Today, I discovered a new YouTube channel that is absolutely amazing!
Check out 3Blue1Brown, developed by Grant Sanderson.
It features discussions about mathematical topics and uses visual animations to bring the material to life. Sometimes, math is difficult to grasp. By adding visual animations, Sanderson helps us understand what’s really happening.
Consider his discussion of Feynman’s Lost Lecture. While I could follow the logic by reading the excellent book, it’s so cool to see the animations that help us visualize the concepts.
In the “lost lecture”, Feynman shows why planets move in elliptical orbits. While no advanced math is needed to understand his reasoning, it’s not particularly easy to follow. The details are tricky.
This is where Sanderson’s animations shine! We see how to picture velocity vectors in a useful way. We see how circles and ellipses can be constructed. We see what Kepler’s laws imply, and we see how this is related to Newton’s law of universal gravity. We see how the individual steps of reasoning lead to the conclusion that planets move in elliptical orbits.
This is extraordinary. Seriously, just watch it!
I love discovering cool stuff that people have created.
Now, I look forward to watching more of Sanderson’s videos!
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