Why Do Things Break When They Fall? | Neil deGrasse Tyson Explains...
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- Опубликовано: 12 июн 2024
- Why do things break when they fall? On this explainer, Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Chuck nice break down the physics of a falling object. What make it break when it hits the ground?
We tease out the physics of what is going on. How much energy is holding the plate together? Learn about binding energy versus kinetic energy. What is gravitational potential energy? Find out how rollercoasters work. Why do you slow down going up hills? We find out: if a plate falls off a high shelf, who really broke the plate?
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Science meets pop culture on StarTalk! Astrophysicist & Hayden Planetarium director Neil deGrasse Tyson, his comic co-hosts, guest celebrities & scientists discuss astronomy, physics, and everything else about life in the universe. Keep Looking Up!
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0:00 - Introduction
1:59 - Binding Energy
3:50 - Kinetic Energy
5:56 - Gravitational Potential Energy
9:23 - Why Things Shatter
10:32 - Why Things Don’t Break
13:29 - Closing Notes 
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Next time you break something, blame it on kinetic energy!
*What’s Chuck’s last name❓*
I thought you'll say that the earth broke it because every object pulls every other object in the universe. Like Moon pulls Earth and vice versa.
@startalk is the point of maximum speed the speed at the lowest point on the roller coster or the speed at the lowest point of the longest steepest side of the roller coaster? I hope I get an answer
Basically when a child says "mom, something broke", he is right.
It’s cats
Chuck and Neil. Best podcast Duo ever.
True facts
Best smart/comedy combo
no cap
Without a doubt!
No doubt man !!!
35 years ago, my late mom (who by all accounts was a wonderful physics teacher) tried to explain to my seventh grade brain the interplay between the potential energy and the kinetic energy of an object in free fall that started at rest. 35 years on, I finally understand what she was talking about!! 😲🤯 Thank you Neil & Chuck!!
She wasn't a very good teacher then 😂😂 Jk
Or he was dumb
@@V_2077 Its also possible he was not a good student 35 yrs ago lol just kidding
Chuck is funny as heck! Makes it’s so more more fun to watch
Chuck and I had the same thought process when it came to this video. These videos just keep having me coming back. Love it.
Dr Tyson baffles me how he always has some information I was not yet aware of, love Neil & Chuck
dr Tyson has GOOGLE !!!!
@@mikethompson7132 still any scientific information no matter if he googled it or not is great information, please don’t tell me your one of those types who hate that a “black” person is more intellectually inclined than they are, I mean come on it’s 2022, we have the human G gnome project and so much more to put petty biases to rest
@@mikethompson7132 he IS google 😂😂
Everyone deserves a genius in their life. Thanks Neil and Chuck
Except Vladimir Putin, he doesn't deserve Doctor Neil in his life 😏
The constant swapping of kinetic and potential energy was one of my most favourite subjects when learning physics. And it all had to be conserved. No energy could be introduced and none could be subtracted without a cause. I take a plate, I put it on a shelf, the plate has now earned potential energy that I gave it from the very act of putting it on the shelf. I.e, the energy I spent putting the plate on the shelf is now inherited by the plate as potential energy.
Hm, the potential has to do with how high you put it and how much that plate weighs. But yes!
@@clairebury5821 I was just wondering how no one is considering the weight and how it affects this process!!! Thanks
@@clairebury5821 Thanks for you comment. I am not really sure how it relates to my point tho. Weight, shape, distance traveled, even altitude can be of any variable. thx again.
@@just_O gravitational potential energy = mgh
m - mass
g - gravitational field
h - height
The plate does not have energy conservation. It doesn't sit there with more energy than it had just by picking it up and placing it down.
Whoever lives with the cat. You guys are so awesome. Thank you.
