The formula for the cross product can feel like a mystery, or some kind of crazy coincidence. But it isn't. There is a fundamental connection between the cross product and determinants.

In January 1953, a tidal surge shook the North Sea. The titanic waves flooded the Dutch coastline, killing almost 2,000 people. 54 years later, a similar storm threatened the region. But this time, they were ready. This was thanks to a...

Scientists know that things like people’s heart rates, breathing, and even footfalls tend to line up when they’re doing things together, but we're learning that even the electrical activity in your brain can sync up too!

* Viewer discretion advised. This video includes discussion of mature topics and may be inappropriate for some audiences.

What is a border? It's a line on a map, a place where cultures mix and merge in beautiful, sometimes violent...

December has the longest solar days (noon-to-noon) because of the weird way a combination of the axial tilt of the earth and the eccentricity of its elliptical orbit conspire in December. Perihelion + Solstices = Long Days.

How to implement Hamming Codes with xors

In 2002, investigative journalist and TED Fellow Will Potter took a break from his regular beat, writing about shootings and murders for the Chicago Tribune. He went to help a local group campaigning against animal testing: "I thought it...

After a massive storm tears through the Hex Archipelago, you find five grizzled survivors in the water. As an act of gratitude for saving them, they reveal a secret _ the island they were just on holds some buried treasure. But when the...

After a friend of mine got a tattoo with a representation of the cosecant function, it got me thinking about how there's another sense in which this function is a tattoo on math, so to speak.

Moser's circle problem. What is this pattern: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 31,...

At age 81, actor and activist Jane Fonda is putting herself on the line for the planet -- literally. In a video interview with TEDWomen curator Pat Mitchell, Fonda speaks about getting arrested multiple times during Fire Drill Fridays,...

Today, we're going to talk about how the Earth moves, but to do that, we're going to have to go way back to the early days of the galaxy! Processes that happened before the Earth even formed have led us to the geographic patterns and...

A beautiful solution to the Basel Problem (1+1/4+1/9+1/16+...) using Euclidian geometry. Unlike many more common proofs, this one makes it very clear why pi is involved in the answer.

Scientists have found at least three cycles in nature that can be traced back to the alignment of the planets. And while they won’t tell you anything about your love life or personality, by studying them, we can learn about our planet’s...

SciShow Space shares the latest news from around the universe, including new insights into the giant supercluster of galaxies that we call home, and the first "data baby" from Rosetta's rendezvous with a comet.

How do you think about the column space and null space of a matrix visually? How do you think about the inverse of a matrix?

Artist Sarah Sze takes us on a kaleidoscopic journey through her work: immersive installations as tall as buildings, splashed across walls, orbiting through galleries -- blurring the lines between time, memory and space. Explore how we...

A classic puzzle in graph theory, the "Utilities problem", a description of why it is unsolvable on a plane, and how it becomes solvable on surfaces with a different topology.

Shakespeare sometimes gets a bad rap in high schools for his complex plots and antiquated language. But a quick peek into the rhythm of his words reveals a poet deeply rooted in the way people spoke in his time - and still speak today....

In this episode of Crash Course Chemistry, Hank discusses what Molecules actually look like and why, some quantum-mechanical three dimensional wave functions are explored, he touches on hybridization, and delves into sigma and pi...

You’ve probably had some. White lines or spots that appear and grow out with your nails. Why does this happen? There are a few reasons, ranging from bumping your nail to poisoning. Check out his Quick Question to see what might apply to...

On first glance, the painting Las Meninasc (The Maids of Honorc) might not seem terribly special, but it's actually one of the most analyzed pieces in the history of art. Why is this painting by Diego Velazquez so captivating? James...

Hank brings us a special report on the retro-proto-turbo-encabulator, which could very well revolutionize...uh...something.

What if you never had to fill out paperwork again? In Estonia, this is a reality: citizens conduct nearly all public services online, from starting a business to voting from their laptops, thanks to the nation's ambitious post-Soviet...