Nobel Prize in Physics 2009 - Sixty Symbols

[lovelplants]

wow.. extraordinary explanation about optical fiber in action. very interesting.. even the topic is about the noble prize...

[cd4600]

Hi, great vid, like always, Ițm interested in the two circuits used in the demonstration, any idea where I could get the diagrams? Thanks!

[fritspas]

Prizes should be reserved for contests, where there is a clear set of conditions by witch the input is judged. Such prizes as the Nobel and also the comparable awards in the arts, such as the oscars are not about defining who is best, it's just shoving feathers up each others arses.

[ncfatcyclist]

love it!

[kruelkiller]

I trust you all more than anything but u should have put a hand on the led just to show us the sound stopped! BTW i am gna try that in college tomo!! let me just get my hands on some of that glass tube thingy...hmm...

[kruelkiller]

Is that a LP custom at 3:17 ??



[damianpaz]

Loved the demonstration of how optic fiber works.

[xsni]

:)

[jimo1150]

This is amazing,

Keep uploading as much as your Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line allows you to

[Every1Tubes]

Eagerly awaiting your video on the cabbage diet

[chairde]

I got a letter also.....but it wasn't from the Nobel Prize committee.

[454894894465465]

Can someone explain how to make this circuit?

[puncheex]

@454894894465465: Just google "light to LED modulator". There are kits and simple circuits.

[31428571J]

Excellent - The best demonstration so far. (5:19)

[imperatives21]

immediately recalled Feynman's voice in my head saying "who else is worthy to join this wonderful group that we are" while he was talking about his Nobel Prize and how he bothered with the way it is conducted.

watch?v=f61KMw5zVhg

but also happy that he was right again :)

[temporaldisplacement]

WAIT!! ...so the swirling lights at the bottom of a pool of water isn't the light coming down from above; its the light reflected from the bottom of the pool and then bouncing back again from the underside of the waters surface. '8o

[puncheex]

@temporaldisplacement: Some are, some aren't. The "shimmering pool in the darkness " effect is indirect underwater lighting partially reflecting off the undersurface of the water.

[Freshman000000]

More of a demonstration.

[minus00]

what is that at the end, a crappy opto compressor he made with and LED and a glass tube? way cool.

[jackshay01]

diet pills...yuck

[puncheex]

@Envergure: Strike you off the list of people they send to, and never award you a Nobel.

[drokles]

I wanna try that experiment!

[simba00784]

i just don't understand how a complex unique piece of sound, complete with its own particular timbre, tempo, pitch, distortions, amplitude etc can be transmitted via something as crude as a flashing LED??! Can someone explain how it works? how does so much continuous information (in multiple planes) get transmitted vis a flashing light which is only continuous in one plane. ie on, off and everything in between. someone explain please!

[Freshman000000]

timbre, tempo, pitch, distortions.. are just ways of describing our perception of sound. What you say is multiple planes, since sound is a wave are: velocity, frequency, amplitude and wavelength. Velocity of sound is constant, when velocity is constant, frequency is dependent on wavelength. We are left with two planes; frequency and amplitude. Amplitude is the diode's brightness, frequency is it's speed of change. The amplitude can be changed by the volume.

[simba00784]

ahh ok, how interesting.- so every sound at any given moment can be described by a particular wave. Putting many of these waves together in sequence and we got a sound that we interpret as a complex sound. Since, velocity is constant and wavelength depends on frequency (and vice versa), then we only have frequency and amplitude information which needs to be transmitted. thanks. This also explains how something as simple of string can transmit sound with 2 cups attached to either end

[525047]

Fiber Optics(Internet) and CCD(All imaging period these days) are hands down deserving of this reward. These are technologies through the research of physics that have advanced all of mankind.

[525047]

Quantum Mechanics and String Theory are mathematical systems to describe what we essentially don't understand but can predict. It's just very hard to justify to the committee the beauty of numbers that for all intensive purposes don't have any use for mankind. If you can make a practical quantum computer by scratching on a chalkboard then you'll get a Nobel Prize. Just don't be surprised by industry dominated technologies winning.

[Moriarty2112]

@525047: "...that for all intents and purposes don't have any use for mankind".

Einstein's general and special theories of relativity; Darwin's theory of evolution; the discovery of the structure of DNA; the development of quantum mechanics; the literature of Herta Mueller (this year's Nobel prize-winner for Literature); the discovery of the cosmic microwave background....

All of "no use" to mankind without technological/commercial application...?

