Astronomy Simplified (#3): Speed of Light Experiment

[kirkelicious]

I like the concept of this experiment. The explanation however is, im sad to say, false. You cant understand the physics without the concept of a standing wave. there is no "entrance" or "exit-point", only areas with high or low energy. These do not necessarily lign up in your chocolate bits. I suggest you redo this one, because i love the essence of showing that physics do concern our everyday life.

[thethief123456]

Doing this for a project in school on physics. Just wondering , do you actually need  36 Ghz microwave? I've seen others that do it with any frequency microwave. They just multiply the wavelength with the frequency. Does the frequency 36 have anything to do with it ? As a microwave always uses light ( EMR ) to heat things, the frequency used shouldn't matter not ?

[Erik24R]

Awesome!!!



[besorgesmir]

Are you Ellen´s little sister? :-(

[mooeypoo]

@besorgesmir ?

[0xVx0]

i love you, this is part of our experiment and i didn't even rlly understand it until you explained it :)

[DevilDocGil]

I love your shirt!!! I am glad I am not the only one who loves Physics. <3 This made my morning.

[thethief123456]

I've seen this done on NGC channel with cheese , maybe a bit easier because of the fact that it's easlier spread out then chocolate , anyway i'm gonna give this a try , thanks!

[Lili0000007]

Im sorry, can I do this with something else but chocolate, i cannot be trusted with a plate full of chocolate...

[BachRiff]

QUESTION: If time itself slows (relatively) the closer we get to the speed of light & light travels at 186,000 Miles Per "Second", how does this affect the distance traveled in relation to time relative to an Observer vs. Someone traveling at or close to the speed of light? In others words, will the time it takes to travel 186K miles be different relative to the observer & person traveling the speed of light???

[Michel0555]

@BachRiff

Because per unit of distance, less time passes for the object which is going near the speed of light, for the object it will be as if he were travelling much faster than the speed of light.

[moranginka]

M'am, you are AMAZING. Thank you, this explained a lot!

[fyocouchnickel]

meg griffin

[E3ZOOBEY]

wow ! thant great

[GuitarShred07]

speed of light is trivial, then what is the speed of dark?

[Oregu7]

@GuitarShred07 absence of light = dark matter

[QueenofAntarctica]

@GuitarShred07 I like the way you think

[Michel0555]

@GuitarShred07

Dark is the absence of light, it is in fact nothingness. Thus, it has no speed.

In the same way, coldness does not exist, it is the absence of heat.

When people say something feels cold it actually means they are losing body warmth to the object they touch.

[Darkbreath1]

wat would be the variables in this experiment such as independent, control, dependent etc. PLZ ANSWER I NEED TO KNOW THIS D= TY LOVE YOUR VID!

[Rofuls]

Scientist discovered the speed of light...Chuck Norris discovered the speed of darkness.

[ncc1707a]

The only problem is that this is not chocolate, real chocolate doesn't melt in a microwave oven cause it is calculated to excite water molecules.

[kurpochelo]

But, you trusted the microwave manufacturers for the frequency being 2.45 GHz.

[savemyplaylist]

@kurpochelo Exactly, why should we trust the frequency of the microwave to be accurate???

[Michel0555]

@kurpochelo

That may be so, but the frequency it has determines that it is a microwave. Any other frequency would make for a diffrent color of light. And being able to melt chocolate with the waves means the waves are microwaves.

[kurpochelo]

@Michel0555 1) Microwaves are invisible, so saying different color of light is nonsesne.

2) Infrared light would melt chocolate as well.

3) Your comment is irrelevant.

[Michel0555]

@kurpochelo By a diffrent color I mean a diffrent frequency, humans can't see it but its just another color of light. We can't hear ultrasone soundwaves but they are still soundwaves.

This device being a microwave obviously means it uses microwaves. And microwaves are a certain frequency. If it were a diffrent frequency it wouldn't be a microwave...

[brunetzica93]

Thanks a lot, I had to make a project about a physics experiment and I had no idea what to write about. Thanks a lot!!! Keep up the good job

[FersotJ]

I only have one bar of chocolate, so how long should i cook it for perfect measurement? I have a 5 year old microwave, if that matters.

[warren91208]

im doing this as a science project

hope thats okay

im only 10 so :) yea

thanks

[RaqseeBismil]

hello,

i like to know a wavelight is given as 5.894X10-7m , so how many nanometers is that?

