1,000 Birds In A Truck Riddle

1,386,627

51,434 1,272

Published 2019-04-08

Observation is the core of our understanding of science and applied math. But what happens when what we see isn’t what we actually get? Or when we can’t see at all?

Exploring unseen physics gets to the heart of a host of riddles, paradoxes, and millennia of scientific advancements. Conquering what we can’t see takes pioneers, like the Aboriginals in Australia who harnessed invisible aerodynamic forces to make boomerangs… or Chinese inventors and engineers who experimented successfully with man-carrying kites as early as the 6th century AD.

As Einstein told German chemist HF Marks, “You make experiments and I make theories. Do you know the difference? A theory is something that nobody believes except the person who made it, while an experiment is something that everybody believes except the person who made it.”

** SOURCES **

“From Alchemy to Quarks,” by Sheldon Glashow www.amazon.com/Alchemy-Quarks-Study-Physics-Libera…

"Two Hundred Pigeons," in Martin Gardner's The Colossal Book of Short Puzzles and Problems
www.amazon.com/Colossal-Book-Short-Puzzles-Problem…

** LINKS **

Vsauce2 Links
Twitter: twitter.com/VsauceTwo
Facebook: www.facebook.com/VsauceTwo

Hosted and Produced by Kevin Lieber
Instagram: instagram.com/kevlieber
Twitter: twitter.com/kevinlieber
Podcast: youtube.com/thecreateunknown

Research And Writing by Matthew Tabor
twitter.com/matthewktabor

Editing by Aspect Science
/ @tommocarroll

Huge Thanks To Paula Lieber
www.etsy.com/shop/Craftality

Get Vsauce's favorite science and math toys delivered to your door!
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Select Music By Jake Chudnow: youtube.com/user/JakeChudnow

#education #vsauce2

All Comments (21)

@MichaelOrtega 5 years ago

When any of the Vsauce channels upload, it’s a global event...
@aidanscott4302 4 years ago

1:35 “Why didn’t his plan work?” Maybe because the bridge is made of straws
@nilsmeta641 4 years ago

When you casually go from talking about Angry Birds, a game aimed at 8 year olds, to talking about relativity and time dilation within a video of 10 minutes
@evankrause2304 4 years ago

Missed opportunity. Should have named the space ship Vsaucer
@ChristopherMoom 5 years ago

An Angry Birds Sponsor? When did I time travel back a few years?
@ni55e49 5 years ago

Did you wait 6 years for the sponsor
@LaGuerre19 5 years ago

Gandalf, driving the bird-filled truck: FLY, YOU FOOLS!
@counter-terrordoge3335 4 years ago

START Kevin: Let’s talk about this riddle END Kevin: INTER-DIMENSIONAL EVIL TWINS!
@BradRLee 5 years ago

Isn’t Angry Birds 2 about 5 years old?
@robinsavo 4 years ago

I just love the way he explained “Angry Birds”
@randot0769 5 years ago

"Not like last year new, but like 50000 ago new" - Kevin 2019
@frank5077 5 years ago

But what if YOU are the hamburger?!?!? - Vsauce2 Kevin 2019
@TheWolfboy180 5 years ago

Kevin unironically gives the tools to find the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow
@ZacharyLaid 5 years ago

Air is really water, and we are really hamburgers.
@BenjaminISmith 5 years ago

The scenario with the birds in the truck is easy to conceptualize. Imagine the same truck but instead of birds it carried tanks of fish. Thinking that when the birds fly it makes the truck lighter is like thinking when the fish swim to the top of their aquarium it makes the tank lighter. It's the same thing but we tend to not think of air as being a thing trucks carry
@isaaciced 4 years ago

7:18 something I never thought Kevin would say.
@yasminceleste3844 5 years ago

"I use it... to look nice" - Kevin slaying Paris fashion week
@jadenchen8921 5 years ago

I’ll keep this in mind if I ever drive over an old, dangerous bridge with 1,000 birds. I love Vsauce!
@wyattbillings4134 4 years ago

Nobody can see time Doctor Strange: Am I a joke to you
@Noah-gp4ml 4 years ago

Bridge keeper: What’s the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow? Vsauce: 3d(V^2)S