It's interesting to me because as a physics major, when Neil asked the question "why things break when they fall?" I immediately thought of what happens in the molecular perspective and how energy is transfered within that realm. It might be a simple answer to the question if we think of it in a macroscopic aspect for a non-physics person but for physicsits, when these questions are brought up, the best way to understand the phenomenon, is to dive deep into the microscopic or quantum realm to know exactly what and why the plate breaks.
To calculate the force needed to break something, do you multiply the force needed to break two molecules to the total number of molecules in the object? That would mean, the bigger the object, the stronger the force needed. But we know that the strength of a material does not increase with the size of the object, it stays the same.
@@animus_loci the bigger the object, the larger the mass, the larger the potential energy when on the shelf, the larger the kinetic energy when it hits the floor. These calculations are therefore best done per unit of mass.
@@dutchie265 why potential energy don't break the plate?
Thank you! This is what I thought. And then I was surprised not everyone thought/knows this.
@@animus_loci that's a great question, we can calculate the binding energy of the plate as a sum of all molecular binds that create the plate but that doesn't necessarily mean that we need that much Joules to break the plate. The important factor is, the point of contact (point of collision) that the plate makes with the ground is what we need to look into. If the kinetic energy overcomes the local binding energy of the plate at the point of contact then the plate will break (or bend if it's plastic) in my opinion. It doesn't necessarily need to overcome the whole binding energy of the plate. But I could be wrong, I didn't put too much thought into this.
This was fascinating to hear a concept that we all think we know so well explained scientifically to make us go “Oooohhh! Wow. That’s the real reason it occurs, fully explained!” Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this, Neil! Funny commentary, Chuck!!
"Kinetic".....Chuck all over it as usual. Keep it up gentleman, love your show.
Im addicted to this explainers. Love it
🤓I never thought that by loading dishes on the shelf, I was also loading them with potential kinetic energy.👍🏿💯👍🏿
💡Great explainer to help keep thinking about physics in an every day practical way.🎯
I think you do understand the concepts but made a little mistake in the labels.
Every kind of potential energy is not kinetic energy, and vice versa: every kind of kinetic energy is not a potential energy. So, whenever you raise any object you're loading them with potential gravitational energy. And when it's free to fall, the gravity becomes effective and starts converting that potential energy into kinetic energy i.e. pulls that object downward thereby accelerating and giving it speed and that speed is how we observe the kinetic energy of that object.
I believe it's gravitational energy instead, then mix with kinetic energy along the way.
@@ayoelufisan6275 shows how little you know, Mr. Wannahammer.👈🏿
💯Interesting fact, Black holes aren't actually Black holes until Black men are in them and after that, there is no going back. And I say this as a loving and concerned Black man.👉🏿😎👍🏿
No no no ... you are NOT putting potential energy into the plates. The potential energy is said to be in the gravitational field --- Neil should have made this point much clearer. Think of putting a projectile into a spring loaded gun. The potential energy is in the spring, not the projectile. Also, remember that kinetic energy is a relative term. It can only be measured relative to something else, like in this case the floor. When you're in a car going 60 mph your kinetic energy to others in the car is basically 0 ... but to someone on the side of the road it's much, much greater should you jump out and hit them.
@@Apollorion No no no ... you are NOT putting potential energy into the plates. The potential energy is said to be in the gravitational field --- Neil should have made this point much clearer. Think of putting a projectile into a spring loaded gun. The potential energy is in the spring, not the projectile. Also, remember that kinetic energy is a relative term. It can only be measured relative to something else, like in this case the floor. When you're in a car going 60 mph your kinetic energy to others in the car is basically 0 ... but to someone on the side of the road it's much, much greater should you jump out and hit them.
Let's Go StarTalk 🔥👍
Right before Chuck said a cat. That's exciting what I was thinking. Schrodinger is the cat owner. You guys are doing a GREAT job.👍👍👍❤️❤️❤️
Hearing Neil talk about things gaining energy the more time it has to fall has me thinking we 100% should have a terminal velocity video!!!!!! Neil has briefly touched the topic on his “What goes up” video.
