PBS Spacetime was very different in its early days I guess!
this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2024
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It’s still fantastic. But the tone was different.
They pulled us in with the quirky, and tricked us into learning about space time curvature, spin, Higgs fields and tensors.
The sly dogs.
"Still fantastic," seems to imply that actual science is potentially less important on a science program and hosted on YouTube than some implied pseudo-science about a fantasy video game.
I hate our time line.
It’s not at all. I’m saying it was good then and it is now.
It’s gotten heavier and more technical but that’s because as it goes on you learn and it gets deeper. And yet they still find a way to make it accessible even though they’re obviously still only scratching the surface.
As a counter point via science is really good but tries to avoid the deep math as much as possible while explaining the concepts behind it. All the while it’s been pure science and less of the popular topic as a way to introduce the science.
There's nothing scientific about refuting math. If the math bears out the truth, then it's scientific. Why do people not get that this?
Either I'm misunderstanding your intent or you're saying that "deep" math and science are unrelated or potentially separate.
I'm going to say it again: I hate this time line.
I think you misunderstand.
Here’s an example. It has the math but doesn’t require that you “know” how to work the formulas or equations.
Because he’s doesn’t require that you know the math. He shows it, explains it, and visualizes the concept.
Quantum Mechanics 1b - Birth of the Quantum II
I can’t remember which video it was but in one he explains about how Einstein was shown that the Heisenberg uncertainty principle was related to relativity in a series of letters. At which point Einstein conceded the point.
All this was done showing the equation… and then shifting the pieces around and explaining what they were. Until at the end what was left.. was e=mc^2.
Edit: It was this video but I misremembered. It uses Einsteins equations to prove the uncertainty principle
Quantum Mechanics 3b - Probability and Uncertainty II
My point isn’t that the math isn’t there. It’s just that you’re not dropped into a video with here’s a formula… solve it and you’ll see why XYZ is true. The equations themselves are explained, visualized, etc.
If there’s a concept such as bell curves he shows that without requiring you do the numbers by showing how random motion will lead to certain probabilities over others.
Check this out
Quantum Mechanics 1a - Birth of the Quantum I
And then compare to this next episode in the series
Quantum Mechanics 1b - Birth of the Quantum II
And this later one. Where he gets more and more into the mathematics. But you’re not just thrown into the deepend at the start
pretty sure that its a moon.
This was a really fun take. Even though it's ridiculous, it's fun to entertain theories like this!
I'll throw a wrench in the works for anyone who wants to theorycraft further: Say the rocks floating up aren't caused by gravity at all, but some other force. Maybe extreme winds caused by a massive celestial body approaching the planet's surface could be strong enough to create enough lift to make the rocks float. Kind of like the vortexes and turbulence you'd create in a pool of water by dropping a bowling ball into it. What sort of properties would the moon need to have for this to be the explanation for the floating rocks?
I scrolled past, saw the text, and the reward circuits in my brain went "wait... thats spacetime's font!".
Crazy that this show has been going for 9 years. Video game tie-in's are fun, but it's just so much better now.
Watching the "does the universe create itself" video, shortly after playing The Outer Wilds just... broke me.
Literally mid-watch right now on the latest quantum gravity episode.
Cannot recommend this series enough if you have any science/physics interest