We know 1nm = 1x10-9 m

please let me know which equation to use for conversion

Thanks

[jonasjacob258]

5.894X10-7m = 589.4 nm, when you want to go from m to nm you have to multiply by a possitif numbre en 1 nm = 1X10-9m so you have to multiply by10^9: 5.894X10-7m X 1X10^9 = 589.4 nm

[Michel0555]

@RaqseeBismil

If the wavelength is 5,89 x 10^-7 then that is 589 nanometers

[zdrastvutye]

this was the speed and wavelength of invisible light. can you build

an arrangement with two rotating clockwheels like it has been done before (m.i.t. physics) to calculate the speed of a bullet----------------------->­>>>>??????

[PA28140]

Then get a long chocolate bar before you do the video....

[juanpjp27]

if YOURE handling the food, and YOURE gonna eat the food, THEN WHY DO YOU WEAR SAFETY GLOVES???? Are you grossed out by yourself? Do you have the cutties??

[MrYekia]

lol she put them on incase she touches the melted choc and so that she doesnt mess her hand...:D

[smarterthanthat]

yes, it's messy. Plus, you'd be surprised how hot and sticky chocolate gets after being heated.

That's not a very nice combination for one's skin.

[TadMoody]

Calm down.

[gregjockca1001]

juanpjp27, she's a crazy. she's got lesbian ocd 'n shit. lol.

[rubikscuber1995]

k light is in the middle of the electro megnetic scale and the faster the frequency the shorter the wavelength and visversa.

[tiio121]

i dont get it

[martinez199327]

are u going to finish those?

[FilmPA]

So ok the thinner/shorter cycle of the peak to peak.. the faster the light.?

[daichi2097]

No, it's the other way around.

As an analogy, compare the distance between peaks to the distance a car travels in a set amount of time. A shorter distance means a lower speed.

[PlanetAmazing]

Awesome! Please make more science videos!

[mullenjam]

God I am stupid. I did not understand this at all.

[KH198]

If speed is energy can it be amplified?

Does gravity effect the speed of light?

What about radiation and magnetic fields, would this create refraction?

Can light ever be constant? and how?

[futureblues26]

gravity affects light, and by proxy the speed of light.

[Isiyac]

Of course gravity affects light. Ever think carefully about what a black hole is? The gravitational force is so great that it bends light. That's why they call it a "black" hole. No light is ever visible in the areas where we find them.

[spike0804]

incorrect..mostly

its not so much gravity accelerating the photons to itself like the earth does to us....its actually mostly the fact the the gravity is so strong at a black hole that space become curved..

basically...a straight line becomes a curved line

[ParapaDrifter]

Isn't the speed of light in a vacuum an average?

I heard when scientists were calculating it they shot 2 lazers down the legs of an vacuum "L" and reflected it back into polarized glass.

Their results were inconsistent so they averaged them.

Others theorize that this was because the speed of light doesn't account for the ambient Zeropoint Energyfield.

They go on to say that you can convert it into useable energy!

Fight Terrorism, DEVELOP Zeropoint Energy and RELEASE THE TESLA PATENTS!

[surgekid06]

your goning to have your brain rot out watching that microwave so closely

[PlanetAmazing]

"your goning to have your brain rot out watching that microwave so closely"

Lulz

[ReeseTora]

Best experiment ever.

I was a little surprised that it would work in a standard microwave, though, because I was given to understand that microwaves enter the chamber at an angle and bounce around until they encounter something that absorbs them, creating a pattern of hot spots. Modern microwaves, too, are designed to cause the hotspots to shift around for more regular heating. Of course, if that microwave came with your apartment, "modern" may not apply. ;)

Thanks for the sciente. :)

[smarterthanthat]

Yeah, it's not perfect at all, and I did have one more trial that failed (my chocolate bar exploded in the microwave... messy.. :P ) but it works, if you put the chocolate in a single-file row. It's not a perfect number, but it's good enough for a home experiment :)

[jazzmaniac00]

you sound a little bit like martha stewart

[onlyguitar1001]

in the microwaves there are nodes and antinodes. the plate rotates in the hope that every area travels through the antinodes.

[fatzhe]

i like your way of description

[khoavuong]

Since microwaves are part of light energy, why does it heat food unevenly in a wave? Visible light doesn't appear as ripples, after all.

[999madcows]

no eating your experiments!

[paleosmoker]

Hey mooey, I just wanted you to know (in case you didn't already) that the Tank Vodcast has picked up on your experiment (this one). The user is riedsa and the episode is "The TANK Vodcast Feb. 29. 2008 - Who is James Randi?" So congratulations on the plug and keep up the great work.

[freethinkerbell]

I must try that. Nice demonstration to show my nephews and Niece. I always wanted to build a machine to measure the light speed the old fashioned way. With a light source a cogwheel and a mirror.

