Bubbling about the direction of the YouTube Channel

Well, I'm sleepy but I want to get a jump on the second video. As of this very post, this blog is now fulfilling the niche I'd intended it for. I want to stream-of-consciousness but for a large number of thoughts, far more than could ever reasonably be tweeted, and which would be inappropriate on the YouTube channel (which is more of a public contact forum).

So, on with it.

I'm quite proud of myself for finishing the Introductory video!  It is found at -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLMixxhy8yY

It turned out relatively well; a bit campy but I think about as good as was possible on my budget and it is quite attractive.

I feel like, for the first time in my life, I want to take a proactive approach to this. Since it's a project I'm doing entirely of my own volition, I feel motivated to try and stack up resources and build videos as quickly as possible, and let them stream out to the YouTube channel at a slower rate. This is as opposed to my usual approach of focusing on one single video each biweekly period, usually ending up slapping things together at the last minute.

Getting certain resources together ahead of time (e.g. the crazy-Brit-chick intros) is not important and can be done per period, as needed. However, script writing and reciting can be done as quickly as I can produce them, because I can simply keep them on reserve as a buffer against harder videos that might take me long to produce.

This approach will mean I'm going to have to start thinking early about the order and content of the videos I want to produce. For the first several videos, I want to build an interface between the Khan Academy and my own videos. Hopefully, the transition from the Khan Academy and my own videos should be as smooth as possible. Of course this means I'll actually have to study at the Khan Academy.

In a very weird way, I'm looking forward to that.. rapacious. I feel Alpha in my head licking his lips whispering for more, like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj-qBUWOYfE  (Incidentally, for those who don't know, Alpha is the title I've given to that facet of my personality who is driven towards producing this theory of gravity. The one with the motivation.)

Here's a list of everything I've been taught in no particular order, or at least as good a list as I can reconstruct from my hideous, hideous notes. (I should have recorded my sessions with Wenhao, damn it.)

• Thomas Kuhn  (Anomalies, Normal Science, Paradigms, Revolutions)
• Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle (surface level)
• DeBroglie Wavelength (condition under which quantum behaviour becomes pronounced)
• Rough radius of a Hydrogen atom (using HUP, kinetic and potential energies)
• Fraunhofer, single slit (small angle approximation, far field approximation)
• Units (Force, Energy, Pressure)
• Boltzmann's Equation (Evaporating Water) - Check out Annaracus Plot for kicks
• Boltzmann's Constant
• Equipartition Theorem (1/2*KT of energy per degree of freedom)
• Why is the sky blue? Electrical Oscillators
• e^(i*pi) + 1 = 0  ; The most gorgeous equation in the universe
• Blackbody Radiation
• Number of Modes (Classical, Raleigh-Jean's)
• Equipartition
• Ultraviolet Catastrophe
• Photoelectric Effect
• Bohr's Atom
• Einstein's 1905 paper
• Linear Algebra (large subject - Vector spaces, polynomial spaces, other spaces)
• Fourier Series -- WARNING: Notes got mixed, this stuff appears on the back of the "Applications" notes, listed below
• Partial Differential Equations (large subject)
• Eigenvalues, Eigenvectors
• Boundary Conditions, Initial Conditions, Steady States
• Heat Evolution Equation
• Quantum Mechanics!! Schroedinger's Wave Equation
• Separable PDE;
• Time Dependent Schroedinger Equ'n
• Time Independent Schroedinger Equ'n
• All of Quantum Mechanics: the four steps
• Applications:
• Particle in a box
•  Harmonic
• Zero Potential
• Bound State
• Scattering State
• Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, in depth
• Hilbert Spaces (closed under inf, at infinity-> 0, probability -> 1, E is conserved)
• More complicated V's (potentials) using regular old calculus
• Spin
• Stern-Gerlach Experiment

... WOW, we learned a lot and yet, I remember all this! At least, I remember covering it. My ability to replicate it on paper is an entirely different matter. Still ... incredible boost of confidence! I just may be able to pull this shit off!

Alright, it's getting late so I'll have to get back to this. I should go over to Khan Academy anyway and start going back over my bases. I can construct a pathway from their material to my own, when I do it.

For my next maybe two videos, I want to cover fluffy (i.e. mathless) but foundational stuff that are not only important for learning Quantum Mechanics, but will play a huge role in my development and presentation on my theories of gravity.

Those videos will cover:

1. Thomas Kuhn - Normal Science, Paradigms, Anomalies, and Revolutions in science
• This is especially important for Quantum Physics, which utterly overturned the classical picture (almost; excluding General Relativity)
• I want to make it very clear why normal science and these paradigms are so important and why science must suppress new theories in most cases (especially in the absence of anomalies)
2. Feynmann's Lecture on the double-slit experiment - specifically HIS lecture and not other peoples'. Why I dislike the cat-in-a-box example.
3. Newton's First Law and its survival to modern times
4. Units: Force, Energy, and Pressure - What they are, how they are related, and how to use units as a weapon to solve your math problems

That should cover me for the first little while! They're really basic topics I could lecture on with very little research, and it'll give me time to study and catch up on Khan's website and start preparing the heavy-duty lectures with genuine math in them.

Ready, set, go!