Vectors are defined in the video as a very basic idea, anything that has size and direction is a vector, some examples are velocity, where force moves something with mass. Newton's second law F=ma is a description that includes two vectors, force and acceleration, The description of vectors in a static system where forces are balances and pushing against one another is also a great demonstration.
Dark matter is a video that leaves as many questions as if offers answers, but is probably my most favorite video as it discusses something that is extremely interesting and elusive. The fact that 95% of mass is either dark energy or dark matter and only about 4% is "normal" matter (containing everything we know) is a staggering statistic. The fact that everything we know is affected in some way by electromagnetic energy and that dark matter is only very limitedly affected by or affective of electromagnetic energy is also a point I found really interesting. Much of what was said in the video explains why dark matter is so fascinating to people, experts and laymen, as it is present all around and even within us but is almost completely undetectable ad can be detected only by the fact that it has mass and affects gravity.
MRI was a video that I found challenging as the science was not well explained, though the visual imagery is stunning. The pictures of the inside of human brain are fundamentally influential on the way we see ourselves in the modern world and the better the technology gets likely the better the understanding of how we think and really exist. I would like to see the video with better scientific explanations, though...
The speed of light is the same measured by anyone (at least in a vacuum) and only limitedly different under varied situations. It was also interesting to learn that all electromagnetic waves travel at the speed of light. I would have thought there was variations, but it explains how the speed is calculated to 67, 616, 629 miles per hour, as radar waves are bounced of a very distant object and calculated to determine the number.
Uncertainty was the final video I viewed and it was rather difficult to understand. The idea of the proton position in a nucleus of an atom made the most sense but I internalized not a static proton object but one that was moving through time, rapidly. In so doing the width of the wave of light is the error or the uncertainty in the equation, the time it takes for the wave to begin and end and then create a calculation. The laws of probability might have been better explained than they were with the demonstration of the metal balls running down into chambers, which creates the calculation of the uncertainty, or the variability of the movement.
Overall I believe the videos would be most informative if they were viewed in similar content groupings. This might help the material build on ideas that were discussed in earlier videos.
Resources
University of Nottingham. (ND). Sixty Symbols: Videos About the Symbols of Physics and Astronomy. Retrieved September 25, 2010, from…