Hello to the best duo in the world 👋🏾
Many years ago when I was a kid, my parents bought new drinking glasses for the house that were "break resistant" I was amazed when my father pulled the first one out of the box and threw it at the floor and it didn't break. I guess after a couple years of running through the dishwasher changed its temper, when I thought I would show off to some friends and tried the same trick the glass shattered when it hit the floor.
The fate of every piece of glassware in existence
Beautiful explainer again!!!
Loved it, good edits.
Sirrr please more of of these basic understanding thank youuu startalk
Awesome vid!
Super interesting subject as always,
Hilariousy brought up. I just love the combo of U guys 👍
Hi im from the UK, its the first i ever commented, i only started to watch your videos a short while ago.
I love the videos and work, you guys have me laughing alot.
Stay humble guys 💚😁
This has been my question for a while, thank you!
Very clearly explained. 👍
I feel I am back to school. Great teaching!
I am love with this knowledge and comedy combination...lots of love from india...
I wish I had stuff like this easily accessible as a kid (RUclips). I would most likely be a scientist right now.
Chuck you are the best.
Outstanding educational episode. Well done Gentleman.
Side note: Lord Nice is "The Worlds GREATEST comedic talent and American Lord Dr. Tyson is the world's GREATEST teacher/professor/instructor
"Thank you for making science fun"
One of chucks best episodes, loved it guys ‼️‼️‼️‼️
I'm so happy that I found this video today. It not only applies to what I've been doing in my physics course but also to a conversation I had with my friend this past weekend. I was going on about potential and kinetic energy and he told me a story about when he was in high school and they were being introduced to it. His friend had asked the teacher if something sitting at the edge of the desk had potential energy...she laughed at him and said "no, that's something else entirely" and he was always confused about that. Thank you for the fantastic video, I especially enjoyed the cat meme bit.
That's why you have someone else put the dishes away, so it's their fault when the dish falls from the shelf as they provided the gravitational potential energy to the plate.
Chuck is the best man ( sounds like you been talking too the cat )🤣🤣🤣🤣
This has been illuminating
Brilliant as always
Thanks guys...you are always enlighteing and entertaining. LOVE the cat jokes...smiles.
Neil and Chuck! Yaay! The best ❤ together! I knew molecules held things together, but this explainer helps me understand more! Thanks guys! ❤
I love you guys!! Please please please don’t ever stop!!!❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
One of the only explainers where I knew the answers beforehand
Chuck is a must for this show.
Thanks!
i love Neil for making a question that i never asked myself to sound so astonishing
Love this podcast
Fantastic!!!
You guys have great 'chemistry'! Chuck is hilarious! Love these videos!
i just love chuck hes always makin me smile
Never stop !!!
Love it!
Can you guys possibly do an explainer on waves? I went to the ocean recently and the energy of waves and speed of it all really interested me! Would love to hear about it
Wind blows -> wind touches water surface -> water surface moves in direction of wind -> more wind moves more water -> faster wind = higher waves
@@439sparky1 lol thanks… but I was looking for more of the physics. Plus you have boats and large sea animals and tides all contributing a lot, lot more than the wind
@@439sparky1 lol thanks… but I was looking for more of the physics. Plus you have boats and large sea animals and tides all contributing a lot, lot more than the wind
I suppose the ability of individual molecules to move while maintaining their bond is the difference between flexible and brittle. Does physics have an explanation for the fundamental difference between the two kinds of bonds? Are they different at all? And if not what else constitutes their different properties?
Size, shape and composition of the molecules (i.e. which (type of) atoms are within the material) gives some good beginnings on predicting on how flexible or brittle a material will be, together with knowledge of the electromagnetism and quantum-mechanics as well as well already known examples such as plastics, salts, metals, gases etc. And an expert to do such a prediction is usually a chemist.
Nice explanation. I think the video though should include one additional segment explaining why only parts of the plate break and which parts those could be.
