TEDActive 2013
Michael Stevens: How much does a video weigh?
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810,990 views
What color is a mirror? How much does a video weigh? Michael Stevens, creator of the popular educational YouTube channel Vsauce, spends his day asking quirky questions like these. In this talk he shows how asking the right -- seemingly silly -- questions can make incredibly effective lessons.
Michael Stevens - YouTube educator
Michael Stevens is the creator and host of Vsauce, an educational YouTube channel that addresses scientific oddities, like "Is Your Red the Same as My Red?" Full bio
Michael Stevens is the creator and host of Vsauce, an educational YouTube channel that addresses scientific oddities, like "Is Your Red the Same as My Red?" Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:14
Bean bags are awesome.
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But I see a few people out there
who are standing,
who are standing,
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we've got some over here,
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and standing takes more
work than lounging.
work than lounging.
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Using the Live Strong
Organization's online database
Organization's online database
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of weight loss resources,
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you can calculate
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that by the time I'm done
with this speech,
with this speech,
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those of you who are standing
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will have burned 7.5 more calories
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than those of you who are bean-bagging it.
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(Laughter)
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Okay, here's a question,
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speaking of weight loss,
specifically weight,
specifically weight,
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this speech is live.
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I'm actually here in front of you guys,
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we're all here together.
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But this speech is being recorded
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and it will become a video
that people can access all over the world
that people can access all over the world
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on computers, mobile devices,
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televisions.
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I weight about 190 pounds.
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How much will the video weigh?
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01:18
Asking questions like that
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is what I do every week
on my channel Vsauce.
on my channel Vsauce.
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For the last two years,
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I have been asking really fun questions,
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mind-boggling questions,
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and approaching them
as sincerely as I can,
as sincerely as I can,
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celebrating scientific
concepts and scientists.
concepts and scientists.
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And I research and write
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and produce and host
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and edit and upload
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and run the social media all by myself,
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but it's not lonely,
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because Vsauce has
more than 2 million subscribers,
more than 2 million subscribers,
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and every month, my videos are seen
by more than 20 million people.
by more than 20 million people.
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01:50
Yeah.
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(Applause)
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It's very exciting.
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I've found that asking a strange question
is a great way to get people in,
is a great way to get people in,
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not just people, but fans.
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And fans are different
than just viewers or an audience,
than just viewers or an audience,
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because fans want to come back.
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They subscribe to you on YouTube
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and they want to watch
everything you've made
everything you've made
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and everything you plan
to make in the future
to make in the future
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because we are curious people
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and sparking curiosity is great bait.
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It's a great way to catch a human.
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And once you've caught them,
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you have this captive
audience that you can,
audience that you can,
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with the goal in mind
of answering the question,
of answering the question,
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accidentally teach a lot of things to.
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So, let's take a look
at some of my videos.
at some of my videos.
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Here are eight of them.
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But down here in the lower-right corner,
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"What Color is a Mirror?"
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When people see that,
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it's very difficult not to click,
because you think,
because you think,
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"Come on, are you serious?
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How could you possibly
answer that question?"
answer that question?"
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Well, so far, 7.6 million
people have watched
people have watched
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this five-minute video
about what color a mirror is.
about what color a mirror is.
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And in that episode, I answer the question
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and I get a chance to explain
what would normally be kind of dry topics:
what would normally be kind of dry topics:
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optics,
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diffuse versus specular reflection,
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how light works,
how light works on the retina,
how light works on the retina,
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and even the etymology of color terms
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like white and black.
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Okay, spoiler alert:
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mirrors are not clear,
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they are not silvery,
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like they're often illustrated.
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Mirrors, technically speaking,
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are just a tiny, tiny, little bit ...
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green.
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You can demonstrate this
by putting two mirrors next to each other,
by putting two mirrors next to each other,
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facing so they reflect
back and forth forever.
back and forth forever.
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Look down that infinite reflection,
and it will get dimmer,
and it will get dimmer,
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because some light is lost
or absorbed every time,
or absorbed every time,
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but it will also become greener,
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because green light,
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that is light of a wavelength
that we perceive as green,
that we perceive as green,
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is best reflected by most mirrors.
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Okay, so, how much does a video weigh?
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Well, when you stream
a video onto your computer,
a video onto your computer,
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that information is temporarily stored
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using electrons.
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And the number of electrons on your device
won't actually increase or decrease.
won't actually increase or decrease.
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But it takes energy
to store them in one place,
to store them in one place,
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and, thanks to our friend Albert Einstein,
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we know that energy and mass are related.
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Okay, so here's the thing:
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let's say you're watching a YouTube video
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at a really nice resolution, 720p.
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Assuming a typical bit rate,
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we can figure that a minute
of YouTube video
of YouTube video
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is going to need to involve
about 10 million electrons on your device.
about 10 million electrons on your device.
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Plugging all those electrons
and the energy it takes to hold them
and the energy it takes to hold them
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in the correct place
for you to see the video,
for you to see the video,
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into that formula,
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we can figure out
that one minute of YouTube video
that one minute of YouTube video
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increases the mass of your computer
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by about 10 to the negative 19th grams.
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Written out, it looks like this.
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(Whistle)
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That's like nothing.
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You could call that nothing,
and you wouldn't really get in trouble,
and you wouldn't really get in trouble,
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because the best scales
we've ever invented
we've ever invented
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that we could try to use
to actually to detect that change
to actually to detect that change
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are only accurate to 10
to the negative 9th grams.
to the negative 9th grams.
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So, we can't measure it,
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but we can, like we just did,
calculate it.
calculate it.
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And that's really cool
because when I was a kid,
because when I was a kid,
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my school had two shelves
of science books.
of science books.
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That was really cool,
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but I read all of them
within, like, two grades,
within, like, two grades,
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and it was hard to get more books
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because books are heavy,
you need space for them
you need space for them
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and moving books around is tougher
than what we can do today.
than what we can do today.
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With numbers that small,
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I can fit thousands of books
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on my own little personal
electronic reader.
electronic reader.
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I can stream hours and hours
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and days and days of YouTube video
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without my computer
ever getting measurably heavier.
ever getting measurably heavier.
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And as information becomes that light,
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it becomes a lot more democratic,
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meaning that more teachers
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and presenters and creators
and viewers than ever before
and viewers than ever before
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can be involved.
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Right now, on YouTube,
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there is an explosion
of content like this happening.
of content like this happening.
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The three Vsauce channels
are down there in the corner.
are down there in the corner.
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But everyone else,
all together, collectively,
all together, collectively,
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their views dwarf what I can do alone
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or with the people that I work with,
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and that is really, really exciting.
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It turns out that tapping
into people's curiosity
into people's curiosity
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and responsibly answering their questions
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is a brilliant way to build
fans and an audience
fans and an audience
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and get in viewers.
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It's even a great way
for brands and companies
for brands and companies
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to build trust.
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So, calculating the weight of a video
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is kind of a funny question,
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but I cannot wait to see
what we ask and answer next.
what we ask and answer next.
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As always, thanks for watching.
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(Applause)
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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Michael Stevens - YouTube educatorMichael Stevens is the creator and host of Vsauce, an educational YouTube channel that addresses scientific oddities, like "Is Your Red the Same as My Red?"
Why you should listen
Michael Stevens is an educator -- but when he answers questions, 3.2 million people tune in to hear the answer. That's because Stevens is the creator and host of Vsauce, an educational YouTube channel that addresses quirky but intriguing topics like "The Science of the Friend Zone" and "What Is Déjà vu?" Stevens has made a career feeding popular hunger for cool and interesting facts.
Michael Stevens | Speaker | TED.com