An interesting application of statistical thinking used to estimate the number of tanks Germany was producing during WW2.
Category: video
Spray Paint Planets
One of my students really got into spray-paint art this year, especially planets. By the time she was done she’d completed over two dozen pieces; some on paper, some on wood, some on clear plastic or acetate, and some of which we backlit with LED’s. Her paintings are all over the Makerspace, which generates a lot of interest.
However, now that this student has graduated, we’ve had to find another way to teach the process. I’m using the above video as a quick introduction to the process (note: it starts at 36 seconds because the author uses a single rude word in her preamble).
What are Imaginary Numbers
The first 10 videos in this series explain where the idea of imaginary numbers come from, how the complex plane makes finding roots easier, and how imaginary numbers are needed for closure in algebra.
WW2 in Real Time
TimeGhost is an utterly amazing project. They’re currently going through World War II, week by week, in real time. That is, every week they post a really good summary of what happened in the corresponding week of the war.
They’ve also done WWI in the same way and have ancillary channels about other conflicts, like the Cuban Missile Crisis Day by Day.
Definitely, worth a look.
Machine Learning
A couple videos by CCP Grey that are great introductory explanations about how genetic algorithms (main video) and deep learning work (and how we’re being used to train these algorithms).
Trophic Cascade: The Effect of Wolves on Yellowstone
The reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park resulted in enormous changes to the ecology: more plants and animals as the wolves reduced the deer population and changed the deers’ behavior. The change in vegetation resulted in stabilization of the rivers, so the wolves changed the geomorphology of the park as well.
Tesla To Mars
Elon Musk would like to put his Tesla into Mars orbit. YouTube user ShadowZone shows how it could be done…using Kerbal Space Program. Awesome.
The Physics of GPS
A nice explanation, from the excellent Real Engineering channel, of the physics of GPS that explains how the satellites must adjust for the effects of special and general relativity.