Episode list

Canada's Loonie dollar coin has eleven sides and is just one of a collection of two dimensional shapes that have a constant diameter making them roll very nicely. The shapes don't even need to be based on regular polygons.

Test your prediction. Which way does air flow between a highly inflated and a slightly inflated balloon.

In honor of the 150th anniversary of Alice in Wonderland Steve built and Ames room where he can show Alice growing and shrinking. Will you look at that. It really works.

Steve's object here is to provide an intuitive understanding of entropy. He explains that entropy only changes when there is a difference in temperature so the heat can flow. Which means entropy changes involve the spreading out of energy that was clumped together.

Crystals that lack point symmetry can generate an electric voltage. Let's try it with quartz.

In sexual reproduction organisms exchange genes to maintain a genetically diverse population. But population diversity occurred long before life invented sex. Here's a look at the asexual ways of sharing genes.

On occasion all the oak trees in a region with produce an over abundance of acorns, far more than the local squirrels can eats. This is known as a mast year.

The ins and out of siphons and why some are self starting while other need priming.

Steve creates a two dimensional version of heron's fountain and finds that, despite the apparent complexity, it is a very simple mechanism.

Tensegrity structures use compression and tension to for a stable object that looks like it should fall apart.

Systems of moons orbiting planets and planets orbiting stars often synchronize the timing of their orbits so they complete their orbits in whole number relationships. How weird is that? Steve explains why by applying the magic of vectors to their angular momentum. Then he has a bit more fun with some real resonances from out there in the universe.

Steve was offered a new prototype, Zipstring, of an old toy, String Thing, and he's having loads of fun with the counter intuitive behavior of it. It doesn't move as expected and makes waves that go the wrong way and makes weird shapes when it spins.

Steve demonstrates various ways to cause a pendulum to swing. Some are quite surprising.

Gas pump handles make clever use of physics and engineering to turn off automatically. Steve created some models and cut a pump handle in half to demonstrate.

Steve takes a look at spinning things. Specifically spinning things on spinning things. And ratios. Like a spinning ball on a spinning turntable revolves in seven circles every time the turntable rotates twice. Weirds. But it's also physics.

Despite their three dimensional appearance holograms are two dimensional images. The extra dimension is provided by your eyes and brain. So it should be able to create a 'fake' hologram as Steve demonstrates.

Following up on the Bergman Joe computer simulation of "water" solving a maze, Steve went to the trouble of building some mazes. And his results are different due to surface tension and air pressure. But indeed, water did solve his maze and with no wrong turns.

Intreiged by an incredibly engineer fidget toy, Steve investigates ultra precision engineering..

If you pull on a thread, rope etc. wound around a spool, the spool rolls toward you as you no doubt know event thought it's a bit counter intuitive. But that raises many more questions in Steve's mind.

Steve does his best to explain why (or rather when) it's impossible to hit a golf ball into a hole so you don't have to wade through the math like he did..

Steve explores a hydrodynamic behavior known to engineers as airlock with a flashback to his water maze and a new project building a Wirtz pump. Turns out airlock can be useful but you have to engineer your device taking into account several variables.

Steve builds a rig to measure the force of gravity. Turns out it's hard to measure. But there's a really precise rig at Imperial College London. So Steve gives it a try. It's still hard,,, but it works.

Playing with that everyday element sodium to create a black flame.

Levers get weird as so as you get away from symmetrically balanced weights and ask questions about motion. In that way they're similar to pulleys and inclined planes. What. What?