Is Quantum Tunneling Faster than Light?
Where are you right now? Until you interact with another particle you could be any number of places within a wave of probabilities. Matt dives into these counter-intuitive ideas and explains the bizarre phenomenon known as quantum tunneling in this episode of Space Time
Episodes
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How Much Of The Universe Can Humanity Ever See?
S9 E9 - 16m 49s
There’s an absolute limit to our access to the universe beyond our own galaxy. So we’re going to figure out the absolute limit of our future view of the universe, and of the universe’s ability to influence us.
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What If Black Holes Are Dark Energy?
S9 E8 - 16m 34s
Black holes and dark energy being the same thing has received some recent hype in the press. So let’s see if it might actually be true.
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What’s Your Brain’s Role in Creating Space & Time?
S9 E7 - 16m 28s
Physics is the business of figuring out the structure of the world. So are our brains. But sometimes physics comes to conclusions that are in direct conflict with concepts fundamental to our minds, such as the realness of space and time. How do we tell who’s correct? Are time and space objective realities or human-invented concepts?
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Are Space and Time Real?
S9 E6 - 18m 58s
Physics progresses by breaking our intuitions, but we’re now at a point where further progress may require us to do away with the most intuitive and seemingly fundamental concepts of all—space and time.
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How Does The Nucleus Hold Together?
S9 E5 - 14m 28s
Two protons next to each other in an atomic nucleus are repelling each other electromagnetically with enough force to lift a medium-sized labradoodle off the ground. Release this energy and you have a nuclear explosion. So how does it all hold together? Nuclei are held together by a quirk of nature, without which we would have no complex atoms, no chemistry, and certainly no labradoodles.
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How Does the Earth Really Move Through The Galaxy?
S9 E4 - 16m 29s
Perhaps you’ve seen videos of how the planets of the solar system move through the universe in this cool helix. Not only are these misleading, but the Earth’s real motion - YOUR motion through the universe, is way more complicated and way more interesting.
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What If Alien Life Were Silcon-Based?
S9 E3 - 14m 47s
Life as we know it is carbon-based, but does it have to be this way? There’s another element on the periodic table that shares some of the key properties of carbon but is far more abundant on most planets. I’m talking about silicon. So is there silicon-based life out there?
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What If The Universe Is Math?
S9 E2 - 17m 33s
Quantum phenomena have no subjective qualities and have questionable physicality. They seem to be completely describable by only numbers, and their behavior precisely defined by equations. In a sense, the quantum world is made of math. So does that mean the universe is made of math too? If you believe the Mathematical Universe Hypothesis then yes. And so are you.
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The New Science of Moon Formation
S9 E1 - 15m 32s
Einstein once asked whether “the moon exists only when I look at it?". It was rhetorical objection to the idea that measurement in quantum mechanics causes reality to become real. But there was a time when the moon didn’t exist, and then hours later suddenly did. At least, according to the latest simulations of its formation.
Extras + Features
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Quantum Physics in a Mirror Universe
S5 - 12m 19s
When you look in mirror, and see what you think is a perfect reflection, you might be looking at universe whose laws are fundamentally different.
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