I'll answer FAQs here. Also, to try everything Brilliant has to offer-free-for a full 30 days, visit brilliant.org/FloatHeadPhysics . You’ll also get 20% off an annual premium subscription. 1) Shouldn't Half life of Radium 226 be 1600 years? Yes, I goofed up. Sorry! 2) If Radon 222 is more 'stable' than Radium 226, why does it have a much smaller half life? Again, I should have been more clear here. Radon 222 has a higher specific binding energy compared to radium 226, that’s why the decay is favoured. But again, I should have been more careful with conflating ‘specific binding energy’ with ‘stability’. Especially with radioactive elements. 3) Shouldn’t the bottom of the energy well be ‘above’ U = 0 line? No, since nuclear force is attractive, the potential energy of the system must be lower than when they are far apart. 4) But why throw out an alpha particle? Because it has much higher specific binding energy yielding a high energy release compared to say just spitting out individual protons and neutrons. Okay, why not spit out an oxygen 16 for example? Well, the barrier width and height increases substantially making the tunneling probability insanely small. Helium is… just right 😅
Sir how do we get this tunuling energy, is it energy of particles of the nucleus at ground state. Why the probability of a particle being outside the nucleus inc as tunuling energy inc
20:10 Doesnt Sun compensate with lack of energy by extreme pressure? I mean there is so much material above that it is pushing protons towards each other. That's what we were taught in school. Second, why does radioactive decay happens in terms of half life? Say if you have a 1 kg Radium, in 1600 years 500 g would decay, in next 1600 years, half of remaining 500g which is 250 g would decay. If probabilities were adding up like this, shouldnt they add upto 100 pc in 3200 years?
Just started watching your channel. I am 73 so back in my school days there was no teaching about quantum mechanics. I have been watching videos to try to learn about it. Went back to school in the mid 80's for electronics and there was talk about leakage current in solid state device junctions due to quantum tunneling. After your radioactive half life video I now have a good idea of what causes it. Thank you for the smile on my face!
What's fun about the quantum tunneling problem in electronics is that we have actually been able to turn it into an advantage for certain applications- such as in modern SSDs, which actually use quantum tunneling in what's called "charge trap flash memory". It is some absolutely incredible technology, I highly recommend learning about it.
Feynman was a brilliant teacher and had a way of explaining difficult concepts that made them understandable to non-physicists. He was also a really cooky guy with an off beat sense of humor.
All scientists have made discoveries but Feyman has crossed the limits of explaining, that is why he is called a great explainer. If you read Feynman lecture you will be a fan of Feynman. But also feyman is an underrated scientists.
Seriously, I have never heard anyone make quantum physics this accessible. Mahesh has an incredible gift for teaching. Please keep up the fantastic work, Mahesh!
Bro I used to fail highschool, got kicked out in junior high due to grades etc., but later in life I got lucky to get teachers like yourself. I went from a failure to researching with CERN and it was all because of my teachers. We're extremely lucky to have people like you, who are enabling access to such beautiful lectures to everyone from anywhere. Its the energy, the passion that makes a difference. Thank you with all my heart!
The joy you have for physics and the underlying kindness and patience you radiate when you explain these complex concepts reminded me why I fell in love with science in the first place. You are outstanding.
Because of your prior videos, I had already come to the conclusion that tunneling is needed for alpha decay, which shows that you really are teaching subjects effectively!
It was not an explanation for quantum tunneling. Uncertainty in measurement of incommensurate variables does not permit tunneling. Tunneling is an intrinsically non-local phenomenon if one assumes everywhere Minkowski topology. The HUP does not give you non-locality. Entanglement does, but no one knows what causes entanglement... yet. Moreover, entanglement is why there is a Heisenberg uncertainty limit.
You are the absolute best at this Mahesh! Your brain works in such a way that you are able to make SENSE of seemingly unintuitive concepts. I majored in astrophysics and have never stopped learning for 25 years since, and yet you teach me something with every video. Thank you ❤
Thank you from the bottom of my heart. How you explain such complex physics in such an easy way to understand is a true gift. Few people can understand this level of physics, and even fewer can teach and explain this in such a straightforward way. Mahesh WELL DONE!
I love how you can explain complex scientific principles in a way that induces compulsory smiling in the audience. :D Before, I was thinking that the energy was borrowed from neighboring particles, giving individual particles enough to get over the barrier, which might have explained why a larger sample decays faster. But it turns out this is all more nuanced and complex than I was thinking. And here we are, smiling at the process of learning!
I am a university student and I found this video soo helpful to visual what actually was happening. I hope that professors also give this must effort in making us students understand things and not memorize it! In fact at the very end, the small detail that you mentioned about the limit of size of transistors that is when I get to know what do people mean by "Quantum Computers". This video was really of great help. Keep making these types of videos. Thank You 🙏
The biggest compliment I can give to your channel is that, I watch everything on YT at 1.5x speed except your contents. Time flies which watching and absorbing your explanations, which, in the end makes me fall in love with Physics (something I couldn't really enjoy at school) more and more. Brilliant work and keep it up!!
Mahesh, could you please make another video explaining what phasors are? It would be great if you could cover how they work for scalar quantities like current and how vector addition applies to them. A detailed explanation with examples would really help clear things up!
It's really fun to watch your videos. I watch a lot of videos on similar topics, and I want to say that you really break things down in a very clear and understandable way. You also tell the story really well-for example, when you say, "Gamov would say, 'Good question'"; it makes everything feel so engaging. The whole content is absolutely mind-blowing, and it feels like you're taking us on this journey with you. Thank you! Keep it up!
I love how you start with a question that resonates then go through it like a common person with nice pictures to reason the conclusion. This is so good. I subscribed!
