Radioactivity: The Secret of the Stars
In Radioactivity: The Secret of the Stars, narrator Kate Yule explains how Einstein discovered that nuclear fusion within stars creates energy. Learn how harnessing this energy led to the creation of nuclear power and nuclear weapons. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Einstein & Hawking: Masters of Our Universe, a mind-bending documentary that tells the story of how the two most famous scientists of the 20th Century transformed our understanding of the Universe and changed the world.
Lesson Express
Q: What happens in the hearts of stars?
A: Under pressure, hydrogen nuclei slam into each other, fuse, and create helium nuclei; a small mass is converted to energy.
Q: Why did Einstein write Roosevelt urging him to develop a bomb?
A: Einstein was worried that the Germans had already started a nuclear program.
Q: How many years did it take for the Manhattan Project to create a nuclear weapon?
A: Within three years, the Manhattan Project had created and successfully detonated the first atomic bomb.
More Like This
In Einstein’s Year of Miracles: The Theory of General Relativity, narrator Kate Yule discusses the four papers that Einstein wrote in 1905, a year that is known as the Year of Miracles. One of those papers was on the Theory of Special Relativity. Watch how tennis balls being ejected from a moving truck appear stationary from the ground, but appear to move when observed from the truck. This illustrates how moving objects can appear differently when viewed alongside other moving objects. Learn how this theory can be applied to light to redefine the notion of time. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Einstein & Hawking: Masters of Our Universe, a mind-bending documentary that tells the story of how the two most famous scientists of the 20th Century transformed our understanding of the Universe and changed the world.
In Black Holes and Space-Time: A Fact Stranger Than Fiction, narrator Kate Yule describes Stephen Hawking's greatest work on black holes, where gravitational fields are so strong that nothing can get away, and the denser matter becomes, the more space-time is warped. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Einstein & Hawking: Masters of Our Universe, a mind-bending documentary that tells the story of how the two most famous scientists of the 20th Century transformed our understanding of the Universe and changed the world.
In The Big Bang Theory: An Expanding Universe, narrator Kate Yule explains how Einstein's equations have been used by other scientists to explain the structure and history of the Universe. Hakeem Oluseyi from the Florida Institute of Technology explains how some scientists think the Universe began with a Big Bang and has continued expanding. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Einstein & Hawking: Masters of Our Universe, a mind-bending documentary that tells the story of how the two most famous scientists of the 20th Century transformed our understanding of the Universe and changed the world.
In Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity: An Elegant Equation, narrator Kate Yule explores Einstein’s realization that a key feature of space-time is that it could bend and flex. The Sun changes space-time, which Einstein suggests is the true nature of gravity. Learn how Einstein created an equation to express the curvature of space and time. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Einstein & Hawking: Masters of Our Universe, a mind-bending documentary that tells the story of how the two most famous scientists of the 20th Century transformed our understanding of the Universe and changed the world.
In Einstein’s Year of Miracles: The Theory of General Relativity, narrator Kate Yule discusses the four papers that Einstein wrote in 1905, a year that is known as the Year of Miracles. One of those papers was on the Theory of Special Relativity. Watch how tennis balls being ejected from a moving truck appear stationary from the ground, but appear to move when observed from the truck. This illustrates how moving objects can appear differently when viewed alongside other moving objects. Learn how this theory can be applied to light to redefine the notion of time. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Einstein & Hawking: Masters of Our Universe, a mind-bending documentary that tells the story of how the two most famous scientists of the 20th Century transformed our understanding of the Universe and changed the world.
In Black Holes and Space-Time: A Fact Stranger Than Fiction, narrator Kate Yule describes Stephen Hawking's greatest work on black holes, where gravitational fields are so strong that nothing can get away, and the denser matter becomes, the more space-time is warped. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Einstein & Hawking: Masters of Our Universe, a mind-bending documentary that tells the story of how the two most famous scientists of the 20th Century transformed our understanding of the Universe and changed the world.
In The Big Bang Theory: An Expanding Universe, narrator Kate Yule explains how Einstein's equations have been used by other scientists to explain the structure and history of the Universe. Hakeem Oluseyi from the Florida Institute of Technology explains how some scientists think the Universe began with a Big Bang and has continued expanding. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Einstein & Hawking: Masters of Our Universe, a mind-bending documentary that tells the story of how the two most famous scientists of the 20th Century transformed our understanding of the Universe and changed the world.
In Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity: An Elegant Equation, narrator Kate Yule explores Einstein’s realization that a key feature of space-time is that it could bend and flex. The Sun changes space-time, which Einstein suggests is the true nature of gravity. Learn how Einstein created an equation to express the curvature of space and time. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Einstein & Hawking: Masters of Our Universe, a mind-bending documentary that tells the story of how the two most famous scientists of the 20th Century transformed our understanding of the Universe and changed the world.