9 /10 1 Votes
Starring Dr. David Goodstein Country of origin United States No. of seasons 1 First episode date 1985 Production location Pasadena Created by David Goodstein | 8.9/10 IMDb Narrated by Aaron Fletcher Original language(s) English No. of episodes 52 Final episode date 1986 Original network PBS | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Similar Earth Revealed: Introducto, The World of Chemistry, Bill Nye the Science Guy, Nova, Universe: The Infinite Frontier | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Episode 1 introduction the mechanical universe
The Mechanical Universe... And Beyond, is a 52-part telecourse filmed at the California Institute of Technology, and produced by Caltech and INTELECOM Intelligent Telecommunications (a non-profit consortium of California community colleges). The series introduces university level physics, covering topics from Copernicus to quantum mechanics.
Contents
- Episode 1 introduction the mechanical universe
- Episode 3 derivatives the mechanical universe
- List of episodes
- Funding
- References
Produced starting in 1985, the videos make heavy use of historical dramatizations and visual aids to explain physics concepts. The latter were state of the art at the time, incorporating almost 8 hours of computer animation created by computer graphics pioneer Jim Blinn. Each episode opens and closes with a "phantom" lecture by Caltech professor David Goodstein. After more than a quarter century, the series is still often used as a supplemental teaching aid, for its clear explanation of fundamental concepts such as special relativity.
The Mechanical Universe lectures are actual freshman physics lectures from Physics 1a and 1b courses at the California Institute of Technology. The room seen in the videos is the Bridge lecture hall.
The series can be streamed from services including Dailymotion and YouTube or purchased from Caltech.
Episode 3 derivatives the mechanical universe
List of episodes
The first 26 episodes are titled The Mechanical Universe on the show itself. The last 26, episodes 27 through 52. are titled The Mechanical Universe ...and Beyond.
Funding
Annenberg/CPB provided the funding for the production of The Mechanical Universe. The show was one of the first twelve projects funded by the initial $90 million pledge the Annenberg Foundation gave to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in the early 1980s.
Funding to broadcast the show came from the following.