[smarterthanthat]

Yeah, the Fizeau-Foucault experiment is awesome, but.. well.. the distances need to be set in km (otherwise it's not really measurable), so.. I am not sure how that could be done at home. But it's great to read about it, it's a really clever experiment.

[bLaSsSlAyEr]

CLAP!!!

[jergsden]

That was fascinating!  Good job Moo!

[djben1977]

Wow, physics for the rest of us. I understand the whole calculation now because of the way you described it. Thanks.

[GOAQ]

Good stuff poo. .....er that sounds wrong...

[Syncubus]

Fantastic stuff as always, Moo! Keep up the great work!

[AnArticulateTroll]

Pretty neat.

[Katalyzt]

Nicely done... ★★★★★

Katalyzt

[shanedk]

Amazing! I know the Hershey Kisses were all you had, but I'd bet that with a regular chocolate bar you'd get much better results. Basically, your minimum uncertainty was half the distance between the points of the chocolates, so your answer was WELL within that range of uncertainty!

[HowardFair]

Nice T-shirt! I use bikes to teach physics concepts, but it's hard to get one going to to the speed of light!

[gnorville]

That was great! Now I know who I want to be my physics prof!

[mooeypoo]

Remember I said "past experiments"? Apparantly hot chocolate (and relatively cold one too) melts. On your hands... quite noticeably.

[mooeypoo]

The graph shows teh "path" of the wave, not its energy; where it touches the "normal" is the same energy as its peaks in those graphs -- it simply and quite realistically LOOKS like a wave, so wherever it touched the chocolate, it's supposed to be the "Normal" line ('zero' y-axis), but again - that shows *location* not energy.

[kirvesvarsi]

Dear mooeypoo, I seriously suggest rethink the experiment in terms of the more or less complicated 3-dimensional standing-wave pattern that is formed inside the oven. The field oscillates everywhere with the 2.45 GHz frequency, but the amplitude varies (largest at the momentary troughs and crests, zero at the nodes). Remarkably, in certain directions you get the ~12 cm wavelength corresponding to a plane wave (thinking in terms of a 3D Fourier decomposition to plane waves may help).

[kirvesvarsi]

Now consider one wavelength of the sinusoidal wave that expresses the momentary electric field amplitude as a function of a space coordinate (say x). It contains one crest and one trough and a node in-between. In case of a standing wave, the field at the node is always zero, whereas at the trough and crest the field continuously oscillates as a function of time (at 2.45 GHz). Where the amplitude of oscillation is largest, there is most energy avaibale to be absorbed by the molecules in the food.

[kirvesvarsi]

At the nodes, there is no oscillating electric field to heat the molecules. The locations of the trough and the crest are half a wavelength (~6 cm) apart.

Um.. Happy learning;)

[AVoiceFromGermany]

/me stands applauding

[theinquisitor]

Absolutely brilliant.

[riedsa]

Very well done. I mean it. As a teacher of science (in a show for schools)I see you have a talent for teaching and reaching out. 5 Stars

[johnmicstring]

MATH IS FUN! i am going to get my degree in microbiology, but i love math, so i might go back for something fun like physics, W/O THE PRESSURE! ;).

[Killersepp]

Mhh. This is definitely the tastiest experiment I've seen since calculating the refractive index of red wine ;-)

[Killersepp]

Mhh. This is definitely the tasiest experiment I've seen since calculating the refractive index of red wine ;-)

[DblOSmith]

awesome!!! You Rock, woman!!!

[TheBadAstronomer]

Very cool!

[KT45]

I want more!!! great vid!

[julounin]

Nice, fun, educating, and delicious.

[squitmaa]

I wish I had time for more physics. Thanks for the experiment. Hopefully I remember this one when my daughter gets older.

[Prepoceros]

Physics is delicious!

[mooeypoo]

Yeh, and callory-filled.. I had 3 failed experiments I had to.. uhm... "clean"...

:P

[msginca]

That was Cool! I love your channel!

[msginca]

That was cool! I love your channel!

[stony4321]

Very good video. It is more fun then the lectures and *way better* then debunking godmos.

[CousinoMacul]

Great t-shirt!

Of course you cheated a little by using the frequency from the manual rather than measuring it. ;-)

[mooeypoo]

pff, petty.

:P

btw... to check the frequency I'd have to rely on knowing the speed of light in advance, which supposedly i didn't in this experiment, so it was an "either or" experiment. But the reversed can be done to measure frequency when knowing speed -- the equation c=f*wavelength is valid either way :)

Good point though ;)