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| The Wonders of Electricity and Magnetism |
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SPEAKER:
Walter Lewin
Professor of Physics
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ABOUT THE LECTURE:
The inimitable Walter Lewin gives a literally hair-raising performance in this MIT Museum lecture/demonstration for learners young and old. He unveils the real meaning behind words and things most of us use everyday without reflecting on what marvels they really represent.
Here are some of the mysteries exhibited, explored, and explained in this talk: How can you make two perfectly normal balloons zoom apart from each other? What happens when you connect a 12-volt light bulb to a 110-volt outlet? If you toss a handful of confetti onto a comb, why does some of it stick and some of it fly away? What’s the best way to make sure your flashlight will work the next time you really need it? (If you guessed putting in new batteries, go to the back of the class.)
Lewin is at his electrifying best when working with children from the audience. He gives a 12-year-old girl the worst hair day of her life, and offers a young boy 10 cents for 10 hours of backbreaking labor. But Lewin reaches a new high (low?) when he repeatedly beats one of his young assistants with a swatch of cat fur. Lewin doesn’t exempt himself from the torture, though: he even makes a serious attempt to electrocute himself with a 150,000-volt Van der Graaf generator.
Lewin indulges the armchair physicist who’s mathematically challenged, by covering all the basics of electricity and magnetism while introducing just one equation. If you’re still undecided, check out some of the unique special effects – sparks, flashes, smashes, and more –pinpointed in the Video Index. Keep watching, and you will find out why Walter Lewin was recently honored with MIT’s Everett Moore Baker Memorial Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.
With the addition of this video to MIT World, Lewin has a total of 100 lectures available on line--94 at OpenCourseWare and 6 at MIT World.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Walter H. G. Lewin is well-known at MIT for his lectures on both Newtonian mechanics and electricity and magnetism. Videos of his lectures can be viewed on the web via the Open CourseWare and Pivot links below.
Lewin received his Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics in 1965 at the Technical University of Delft, The Netherlands, and has been a member of the MIT Physics faculty since 1966. During his MIT career, Lewin's investigations in astrophysics have included satellite and high-altitude balloon X-ray observations, world-wide coordinated observations of optical and X-ray bursts, and international collaborations observing X-ray sources. In addition, Lewin has collaborated over the years with various artists on sky art events. From 1998 to 2000, Lewin worked with MIT's Center for Advanced Educational Services on creating the Physics Interactive Video Tutor project -- video help sessions for freshman physics students.
Walter Lewin's home page
Walter Lewin's Course 8.02
on OCW
Lewin 8.03 at OCW
NOTES ON THE VIDEO (Time Index):
Video length is 1:41:56.
At :14, Lewin begins.
At 58:24, Lewin takes a short break and the audience plays with his lab props.
At 1:01:40, Lewin resumes.
Some of Lewin’s special effects demonstrating behaviors of electricity and magnetism are noted below:
At 39:07, Flash, (conservation of electric charge)
At 1:12:22, Smash (current exceeds resistance)
At 1:14:59, Yuck (licking battery to test it)
At 1:23:10, Spark (20,000-volt gap discharge on Kelvin generator)
At 1:27:11, Snap (drawing sparks from the Van der Graaf generator)
The information on this page was accurate as of the day the video was added to MIT World. This video was added to MIT World on 2006-01-15.
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