Hey Space Timers! As you'll hear in the episode Matt says "today" when referring to the Solar Eclipse. For clarity, the solar eclipse in North America will be on Monday, April 8th, 2024. We were originally going to publish this episode on eclipse day, but decided to push the release so more of our community could see it and enjoy it before Monday. We hope you enjoy the episode and that it can give you some more perspective on how important eclipses have been to the collective understanding of our place in the solar system!

@jtgullickson6117

Ай бұрын

As in, "this day and age", I would imagine.

@Scubadooper

Ай бұрын

Understandable

@my.names.robb.with.two.bs1

Ай бұрын

I knew there was going to be a video today. My psychic skills have gone Super Saiyan!

@bardsamok9221

Ай бұрын

Please do an episode on Brane Cosmology and M-Theory.. its stunning and not disproven, accelerators need to advance to prove or disprove LED. Either way M is a stunning theory and Witten is a legend. Would be a stunning landmark episode if you get the graphics right!!

@hrbrown29

Ай бұрын

Had to do a quick Google search to make sure I didn’t hop branches during my sleep. (before seeing this comment 😅)

0:00 _"A little later today..."_ Even though I *KNOW* what day the eclipse is, and have been planning for it, you still sent me into a panic. I'm much too easily swayed.🤣

@pbsspacetime

Ай бұрын

Sorry. We didn't mean to scare you! It's still definitely April 8th!

@DavidsDreamFactory

Ай бұрын

same!

@anarchyantz1564

Ай бұрын

@@pbsspacetime Great way to evade we are really in a simulation and adjust the comments rather than reality huh? 🤣🤣

@NiaNostos

Ай бұрын

I had the same reaction, except a week ago I misread the date of the eclipse and thought it was on the 6th so I thought I was really going crazy lmao

@scottdorfler2551

Ай бұрын

​​​​​@@anarchyantz1564 Hey, is that a black cat... Hey, is that a black cat...

What I love about this is it shows ancient people weren't dumb and we are as a species are not so much smarter. We just have better tools, built up from a foundation of those before us. If you would have dropped these ancient thinkers in modern day, with modern measuring tools, they would have gotten the same answers we get. I very much dislike when people don't understand evolution wouldn't make us smarter in 3000 years, it's too small of a timeline.

@Llanchlo

Ай бұрын

All flerfs shoud be required to watch this and identify the "errors" in reasoning and math ...

@ianoxenham4219

Ай бұрын

"If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants." -- Isaac Newton

@BenjaminCronce

Ай бұрын

Even within the human species, there's so much variation in the ability to solve certain types of problems. I've seen people with no background in a problem, solve an issue in minutes that stumped a group of experts for weeks. They were just curious about something the knew nothing about.

@justalex4214

Ай бұрын

Whenever someone says evolution made us smarter in the last 3000 years, just point at flat earthers, lol.

@pansepot1490

Ай бұрын

Great comment, so true. I on the other hand, especially when experiencing certain people, realize that we are not much more intelligent than apes. Our great strength is that we are a social species and by working together we can make the most of the individuals with the brains and those with the brawn.

5:46 If anyone IS asking why, the "first quarter" and "third quarter" are the 2 phases that occur when the moon is 1/4 and 3/4 of the way through its new moon -> new moon cycle.

@DGaryGrady

Ай бұрын

Correct! It also helps to remember that the word "moon" can refer to a lunar month. At (roughly) the end of the first and third quarters of a given lunar month (or "moon" in that sense), the moon as seen in the sky appears half-illuminated, i.e., a "half moon" in that other sense. I've sometimes heard people suggest that this is incorrect, but it isn't; it's accurate and descriptive but refers to a different meaning of the word.

@traybern

26 күн бұрын

Yet each shows HALF of a FULL moon!

Being able to deduce so much about the universe just with some shadows and math is absolutely incredible. The history of astronomy is fascinating. One of my favorite stories is Rømer's determination of the speed of light using nothing but the orbit of Jupiter's moon Io

@Enkaptaton

Ай бұрын

Ok THAT sound incredible. I will have to read about it

@kingdomofashes

Ай бұрын

Soacetime videos often make me feel stupid, but seeing what the ancient grreeks could figure out with basic geomtry from some simple observations is anazing

@patreekotime4578

Ай бұрын

Yeah, using mechanical clocks! Really amazing!

