Tom Scott
Season 7
A series of educational web videos across a range of topics.
Where to Watch Tom Scott • Season 7
51 Episodes
- The Confusing Borders of Lake Constance
E1The Confusing Borders of Lake ConstanceIf you're sitting on a boat in Lake Constance, are you in three countries at once? Or just in one? Does it even matter? Because strangely, it turns out there are parts of the world where no-one really minds when international borders are not just ignored, but are completely undefined. - The Little-Known Patterns on British Streets
E2The Little-Known Patterns on British StreetsI thought about saying "secret patterns" or "mysterious patterns" in the title, but that'd be a lie: they're just mostly unknown. So let's talk about tactile paving, about design, about accessibility, and about those bumpy bits that you stand on when you're crossing a British street. - Zero-G Experiments on Earth: The Bremen Drop Tower
E3Zero-G Experiments on Earth: The Bremen Drop TowerIn Bremen, Germany, there's a tower more than a hundred metres high: it's called the Fallturm, or the Drop Tower. If you want a cost-effective way to test an experiment in microgravity -- and your project can survive some pretty strong deceleration -- then this might well be a good place for you. - The World Is Slowly Running Out Of Sand
E7The World Is Slowly Running Out Of SandI never thought of sand as a non-renewable resource, but there's only a limited supply: and to make things worse, it keeps getting washed into the sea. At Cape May, New Jersey, the US Army Corps of Engineers have just finished rebuilding a beach: here's why. - One Town, Four Elements: Ytterby
E10One Town, Four Elements: YtterbyYttrium, terbium, erbium and ytterbium were all named after one small town on the Stockholm archipelago. But it could have been different, and there could have been many other names. From a snowy bit of Sweden, and a mine that's a historical landmark, let's talk about discovery, chemists, and a man named Gadolin. - The Disaster That Changed Engineering: The Hyatt Regency Collapse
E12The Disaster That Changed Engineering: The Hyatt Regency CollapseThe Hyatt Regency Hotel collapse was a disaster that changed engineering: it's taught in colleges and universities as a way to make it clear: you check and double-check everything. Something that seems like a subtle change can cause a catastrophic failure if it's not thoroughly checked first. - The Foil That Went To The Moon And Back
E13The Foil That Went To The Moon And BackAmy brings with her one of the greatest props I've ever seen: an actual piece of Kapton foil from Apollo 11. This tiny little sliver of material went around the moon, and helped keep three people safe as they blasted out of our atmosphere and back. Here's why it was there, and why it changed colour. - Why Song Translations Usually Suck
E14Why Song Translations Usually SuckIt's been a long time since I did a linguistics video, but today Alex has stepped in and done a brilliant job. Song translations usually suck: and it's because you either have to lose the meaning or the sound. Let's talk about syllabic vs melisamatic singing, about music, and about Beethoven. - Why This "Zero Calorie Sweetener" Isn't Zero Calories
E15Why This "Zero Calorie Sweetener" Isn't Zero CaloriesSplenda is a "zero-calorie sweetener", at least in the US. Or at least, that's what it says on the packet. With the help of some Benedict's Solution, and his chemistry teacher, Alex is going to do some food science. - Voyager 1's Getting Closer to Earth Right Now
E17Voyager 1's Getting Closer to Earth Right NowThe Voyager 1 space probe is the furthest man-made object from Earth, and the fastest. But right now, it's moving towards us. Relatively speaking. At Mission Control for the Deep Space Network, inside NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, let's talk about why -- and about how to stay in touch with something so small and so far away. - How To Not Break A Mars Rover
E18How To Not Break A Mars RoverThe Mars Yard, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is one of the closest simulations of Mars that we've got. Admittedly, there's a bit more atmosphere and gravity, but it's the only way to test what might happen before sending commands to a rover that's light-minutes away. - Why sci-fi alien planets all look the same
E19Why sci-fi alien planets all look the sameThere's a reason that a lot of planets in American science fiction look the same: they're all filmed in the same places. But why those particular locations? It's about money, about union rules, and about the thirty-mile zone -- or as it's otherwise known, the TMZ. - How The Arecibo Telescope Could Help Save The World
E20How The Arecibo Telescope Could Help Save The WorldThe radio telescope at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico can do something that most radio telescopes can't: it can transmit. And that's useful for something other than sending messages to the stars: it might just help save the world one day. - Why The YouTube Algorithm Will Always Be A Mystery
E21Why The YouTube Algorithm Will Always Be A MysteryThe mysterious YouTube algorithm. It's confused people for years, and will continue to do so. So why isn't YouTube more transparent? It used to be that they wouldn't tell anyone how it works - but now, it's that they can't. Let's talk about deep learning algorithms, neural networks, and search engine optimisation. - The world's most powerful tidal current
E22The world's most powerful tidal currentNear Bodø in Norway, there's the strongest tidal current in the world: Saltstraumen Maelstrom, a constantly-changing rush of whirlpools, boils and vortices. It might not be quite the whirlpools of myth and legend, but it's still an impressive sight to see. - The Runways of Fire That Let WW2 Planes Land In Fog: FIDO