Thank you so much for the detailed and simple explanations you provide on your channel. My brain has always asked, with any explanation, " but why and how?". You provide the answers for me because you ask and answer the same questions. I appreciate your approach to teaching so much.
I recently asked my chemistry teacher whether quantum tunneling could bypass the activation energy and was looking for videos that'd help me dig a littler deeper into quatum tunneling and i came across my favourite online educators vid how wonderful !!!!! thank you!!
I came here to comment that I was watching a Khan academy video to help me better understand what RMS actually means when I thought the voice sounded familiar. I was very surprised to realize it was you helping me get ready for my E&M final. Thanks Mahesh, love your videos.
I just love how excited you get about this stuff Mahesh! Flippin' fantastic work and such amazing clarity on the concepts!! I definitely understand tunneling, half-life and decay better now after watching! Mega thumbs!!
I thought I had a pretty clear understanding of how radioactive decay and quantum tunneling worked, but now I feel as if I could clearly explain these phenomena. Assuming, that is, that I could first explain Heisenberg uncertainty 😅
Mahesh, your videos give me the same sense of discovery and insight that I felt when I first read A Brief History of Time. Despite what everyone always says, I've always thought there were good insightful ways of thinking about QM -- but I was never able to figure any out. It was always "yeah quantum is Just Weird." Thanks for these videos, and I hope to see many more in the future!
0:23, I have had this question in my mind for a very long time, I had asked many teachers about it, but did not get a satisfactory answer. So, thanks for this video.
I'm not even into physics or that smart to understand most of the stuff you're talking about, but your presentation style makes it so interesting. Love watching your videos.
If studying physics was anything like this, I'd start tomorrow. I am envious of all the kids getting such great lessons to wrap their heads around complex concepts with ease before diving into the calculations
sir please post a video about traveling micrpscope and screw gauge . Your vernier calliper video was very useful . in fact i started watching your videos after that
Absolutely love what you do Mahesh, science communication is such an important job. Knowing things is just knowing things but the ability to think critically is what makes a person smart. We need more smart people to help combat the challenges facing humanity, by showing people how to think about complex topics in easier ways you are helping facilitate this. However, when explaining anything to someone there is a trade off that must be made between ease of thinking at a high level and accuracy at a deeper level. I believe you do a brilliant job at finding that sweet spot. This video in particular though had a couple of things that I felt to be rather vague, for lack of a better word. First the borderline Gambler's Fallacy about probabilities adding together and eventually being over 50%, probabilities don't add they multiply to give a new probability though even then the probability isn't "getting bigger", also probabilities don't depend on previous events, if I roll a standard 6-sided die and don't get a 1 for 1,000 rolls the odds I'll get one next roll is still 1/6, it isn't "overdue". And second, the "just a theory" idea, quantum tunneling is a theory, but theories and hypotheses are very different things. Supply and demand, germ theory, cell theory, cognitive biases, general relativity, all of these things are "just theories" yet form the basis for a huge number of things in our lives. Again, much love Mahesh, keep doing what you're doing, just felt like clarifying this. And look, you got me to do the critical thinking thing ❤
I saw a video somewhere explaining about retro causality that how the electrons go back in time when an observer is placed after going through the slit in double slit experiment... Please make an intuitive video about this topic.. Your videos are very thought provoking and easy to understand. My mind was blown away after the relativity videos.. Thank u for making such videos
You are the best teacher I have ever seen. You explain things in the most intuitive way possible and the best way possible. You can explain all difficult science topics in the easiest way. There is a humble request. Please make a video on newtonian mechanics and Lagrangian mechanics and hamiltonian mechanics because you are the best teacher❤❤❤❤
Great episode about the tunneling effect. I'm impressed. You do a great job of explaining the intricacies of quantum mechanics. You have excellent graphics and great examples. Greetings from Poland.👍👍👍👍👍
Mahesh, there are no words to describe the quality of your content and your authenticity. Everything about the way you deliver these lessons is perfect. Please never stop being you, and just know that you've helped me grasp so many concepts in physics that I never even bothered checking. But now, just the thought that everything can be thought of in a different and more intuitive way without having to use so much math and calculations makes me want to keep learning about our universe. Thank you very very much!
You are one of my favorite people to watch. Your presentation skills are very enjoyable. The energy is infectious. The only problem I have with your diagram is that the bottom of your well is below the new energy level. Particles only tunnel to new LOWER energy levels, not higher ones. If the average energy level outside the well is higher then we see those particles being pushed back into the well, as in your fusion example. So the bottom of the energy well must be higher than your U=0 line, or the average external energy density.
Endless search for answers. I could get stuck in this matrix. Happily. Wish i chose this profession. Doing contruction(commercial retail renovations) is boring as shit after 25yrs into it. I need to be excited about going into work like this guy. Thanks for all you do
Sir you teach absolutely brilliantly ,and i mean it genuinely from my heart. Sir in your khan academy videos for class 12 many videos seem to be missing please tell me where i could find them i truly enjoy learning physics from you
You covered a lot in that video, so I'll need to rewatch a few and to be able to grasp it. As always, your presentation skills are superb. You make me smile.
You both can open your own school in Mangalore.Take risk, and by doing so,Curious and eager-to-learn children would thrive in an environment where their questions are valued, and learning feels exciting. If you both focus on nurturing their natural curiosity and building strong foundations, I’m sure the school would not only benefit the students but also stand out uniquely in the vicinity. Wish you all the best dear Mahesh and Chitra❤❤❤❤
Freaking brilliant. Thank you for helping with the intuition!!! I love your channel for this exact purpose. You really help explain the intuition which is the most important thing! I really appreciate all your videos. Thank you.
