3 HN users recommended this explainer2 months2025score 2.5
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
HN commenters call it eye-opening and deeper than typical layman explanations, linking it in double-slit and mechanics threads.
A Veritasium video that follows the principle of least action from Bernoulli and Newton to quantum mechanics, asking whether light takes all possible paths at once. It includes experiments showing quantum waves.
“this veritasium video is quite eye opening” (HN, 2025)
I really don’t understand the topic much but this veritasium video is quite eye opening and goes into further depth than any layman explanation I’ve ever seen in the topic: [this video]
Eye-opening, deeper than typical layman explanations
[this video] I had learned about the double slit experiment in school, but in my mind it was something of a theoretical construct. This veritasium video demonstrates, that quantum waves are very real and tangible. This is how physics should be.
Aside: Veritasium had a great video similar to this on the paths that light takes. I'll link to the part where they do the best physics demo I have ever seen : [this video]
There's another Veritasium video that has a neat experiment ostensibly showing light (both lamp and laser sources) "taking all paths" (or words to that effect--I don't really know what I'm seeing or what I'm talking about!) It starts around 25 minutes in. [this video] EDIT: Whoops. The YouTube video linked by naasking in this comment: [link] touches on the Veritasum video I linked to and goes to some length to explain that it is NOT proving the light is taking "all possible paths." He also brings up and links to a video on the "Looking Glass Universe" channel in which the hostess recreates the Vertiasium experiment and gives a differing interpretation. (Some commenters there have objections to the experimental setup. Oh boy, I may be down a rabbit hole here.)
You know about the Ultraviolet catastrophe? Physics Explained Ultraviolet Catastrophe: [link] This Veritassium Video goes back further in time and talks about Action, and the Genesis of this idea. [this video] Chemistorian, The history of Atomic Theory. [link]
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