Catalog Search Results
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
Anyone who makes use of a memory stick, a solid-state hard drive, or a smartphone relies on one of the most baffling aspects of the quantum world: quantum tunneling. Professor Carlson uses a roller coaster analogy, combined with your newly acquired insight into wave mechanics, to make this feat of quantum sorcery (the equivalent of walking through walls) perfectly logical.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
Given the striking similarities between the four terrestrial planets, why is Earth the only one teeming with life? Proposed as a bold theory less than 70 years ago, could plate tectonics be a main driver of life on Earth? Explore the fascinating movement of our planet’s surface and the many ways in which a geologically active Earth has sustained our biologically active planet.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
Close with one of Professor Carlson’s favorite topics: superconductivity. While electrons lose energy to resistance when they flow through a metal, this is not true of superconductors. Learn how quantum stability allows superconductors to conduct electricity with zero resistance, then step back and summarize the high points of your quantum tour.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
Explore the principles and paradoxes of quantum mechanics with exceptional rigor and clarity—and using minimal mathematics—in 24 episodes. With the guidance of Professor Erica W. Carlson, you’ll get a fundamental understanding of major breakthroughs in the field (and who made them), experiments that demonstrate quantum phenomena, and quantum theory’s many applications and insights.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2014.
Language
English
Description
Electronic devices are fundamental to our global economy, improve our lives immeasurably, and underlie virtually every aspect of modern life. Yet very few of us have any idea of how electronic devices actually work. In fact, these increasingly complex devices operate on a few basic principles that are both fascinating and easy to understand.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2014.
Language
English
Description
What is the difference between electricity and electronics? Begin your study of modern electronics by examining this distinction, and observe how electronics use the basic properties of electric circuits in a more sophisticated way. Witness firsthand how resistance is described with Ohm's law, and learn how to measure electric power.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
While the vast majority of insects pose no threat to humans, there are a few that compete with us for food, destroy our construction materials, and threaten both our natural and cultivated environments. Learn about the best and latest tools we can employ to control those insects, and why developing an understanding of the insect lifecycle is almost always a better investment than pesticides.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
With its exquisitely complex ring system, NASA describes Saturn as the "jewel of our solar system." Learn what decades of exploration have revealed about the origin and morphology of these ever-changing icy rings and how they interact with Saturn’s closest moons. From the rings to propeller moonlets, a massive hexagonal polar storm, and the giant vortex, our fascination with Saturn never ends!
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
What are the next big ideas that will help us ask and answer the next big questions? Consider the fascinating future technologies of centimeter-sized satellites propelled by laser photons, liquid mirror telescopes on the Moon, a magnetic shield large enough to help terraform Mars, and more. Nourish your imagination, and experience the inspiration of space exploration!
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
Ponder two celebrated and thought-provoking responses to the apparent incompatibility of quantum mechanics and classical physics. Bell’s theorem shows that attempts to reconcile the two systems are futile in a certain class of theories. Next, Schrodinger’s cat is a thought experiment implying that a cat could be both dead and alive if the standard interpretation of quantum mechanics holds.
71) Why Insects Matter: Earth's Most Essential Species: Episode 24,Sharing Planet Earth with Insects
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
What can we learn from this amazing group of animals? Biologists and engineers believe we can learn quite a bit—especially about our own future. Discover some of the exciting work that's being done today to learn from insects in a wide variety of fields, from organizational structure to the significance of biophilia.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2014.
Language
English
Description
Learn why large gain - infinite gain, in fact - as well as low output resistance and high input resistance are characteristics of the ideal amplifier. See how an integrated-circuit operational amplifier, or "op-amp," puts all these things together and also how the op-amp can be used as a simple comparator.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
The surprising detection of gas giant planets orbiting extremely close to other stars has led to the realization that planets can form in one part of a stellar system and then migrate to another part. Did that happen in our own solar system? Learn about the evidence for a "Late Heavy Bombardment" on the Moon, Mars, and Mercury.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
Explore card tricks in which the cards are shuffled, dealt, and flipped over in interesting ways, leading to surprising outcomes. Discover Hummer's principle: an endless source of mystifying, crowd-pleasing tricks, based on random mixing of cards combined with a simple procedure that preserves a pattern that seems positively magical.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
Planets orbiting other stars used to be purely in the realm of science fiction. How did we begin discovering them by the thousands? Learn about the methods scientists have used to discover so many exoplanets so quickly. From "hot Jupiters" to "mini-Neptunes" to planets whose clouds rain molten glass, these discoveries demonstrate that ours is not the only type of planetary system possible!
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
The beetles seem to have it all—from the incandescent beauty of the jewel beetles, to the unmatched speed of the tiger beetles, to the burning hot, noxious defense mechanism of the bombardiers. Explore why beetles are more diverse than any other group of insects, and one of the most successful groups of any organism alive today.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2014.
Language
English
Description
Put your knowledge to use by building a complete audio amplifier. First, create a two-stage amplifier, then add capacitors to increase the amplification, or gain. Add a power output stage to drive a loudspeaker. Finally, add a volume control. In addition, learn how biasing with diodes can eliminate a subtle form of distortion.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
What a fascinating world Voyager 2 revealed in 1986 during its short flyby of Uranus! Learn why Uranus seems to orbit "on its side" surrounded by a delicate system of 13 rings and 27 moons, how we discovered its multi-polar magnetic field, and why scientists think Uranus might contain an ocean made of liquid diamond, with floating chunks of solid "diamond-bergs!"
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
Learn why scientists believe comets, the "leftovers" of planet formation in the outer solar system, could be partially responsible for the flourishing of life on Earth, bringing both water and organic material to the inner solar system. And explore the more distant Oort Cloud, where billions of cometary objects orbit at the outermost boundary of the solar system.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
Review the major theories proposed by physicists trying to make sense of the paradoxes of the quantum world. Look at the Copenhagen interpretation, Einstein’s realist view, the many worlds interpretation, quantum Bayesianism, non-local hidden variables, and other creative attempts to explain what is going on in a realm that seems to be governed by probability alone.
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