Everyday physics & science demos Videos Recommended on Hacker News (125)
Everyday physics & science demos is one of the 150 topics Hacker News readers organize their video recommendations around. These 125 videos each earned real recommendations in real HN threads between 2009 and 2026 — 341 recommendations in total — and they're ranked by how many separate months the community kept coming back to them, not by view count.
Physics in everyday life: science demonstrations, Steve Mould, Smarter Every Day, slow-motion experiments, optics, sound and acoustics, fluid dynamics, counterintuitive science, citizen experiments.
Why HN keeps sending people here — on AT&T Archives: Similiarities of Wave Behavior (Bonus Edition): “By far the best introduction to the subject of waves of any sort.” — an HN commenter, 2019.
Type
TalkLectureDocumentaryExplainerDemoTutorialInterviewCommentaryComedyMusicPodcastsNews & reportingCoursesFeatures
Evergreen only
15 mo on HNAT&T Archives: Similiarities of Wave Behavior (Bonus Edition)
15 mo on HNHeat Pumps: the Future of Home Heating
8 mo on HNRichard Feynman Fire
8 mo on HNBuilding a realistic artificial sun (for dark winter days)
8 mo on HNBrown; color is weird
6 mo on HNThe Biggest Misconception About Electricity
5 mo on HNWatch electricity hit a fork in the road at half a billion frames per second
6 mo on HNOld-fashioned rice cookers are extremely clever
5 mo on HNFourier Optics used for Optical Pattern Recognition
4 mo on HNHow Trees Bend the Laws of Physics
5 mo on HNBut why would light "slow down"? | Visualizing Feynman's lecture on the refractive index
5 mo on HNTraffic Waves
5 mo on HNWhy You Should Put YOUR MASK On First (My Brain Without Oxygen) - Smarter Every Day 157
4 mo on HNRichard Feynman talks about light
4 mo on HNIntroduction: The Chemical History of a Candle by Michael Faraday (1/6)
4 mo on HNHow an Atomic Clock Really Works: Inside the HP 5061A Cesium Clock
5 mo on HNHow Do Nuclear Submarines Make Oxygen?- Smarter Every Day 251
4 mo on HNBest fan placement to move air through the house
4 mo on HNMost People Don't Know How Bikes Work
4 mo on HNMars Helicopter (before it went to Mars)
4 mo on HNDatacenters Behaving Like Acoustic Weapons
4 mo on HNMystery of Prince Rupert's Drop at 130,000 fps - Smarter Every Day 86
4 mo on HNThe Moon's Orbit is WEIRD
3 mo on HNOK Go - Upside Down & Inside Out
3 mo on HNThe Backwards Brain Bicycle - Smarter Every Day 133
4 mo on HNIs This What Quantum Mechanics Looks Like?
4 mo on HNSingle particle creates interference after double slit - Wave particle duality at the workshop
4 mo on HNThe Future of War, and How It Affects YOU (Multi-Domain Operations) - Smarter Every Day 211
3 mo on HNWhere Do Trees Get Their Mass?
3 mo on HNWhy Machines That Bend Are Better
3 mo on HNThe Incredible Sounds of the Falcon Heavy Launch (BINAURAL AUDIO IMMERSION) - Smarter Every Day 189
3 mo on HNDoug McLean | Common Misconceptions in Aerodynamics
3 mo on HNNeutron movie of coffee making
3 mo on HNWhy Do Reversing Trucks Not Beep Any More?
3 mo on HNFeynman: Mirrors FUN TO IMAGINE 6
3 mo on HNWhy It's Impossible to Tune a Piano
Also discussed on Hacker News (41)
Mentioned in HN threads about everyday physics & science demos, though never formally recommended:
Listening radio with grass · Negative Ion/Anti-5g Products Are Actually RADIOACTIVE · Railroad tank car vacuum implosion · Quantum Levitation · am radio tower power · Filming the Speed of Light at 10 Trillion FPS · Zero Mass Water -BUSTED! · How noisy is a wind farm? · EEVblog #646 - Gravity Detection Using A Frequency Counter! · Controlled Demonstration of a Tank Trailer Vacuum Collapse by Wabash National · Delta P · Synchronization of Metronomes · Waterseer -BUSTED! · Drinking Heavy Water · Alvin Lucier - I Am Sitting in a Room · World's Strongest Magnet! · 20Hz to 20kHz (Human Audio Spectrum) · Microwaving Grapes Makes Plasma · 100 car batteries wired in parallel! · The Glass Age, Part 1: Flexible, Bendable Glass · Superheating of water (Mythbusters) · Bullet vs Prince Rupert's Drop at 150,000 fps - Smarter Every Day 165 · New World Record RC Airplane Speed 548mph · Why all solar panels are secretly LEDs (and all LEDs are secretly solar panels) · chernobyl 2013: radioactive ant bites & 115 mSv/h of pure gamma radiation · New Laser Zaps Mosquitoes in SlowMotion | National Geographic · Shepard Tone · World's Second Best Speakers! · RC KFC bucket aeroplane (magnus effect) · Space Suit Testing · FASTEST RC AIRPLANE IN THE WORLD! Transonic DP -- 545mph!! · Does Hot Water Freeze Faster Than Cold Water? · Airflow across a wing · Tacoma Bridge Collapse: The Wobbliest Bridge in the World? (1940) | British Pathé · Scientists Make Easter Island Statue Walk | National Geographic · Fluorescent Lights under High Voltage Power Lines! · The Greenhouse Gas Demo · The Counterintuitive Physics of Turning a Bike · A laser pointer at 2 billion fps makes the speed of light look... kinda weird · Crazy pool vortex · Spinning Sphere of Molten Sodium