Great, even EXCITING video! Very well explained as well, and usually it is NOT explained at all clearly, especially at an elementary level that even an average undergraduate Physics student could understand. I look forward to watch more of your videos!! Thanks for making it! BTW, where does the great George Gamow write about this subject. I don't remember it is One Two Three, Infinity, but it must be 55+ years since I read that fine book.
Before we start, I think it’s a lot like water freezing, it takes some energy to decay so it looks like a false bottom, there is a valley before the hill down so it has to push through that slight slope to decay
I love your grinding style hammer the thing in. I get it first time. And at speed 0.75 it and text on it is very entertaining trip. Thank you very much!
Mahesh, by some miracle I stumbled on this video, but it taught me the answers to an incredible number of questions I've had for a long time. Your presentation and organization are extremely lucid, and I thank you for all your effort. PS, do I also recognize your voice from those EXCEPTIONAL lessons on semiconductors, from Khan?
We even did problems to calculate the half life in university but I guess I never knew what the heck was happening. Thank you so much, it makes so much sense now. Also any explanation on why the uncertainty principle allows the particles to be here and there, also I was told by our professor that electrons arent actually particles but cloud of probabilities. like what the heck does that mean.
Mahesh Sir, I have a problem applying Bernoulli's equation to hemodynamics. Everywhere, every professor says that constricting a blood vessel increases the pressure. But how is that possible? I thought they were confusing flow rate with pressure, but they clearly said, "As the blood vessel narrows, the pressure that blood applies to the walls of the blood vessel will increase, and consequently, GFR (Glomerular Filtration Rate) will increase. Simply put, GFR increases as the pressure exerted by the substances flowing in the blood plasma on the walls of the blood vessels increases." But that is clearly the opposite of Bernoulli's equation. I think the difference might be because, in the human body, the blood flows within a closed circuit, but I am really not sure. Please, please explain this in a UA-cam short.
Really like ur Vids, I saw u changed ur Title and Thumbnail. The first one wasnt bad but new one is in my opinion more accurate to the topic. Good job!
Some nuclei require more energy per nucleon to stay together than others. Decay happens whenever the nucleus you get after the decay process has less energy per nucleon than the nucleus you start with. But the extra energy has to go somewhere since energy is conserved. So it goes to kinetic energy of the decayed nucleus and the alpha particle. But how much energy goes to one and how much goes to the other? That's where conservation of momentum comes in. If the decaying nucleus is stationary(which it is *on average*), you get that the decayed nucleus and the alpha particle have equal and opposite momenta. But since the alpha particle is lighter, it has to have more velocity for momenta to be equal. And when you remember that kinetic energy is quadratic in velocity, that means the alpha particle gets most of that kinetic energy. For heavy nuclei, it gets practically all of the energy, so its kinetic energy is approximately equal to the difference between binding energies of the mother nucleus and the products of the reaction(nothing prevents you from taking the actual masses into account and calculating it precisely).
@@sensorer "Some nuclei require more energy per nucleon to stay together than others. ", I think it's appropriate to think that some nuclei 'release' more energy (per nucleon) when they stick together. Just like how magnets release energy, in the form of say sound, when they stick together.
Mahesh is so humble that at 11:10 and later, he sped up his setup having rotated the reality by 90° in Argand plane and made γ go (1+(v/c)^2)^(-1/2) using time dilation in reversed form so that we don't have to wait for years for the tunneling to happen what a great man 🫡
Even if I can't watch the videos you make after the notification I just open them and like it so that later I can watch thank you for such a great intuitive explaination
An excellent presentation as alway, I love your passion and enthusiasm. It seems to me that while we can describe the appearance and effect of quantum tunneling in terms of probability, there is some fundamental process that we simply don't understand that allows an alpha particle with 4-8 MeV to overcome a barrier of 25MeV. We are therefore describing what we are seeing / the effect in terms we can understand as opposed to what is actually happening.
Mahesh quickly mentions the "wavefunction" explanation for tunneling. I find this more intuitive since its easy to imagine a wave being "spread out" with the tail of the waveform having a lower amplitude, thus a lower energy.
Excellent video! I never understood half life with any intuition, I would get equally vague answers from my teachers, too. It's all just statistics. It also makes sense that all heavy elements are technically radioactive, but only on timescales that are orders of magnitude larger than the age of the universe.
Sir your video are as always awesome, intuitive mind boggling every time, and I actually Clears many misconceptions of mine. So may I make a humble request about intuitive way of explaining potential and kinetic energies, I'm finding it hard to understand this topics intuitively
Your channel is amazing :-) I loved this video because it shows that the word 'tunnelling' for this effect is widely misleading and simplistic. The fact is that the particles are finding themselves the other side of the energy escape barrier simply because of quantum uncertainty. The rate of this effect is determined by probability over time, which itself is determined by value of the energy barrier provided by element itself.
Brilliant explanation. I finally understand the true nature of half life decay. It's all connected to the wave function . Brilliant, just Brilliant explanation.
superb explanation bro, I never understood tunnel ing intuitively before this, thanks. Can you can make a similar video for quantum entanglement, it’s also a difficult concept to understand.
MAHESH SIR YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS! Hello Mahesh Sir, I’ve been exploring the concepts you discussed in your video about FTL and causality, and I came up with a thought experiment that I believe could allow for FTL travel without violating relativity. In your video, you assume that the missile firing is the cause, and the moon's destruction is the effect. However, in my thought experiment, I propose that the missile hitting the moon is the cause, and the moon's destruction is the effect. By redefining the cause and effect this way, causality can still be preserved. Additionally, I consider the impact of length contraction. As objects near the speed of light undergo significant length contraction, the light would still reach them at the speed of light in their reference frame. This keeps relativity intact while allowing FTL travel in a way that avoids causality violations, as light's speed would remain constant from all perspectives. I really admire your work and wanted to share this idea with you. I’m only 14, but I hope this thought experiment could add something new to the discussion! THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME!
