Comments on: Sixty Symbols

Sixty Symbols

DU — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 06:24:31 -0800

What Periodic Videos did for chemistry, Sixty Symbols is doing for physics and engineering. Some behind the scenes action and general scienciness.

Some of the "symbols" are a little iffy and many are just jumping off points for a cool science demo/discussion, but that doesn't change the high quality of the material.

By: DU

DU — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 06:39:04 -0800

Just realized I shouldn't have used the past tense for Periodic Videos. They are still putting out corrections and new episodes pretty regularly.

By: cardboard

cardboard — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 06:48:29 -0800

It's an interesting idea, though most greek letters have different meanings in different branches. In fluid mechanics for example, nu and mu are used for kinematic and dynamic viscosity, and delta is used for boundary layer thickness. As well, some concepts have more than one symbol (as the website notes for the imaginary number symbol j), Completing a comprehensive list of engimathemascience symbols will be quite an achievement and will need a lot of cross referencing.

By: jedicus

jedicus — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:05:55 -0800

It's not complete, but Wikipedia has a list of letters used in mathematics and science that may serve as a good supplementary resource.

By: Navelgazer

Navelgazer — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:15:40 -0800

God I can't wait to check this out when I'm not at work. Not because I couldn't get away with watching one of them, but because I want to watch ALL of them.

By: EndsOfInvention

EndsOfInvention — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:38:18 -0800

The Periodic Videos are cool and my girlfriend will find them really useful for her science teaching, however the couple of physics videos I sampled would be too dull for the kids I suspect (potassium exploding vs a guy talking about the value of G).

By: DU

DU — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:47:13 -0800

The physics ones include some good stuff too. No explosions yet, but there's a water rocket, chladni plate, a drinking bird and an astronomer dropping a hammer on her foot.

By: backseatpilot

backseatpilot — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:54:46 -0800

Why is the Reynold's Number video unavailable?! WHAT ARE THEY HIDING??

By: fantabulous timewaster

fantabulous timewaster — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 08:47:47 -0800

REYNOLD'S NUMBER: TOO TURBULENT FOR THE INTERNET

By: not_on_display

not_on_display — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:16:38 -0800

I totally wanna snark on this -- just because you're DU -- but this is great. Thanks.

By: DU

DU — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:27:08 -0800

MetaFilter: You can both snark AND enjoy.

By: !Jim

!Jim — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:36:45 -0800

I dunno, I watched the energy one, and it made perfect sense to me, but I have an engineering degree (wow, it feels weird saying that). I feel like if you didn't have any familiarity with the concepts of potential and kinetic energy, and conservation of energy, you would feel like you missed the first half of the video. Also, the guy who teaches it doesn't know to swing, which just isn't right.

By: !Jim

!Jim — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:37:47 -0800

The reynolds number one was pretty good though.

By: Kronos_to_Earth

Kronos_to_Earth — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 19:17:57 -0800

Some of the "symbols " are a little iffy... I think I saw this term in an equation somewhere: =^Δ..^Δ= | =^Δ--^Δ=