Resources by Veritasium

Shadow illusion

This video shows how cards with different shaped holes circle, square, triangle), held to the sun, produce circular points of light, because what is seen is the image of the sun (this is how a pinhole camera works).

Slinky drop

This video shows how a slinky, which is being held at the top with its bottom freely dangling, falls when released.

Students are asked to predict what happens when the slinky is released.  Does the top fall first? Does the bottom fall first? Do both ends fall together or does the centre of the slinky remain...

Sparks from falling water - Kelvin's thunderstorm

Derek Muller explains how the small charge difference between two streams of water can be used to make a spark, and poses the question as to where this energy comes from.  This experiment was originally devised by Lord Kelvin.

Spinning tube trick

This video poses a problem of a spinning tube which has an X and O written on either end.  If the tube is spun from the X end only an X is seen.  Likewise, if the tube is spun from the O end only a O is seen.

A camera is placed underneath a glass table and students asked to predict what would be seen if the...

Spool trick

This video shows how pulling a rope wound around the inner core to the right of a spool creates a torque that must move the spool also to the right.  Whereas doing the same experiment with a toilet roll has the opposite effect.  The roll moves in the opposite direction because the paper is attached to the outside...

States of matter

This video covers the basics of state changes in water. It explains how the distance between molecules and their motion can be used to explain the three states of water (solid, liquid and gas).  

Supercooled water - explained

This video explains how nucleation in impure water helps it to transition from liquid to solid, yet in very pure water this is far harder.  Supercooled water (water cooled below its freezing point, yet still liquid) is made. The bottom of the bottle is hit against a table and ice crystals instantly form.  This is...

The difference between mass and weight

This video explains the relationship between mass and weight.  It then shows how the car’s weight is quite distinct from its inertia (how hard it is to move it in a horizontal plane).

The most amazing thing about trees

This video applies physics to explain how trees can move water up their trunks over 10m, which is the natural limit of sucked water. The ideas of transpiration, osmotic pressure and capillary attraction are considered.  The explanation shows how a negative pressure is be obtained from the intermolecular forces and...

The most radioactive places on earth

This video explains how ionising radiation comes from natural sources, including bananas, which are used as a scale in the video. Derek Muller goes to Hiroshima, a uranium mine, the lab of Marie Curie, the Trinity nuclear bomb test site in New Mexico, in an aeroplane in flight, Chernobyl, and Fukushima.  He also...