Loading...Numberphile, a mathematics YouTube channel run by Brady Haran, has over time become incredibly popular with over 1.6 million subscribers and a whopping 193 million views. And while Numberphile has done very well, not many know of one of Brady Haran’s other channels, Sixty Symbols, a channel dedicated to making videos about science, in particular, physics, and more. Sixty Symbols has over 500,000 subscribers, and while that’s certainly not a small number, I can easily see the channel grow to the size of Numberphile in the near future.
Just as with Numberphile, Sixty Symbols’ videos are hosted by a variety of different professors in mathematics, physics, and other sciences. In each video, one of the many professors that have frequented the channel talk about a specific interesting question or topic in their field of study. From black holes to quantum physics, each video is very interesting, the professors explaining the topic in an easy-to-understand and entertaining way, just as with Numberphile. Physics, especially complex physics like General Relativity and more, is a topic that not many people know much about, and that makes the videos all the more valuable.
The video above is an example of one of Sixty Symbols’ great videos, this time hosted Professor Mike Merrifield of the University of Nottingham. In the video Prof. Merrifield talks all about General Relativity, how Einstien’s work has allowed us to understand and predict the stretching and contracting of space and time, and a very interesting paradox created by relativity. It may be hard to comprehend such weird ideas as space and time stretching just by being in different places than someone else, but through the paradox and other explanations the video above may help make that comprehension easier.
All in all, Brady Haran does a fantastic job curating and making Sixty Symbol videos, all of them interesting, entertaining, and usually thought-provoking (as much of physics is naturally). The interviews with the professors are interesting, the animation is very helpful in explaining the content, and altogether the videos are just fun to watch. If you are interested in physics, which everyone should, Sixty Symbols is definitely a channel you should check out. And even if you aren’t, many Sixty Symbols videos can still be enjoyed, because while some of them can be pretty in depth, many are simply about learning more about the world around you, which anyone can appreciate.