I had to go back to the video to understand the context, but I can answer that for you. The question is "Did you observe the missile being LAUNCHED first, or the moon blowing up?" It's an analysis from observers in multiple reference frames as to where the causal chain began. The causal chain doesn't begin when the missile strikes the moon, it begins when you fire the missile.
@@vyvianalcott1681 Thank you for your response! I understand that the causal chain traditionally begins with the missile launch, but isn’t this perspective somewhat classical? From my point of view, the missile striking the moon could also be considered the cause, as the missile's launch doesn't guarantee that it will hit the moon. In a sense, the outcome (the moon being hit) might redefine the causal chain in a more outcome-oriented framework. Wouldn't this interpretation challenge causality in an interesting way, especially in the context of FTL travel? I hope that doesn't sound silly..
@@danieldelights1 Yes I know that but my intuition can't align with the proof given in the video so it's natural for me to ask. The reason given for ftl signals being impossible was that cause precedes effect, in the context of the video if you launch a missile to destroy an object (moon) an observer traveling close to the speed of light will see that the missile launches after it destroys the moon which is clearly impossible... My arguement: But just for the sake of intuition can't I say that the missile HITTING THE MOON is the cause and THE MOON'S DESTRUCTION is the effect? That way causality is protected although it's still not the traditional causal chain. Now technically speaking the missile launching is the cause traditionally but it's not specific because after it's launch the missile could've done ANYTHING eg. missed the moon. So to ideally describe the cause and effect is it wrong to say that the missiles launch and the moon's destruction were the cause and effect respectively?
Firstly, Rn is not more stable, it decays much faster. So, it is not about moving to a more stable state instantly, just gradually losing excess particles. Secondly, t1/2 of Ra is 1600 years, not 16000 years.
Oh damn! Yes, it should have been 1600 not 16000. My bad. Radon 222 has a higher specific binding energy compared to radium 226, that’s why the decay is favoured. But again, I should have been more careful with conflating ‘specific binding energy’ with ‘stability’. Especially with radioactive elements. Thank you. I will add this as a response to the pinned comment.
@@toxiceditzzzz that isn't really a "law" that's just a statement that "technology will improve by two times every two years" which isn't really a law it's just a prediction and technological advancement does not necessarily means decrease in size of transistors
@@parthhooda3713 the way I was taught, a "law" is an observation. The Law of Gravity was based on the observation that objects near the Earth's surface tend to fall towards the Earth. Newton's Theory of Gravity is a model that mathematically describes the Law of Gravity and makes predictions. Moore's Law was an observation about the doubling time of transistor density on computer chips.
I'll answer FAQs here. Also, to try everything Brilliant has to offer-free-for a full 30 days, visit brilliant.org/FloatHeadPhysics . You’ll also get 20% off an annual premium subscription.
1) Shouldn't Half life of Radium 226 be 1600 years?
Yes, I goofed up. Sorry!
2) If Radon 222 is more 'stable' than Radium 226, why does it have a much smaller half life?
Again, I should have been more clear here. Radon 222 has a higher specific binding energy compared to radium 226, that’s why the decay is favoured. But again, I should have been more careful with conflating ‘specific binding energy’ with ‘stability’. Especially with radioactive elements.
3) Shouldn’t the bottom of the energy well be ‘above’ U = 0 line?
No, since nuclear force is attractive, the potential energy of the system must be lower than when they are far apart.
4) But why throw out an alpha particle?
Because it has much higher specific binding energy yielding a high energy release compared to say just spitting out individual protons and neutrons. Okay, why not spit out an oxygen 16 for example? Well, the barrier width and height increases substantially making the tunneling probability insanely small. Helium is… just right 😅
Sir how do we get this tunuling energy, is it energy of particles of the nucleus at ground state. Why the probability of a particle being outside the nucleus inc as tunuling energy inc
Could you please send me relevant references.
How is assumptions in black body radiation like e=hv be true
20:10 Doesnt Sun compensate with lack of energy by extreme pressure? I mean there is so much material above that it is pushing protons towards each other. That's what we were taught in school.
Second, why does radioactive decay happens in terms of half life? Say if you have a 1 kg Radium, in 1600 years 500 g would decay, in next 1600 years, half of remaining 500g which is 250 g would decay. If probabilities were adding up like this, shouldnt they add upto 100 pc in 3200 years?
This is nonsense, check the recent work of Harvard physicist Jacob Barandes.
This is the most underrated channel on UA-cam on science.... Many highly subscribed channels don't even reach this level of clarity.
let it be man, lets gate keep him... try Fermilab, sabine hosenfeilder, arvin ash !!! they all are great aswell..😅
I agree! This channel is the best for understanding, the method of him asking famous scientists and letting them answer is great for understanding!
3b1b....
yeah im glad i stumbled upon this channel today, im now subscribed.
and they're sometimes wrong
Just started watching your channel. I am 73 so back in my school days there was no teaching about quantum mechanics. I have been watching videos to try to learn about it. Went back to school in the mid 80's for electronics and there was talk about leakage current in solid state device junctions due to quantum tunneling. After your radioactive half life video I now have a good idea of what causes it. Thank you for the smile on my face!
Hey, fellow old guy! I’m 73 as well. I love this channel as well.