Fascinating concept, but Neil forgot to put into perceptive of the surface it's falls onto.. for example, If it falls onto a thick rug or soft surface, regardless of the kinetic energy, it doesn't break.
that explanation of potential and kinetic energy was amazing. wish i had teachers like ndt in my early school days… would have taken science more seriously.
I just had an epiphany. When you freeze an object, like a fruit, that normally wouldn't break into pieces when it falls. The energy holding the fruit together is taken away when you freeze it in liquid nitrogen. So, it takes far less energy to shatter into pieces.
That’s not what happens. The binding energy is unrelated to temperature. What happens is that at room temperature, the fruit will behave plastically when it hits the ground, meaning the energy of the impact, instead of going into the intermolecular bonds, goes towards permanently deforming the structure by moving some of it relative to the rest, which converts the energy into heat.
Below a certain temperature the fruit will become brittle and such plastic deformations can’t happen. It is then that the impact energy has no other easy path to take and has to go straight to the intermolecular bonds and break them.
@@ASJC27 thanks for clarifying!
@@ThunderChasers my pleasure
And I was thinking about the laws of entropy .... another lesson by Neil and Chuck ..
Love it!
It's not just about the small pieces. Safety glass stays together because it is actually two layers of glass with a layer of plastic in between. I've seen entire windshields shattered and still completely in their original position.
Thank you teacher, for explaining it in a magical way, hmm best teacher ever 🏆
Chuck Nice is hilarious, I've heard some of his standup and he does not quit making me laugh!
Scary username
"sounds like you've been talking to the cat..."
never stop, Chuck lol
The energy bonds of what the plat hits is important.
Chuck is going to become an honorary physicist if he absorbs this conversations
Hi, an insightful debate that clarifies, when the potential=mgh on the mentioned example turns to K=1/2mv^2, this explanation reminded me of the classic physics at high school and the great time which I had at that time.
I believe StarTalk can truly help not only have a deeper understanding of physics in our daily life but also will expand the public vision of the surrounding events by knowing its reason.
Agreed Kinetic energy been recorded on time laps as the Rupert’s
Glass demonstration
😂✅🥳 I like 👍 the saying because it’s good events are in my favor. A week ago up an Adam for the day I have a Hairbrush hanging on a nail above my 🧼 soap bar dish at my bathroom shaving 🪒 & wash sink 👏 🤤😴
Naturally drowsy my brush falls straight into my soap 🧼
Dish below it broke a porcelain type ceramic type a shape of a lady who is playing a little guitar or, Cello, type violin 🎻. Natural it broke up not completely broke I can repair it however would I want too? Because this is a common area for new events to come
🍀
So much excitement to share
Idk why but Neil's reflection on the glass behind him is very funny
2 questions:
1- why doesn't break when falls on a soft surface
2- why plastic plate with lower bounding energy doesn't break or rubber / elastic one?
Thanks
1. Soft surfaces absorb the kinetic energy from that thing which falls down.
2. Elastic or rubber plate doesn't break as it uses that energy for elasticity as Neil mentioned in 10:38
@@abhilash_p yeah I wasn't patient and saw he explains it too, but about the surface, I mean, what happens to that energy? Does it concert to heat? If yes, then let's say what if instead of a plate a piano falls from 10th floor or a truck from a bridge, can we really feel some heat in the impact area? (Which is not the product of friction)
@@aariapoor I would say the energy could be absorbed completely by the Soft surface or like in case of a trampoline when you fall on it, it will absorb some due to elasticity and the rest will transfer to you. Heat might be generated due to friction but I think it would depend on what material that surface is made up of.
@@aariapoor it converts back into elastic energy .
Thanks
I love how much chuck makes neil laugh
The Neil and Chuck show!
I'm curious how sometimes a plate will survive a fall off of a counter, while a nearly identical plate does not survive the same fall.
Concentration of energy to one spot vs a larger surface area which can absorb the impact more equally, so it depends on if it strikes one point or over a greater surface area.
