The Mechanical Universe... and Beyond

Video Lectures

Displaying all 56 video lectures.

Lecture 1 Play Video	Introduction This preview introduces revolutionary ideas and heroes from Copernicus to Newton, and links the physics of the heavens and the earth.
Lecture 2 Play Video	The Law of Falling Bodies Galileo's imaginative experiments proved that all bodies fall with the same constant acceleration.
Lecture 3 Play Video	Derivatives The function of mathematics in physical science and the derivative as a practical tool.
Lecture 4 Play Video	Inertia Galileo risks his favored status to answer the questions of the universe with his law of inertia.
Lecture 5 Play Video	Vectors Physics must explain not only why and how much, but also where and which way.
Lecture 6 Play Video	Newton's Laws Newton lays down the laws of force, mass, and acceleration.
Lecture 7 Play Video	Integration Newton and Leibniz arrive at the conclusion that differentiation and integration are inverse processes.
Lecture 8 Play Video	The Apple and the Moon The first real steps toward space travel are made as Newton discovers that gravity describes the force between any two particles in the universe.
Lecture 9 Play Video	Moving in Circles A look at the Platonic theory of uniform circular motion.
Lecture 10 Play Video	Fundamental Forces All physical phenomena of nature are explained by four forces: two nuclear forces, gravity, and electricity.
Lecture 11 Play Video	Gravity, Electricity, Magnetism Shedding light on the mathematical form of the gravitational, electric, and magnetic forces.
Lecture 12 Play Video	The Millikan Experiment A dramatic recreation of Millikan's classic oil-drop experiment to determine the charge of a single electron.
Lecture 13 Play Video	Conservation of Energy According to one of the major laws of physics, energy is neither created nor destroyed.
Lecture 14 Play Video	Potential Energy Potential energy provides a powerful model for understanding why the world has worked the same way since the beginning of time.
Lecture 15 Play Video	Conservation of Momentum What keeps the universe ticking away until the end of time?
Lecture 16 Play Video	Harmonic Motion The music and mathematics of periodic motion.
Lecture 17 Play Video	Resonance Why a swaying bridge collapses with a high wind, and why a wine glass shatters with a higher octave.
Lecture 18 Play Video	Waves With an analysis of simple harmonic motion and a stroke of genius, Newton extended mechanics to the propagation of sound.
Lecture 19 Play Video	Angular Momentum An old momentum with a new twist.
Lecture 20 Play Video	Torques and Gyroscopes From spinning tops to the precession of the equinoxes.
Lecture 21 Play Video	Kepler's Three Laws The discovery of elliptical orbits helps describe the motion of heavenly bodies with unprecedented accuracy.
Lecture 22 Play Video	The Kepler Problem The deduction of Kepler's laws from Newton's universal law of gravitation is one of the crowning achievements of Western thought.
Lecture 23 Play Video	Energy and Eccentricity The precise orbit of a heavenly body — a planet, asteroid, or comet — is fixed by the laws of conservation of energy and angular momentum.
Lecture 24 Play Video	Navigating in Space Voyages to other planets use the same laws that guide planets around the solar system.
Lecture 25 Play Video	Kepler to Einstein From Kepler's laws and the theory of tides, to Einstein's general theory of relativity, into black holes, and beyond.
Lecture 26 Play Video	Harmony of the Spheres A last lingering look back at mechanics to see new connections between old discoveries.
Lecture 27 Play Video	Beyond the Mechanical Universe The world of electricity and magnetism, and 20th-century discoveries of relativity and quantum mechanics.
Lecture 28 Play Video	Static Electricity Eighteenth-century electricians knew how to spark the interest of an audience with the principles of static electricity.
Lecture 29 Play Video	The Electric Field Faraday's vision of lines of constant force in space laid the foundation for the modern force field theory.
Lecture 30 Play Video	Potential and Capacitance Franklin proposes a successful theory of the Leyden jar and invents the parallel plate capacitor.
Lecture 31 Play Video	Voltage, Energy and Force When is electricity dangerous or benign, spectacular or useful?
Lecture 32 Play Video	The Electric Battery Volta invents the electric battery using the internal properties of different metals.
Lecture 33 Play Video	Electric Circuits The work of Wheatstone, Ohm, and Kirchhoff leads to the design and analysis of how current flows.
Lecture 34 Play Video	Magnetism Gilbert discovered that the earth behaves like a giant magnet. Modern scientists have learned even more.
Lecture 35 Play Video	The Magnetic Field The law of Biot and Sarvart, the force between electric currents, and Ampère's law.
Lecture 36 Play Video	Vector Fields and Hydrodynamics Force fields have definite properties of their own suitable for scientific study.
Lecture 37 Play Video	Electromagnetic Induction The discovery of electromagnetic induction in 1831 creates an important technological breakthrough in the generation of electric power.
Lecture 38 Play Video	Alternating Current Electromagnetic induction makes it easy to generate alternating current while transformers make it practical to distribute it over long distances.
Lecture 39 Play Video	Maxwell's Equations Maxwell discovers that displacement current produces electromagnetic waves or light.
Lecture 40 Play Video	Optics Many properties of light are properties of waves, including reflection, refraction, and diffraction.
Lecture 41 Play Video	The Michelson-Morley Experiment In 1887, an exquisitely designed measurement of the earth's motion through the ether results in the most brilliant failure in scientific history.
Lecture 42 Play Video	The Lorentz Transformation If the speed of light is to be the same for all observers, then the length of a meter stick, or the rate of a ticking clock, depends on who measures it.
Lecture 43 Play Video	Velocity and Time Einstein is motivated to perfect the central ideas of physics, resulting in a new understanding of the meaning of space and time.
Lecture 44 Play Video	Mass, Momentum, Energy The new meaning of space and time make it necessary to formulate a new mechanics.
Lecture 45 Play Video	Temperature and Gas Laws Hot discoveries about the behavior of gases make the connection between temperature and heat.
Lecture 46 Play Video	Engine of Nature The Carnot engine, part one, beginning with simple steam engines.
Lecture 47 Play Video	Entropy The Carnot engine, part two, with profound implications for the behavior of matter and the flow of time through the universe.
Lecture 48 Play Video	Low Temperatures With the quest for low temperatures came the discovery that all elements can exist in each of the basic states of matter.
Lecture 49 Play Video	The Atom A history of the atom, from the ancient Greeks to the early 20th century, and a new challenge for the world of physics.
Lecture 50 Play Video	Particles and Waves Evidence that light can sometimes act like a particle leads to quantum mechanics, the new physics.
Lecture 51 Play Video	From Atoms to Quarks Electron waves attracted to the nucleus of an atom help account for the periodic table of the elements and ultimately lead to the search for quarks.
Lecture 52 Play Video	The Quantum Mechanical Universe A last look at where we've been and a peek into the future.
Lecture 53 Play Video	Siggraph 1984 - Mechanical Universe Demo A short demonstration video of the computer animations for "The Mechanical Universe," produced by Jim Blinn for the 1984 Special Interest Group on Graphics (Siggraph) of the Association for Computing Machinery conference. Visit http://JimBlinn.com for more details.
Lecture 54 Play Video	Siggraph 1985 - Mechanical Universe Demo
Lecture 55 Play Video	Siggraph 1986 - Mechanical Universe Demo
Lecture 56 Play Video	Siggraph 1987 - Mechanical Universe Demo

Subject:	Physics
Topic:	General Physics
Views:	66,156

Name:	Annenberg Learner (Annenberg)
Type:	Organization

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The Mechanical Universe... and Beyond

Video Lectures