The Mechanical Universe - Season 1
Episode List
E1 - Introduction
Aired: January 01, 1985
This preview introduces revolutionary ideas and heroes from Copernicus to Newton, and links the physics of the heavens and the earth.
E2 - The Law of Falling Bodies
Aired: Unknown
Galileo's imaginative experiments proved that all bodies fall with the same constant acceleration.
E3 - Derivatives
Aired: Unknown
The function of mathematics in physical science and the derivative as a practical tool.
E4 - Inertia
Aired: Unknown
Galileo risks his favored status to answer the questions of the universe with his law of inertia.
E5 - Vectors
Aired: Unknown
Physics must explain not only why and how much, but also where and which way.
E6 - Newton's Laws
Aired: Unknown
Newton lays down the laws of force, mass, and acceleration.
E7 - Integration
Aired: Unknown
Newton and Leibniz arrive at the conclusion that differentiation and integration are inverse processes.
E8 - The Apple and the Moon
Aired: Unknown
The first real steps toward space travel are made as Newton discovers that gravity describes the force between any two particles in the universe.
E9 - Moving in Circles
Aired: Unknown
A look at the Platonic theory of uniform circular motion.
E10 - Fundamental Forces
Aired: Unknown
All physical phenomena of nature are explained by four forces: two nuclear forces, gravity, and electricity.
E11 - Gravity, Electricity, Magnetism
Aired: Unknown
Shedding light on the mathematical form of the gravitational, electric, and magnetic forces.
E12 - The Millikan Experiment
Aired: Unknown
A dramatic recreation of Millikan's classic oil-drop experiment to determine the charge of a single electron.
E13 - Conservation of Energy
Aired: Unknown
According to one of the major laws of physics, energy is neither created nor destroyed.
E14 - Potential Energy
Aired: Unknown
Potential energy provides a powerful model for understanding why the world has worked the same way since the beginning of time.
E15 - Conservation of Momentum
Aired: Unknown
What keeps the universe ticking away until the end of time?
E16 - Harmonic Motion
Aired: Unknown
The music and mathematics of periodic motion.
E17 - Resonance
Aired: Unknown
Why a swaying bridge collapses with a high wind, and why a wine glass shatters with a higher octave.
E18 - Waves
Aired: Unknown
With an analysis of simple harmonic motion and a stroke of genius, Newton extended mechanics to the propagation of sound.
E19 - Angular Momentum
Aired: Unknown
An old momentum with a new twist.
E20 - Torques and Gyroscopes
Aired: Unknown
From spinning tops to the precession of the equinoxes.
E21 - Kepler's Three Laws
Aired: Unknown
The discovery of elliptical orbits helps describe the motion of heavenly bodies with unprecedented accuracy.
E22 - The Kepler Problem
Aired: Unknown
The deduction of Kepler's laws from Newton's universal law of gravitation is one of the crowning achievements of Western thought.
E23 - Energy and Eccentricity
Aired: Unknown
The precise orbit of a heavenly body — a planet, asteroid, or comet — is fixed by the laws of conservation of energy and angular momentum.
E24 - Navigating in Space
Aired: Unknown
Voyages to other planets use the same laws that guide planets around the solar system.
E25 - Kepler to Einstein
Aired: Unknown
From Kepler's laws and the theory of tides, to Einstein's general theory of relativity, into black holes, and beyond.
E26 - Harmony of the Spheres
Aired: Unknown
A last lingering look back at mechanics to see new connections between old discoveries.
E27 - Beyond the Mechanical Universe
Aired: Unknown
The world of electricity and magnetism, and 20th-century discoveries of relativity and quantum mechanics.
E28 - Static Electricity
Aired: Unknown
Eighteenth-century electricians knew how to spark the interest of an audience with the principles of static electricity.
E29 - The Electric Field
Aired: Unknown
Faraday's vision of lines of constant force in space laid the foundation for the modern force field theory.
E30 - Potential and Capacitance
Aired: Unknown
Franklin proposes a successful theory of the Leyden jar and invents the parallel plate capacitor.
E31 - Voltage, Energy, and Force
Aired: Unknown
When is electricity dangerous or benign, spectacular or useful?
E32 - The Electric Battery
Aired: Unknown
Volta invents the electric battery using the internal properties of different metals.
E33 - Electric Circuits
Aired: Unknown
The work of Wheatstone, Ohm, and Kirchhoff leads to the design and analysis of how current flows.
E34 - Magnetism
Aired: Unknown
Gilbert discovered that the earth behaves like a giant magnet. Modern scientists have learned even more.
E35 - The Magnetic Field
Aired: Unknown
The law of Biot and Sarvart, the force between electric currents, and Ampère's law.
E36 - Vector Fields and Hydrodynamics
Aired: Unknown
Force fields have definite properties of their own suitable for scientific study.
E37 - Electromagnetic Induction
Aired: Unknown
The discovery of electromagnetic induction in 1831 creates an important technological breakthrough in the generation of electric power.
E38 - Alternating Current
Aired: Unknown
Electromagnetic induction makes it easy to generate alternating current while transformers make it practical to distribute it over long distances.
E39 - Maxwell's Equations
Aired: Unknown
Maxwell discovers that displacement current produces electromagnetic waves or light.
E40 - Optics
Aired: Unknown
Many properties of light are properties of waves, including reflection, refraction, and diffraction.
E41 - The Michelson-Morley Experiment
Aired: Unknown
In 1887, an exquisitely designed measurement of the earth's motion through the ether results in the most brilliant failure in scientific history.
E42 - The Lorentz Transformation
Aired: Unknown
If the speed of light is to be the same for all observers, then the length of a meter stick, or the rate of a ticking clock, depends on who measures it.
E43 - Velocity and Time
Aired: Unknown
Einstein is motivated to perfect the central ideas of physics, resulting in a new understanding of the meaning of space and time.
E44 - Mass, Momentum, Energy
Aired: Unknown
The new meaning of space and time make it necessary to formulate a new mechanics.
E45 - Temperature and Gas Laws
Aired: Unknown
Hot discoveries about the behavior of gases make the connection between temperature and heat.
E46 - Engine of Nature
Aired: Unknown
The Carnot engine, part one, beginning with simple steam engines.
E47 - Entropy
Aired: Unknown
The Carnot engine, part two, with profound implications for the behavior of matter and the flow of time through the universe.
E48 - Low Temperatures
Aired: Unknown
With the quest for low temperatures came the discovery that all elements can exist in each of the basic states of matter.
E49 - The Atom
Aired: Unknown
A history of the atom, from the ancient Greeks to the early 20th century, and a new challenge for the world of physics.
E50 - Particles and Waves
Aired: Unknown
Evidence that light can sometimes act like a particle leads to quantum mechanics, the new physics.
E51 - From Atoms to Quarks
Aired: Unknown
Electron waves attracted to the nucleus of an atom help account for the periodic table of the elements and ultimately lead to the search for quarks.
E52 - The Quantum Mechanical Universe
Aired: Unknown
A last look at where we've been and a peek into the future.