@@MrAviator101 if i may add, a previous drop, however minor, would also affect the durability of the plate.
It's not the same fall. Different spot, different angle, etc. Even the plates themselves, no two are exactly the same.
I love you guys !
Cat: "Hello, Mr. Plate. I would like to introduce you to my friend, Gravity."
Awesome, but please tell more about kinetic and gravitational potential energy. Is this really energy or just an analogy of theoretical energy?
This is fascinating to think about and to learn about. A thinker for you, Why can't we just weld stuff by pushing it together? Why do we need heat to weld?
I like Chuck because he is so unafraid to comment and ask. I live in a country where the educational system makes children and teachers memorize facts and not test it. ❤ I like Neil because he makes science cool, and because he has the clarity, sanity, patience and humor to do it.
Him right there, My favourite Astrophysicist ❤️
thxx neil
Chuck is wonderful.
Very informative appreciate the enlightening!💯🦾🦿🧠
You 2 are a riot.
I have a question. The plate will have a equivalent kinetic energy when it falls on a piece of foam. If the plate does not break in that case, the energy isn't reflected back to the plate due to momentum? It's absorbed by the foam?
What if cats are able to sense potential energy and are constantly trying to move objects to a lower state?
No, it sounds less plausible than "cats just take pleasure in people's sufferings"
I lost my cat last night. These jokes hit a lil different but i needed em thank you
I love how Niel comes up with these random questions an average person would NEVER EVER think of!
I just cracked the screen on my phone yesterday. I knew how it happened. And now I know the why. Cool.
Next explainer video suggestion : why things becomes smaller when we go far away from them. ?
Yo I am doing a job shadowing at a telescope that catches gamma rays and would love if to learn a bit more about it in an upcoming vid
Edit: the thing I want to learn more about is call vhe (very high energy) astronomy
Those two guys are awsome
In an equally valid frame of reference, planet Earth fell on the plate. No surprise, it broke.
Floating is interesting.
The volume of water a ship displaces when it is afloat is has the same weight as that boat.
Chuck was in rare form today 👍
When I was a kid my mom had plates that were "unbreakable" under normal use. When she told me that I told my friends and they wanted to see. So I took one outside and threw it on the sidewalk. It broke. If I would have just dropped it it would have been fine. Since I actively threw it I gave it more gravitational potential energy. Thanks Neil!
And Chuck your story reminded me of that because it was the same thing. Especially since I told my mom I was testing it and it failed lol.
Y’all gotta see the Kay and Peele skit of Neil 😂 too accurate
@startalk is the point of maximum speed the speed at the lowest point on the roller coster or the speed at the lowest point of the longest steepest side of the roller coaster? I hope I get an answer
my first thought was gravity of course, after i watched it i realized its way more complicated then that
Yes
that makes me think of when people fall from high places and dont break anything. is there a way to create more energy holding yourself together at the time of impacting the ground so you dont get as hurt as you could? bracing yourself or tightening your body somehow?
Children are less likely to break things when they fall because they don't tighten up the way grownups will.
I think that if you contract your muscles you become more "plastic" in deformation and brake. If you relax, you are more elastic and also absorb the shock more spread out.
If you contract your muscles you put more strain on the spots that connect those muscles to the bones, it's like you add to the kinetic energy - so the bone breaks more easily. That's why drunk people have less broken bones - alcohol loosens that muscle tension :)
@@Etopirynka do you think people who skydive with a failed parachute and live accept whats happening and relax enough to soften the landing? thats what i was thinking of when i asked the original question.
@@commentor2013 no idea, I never did any skydiving nor do I know anybody who did. Nice idea tho!
You should do a follow-up on deceleration and inertia. What if the same plate fell from the same height but landed flat on a pillow?
This explainer brings to mind those old comb displays in drugstores that claimed the combs were "unbreakable" with the picture of a strong man bending the comb.😁