I promised my cow-orker/friend N that I’d post links for these in my blog for her son, so here they are.
The series is from the year I graduated High School - (1985-1986). It’s college 101 level illustrated Physics, but for precocious kids, it might be interesting. From the era when graphic calculators were just becoming available, this show illustrated basic physics concepts with graphical animations – things well beyond the means of the normal populace. It presents simple history of science as well.
Anyway, I used to watch it in mid-afternoon before homework, when the rest of TV was abjectly boring and full of reruns. I don’t think I saw all 52 episodes, though, so it’s a joy to see it available online.
Very geeky. (Watch out for the synth trumpets in the intro video to each episode.)
So here’s the list of links.
UPDATE: I am leaving these here for posterity, but it looks like whoever posted these videos to Google Video are keeping them private now, so the way to watch the videos is now to do the following (WARNING: This worked for me only in IE – something in Google Chrome is blocking the pop-ups.)
- Go to the Annenberg Learner site for The Mechanical Universe: http://www.learner.org/resources/series42.html
- Scroll down to the list of episodes and click the VoD icon to the right of the episode you want to watch
- Allow Popups. This is very important. Without that you won’t see the video (and I suspect this is why the video doesn’t work in Chrome)
- Enjoy the show!
Updated: Fixed some videos missing from Google Video and linked instead to Towson University’s Video on Demand for those missing from Google Video.
Dear All,
I tried to reach the copies on the Google Videos, but I realised that the Episode 18 is missing. Can you reload this episode again to complete the set?
I wish I could, but I was working with the online versions.
Googling doesn’t reveal another copy anywhere. Looks like if you wanted to go into the legal grey area world of Bit Torrent, you might have some luck.
Found and linked to episode 18 published by original publisher of the content.
When I graduated high school in 1984, I thought this was so cool and saw some of the first season. I watched this whole series when it was replayed on PBS in the early 1990’s and read both books while attending university. I really learned a lot about mechanics that couple of years and reproduced some of the experiments I saw. Now I have 4 kinds and am going to try and get them to watch this or at least some of it. It was cool to see them watch Cosmos on Netflicks, their little minds are like budding flowers. Thanks for posting this.
Sorry i ment to say…Now I have 4 kids and am going to try and get them to watch this or at least some of it.
[...] title is Twentieth of an Inch. It’s inspired by The Mechanical Universe, episode 8 The Apple and the Moon. Share this:TwitterFacebookLike this:LikeBe the first to like [...]
Hi, how do I play videos posted on http://www.malcolmgin.com/blog/2008/10/07/caltech-the-mechanical-universe-series-on-google-video/?
AL, it looks like Google Voice/YouTube no longer host the videos publicly, so I’ll write up the alternative here and on the post.
This didn’t work with me for Chrome, but did for IE.
1. Go to the Annenberg Learner site for The Mechanical Universe: http://www.learner.org/resources/series42.html
2. Click the VoD icon to the right of the episode you want to watch
3. Allow Popups. This is very important. Without that you won’t see the video (and I suspect this is why the video doesn’t work in Chrome)
4. Enjoy the show!
Hello
I recently accidentally stumbled onto this little site after googling around for the mentioned TV-series. As a child I also followed and rather enjoyed it. In fact the series was one of the reasons I fell in love with physics.
I would love to able to watch the whole series again, unfornately since I don’t live in North America I’m not allowed to view the series.
I was wondering if any of you here knew of alternative sites where I can view the material, or guide me to webiste where I can buy the series?
I don’t, unfortunately. This page has some information that might be leads on how to purchase/view outside of the US:
http://www.its.caltech.edu/~tmu/