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That the Moon orbits Earth is one of the first and most basic facts most people learn about physics and astronomy. And it’s certainly intuitive enough: Earth’s only natural satellite moves across our sky each night. But, as this short from the YouTube series MinutePhysics details, if you use the Sun as your frame of reference, the truth becomes much more complicated. Explained via a series of nifty whiteboard-style animations, the video uses the Moon’s trajectory through the cosmos to explore broader, perhaps counterintuitive truths about orbital mechanics.
Video by MinutePhysics
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History of science
Ideas ‘of pure genius’ – how astronomers have measured the Universe across history
29 minutes
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Meaning and the good life
Why Orwell urged his readers to celebrate the spring, cynics be damned
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Making
On the Norwegian coast, a tree is transformed into a boat the old-fashioned way
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Animals and humans
One man’s quest to save an orphaned squirrel, as narrated by David Attenborough
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Computing and artificial intelligence
A future in which ‘artificial scientists’ make discoveries may not be far away
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Earth science and climate
Images carved into film form a haunting elegy for a disappearing slice of Earth
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Biology
Butterflies become unrecognisable landscapes when viewed under electron microscopes
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Engineering
Can monumental ‘ice stupas’ help remote Himalayan villages survive?
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Cognition and intelligence
A father forgets his child’s name for the first time in this poetic reflection on memory
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