@JamesTWood

Ай бұрын

makes me wonder if having an eclipse or some such astronomical phenomenon of similar obviousness, is a key to the development of space-faring species 🤔🤔🤔

@patreekotime4578

Ай бұрын

@@JamesTWood One of the interesting things about our place in the universe is that the distance between the Earth and the Moon, the size of each, and the angle of the orbits, and the position of the land masses allows these eclipses to be observable at all. How many other worlds simply have transits of moons or other planets that dont block out the star? How many worlds dont have the parade of shadows across their moons like our lunar cycles?

I watched this whole video without wearing eye protection.

@stevesmith2044

Ай бұрын

Did you get blinded by science 😂

@NewMessage

Ай бұрын

@@stevesmith2044 🤣

@seattlegrrlie

Ай бұрын

Are you okay?

@kellyk8630

Ай бұрын

Giggity

@chrishunter9294

Ай бұрын

Your retinas will be burnt upon the heat death of the universe

I said "wow" out loud at least 3 times during this video. Human curiosity is borderline obsessive!

I watched the total solar eclipse from a bavarian mountain in 1999. as the moon started to completely cover the sun the vast fields in front of me turned pitch black as the light slowly dimmed and as the wall of shade hit me it became dark as night. it was insanely impressive. really gives you a sense of scale.

@thechickenduck8377

Ай бұрын

I saw that one too although in the garden 😂 What I’ll never forget is how nature slowed down to the point where birds stopped chirping and it was an eerie silence, as the eclipse approached. Apart from that, birds starting to chirp again on that sunny day shortly after the eclipse made it all the more amazing. It had a soundtrack lol

@Leyrann

Ай бұрын

Ooooh that's something to keep in mind. Me and my family are intending to watch the 2026 eclipse in Spain, as it occurs in August, at a good time to go on holiday (we're planning on the Pyrenees, so it'd only be a few hours traveling). A good view might make it even more impressive!

I can’t make this one, but in 2017, the full solar eclipse in Oregon was something i’ll never forget

@derringera

Ай бұрын

Greetings from Corvallis! At least that's where we were for the Eclipse.

@A3Kr0n

Ай бұрын

Did you look up?

@fletc3her

Ай бұрын

It was amazing. We came down from Seattle and had a great experience near Salem.

@chrismward

Ай бұрын

@@derringera 👋 we ( and 30k+ others) were at the Oregon eclipse festival… 😀

@chrismward

Ай бұрын

@@A3Kr0n that’s why I’ll never forget 😜

Matt is my all-time favourite narrator. His Aussie accent, perfect pronunciations, and fluid delivery are awesome. Give this man a round of applause!

@gerimaple

Ай бұрын

Usually perfect pronunciation - Newfoundland rhymes with "understand", with emphasis on the first syllable.

@PMA65537

Ай бұрын

9:49 Not so good on Greek names.

@besticudcumupwith202

Ай бұрын

...😂 the hands tho. He can NOT speak without waving the hands around. It's visually distracting.

@whitehorse1959

Ай бұрын

@@besticudcumupwith202 - Maybe part Italian? 🙂

@whitehorse1959

Ай бұрын

@@PMA65537 - as long as he doesn't call horiatiki salad a 'Greek salad' he's good. 🙂 but it's all Greek to me

I’m so excited to live directly in the path of totality!!!! I’m so lucky to be alive to witness this from my own backyard. I hope everyone who witnesses the eclipse is safe and has a wonderful experience!!!

@monicarenee7949

Ай бұрын

I have a bunch of trees in my backyard that would have made for a blocked view, but there’s an open grassy park right in front of my house with benches, and folks from the neighborhood all came to it to watch in the open field. It was perfect!

I will never forget seeing a total solar eclipse. It's truly breathtaking.