Philip Moriarty (speaking @ ~ 3:15)

[puncheex]

@simba00784: Any combination of sound sources are all eventually added up in the ear/microphone) to form a single waveform in time. It contains the entire information content of the sum of the original sources; this is probably best seen on old-style LP records, where the wavering of the needle in the groove plays back the entire symphony orchestra. In digital forms like a CD, the waveform is sampled at some rate (such as 44,000 times per sec) and the raw numbers are stored in a .wav file.

[puncheex]

... Note that some information in the individual sources may be lost in the summation; a trumpet might override a triangle's ting, for example. Distortion might intervene once the sources are summed, and the digitization inevitably leads to loss of very high frequencies (hopefully beyond hearing anyway). There's many a slip twixt the cup and the lip.

[Digeridude]

Light, like sound, has three qualities: frequency, amplitude, and a third quality you might call 'saturation' i.e. how many of the photons/sound waves are reaching the target. Sound may seem complex, but it's really just a wave, much like a radio wave (althought not actually the same). The LED doesn't just turn on and off, it can vary in brightness based on the voltage.

[Grey80002]

Love Sixty Symbols

[Rakyth]

@3:25

I'm interested in atoms and how the universe works, but I don't think I'd ever be happy researching them.

What excites me as much as that, is the prospect of taking that theoretical physics and turning it into something practical.

Kudos for working in that field, though.

[JaksProductions]

what camera do u have?you, the dude who makes the videos for the university plz answer :P

[olympussound]

is that experment real? turning sound in to light and back again. that just sounds crazy. amazing!

[Qtyled]

If you think about it, computer microphones/speakers convert sound into electricity and then back into sound.

In this case sound (the person speaking) --> electric current (via microphone) --> electromagnetic waves (radio tower/amplifier) --> electric current (the radio) --> light --> electric current again --> sound!

[blade9z]

correction CCD allow lights to be capture, not store. :P :D

[joel4692]

actually, 00144 is US Zip (Postal) code for UK. So the question is, why does this bear a US PostNet Barcode when it is supposedly coming from Sweden?

[JerryKitich]

you can do both, Nikola Tesla found deep fundamental knowledge of electricity and built very practical applications

I know there are physicts like Einstein that don't concern themselves with the practical but being able to use something on a practical basis seems to me to reinforce the correctness of the underlying theory

[Moriarty2112]

@JerryKitich: It's worth remembering that Einstein won the Nobel prize not for relativity but for his work on the photoelectric effect. It is the photoelectric effect which underpins the operation of the CCD.

This is one example, of countless many, where fundamental and applied physics "feed" off each other. So, in that sense, I agree with you.

Nevertheless, I'm of the opinion that the words "physics" and "technology" are not synonymous!

Philip Moriarty (speaking at ~ 02:45 in video)

[JerryKitich]

@Moriarity I agree with you I don't think physics means technology either - I was aware of what Einstein won his prize for and I'm also aware the gave the prize money to his first wife and his children

I have read though that Einstein had almost no interest in practical applications

I completely support physics doing fundamental research but it may also be worth remembering that Tesla was lighting up the worlds fair well with AC well before Rutherford's atomic fundamental experiments

[puncheex]

@JerryKitich: How then did Einstein come to patent (along with Leo Szilard) a refrigerator?

This is a bit facetious; it is said that Szilard did most of the work, while Einstein consulted and did the patent paperwork (having some experience at patents, don't you know?).

[Paxmax]

crude but effective demo...

[sirnicholson]

well maybe if you stopped with the theories and got on with the facts they would consider you

[harshm2u]

Sweet! Loved the demonstration.

[pboyski]

we need more physics videos like this! more on technologies please!

[celeph]

Impressive fiber optic demonstration! I meant to ask this last night... the setup looks remarkably simple, much simpler than I imagined the sender and receiver to be. Would you mind sharing a hint/link on how to recreate this experiment?

[puncheex]

@celeph: the ones used in computer applications are similar to these in concept, but there is a lot of tech wrapped up in maintaining high speeds over long distances.

[petercourt]

That's insane. Crazy how light can 'carry' information.

[Keimori12]

we wouldn't be seeing any of this if it couldn't.

[nurikosguardian]

That demonstration at the end was brilliant. I do agree with the decisions for Nobel Prize for Physics, the one for fiber optics is WAY overdue.