What's fun about the quantum tunneling problem in electronics is that we have actually been able to turn it into an advantage for certain applications- such as in modern SSDs, which actually use quantum tunneling in what's called "charge trap flash memory". It is some absolutely incredible technology, I highly recommend learning about it.
I didn't know about this, thank you!
I mean he uses that example already. But you can also look up cold field emission gun
I was wondering about this. I was thinking "could we use quantum tunneling itself to make an even smaller transistor"
Finally he stopped talking to Feynman and started to talk with other scientist.Good work 🎉🎉🎉
Feynman was a brilliant teacher and had a way of explaining difficult concepts that made them understandable to non-physicists. He was also a really cooky guy with an off beat sense of humor.
All scientists have made discoveries but Feyman has crossed the limits of explaining, that is why he is called a great explainer. If you read Feynman lecture you will be a fan of Feynman. But also feyman is an underrated scientists.
The new guy seems more polite than Feynman. Feynman was always shouting at him!
There have also been conversations with Einstein and other scientists.
So what. Gamov is Jewish as well😂
Seriously, I have never heard anyone make quantum physics this accessible. Mahesh has an incredible gift for teaching. Please keep up the fantastic work, Mahesh!
Bro I used to fail highschool, got kicked out in junior high due to grades etc., but later in life I got lucky to get teachers like yourself. I went from a failure to researching with CERN and it was all because of my teachers.
We're extremely lucky to have people like you, who are enabling access to such beautiful lectures to everyone from anywhere. Its the energy, the passion that makes a difference. Thank you with all my heart!
The joy you have for physics and the underlying kindness and patience you radiate when you explain these complex concepts reminded me why I fell in love with science in the first place. You are outstanding.
Because of your prior videos, I had already come to the conclusion that tunneling is needed for alpha decay, which shows that you really are teaching subjects effectively!
My favourite youtuber and science teacher. I never found anyone who explains science concepts so intuitively and flawlessly.❤❤
It was not an explanation for quantum tunneling. Uncertainty in measurement of incommensurate variables does not permit tunneling. Tunneling is an intrinsically non-local phenomenon if one assumes everywhere Minkowski topology. The HUP does not give you non-locality. Entanglement does, but no one knows what causes entanglement... yet. Moreover, entanglement is why there is a Heisenberg uncertainty limit.
@@Achrononmaster what do you think this content of yours has explained...
3b1b.....
You are the absolute best at this Mahesh! Your brain works in such a way that you are able to make SENSE of seemingly unintuitive concepts. I majored in astrophysics and have never stopped learning for 25 years since, and yet you teach me something with every video. Thank you ❤
Thank you from the bottom of my heart. How you explain such complex physics in such an easy way to understand is a true gift. Few people can understand this level of physics, and even fewer can teach and explain this in such a straightforward way. Mahesh WELL DONE!
I wish my physics professor would have explained the concepts as fascinating and clear as you do. Great job. Thanks for taking the time.
You have blown my mind and have given me a definitive demonstration of the principles of quantum theory.
I love how you can explain complex scientific principles in a way that induces compulsory smiling in the audience. :D
Before, I was thinking that the energy was borrowed from neighboring particles, giving individual particles enough to get over the barrier, which might have explained why a larger sample decays faster. But it turns out this is all more nuanced and complex than I was thinking. And here we are, smiling at the process of learning!
I am a university student and I found this video soo helpful to visual what actually was happening. I hope that professors also give this must effort in making us students understand things and not memorize it! In fact at the very end, the small detail that you mentioned about the limit of size of transistors that is when I get to know what do people mean by "Quantum Computers". This video was really of great help. Keep making these types of videos. Thank You 🙏
The biggest compliment I can give to your channel is that, I watch everything on YT at 1.5x speed except your contents. Time flies which watching and absorbing your explanations, which, in the end makes me fall in love with Physics (something I couldn't really enjoy at school) more and more. Brilliant work and keep it up!!
The way you presented the question is the voice in my head when I can’t sleep.
Mahesh, could you please make another video explaining what phasors are? It would be great if you could cover how they work for scalar quantities like current and how vector addition applies to them. A detailed explanation with examples would really help clear things up!
Wow! Being from a non-science background, I never knew it could be explained in such a simple way 🤯
Man you are amazing!!
You are such a fun and outstandingly effective science communicator, I think many people could learn from you ;)
It's really fun to watch your videos. I watch a lot of videos on similar topics, and I want to say that you really break things down in a very clear and understandable way. You also tell the story really well-for example, when you say, "Gamov would say, 'Good question'"; it makes everything feel so engaging. The whole content is absolutely mind-blowing, and it feels like you're taking us on this journey with you. Thank you! Keep it up!
Dude you are my new favorite UA-camr. Another fantastic video!!!!
I love how you start with a question that resonates then go through it like a common person with nice pictures to reason the conclusion. This is so good.
I subscribed!
Thank you so much for the detailed and simple explanations you provide on your channel. My brain has always asked, with any explanation, " but why and how?". You provide the answers for me because you ask and answer the same questions. I appreciate your approach to teaching so much.
I recently asked my chemistry teacher whether quantum tunneling could bypass the activation energy and was looking for videos that'd help me dig a littler deeper into quatum tunneling and i came across my favourite online educators vid
how wonderful !!!!! thank you!!
I came here to comment that I was watching a Khan academy video to help me better understand what RMS actually means when I thought the voice sounded familiar. I was very surprised to realize it was you helping me get ready for my E&M final. Thanks Mahesh, love your videos.
I just love how excited you get about this stuff Mahesh!
Flippin' fantastic work and such amazing clarity on the concepts!! I definitely understand tunneling, half-life and decay better now after watching! Mega thumbs!!
