Tales of passion and loss

Well, maybe not quite so dramatic, but certainly aggravating.

My intention was to create a series of educational home videos to accompany my upcoming explorations of the hard sciences and I did produce about 10 hours of video...before my computer died.

The files aren't actually lost...not really. They're in the hard disk, but I would have to wait until I get a new computer that can read the hard disk or find someone that doesn't mind me installing my old hard disk into their computer and transfer all the files onto my external drive and that's a whole 'nother can of worms. I'm not into biology yet so the worms are out for the time being. I'm 66 years old and too old to be wasting that kind of time so….

Tack and yaw (whutever that means)

There are actually some great video series already out there and I will recommend a few. Then, I will integrate the demonstrations I planned to do into my excursions. I'll start (as usual) by telling you about my setup, the references and tools I will be using. Then, I will find a local playground and….well, play, and I will record my motions using my smartphones to show you how classical mechanics works in the real world. Then, I'll bring it into the lab (my bedroom) to open it up and show you what's under the hood. And there will be short videos.

As for the series, if you have the money or can check it out at your local library, The Teaching Company has an excellent introduction to physics presented by Richard Wolfson called Physics and Our Universe: How it All Works. It is a 60 lesson series that is light on math but deep on understanding. Dr. Wolfson believes in demonstrations.

One of the stellar personalities from the physics classroom was Walter Lewin (of "physics works!" fame). His classes were deep and his demonstrations were fascinating. You can still find them on YouTube (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCiEHVhv0SBMpP75JbzJShqw&ved=2ahUKEwiK2L3wgcrlAhVHrZ4KHUtABCkQjjgwFHoECAgQAQ&usg=AOvVaw09SeYA_wzqGTJhlVHpa8Ry) 

A little more "introductory" but very well done are the videos from the California Institute of Technology, The Mechanical Universe … And Beyond. A blend of classroom lectures, science demonstrations, and historical documentary, this series is available for download from the Internet Archives (https://archive.org/search.php?query=mechanical%20universe&and[]=mediatype%3A%22movies%22) 

And, of course, check out the offerings at the MIT Opencourseware website (https://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm). Physics and astronomy are waiting for you, hopefully sans the drama, loss, and agony of de feet, next year, here on Adventuring: The Bear Creek Commentaries.