[derickhaywood]

@nurikosguardian my favourite internal reflection demostrations are withe water jets and shooting a laser within the light and watching the laser light bend with the water

[LamaPaj]

@nurikosguardian I think you will find that is always the case with the nobel prize :P

Edwin Hubble actually died right before they where to announce him as a winner of it :/

[cookiecamp]

kool

[Bluebuthappy182]

What type of guitar do you play? It's at 2.30. I know this isn't a obvious physics qutestion but i'm interested in the sound waves it produces :-)

[Moriarty2112]

@Bluebuthappy182: It's a really, really cheap (~£100) Les Paul copy! Prof. Bowley and I discuss the physics of waves in the Sixty Symbols video on Fourier analysis.

Best wishes,

Philip Moriarty

[superdau]

@polonium9

Ok. But then a laser pointer would be even more impressing, because you can see the beam because of impurites inside the glass. If you have a laser pointer and a piece of PMMA you can try it yourself.

[workforcetrust]

Impressing from 04:57 on.

[DannyOo]

My School in Germany got the Atlas of creation as well. 10 copies of about 6 kilos of crap. But yea, it has nice pictures.

[imover18gotityube]

The experiment at the end was great :D

[bng44270]

great job, again.

WE LOVE THESE VIDEO'S!!!!

MORE MORE MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(sorry, immature moment)

[DarthEvilicus]

its good to see sixty symbols posting videos again

[sixtysymbols]

@DarthEvilicus: Another 59 on the way!

[jasonguyperson]

@sixtysymbols I really liked this one - thanks for doing these! I know it's a lot of work, but we appreciate it!

[Yony42]

Atlas of creation? 4:26

[sixtysymbols]

@Yony42: Professor Merrifield made a video for us about why this is on his shelf... the video is on our channel called nottinghamscience and titled "Atlas of Creation".

[Yony42]

Thanks!

[clarkcolt45]

he got it for free from some islamist fundamentalists but it had some nice pictures so he kept it ;)

[djdevil360]

LOLz agreed!

[OhYeahMilkIt]

wow! Optical fibre is amazing! didn't expect it to work like that!

[PERSONIFICATIONOFYAY]

I think I'll just plug my hi fi into a socket if you don't mind.

[Infloresence]

Thankyou. Clear, concise and precise.

[loky1992]

I am so proud that Charles Kao from Hong Kong won the Nobel Prize because I come from Hong Kong also!

[solomsolomol]

Thank god you posted a video ! i've been studying high school biology so much that i actually felt my brain shutting down !!

[TickleExpress]

The Cabbage Diet... O_o

[FaintSnow]

Optical fibre is just so amazing.

[thedetective22]

ehhhhhh i got nobel prize in Electrical Engineering

[culwin]

I had 3 but I sold one on Ebay

[NAMLegolas]

Sweeeet! I never knew of such experiment showing how fiber-optics work! Great video!!!

[jesse0192]

I love your channel! I'm no theoretical physicist but this stuff in incredibly interesting; thanks!!!

[superdau]

A torch wouldn't really be working, because you can't modulate incadescent bulbs fast enough. The filament glows and has to heat up and cool down to change brightness, which (I estimate) takes a few tenth of a second. But for voice you would have to be able to switch the light on and off a few hundred times per second. A LED is off instantly (at least when considering the audible frequency range).

[MSI2k]

demo was incredible!! Can we get circuit diagrams of that?

[superdau]

The LED part seems to be a simple transistor amplifier circuit. The receiver would be an current-to-voltage converter using an operational amplifier. These are both very basic circuits. If you know how to read a circuit diagram, you should be able to find many examples online, if you don't get a diagram here.

[RupertsCrystals]

If you've got a radio with enough grunt it'll drive the LED directly.

[TheJapanChannelDcom]

Wow! Intelligent stuff on youtube!!

Refreshing!

But hard to compete with breasts and skateboards!

[1trip711]

Your MAMA!!!!!

Oh ya I forgot: you suck!!

[Chipsonfire]

Very interesting. I love Physics. I wish they did experiments like that fiber optics one at my school.

[Amiryfey]

Do you know why all Nobel Prizes are awarded in Sweden?

[K2Tanner]

Alfred Nobel was from stockholm.

[InfectedDaemon]

Never knew that the Noble prizes where voted on by people around the world before they end up in a committee. Thanks!

[puncheex]

@InfectedDaemon: the awards themselves are not. The nominations are.

[T1carus]

fastinating especialy the ccd part

[archaedemos]

that fiber optic demo was Awesome!

[crimsoncoin]

i was discussing fibre optics with some videographers and this for minuture camera work is ideal and a wonder how we havent used it before so well done the inventors and Bell Labs for ccd, good vid

[sapientiamcarpe]

yeah wow i didn't know that

[whitehiliter]

Wow.