YouTube Physics

Web videos that involve physics are fun to watch. They can be even more engaging with the addition of a few well-crafted questions. Note: sometimes videos on YouTube "disappear". They can usually be found using search.

Add these to your mix of classroom demonstrations and lab activities to thoroughly teach each topic at hand. I developed this resource for use with my own physics students.

YouTube Physics on Teachers Pay Teachers

L E S S O N S

1. DODGE NITRO JUMP

This activity engages students with a practical problem. A motorist is trying to revive his broken-down car. A second motorist offers assistance. When a jump-start is arranged, things take an unexpected turn in the parking lot at Beachs.

Jump Start Dodge Nitro Ad (YouTube v=r1RiysqWBVI)

The Galileo and Einstein Projectile Motion sim can be used to model the motion of the launched car. When air resistance is added to the simulation, things take an unexpected turn once again.

An understanding of algebraic kinematics is required here. Certainly appropriate for AP Physics 1.

2. INERTIA

This activity engages students with a few popular inertia related videos found on YouTube. Video addresses are given in the document. Since such addresses can sometimes go bad, search terms are used as titles. Examples here include "Shopping Cart Fail," "Unloading Bamboo Like a Boss," "Car Bowling Fail," and "BMW Tablecloth Trick XXXL". A Mythbusters video is also employed. Newly added: Fall Leaves 2016. It ends with an optional invitation to seek and watch a hilarious clip from a pair of charming German child actors.

Videos referred to in the lesson:

Shopping Cart Fail (YouTube v=zQ_69hiS2WA)

Unloading Bamboo Like a Boss (v=TtEFvIzo1OE)

Car Bowling Fail (v=Dh3-Z89jvP0)

BMW Tablecloth Trick XXXL (v=cM9S2AzU28)

Mythbusters Tablecloth Chaos (v=lK1ci50DUgc)

Fall Leaves 2016 (v=KYZA3Vxo0wk)

Michel & Sven (v=AEPvSo8bE2I)

3. TAVURVUR ERUPTS!

This activity engages students with a dramatic video that captures the initial moments of a volcanic eruption. An adiabatic expansion cloud appears and disappears, a shock wave shocks observers capturing the video, and huge boulders trace graceful arcs through the air, taking many seconds to eventually crash back into the ocean. 

Mount Tavurvur Volcano Eruption Papua New Guinea 2014 (YouTube v=oMxIlXW56cQ)

Careful analysis of the video and knowledge of physics, and the use of Galileo and Einstein's "Projectile Motion" sim (UVA) allows students to determine the distance to the volcano and the launch speed of those boulders. How safe were the people filming the eruption? 

4. CAR CRASH SAFETY

This activity engages students with Griff Jones' classic, Understanding Car Crashes: It's Basic Physics (YouTube v=2XKOzibVqJg). [Updated in 2020.]

I use this as a review of mechanics. The activity then goes on to have students find the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's rating of vehicles they drive or are passengers in. Or aspire to own. The activity finishes with a pair or head-on collision tests showing that vehicle safety regulations have demonstrable, positive effects on vehicle design. Students are very interested in cars, so they find this activity very engaging.

5. ROLLING IN A RELIANT ROBIN

This activity engages students with an amusing vignette from Britain's Top Gear automobile-themed program. It addresses a considerable design flaw in the three-wheeled Reliant Robin automobile. As is customary on Top Gear, the flaw is highlighted mercilessly, hilariously, and a solution is implemented.

Top Gear Reliant Robin (Wimp - https://www.wimp.com/top-gear-drives-a-reliant-robin-to-find-out-why-it-was-so-popular)

The activity is even more fun when the optional background research is done. Discover the connection between Phil Oakey and the rescue of cocktail bar waitresses, and what a Starsky & Hutch homage should look like, among other things.

6. BACKYARD WATER SLIDE

This activity engages students with a practical problem. A video shows a backyard water slide enthusiast who slides down a formidable incline that bends into a jump. The enthusiast overshoots the intended landing point. Onlookers burst into laughter. Students work through the physics of why things turned out as they did, even if reasonable precautions were taken.

An understanding of rotational kinetic energy in rolling is required here. Appropriate for AP Physics 1.

7. VICTORIA PHYZ FALLS

This activity engages students fairly deeply with a thrill-seeking stunt I performed when I visited Victoria Falls on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe in 2014. Bungee jumping is an activity rich with physics. And this jump, filmed at the Victoria Falls Bridge, does not disappoint. Six pages of analysis interrogate the mechanics of the jump quite thoroughly. Multiple representations are implemented.

The Full Presentation

Victoria Phyz Falls Short (YouTube v=VCxRgrL1Ges)

An understanding of harmonic motion and Hooke's Law is required here. Appropriate for AP Physics 1.

8. COLOR MIXING

This activity engages students with two videos that relate to color mixing.

One from Science Friday shows the amazing camouflage capabilities of cephalopods via biological pixels called chromatophores. 

Where's The Octopus? (YouTube v=aoCzZHcwKxI)

The other from the Royal Institution tells the story of how the brain and the receptors in our eyes "invent" magenta. 

Colour Mixing: The Mystery of Magenta (YouTube v=iPPYGJjKVco)

9. POLARIZED

This activity engages students with a video in which Physics Girl explores the polarization of light in 

"Only Some Humans Can See This Type of Light" (YouTube v=CSu0cV3fqi8).

10. MAGNIFICENT BLUE

This activity engages students with KQED's deep dive into on structural color in 

"Magnificent Blue" (YouTube v=29Ts7CsJDpg).

Question sets are available for individual episodes. The complete series bundle is available at a discounted price. Student documents and answer keys are provided as Google Docs on Google Drive.