I thought I had a pretty clear understanding of how radioactive decay and quantum tunneling worked, but now I feel as if I could clearly explain these phenomena. Assuming, that is, that I could first explain Heisenberg uncertainty 😅
I really love your channel. As a high school teacher you help me a lot. Please keep up this fantastic work !
Mahesh, your videos give me the same sense of discovery and insight that I felt when I first read A Brief History of Time. Despite what everyone always says, I've always thought there were good insightful ways of thinking about QM -- but I was never able to figure any out. It was always "yeah quantum is Just Weird." Thanks for these videos, and I hope to see many more in the future!
0:23, I have had this question in my mind for a very long time, I had asked many teachers about it, but did not get a satisfactory answer. So, thanks for this video.
We can make a wall of protons and electrons such that the replustion & attraction is minimum. On this wall Gama rays can reflect ❤❤❤
Keep doing an amazing job explaining hard things in a very understandable way. I've learned so much already.
I'm not even into physics or that smart to understand most of the stuff you're talking about, but your presentation style makes it so interesting. Love watching your videos.
The ending of this video is Brilliant !
If studying physics was anything like this, I'd start tomorrow. I am envious of all the kids getting such great lessons to wrap their heads around complex concepts with ease before diving into the calculations
0:50 looking in my pocket: uranium, plutonium, polonium... oh glad I don't have radium😅
Nice
The kind of clarity this channel provides is simply unmatched.
sir please post a video about traveling micrpscope and screw gauge . Your vernier calliper video was very useful . in fact i started watching your videos after that
This video is so good that I finish with a lot of clarity and a lot of questions (even though I'm a physicist)
Absolutely love what you do Mahesh, science communication is such an important job. Knowing things is just knowing things but the ability to think critically is what makes a person smart.
We need more smart people to help combat the challenges facing humanity, by showing people how to think about complex topics in easier ways you are helping facilitate this.
However, when explaining anything to someone there is a trade off that must be made between ease of thinking at a high level and accuracy at a deeper level. I believe you do a brilliant job at finding that sweet spot.
This video in particular though had a couple of things that I felt to be rather vague, for lack of a better word.
First the borderline Gambler's Fallacy about probabilities adding together and eventually being over 50%, probabilities don't add they multiply to give a new probability though even then the probability isn't "getting bigger", also probabilities don't depend on previous events, if I roll a standard 6-sided die and don't get a 1 for 1,000 rolls the odds I'll get one next roll is still 1/6, it isn't "overdue".
And second, the "just a theory" idea, quantum tunneling is a theory, but theories and hypotheses are very different things. Supply and demand, germ theory, cell theory, cognitive biases, general relativity, all of these things are "just theories" yet form the basis for a huge number of things in our lives.
Again, much love Mahesh, keep doing what you're doing, just felt like clarifying this. And look, you got me to do the critical thinking thing ❤
thank you for finally finding a way to help me understand the decay, ive struggled for a long time
I saw a video somewhere explaining about retro causality that how the electrons go back in time when an observer is placed after going through the slit in double slit experiment...
Please make an intuitive video about this topic..
Your videos are very thought provoking and easy to understand.
My mind was blown away after the relativity videos..
Thank u for making such videos
You are the best teacher I have ever seen. You explain things in the most intuitive way possible and the best way possible. You can explain all difficult science topics in the easiest way.
There is a humble request. Please make a video on newtonian mechanics and Lagrangian mechanics and hamiltonian mechanics because you are the best teacher❤❤❤❤
Great episode about the tunneling effect. I'm impressed. You do a great job of explaining the intricacies of quantum mechanics. You have excellent graphics and great examples. Greetings from Poland.👍👍👍👍👍
Great video, I've always wondered how radioactive decay works, now I feel I have a good understanding of it! Thank you!
I had no idea I would find this subject interesting; but, I did. Well Done Sir!
You are a rock star of physics popularization!
Mahesh, there are no words to describe the quality of your content and your authenticity. Everything about the way you deliver these lessons is perfect. Please never stop being you, and just know that you've helped me grasp so many concepts in physics that I never even bothered checking. But now, just the thought that everything can be thought of in a different and more intuitive way without having to use so much math and calculations makes me want to keep learning about our universe. Thank you very very much!
Next video need to be about Quantum entanglement to complete the season, excellent work btw, huge fan of your explanation :)
You are one of my favorite people to watch. Your presentation skills are very enjoyable. The energy is infectious.
The only problem I have with your diagram is that the bottom of your well is below the new energy level. Particles only tunnel to new LOWER energy levels, not higher ones. If the average energy level outside the well is higher then we see those particles being pushed back into the well, as in your fusion example. So the bottom of the energy well must be higher than your U=0 line, or the average external energy density.
Tunneling occurs every time you erase your flash-drive. Pretty cool. That means all your data is retained, just in a different universe.
Beings in that alternate universe sure will be impressed or horrified.
@@someolddude7076 Especially if they see MrBeast and Drake's flash drive
Endless search for answers. I could get stuck in this matrix. Happily. Wish i chose this profession. Doing contruction(commercial retail renovations) is boring as shit after 25yrs into it. I need to be excited about going into work like this guy. Thanks for all you do
Sir you teach absolutely brilliantly ,and i mean it genuinely from my heart. Sir in your khan academy videos for class 12 many videos seem to be missing please tell me where i could find them i truly enjoy learning physics from you
So many questions I had answered in one shot. Love it.
You covered a lot in that video, so I'll need to rewatch a few and to be able to grasp it.
As always, your presentation skills are superb. You make me smile.
Fun explanation. A brilliant mind is one that makes something complex seem obvious. I enjoy your work.
Great T-shirt, HeHe! Great graphics too. Thanks for the effort that took
I want one, do you sell merch?