@Enkaptaton

Ай бұрын

I was a bit jealous here in Germany. Did you have a clear sky?

@ajh8566

Ай бұрын

@@Enkaptaton Yes, it was a hot, clear day. I travelled just over 800 miles to see it!

@ashvio

Ай бұрын

Lucky, it's cloudy tomorrow where I am :(

Carl Sagan - Cosmos - Eratosthenes. ''Because Eratosthenes had the presence of mind, to experiment, to actually ask, whether, back here, near Alexandria, a stick cast a shadow near noon, on June, the 21st .. And it turns out - Sticks Do.''

I actually used Eratosthenes' method of calculations with a pen pal in gradeschool to perform the same measurment of the earth's radius for science fair. Really, really smart and ingenious method and it really shows that no matter the tools, humanity will get to the answers.

In addition, it was relatively common knowledge among classical Greek scholars that the Sun, the Moon, the Earth and even the other planets were (almost) spherical in shape due to what we would call “gravity,” a phenomenon that they perceived as the propensity of more dense/“heavy” objects to go to the “bottom,” that is, toward the centre of such spheres (see Aristotle’s “De Coelo”/“On the Heavens”).

“But if we laugh with derision, we will never understand. Human intellectual capacity has not altered for thousands of years so far as we can tell. If intelligent people invested intense energy in issues that now seem foolish to us, then the failure lies in our understanding of their world, not in their distorted perceptions.” -SJ Gould

I'm just a little north of Carbondale Illinois waiting for this. I drove 5 and half hours to get here because this is where the weather looks the best from where I was.

@Stossburg

Ай бұрын

Best of luck. Texas had looked to be the prime spot, but now it is perhaps a bust.

@kevinpotts123

Ай бұрын

@@Stossburg hopefully it clears for you there.

@Stossburg

Ай бұрын

@@kevinpotts123 I appreciate it, but am in Alabama. Had toyed with travelling to Texas for 2024, but decided against it. I caught the 2017 totality, and was amazed.

I can't lie, this subject matter is so accessible that I've found this episode one of the most thought-provoking. All despite finding your recent holographic explanations fascinating.

According to the vikings, you should scream your lungs out during an eclipse. So, you know... No one is going to judge.

@bigsmall246

Ай бұрын

According to the church, you needed to throw inti jail anyone who realized the truth of the solar system, i.e. everything orbits the sun. Their storybook taught that everything orbits around earth.

@KuK137

Ай бұрын

@@bigsmall246 It's even funnier, their voodoo book outright says earth is flat ("plane of the world"), has corners, and wind is made by their deity when grandpa sitting on a cloud is bored and needs to vent. No, this is not a joke, this is literally 1:1 passages found in that trash pile of a book. Funny how voodoo 'literalists' always quietly ignore these verses...

@adammeyer3129

Ай бұрын

​@@bigsmall246which church are you talking about, because I can guarantee that's not true across most of them. There are, however, extremists. They are out there. If you are talking about Christianity or Muslim, it's just the extremists. The Bible actually documented different star and planet alignments

@bigsmall246

Ай бұрын

@@adammeyer3129 Galileo was imprisoned for life by the roman church. The archbishop of Siena himself sentenced Galileo to house arrest for life. If an extremist can go to such a high rank, isn't the whole religion extremist then?

@eamonreidy9534

Ай бұрын

@@adammeyer3129 where does the Bible document stars and planets

Hey, most of us don't need to imagine what it would be like to not know what is out there, we just observe our family dinner conversations. 😅

@Commander_ZiN

Ай бұрын

Yeah, it's gotten really bad.

And yet, there are those, that vehemently believe the earth is flat, nearly 2500 years later.

@BulentBasaran

Ай бұрын

Good point! Never take truth for granted. Personally, I haven't met anyone in person who believes that, except some folks on KZread. Maybe, and I am trying to be charitable here, they simply believe that the earth is flat enough 😅

@traybern

26 күн бұрын

NO. They just LIKE being A$$HOLES.

Love this throwback. The breadth of this channel is amazing, and is why I am still a subscriber since almost the beginning.

