The Science Asylum

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How can the universe be flat, spherical, or hyperbolic? Do we expand with the universe? Why do we look like we're at the center of the universe? These are 3 common questions about cosmology people almost always misunderstand. 20% off the first 200: https://brilliant.org/ScienceAsylum/

Classical physics says the universe is predictable, but quantum mechanics says the universe is inherently random. Which is it? The answer lies in the nature of probability. 20% off the first 72: https://brilliant.org/ScienceAsylum/

In classical physics, gravity is a force that pulls objects toward the center of the Earth. In general relativity, gravity is the result of curved spacetime and geodesics, but what exactly does that mean?

We live in a universe where things like length, distance, and time are all relative and that can lead to strange paradoxes if you're not careful. Thankfully, Einstein's special and general relativity have rules to obey and useful tools like space-time diagrams to help you avoid such problems.

The twins paradox is easily the most famous paradoxes of all time. Using spacetime diagrams and the rules of relativity, we can show the paradox only happens because people are being lazy with special relativity. http://brilliant.org/ScienceAsylum

Light goes so fast that it broke our classical understanding of how speed works. We can fix our understanding with a little relativity and a space-time diagram, but you have to let go of any preconceived notions you might have about motion.

The concept of a space-time seems to suggest both the past and the future already exist and that the freedom of choice is an illusion. However, a deeper look into cause and effect, locality, light cones, and infinitesimals still leaves an opening for freewill.

Truly understanding black holes requires the curved space-time of general relativity.

How does your phone always know exactly where you are? Navigation apps and GPS units use a variety of techniques to find your location and some of it even depends on Einstein's relativity.

Astrophysics says the universe began in a "big bang" billions of years ago, but how do we know that? One of the trickiest things to measure in cosmology is the age of the universe. Check out Brilliant: http://brilliant.org/ScienceAsylum

There are many misconceptions that have developed around quantum mechanics. I'm here to correct them with a discussion of wave functions, probability, and the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.

The concept of "mass" shows up a lot of different places: Newton's Laws of Motion, Inertia, Gravity, Einstein's Relativity, Quantum Mechanics. Is it relativistic mass or just rest mass? These confusions are everywhere. Let's clarify.

Just about every scientific discipline talks about energy. There are many different types: potential, kinetic, thermal, chemical, and even nuclear. It's behavior has consequences that affect the very nature of matter and space-time itself, so what is it exactly?

Black holes aren't just a product of general relativity, but also require quantum mechanics. In this video, we'll take a look at how the Pauli exclusion principle and Heisenberg uncertainty principle apply to black holes. Making a black hole is actually quite difficult.

Black holes are the ultimate trap of the universe, but not because of escape velocity. To understand what's really happening, we need to delve into general relativity, space-time curvature, gravity, and causality.

Inverse square laws show up everywhere from the brightness of electromagnetic waves (light) to the strength of gravitational and electric fields of force. Let's take a historical journey all the way from Kepler to Gauss to see why this is such an important concept.

What is electric charge? What is the electromagnetic field? We can understand both at the same time through Gauss's law! Join us for a visual introduction to electricity.

Magnetism has been a human fascination for thousands of years, but where does it come from? Some of it comes from the motion of charge, called electromagnetism. Some even the spin angular momentum of electrons in quantum mechanics. Let me show you how these are one in the same.

There are many solar system models out there, but I've never seen one to this big before. Let's explore what the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune look like on a scale of 52,800,000 to one. Spoiler Alert: It's huge!

When charge moves, we call it electric current, but the word current is usually reserved for things like water flows. Does electric current really work like that? Electrons are quantum particles, so we have to be careful.