@@sailingjabulani I am actually planning to. I wasn't sure if anyone wanted such nerdy t-shirts. So, I just usually make one for myself. haha!
Sir, Thank you so much for explaining these complex topics beautifully 😊 and solving these kind of doubts which are usually unanswered.
You both can open your own school in Mangalore.Take risk, and by doing so,Curious and eager-to-learn children would thrive in an environment where their questions are valued, and learning feels exciting. If you both focus on nurturing their natural curiosity and building strong foundations, I’m sure the school would not only benefit the students but also stand out uniquely in the vicinity. Wish you all the best dear Mahesh and Chitra❤❤❤❤
I love learning about new physics. mahesh you make it so easy to understand!! That’s crazy that the particles just teleport at the physical level
Greatest story teller, thanks for another excellent one
Freaking brilliant. Thank you for helping with the intuition!!! I love your channel for this exact purpose. You really help explain the intuition which is the most important thing! I really appreciate all your videos. Thank you.
Great, even EXCITING video! Very well explained as well, and usually it is NOT explained at all clearly, especially at an elementary level that even an average undergraduate Physics student could understand. I look forward to watch more of your videos!! Thanks for making it! BTW, where does the great George Gamow write about this subject. I don't remember it is One Two Three, Infinity, but it must be 55+ years since I read that fine book.
Drinking game idea : everytimes Maheesh says "deep intuition", you take a sip. Everytimes he says "mind blown"/"mind blowing", you empty your glass.
video on traveling microscope and screw gauge pls
Before we start, I think it’s a lot like water freezing, it takes some energy to decay so it looks like a false bottom, there is a valley before the hill down so it has to push through that slight slope to decay
Amazing Video, Mahesh! Taking advantage of the fact that in the last videos you are talking about the atomic nucleus, please explain chromodynamics!
I love your grinding style hammer the thing in. I get it first time. And at speed 0.75 it and text on it is very entertaining trip. Thank you very much!
Mahesh, by some miracle I stumbled on this video, but it taught me the answers to an incredible number of questions I've had for a long time. Your presentation and organization are extremely lucid, and I thank you for all your effort. PS, do I also recognize your voice from those EXCEPTIONAL lessons on semiconductors, from Khan?
We even did problems to calculate the half life in university but I guess I never knew what the heck was happening. Thank you so much, it makes so much sense now. Also any explanation on why the uncertainty principle allows the particles to be here and there, also I was told by our professor that electrons arent actually particles but cloud of probabilities. like what the heck does that mean.
ನಮಸ್ಕಾರ 🙏🏻 I have been watching your videos from a long time. Love them. And, Just got to know that you are from Karnataka 🤩
Thank you for your content bro 💯
Mahesh Sir, I have a problem applying Bernoulli's equation to hemodynamics. Everywhere, every professor says that constricting a blood vessel increases the pressure. But how is that possible? I thought they were confusing flow rate with pressure, but they clearly said, "As the blood vessel narrows, the pressure that blood applies to the walls of the blood vessel will increase, and consequently, GFR (Glomerular Filtration Rate) will increase. Simply put, GFR increases as the pressure exerted by the substances flowing in the blood plasma on the walls of the blood vessels increases." But that is clearly the opposite of Bernoulli's equation. I think the difference might be because, in the human body, the blood flows within a closed circuit, but I am really not sure. Please, please explain this in a UA-cam short.
i have the same doubt .You gave the clear explanation👌
Really like ur Vids, I saw u changed ur Title and Thumbnail. The first one wasnt bad but new one is in my opinion more accurate to the topic. Good job!
Maybe greatest video on alpha decay ever! BUT where does such a alpha particle get it's ~4.9MeV from ?!
Some nuclei require more energy per nucleon to stay together than others. Decay happens whenever the nucleus you get after the decay process has less energy per nucleon than the nucleus you start with. But the extra energy has to go somewhere since energy is conserved. So it goes to kinetic energy of the decayed nucleus and the alpha particle. But how much energy goes to one and how much goes to the other? That's where conservation of momentum comes in. If the decaying nucleus is stationary(which it is *on average*), you get that the decayed nucleus and the alpha particle have equal and opposite momenta. But since the alpha particle is lighter, it has to have more velocity for momenta to be equal. And when you remember that kinetic energy is quadratic in velocity, that means the alpha particle gets most of that kinetic energy. For heavy nuclei, it gets practically all of the energy, so its kinetic energy is approximately equal to the difference between binding energies of the mother nucleus and the products of the reaction(nothing prevents you from taking the actual masses into account and calculating it precisely).
@@sensorer "Some nuclei require more energy per nucleon to stay together than others. ", I think it's appropriate to think that some nuclei 'release' more energy (per nucleon) when they stick together. Just like how magnets release energy, in the form of say sound, when they stick together.
And where is weak force in this picture? @@Mahesh_Shenoy
Mahesh is so humble that at 11:10 and later, he sped up his setup having rotated the reality by 90° in Argand plane and made γ go
(1+(v/c)^2)^(-1/2) using time dilation in reversed form so that we don't have to wait for years for the tunneling to happen
what a great man 🫡
Truly shocked they left this glitch in the final version
Even if I can't watch the videos you make after the notification I just open them and like it so that later I can watch thank you for such a great intuitive explaination
Pls, can you explain some quantum mechanics, your videos are absolutely great.
Very intuitive explanation, thanks for the video
An excellent presentation as alway, I love your passion and enthusiasm.
It seems to me that while we can describe the appearance and effect of quantum tunneling in terms of probability, there is some fundamental process that we simply don't understand that allows an alpha particle with 4-8 MeV to overcome a barrier of 25MeV. We are therefore describing what we are seeing / the effect in terms we can understand as opposed to what is actually happening.
