Australian Science week runs August 13-21. Check out scienceweek.gov.au for more details.

A short a cappella tribute to experimentalists. It is sung while performing three simple experiments with household items: Mentos dropped in diet Coke, a tea bag emptied and burned, and a ping pong ball floating in the air stream of a hair dryer.

When the rope becomes taut, the force on the jumper is mainly his weight downwards, plus a bit of air resistance up. Therefore his speed is increasing nearly as much as it did when he leapt off the platform. So this is not the greatest acceleration of the jump.

On a mobile device? Click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-QFAB0gEtE for the answer
Two 1.5kg masses are released simultaneously from the top of a 10m high wall. One is attached to a chain while the other is free. Which one will hit the ground first?

On the rebound, the acceleration varies. The jumper is accelerating up but as the bungy recoils, the jumper starts accelerating down again due to the pull of gravity. This does not mean that he's moving down, however, only that his velocity upwards is decreasing.

Right after leaving the platform, the only significant force acting on the bungy jumper is his weight. This causes him to speed up from rest. His speed increases every second by nearly 10 m/s. This is not the maximum acceleration experienced by a bungy jumper, however.

It's the most abundant liquid on the planet and by weight we are about 60% water. But do we know what it is made of?

I saw my first wild koalas while driving on the great ocean road. Generally their days are not very exciting. They spend most of their time sleeping and the rest of the time eating eucalyptus leaves. The eucalyptus leaves are tough to digest which explains their consumate napping. Plus they require bacteria in their gut to help them break down their food. This bacteria must be passed down from mother to child through the mother's poo. It's a tough start to life for koalas!

Why we can't seem to agree on what's true when it's easier than ever to check.
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This video was filmed at a meetup in Stockholm, Sweden on Dec. 9, 2016. Huge thanks to everyone who attended - I had a great time. Sorry to those of you I missed, especially Lund and Gothenburg.

Thanks to Patreon supporters (but this is a non-paid post):
Meshal Alshammari, Nathan Hansen, Bryan Baker, Donal Botkin, Tony Fadell, Saeed Alghamdi, Ron Neal

Do we need more diversity in online video?
NOTE: the free one-year membership offer has now expired. You can receive a free month trial at: http://vessel.com/science
Watch the MinutePhysics announcement: http://bit.ly/1GbKtTi

Thanks to Whole Foods UCLA for allowing us to film their potatoes and Zach T for filming.

http://www.youtube.com/spacelab gives you an opportunity to design an experiment to be performed in space! If you're between the ages of 14-18, make a 2 minute youtube video proposing an experiment to be performed in zero g. Your video will be assessed by a panel of experts with the winner having their experiment performed in space and broadcast live to the world.

At the jumper's fastest point, the acceleration is by definition zero. That is because the jumper is going from speeding up to slowing down. At this instant then there is no change in the jumper's velocity. This is counter-intuitive for a lot of people because it's easy to confuse velocity with acceleration. Velocity is how fast something goes while acceleration is the rate at which velocity changes.

What happens when a slinky that has been extended under its own weight is released? How does it fall to the ground? Answer link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCMmmEEyOO0

The solution to the question posed in the spinning tube trick video, that is - what would you see if looking at the spinning tube from below a glass table. The explanation of why only the X or O is visible will be the subject of the next video.

If the sun were entirely made of protons, how many would there be in the sun? How can this be worked out using the Google search field?

2011 is the international year of Chemistry. But what do Australians know about it?

Electric cars are now ready to take over thanks to advances in battery technology and their inherent benefits: torque, handling, maintenance. This video was sponsored by BMW: https://www.bmwusa.com/

Full disclosure: I drive an #electric #car. I think electric cars are the future, not mainly because they're better for the environment (which they are if you drive the car for any reasonable length of time) but because they are just better cars. The have better torque and acceleration, better handling, they're more efficient, quieter, they don't smell, they're cheaper to run and best of all you never have to visit a gas station - this appeals to me. I never have to worry about being low on gas because every morning my car is charged and ready to go - just like my phone and laptop. And if you're worried about range, don't. Almost all trips can already be done in an electric car with modest battery pack. And fast chargers along the way make it possible to do longer road trips if necessary. You have to make rest stops anyway, just time them with the charging. And consider that battery tech is getting dramatically cheaper, smaller, lighter. All these reasons are why I see the #future of cars as electric.

Writing & Research
Derek Muller
Jonny Hyman
Matthew Shribman https://ve42.co/sciencebath

Editing, Animation, Audio, & Music:
Jonny Hyman

Camerawork:
Raquel Nuno
Jonny Hyman

1890s Music "National fantasie" by William Paris Chambers, archived in Library of Congress
#BMWUSA #NEXTGen #BMWPartner #ad

Newton's Three Laws of Motion are a landmark achievement in physics. They describe how all objects move. Unfortunately most people do not really understand Newton's Laws because they have pre-existing ideas about the way the world works. This film is about those pre-existing ideas. By recognizing what people are thinking, it becomes easier to describe the correct scientific concepts of Newton's Three Laws and how they differ from this 'intuitive physics'.

As a Canadian-Australian, I have always wondered why it is that Australia has so many venomous animals that can kill you while Canada has virtually none.
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But it's not just Australia - it seems like all beautiful, warm places are cursed with venomous native species. So I set out to find the truth: why have all these venomous species evolved in the world's best holiday destinations?

I asked chemists, visited the zoo, interviewed entomologists and snake experts. The answer I found was complicated:
1. The majority of venomous species are ectotherms, cold-blooded creatures whose internal temperatures are governed by their surroundings.
2. This means they have limited periods of activity - mainly while it's warm out, and can only exert short bursts of energy, so they are generally "sit and wait" predators. This may explain why they, more than mammals or birds, evolved venom.
3. It also explains why there are more of these species in warm climates. There are more of all species in warm climates, but this trend is especially pronounced for ectotherms.
4. So there are a greater number of venomous species in warm places, simply because there are more species in warm places. Cold climates still have venomous creatures, like the rattlesnakes of Canada and European vipers.
5. But history also has a role to play. In Australia, there were no snakes until 20 million years ago when a venomous sea snake from Asia encountered the land, sending venomous species to all corners of the continent. Later non-venomous arrivals have done well in the tropics but not as well in Australia's colder climates, so venomous types still dominate there. Hawaii has no venomous land snakes and nor does Jamaica.
6. The recent ice age also would have driven ectotherms from the northern parts of the Northern Hemisphere. This is why there are no snakes in Ireland, for example.

Special thanks to Prof. Rick Shine, Prof. Dieter Hochuli, Prof. Roger Lowe, Prof. Martyn Poliakoff and Taronga Zoo, especially Joe Haddock and Dean Purcell.

Cinematography by Charles Clement

I'm going to London! And I'm leading a team of YouTubers. For the next few weeks we will all be doing videos themed around the Olympics so I'm tackling the science of sport and science in and around London.

The Team!
HOWRIDICULOUS: http://bit.ly/LtFzpW
APPCHAT: http://bit.ly/NxAMlX
ERIKAANEAR: http://bit.ly/MdyUzQ
MINUTEPHYSICS: http://bit.ly/Muh6CC
EFIT30: http://bit.ly/O4CMme

2VERITASIUM http://youtube.com/2veritasium

Music by Alankeys86 and Kevin McLeod (Incompetech.com)

For the London 2012 Summer Olympics creators from all over the world are taking over YouTube with the most awesome Olympics videos ever. Go to YouTube.com/CreatorHub to see all the amazing gold medal videos.