E26The Runways of Fire That Let WW2 Planes Land In Fog: FIDOLanding on a runway surrounded by fire might not sound like a good idea, but it's better than trying to land without modern instruments in thick fog. This was FIDO: "Fog, Intensive, Dispersal Of" (originally "Fog Investigation and Dispersal Operations"), the Royal Air Force's strange but brilliant scheme that saved thousands of air crew lives. Unlike a lot of World War 2 experiments, this one not only worked, but was deployed around the country. It would have been used in peacetime, too, except for one rather big problem: petrol's really expensive. - An elevator that actually goes sideways
E27An elevator that actually goes sidewaysI've filmed a paternoster lift; I've filmed the strange Genoa elevator that sort-of goes sideways. So when I got an email from Thyssenkrupp, an elevator company, saying "come and see our Multi elevator that actually goes sideways", I wasn't going to turn it down. - Why old screens make a high pitched noise
E29Why old screens make a high pitched noiseLast week I made a video surrounded by old-school CRT monitors and televisions - cathode ray tubes. And I completely forgot to remove the high pitched whine they produce. Here's why: why they make that noise, and why I didn't notice it. - Connectome Scanning: Looking at the Brain's Wiring
E31Connectome Scanning: Looking at the Brain's WiringThere's an MRI scanner in Cardiff that can look at how the brain's wired up: your connectome. It's nowhere close to science fiction singularity brain-uploading, but it might well be part of unlocking new medical treatments in the years to come. - FizzBuzz: One Simple Interview Question
E32FizzBuzz: One Simple Interview QuestionThere are a lot of opinions on how to hire coders, and most of them are terrible. The opinions, that is, not the coders. But a basic filter test to make sure someone can do what they say they can: that seems reasonable, and FizzBuzz is one of the more common tests. Even now, interviewers use it. Let's talk about why it's tricky, and how to solve it. - What counts as a mountain?
E33What counts as a mountain?I'm at the top of Mount Evans, more than 14,000 feet - 4.3km - above sea level. This is definitely a mountain: but why doesn't the smaller summit next to it also count? Let's talk about prominence. (Just not for too long, I'm getting low on oxygen.) - The US government will sell you freeze-dried urine
E35The US government will sell you freeze-dried urineThe National Institute of Standards and Technology, NIST, sells Standard Reference Materials, or SRMs for short. They're analysed, quantified, and certified substances: everything from metals, to elements, to food items... to, yes, freeze-dried urine. - A nuclear waste dump you can walk on
E36A nuclear waste dump you can walk onIn Weldon Spring, Missouri, there is a strange, grey, windblasted seven-storey pile of rocks. It's the Weldon Spring Site: a nuclear and toxic waste dump on the site of an old uranium processing factory. And you can walk on it: it's technically a tourist attraction. That was going to be the whole of my video... and then I did some more research. - How Computers Compress Text: Huffman Coding and Huffman Trees
E37How Computers Compress Text: Huffman Coding and Huffman TreesComputers store text (or, at least, English text) as eight bits per character. There are plenty of more efficient ways that could work: so why don't we use them? And how can we fit more text into less space? Let's talk about Huffman coding, Huffman trees, and Will Smith. - The "rotary jail" had a slight problem
E38The "rotary jail" had a slight problemIn Crawfordsville, Indiana, there's a rotary jail: an invention that, with hindsight, should probably never have been built. But it was, here and in other towns across the United States. It might have sounded like a good idea on paper, but in practice, it had a few unfortunate problems... including occasional accidental amputations. - The Story of Salvation Mountain
E43The Story of Salvation MountainNear Slab City, California, a man painted a hill. It was outsider art: Leonard Knight had no training and no great masters to imitate. But somehow, he created something that resonates with the world. This is the story of Salvation Mountain. - Is it dangerous to talk to a camera while driving?
E45Is it dangerous to talk to a camera while driving?I'm visiting the University of Iowa's National Advanced Driving Simulator, to answer a question: how unsafe is it for me to vlog while driving? Is vlogging while driving dangerous? The team at the simulator are the experts to ask. - The German town that's literally cracking apart
E46The German town that's literally cracking apartThe town of Staufen, in the south-west of Germany, has a problem: a drilling operation in 2007 that went very wrong. Half a metre of movement might not sound like much, but in this town, that's enough for the buildings to crack and fall apart. - Batman's village of fools
E48Batman's village of foolsThere's a link from a 13th century legend, to a 16th century insult book, to a 19th century writer, to a 20th century comic book hero. And it starts in a small village near Nottingham, in the time of Robin Hood. Here's why Batman comes from Gotham City. - This is how zero-g flights actually work
E49This is how zero-g flights actually workThe European Space Agency offered me a seat on their zero-g plane: it's an Airbus A310 that flies parabolic maneuvers, pulling up into the sky and then arcing back down, giving its passengers about 20 seconds of weightlessness (or "microgravity") at a time. Here's how it works. - The null hypothesis
E50The null hypothesisWhile I was trying to read a script to a camera in zero-g, the student researchers behind me were trying to prove their own ideas -- or rather, to disprove their "null hypothesis". Let's talk about how science works -- and have a look at one of the teams flying in that plane. - This Video Is 2D And 3D Simultaneously: the Pulfrich Effect
E51This Video Is 2D And 3D Simultaneously: the Pulfrich EffectHold on tight, because with a stabilised camera shot and a pair of sunglasses, you're about to see a video that works in both 2D and 3D at the same time. The technique's called the Pulfrich Effect, and this is how it works.