Mahesh quickly mentions the "wavefunction" explanation for tunneling. I find this more intuitive since its easy to imagine a wave being "spread out" with the tail of the waveform having a lower amplitude, thus a lower energy.
I love how excited you are for this... I am too
Excellent video! I never understood half life with any intuition, I would get equally vague answers from my teachers, too. It's all just statistics. It also makes sense that all heavy elements are technically radioactive, but only on timescales that are orders of magnitude larger than the age of the universe.
Lovely explanation, thank you🙂
Your explanations are awesum - thank you.
Sir your video are as always awesome, intuitive mind boggling every time, and I actually Clears many misconceptions of mine.
So may I make a humble request about intuitive way of explaining potential and kinetic energies, I'm finding it hard to understand this topics intuitively
Your channel is amazing :-) I loved this video because it shows that the word 'tunnelling' for this effect is widely misleading and simplistic. The fact is that the particles are finding themselves the other side of the energy escape barrier simply because of quantum uncertainty. The rate of this effect is determined by probability over time, which itself is determined by value of the energy barrier provided by element itself.
very nice topic for explaining and it is interesting too
7:48 what about energy lost in photon emission? It's an accelerating charge
I would be really interested in the calculation of that 25Mev. And especially in how we can verify it experimentally.
I am not able to understand some of the quantum mechanical problems, you amazed me
Well done as usual
Amazingly clear and vivid explanation. Thank you
Brilliant explanation. I finally understand the true nature of half life decay. It's all connected to the wave function . Brilliant, just Brilliant explanation.
superb explanation bro, I never understood tunnel ing intuitively before this, thanks. Can you can make a similar video for quantum entanglement, it’s also a difficult concept to understand.
MAHESH SIR YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS!
Hello Mahesh Sir,
I’ve been exploring the concepts you discussed in your video about FTL and causality, and I came up with a thought experiment that I believe could allow for FTL travel without violating relativity.
In your video, you assume that the missile firing is the cause, and the moon's destruction is the effect. However, in my thought experiment, I propose that the missile hitting the moon is the cause, and the moon's destruction is the effect. By redefining the cause and effect this way, causality can still be preserved.
Additionally, I consider the impact of length contraction. As objects near the speed of light undergo significant length contraction, the light would still reach them at the speed of light in their reference frame. This keeps relativity intact while allowing FTL travel in a way that avoids causality violations, as light's speed would remain constant from all perspectives.
I really admire your work and wanted to share this idea with you. I’m only 14, but I hope this thought experiment could add something new to the discussion!
THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME!
I had to go back to the video to understand the context, but I can answer that for you.
The question is "Did you observe the missile being LAUNCHED first, or the moon blowing up?" It's an analysis from observers in multiple reference frames as to where the causal chain began. The causal chain doesn't begin when the missile strikes the moon, it begins when you fire the missile.
Can u please clarify ur argument properly.But I am willing to bet u, one can't exceed the speed of light and cause will always precede affect.
@@vyvianalcott1681
Thank you for your response! I understand that the causal chain traditionally begins with the missile launch, but isn’t this perspective somewhat classical? From my point of view, the missile striking the moon could also be considered the cause, as the missile's launch doesn't guarantee that it will hit the moon. In a sense, the outcome (the moon being hit) might redefine the causal chain in a more outcome-oriented framework. Wouldn't this interpretation challenge causality in an interesting way, especially in the context of FTL travel?
I hope that doesn't sound silly..
There is a woman called bright who traveled faster than light. She started one day in a relative way and came back the previous night😂
@@danieldelights1 Yes I know that but my intuition can't align with the proof given in the video so it's natural for me to ask.
The reason given for ftl signals being impossible was that cause precedes effect, in the context of the video if you launch a missile to destroy an object (moon) an observer traveling close to the speed of light will see that the missile launches after it destroys the moon which is clearly impossible...
My arguement:
But just for the sake of intuition can't I say that the missile HITTING THE MOON is the cause and THE MOON'S DESTRUCTION is the effect? That way causality is protected although it's still not the traditional causal chain.
Now technically speaking the missile launching is the cause traditionally but it's not specific because after it's launch the missile could've done ANYTHING eg. missed the moon. So to ideally describe the cause and effect is it wrong to say that the missiles launch and the moon's destruction were the cause and effect respectively?
Firstly, Rn is not more stable, it decays much faster. So, it is not about moving to a more stable state instantly, just gradually losing excess particles. Secondly, t1/2 of Ra is 1600 years, not 16000 years.
Oh damn! Yes, it should have been 1600 not 16000. My bad.
Radon 222 has a higher specific binding energy compared to radium 226, that’s why the decay is favoured. But again, I should have been more careful with conflating ‘specific binding energy’ with ‘stability’. Especially with radioactive elements. Thank you. I will add this as a response to the pinned comment.
@@Mahesh_Shenoy Idk if i am right but i saw somthing like moores law about that transistor thing, and that we have already got past it.
@@toxiceditzzzz that isn't really a "law" that's just a statement that "technology will improve by two times every two years" which isn't really a law it's just a prediction and technological advancement does not necessarily means decrease in size of transistors
@@parthhooda3713it’s not that technology will improve by 2 times. It’s that we can fit 2x as many transistors on a chip
@@parthhooda3713 the way I was taught, a "law" is an observation. The Law of Gravity was based on the observation that objects near the Earth's surface tend to fall towards the Earth. Newton's Theory of Gravity is a model that mathematically describes the Law of Gravity and makes predictions.
Moore's Law was an observation about the doubling time of transistor density on computer chips.