s developed which can mimic the capabilities of gecko skin.

Could a penny dropped from a skyscraper kill someone? Derek Muller from Veritasium teamed up with Adam Savage to revisit this urban myth by dropping a bucketful of pennies on Muller from a helicopter. After surviving the experiment, he explains how gravity and air resistance affect the terminal velocity of objects.

There are robots out there that can walk on two legs and drones that can fly. But Leonardo can do both, using its rotors to help it balance while walking. It can even skateboard and slackline. Veritasium takes a look at this unusual hybrid robot being developed by engineers at the Aerospace Robotics and Control Lab at Caltech.

A sailboat sailing straight downwind can only match the speed of the wind and never exceed it. But is it possible that a vehicle powered by wind could defy this limitation of physics? Derek from Veritasium risked life and limb to test just that, as he took a ride in an experimental three-wheeler called Blackbird.

If you put a bunch of metronomes on a wobbly platform, they will eventually sync up. But given the nature of the universe to tend toward disorder, why do some things seem to defy this basic law of physics? Veritasium explores the science at work when things work their way into synchronized patterns.

Anyone who watches Futurama knows that robots that bend are the best. Veritasium looks at unconventional robots made from flexible materials, including Zachary Hammond and team’s isoperimetric robot. The advantages of these “soft robots” include their light weight, enhanced safety, and shape-shifting abilities.