The Thought Experiment
Scott V. Burger
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Top 10 The Thought Experiment Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best The Thought Experiment episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to The Thought Experiment for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite The Thought Experiment episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
First New Show
The Thought Experiment
08/08/11 • -1 min
The Strong Nuclear Force (video)
The Thought Experiment
07/03/08 • -1 min
The Thought Experiment podcast has been kind of stagnant lately. Largely because I've been so busy here on campus with Dark Matter research and so on and hopefully this video, a talk I gave recently on the strong nuclear force that holds atomic nuclei together, can shed some light on just how jam packed my schedule has been these last few days.
The recording quality is rather lacking, yes, but my placement of the microphone in the lecture hall I guess was less than strategic. Plus it has more buttons to confuse an astronaut!
Enjoy!
Kent Hovind's Last Debate
The Thought Experiment
07/24/07 • -1 min
Well, this week we had originally planned to go over Maxwell's Demon, but a screwup in the recording prompted us to ditch the file. Perhaps it was for the better, given that it is the 1 year anniversary of our debate with famed creationist Kent Hovind. Perhaps one of our few PDFcasts, the debate is about 20 some odd pages in length, but filled with comedic gold. As a toast to the convicted tax evasionist and 'scientist', we are putting up for free download a transcript from our debate with an intro included.
The feed has now been updated. Hopefully it should work at this point. If any other podcasts are not up and running, please alert me and I'll fix 'em.
Shedding Light on Dark Matter (supplement)
The Thought Experiment
08/31/08 • -1 min
I've added as supplementary material here, my actual printed powerpoint presentation slides for the 4-part 50-minute lecture. Although the incredible animation effects that went into the Barry Bonds segment aren't alive on the .pdf document, the images provide backup to all those times that I say, "search this or that." It may also be helpful to scroll through it while listening.
Also, I may as well attach my paper, Dark Matter Versus Modified Newtonian Dynamics, for those who are interested in my segment in the series that covered it. I went over the topic briskly and may have skipped some things, so the paper is also in this post for everyone to gawk over.
Olbers' Paradox
The Thought Experiment
07/05/07 • -1 min
Detailing how the universe, if infinite, should be as bright as the surface of the sun, Andrew and I also talk about whether or not if theory is ahead of testability and the feasibility thereof. Sorry about the overlap between Andrew and I's speaking, it was a latency error with the recording program used. It gets annoying, but just listen to what Andrew has to say.
I only realized at the last possible second that I needed some sort of July 4th theme music, and due to the fact I was lacking some 1812 Overture, I tossed in the most patriotic song that wasn't a Hans Zimmer work. Fight For Freedom is by Manowar.
Quantum Tunneling
The Thought Experiment
04/18/08 • -1 min
Tunneling is a very, very mathematical process by which a particle can 'leak' out into its surroundings. This has to do with all sorts of things called wave functions, probability densities, and so on, but the real aspect behind them is: how can we use this for our macroscopic advantage?
Borel's Infinite Monkeys
The Thought Experiment
01/16/08 • -1 min
Returning triumphant for a second season of thought experimenting, we continue on our history of thought experiments into the later 1920s with Borel's mathematical analysis of what happens when you get a ton of monkeys in a room with a ton of typewriters. A Borel of monkeys for sure!
Baxiden is by Liquid Tension Experiment
Paley's Watch (Guest)
The Thought Experiment
06/26/07 • -1 min
Special guest of the Big Bang and Creationism Podcast and colleague of mine, Robert Lippens joins returning co-host Andrew and I on a discussion about Intelligent Design. William Paley engineered his thought experiment about the watch and the watchmaker close to the turn of the 19th century. Since then, Intelligent Design has gotten lots more public media attention. The three of us roundtable it out on various claims by Intelligent Design proponents.
No skypecast for this week, sorry. We had millions of troubles and skypecasting was one of them. I realize there was a crowd trying to get in and get it to work, but they're being fixed right now, servers are down, etc. Perhaps next time!
Rachel Cooper's Overview on Thought Experiments (guest)
The Thought Experiment
08/18/07 • -1 min
Rachel Cooper, a lecturer at the University of Lancaster, provides for us an overview as to what thought experiments are and what they are used for. As a side note, she refers to Lucretius' Spear, an earlier podcast.
Debussy Reverie is by David DeLucia
Shedding Light on Dark Matter (part 1)
The Thought Experiment
08/09/08 • -1 min
In the fall I'm giving a lecture series on topics ranging from the history of the universe to time travel. Dark Matter is one of those topics.
In this first of 4 part series, I give a brief introduction and go over distinguishing Dark Matter from what isn't Dark Matter.
Next installment deals with properties of matter and Dark Matter and how they apply to baseball.
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FAQ
How many episodes does The Thought Experiment have?
The Thought Experiment currently has 21 episodes available.
What topics does The Thought Experiment cover?
The podcast is about Knowledge, Astronomy, Natural Sciences, Podcasts, Science, Philosophy, Thought and Physics.
What is the most popular episode on The Thought Experiment?
The episode title 'Shedding Light on Dark Matter (supplement)' is the most popular.
How often are episodes of The Thought Experiment released?
Episodes of The Thought Experiment are typically released every 9 days, 22 hours.
When was the first episode of The Thought Experiment?
The first episode of The Thought Experiment was released on Jun 26, 2007.
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