There you go, knowing stuff again. Don’t you know we are in the age of ‘I believe what I feel’?

@bipolarminddroppings

Ай бұрын

Isn't there a T-shirt that says "My facts don't care about your feelings"? If not. Someone should make it and cash in...

@garethdean6382

Ай бұрын

@@bipolarminddroppings Sadly I expect it'd be bought precisely by those whose facts are determined by feelings.

@tma2001

Ай бұрын

@@bipolarminddroppings reminds me of: the saying your're entitlrd to your own opinion just not your own facts

I'll be in Sherbrooke, Qcl monday where we will have about 3 min 20 sec of totality. Forecast is full clear sky. It will be my first total solar eclipse. Thanks for this nice piece of science and history!

Always blows my mind how smart the Ancient Greeks were.

The Venusian transit study is really cool. I didn't know about that effort, but it's these sorts of details that really add depth to the story of science figuring out how the universe works...

@haruyu123

Ай бұрын

Me too. That's a significant moment. Sorta sad I didn't know about it before

Ancient people: "earth is demonstrably round" Morons on TikTok: "NASA is lying! earth is flat!" I think we're regressing.

Shivers and tears! I found myself yelling "Wow!" multiple times. Excellent and timely episode!

This was something I was able to understand, very inspiring video! It is fascinating to realize how much the ancient Greek already knew. In contrast, high level QFT and Quantumgravity can be very overwhelming and I usually get lost rather quickly.

Saw the total eclipse 7 years ago in Tennessee. It was absolutely amazing. If you plan on seeing this one, try to make sure there are trees nearby... the insects and birds reacting is absolutely wild.

@Xonatron

Ай бұрын

Thanks for the tip!

Amazing visual display with explanation! Many thanks to the editing team!

Also can travel north and south and measure angle of pole stars and distance between points for find Earth radius and show round Earth.

Thanks for the great episode! Always interesting and enjoyable to watch these. I should be watching you regularly, instead of just here and there.

Yay , new episode time!

Thank you very much for this video. I have heard how the distances and size of the Earth were calculated in the past, but they never really provided any detailed explanation on the steps and logic that went into it. I finally get it, so thank so much

The visualisations on this channel are always great but this one just stood out as particularly impressive.

Really love the new end credits sequence!

Fantastic stuff and a tribute to all of those from ancient times through to today how have broadened our knowledge of the solar system and how it works.

Perfect ending to a great video. Definitely feel proud of this one, though really all of them. Amazing work!

Always enlightening thank you 😎

One of your best episodes yet Matt! Well done!

excellent topic and well done presentation

The half-moon phases are called "first quarter" and "third quarter" because they happen 25% and 75% of the way during the moon's period. (Counting from "new moon" as the start point. "Second quarter" would be the full moon, but calling it that doesn't add any precision since there's only one full moon per lunar month anyway.)

@devindaniels1634

Ай бұрын

Came looking to see if anyone else shared this.

Amazing episode, very inspriring information!

Send this to flat earthers

@timbeaton5045

Ай бұрын

They would say he is being paid to lie to us! Best to just laugh at them, really!

@patrickday4206

Ай бұрын

It's all a simulation anyways

@patelk464

Ай бұрын

​@timbeaton5045 they still think that the world thought that the Earth was flat until NASA was formed.

@briebel2684

Ай бұрын

Best just to ignore them. Block them out like you use your hand to block the sun on a bright day. Either through stupidy or purposeful trolling, they are immune to logic and reason. They thrive on wasting your time with their nonsense.

@garethdean6382

Ай бұрын

You can lead a horse to culture, but you cannot make him think.

Quarter moons makes perfect sense, they indicate the moon's travel through its full cycle. You have 1st quarter, Full, 3rd quarter, New. Probably a reliable enough measure of time for planning harvests, travel times, coordinating attacks, etc.

Great episode, still learning something new.

Excellent episode, thank you Matt and team! I made a point to watch it with my kids so they could understand how scientific discovery builds across time.

Loved the merch it totally lit up during totality keep up the awesome videos

This was such a fantastic video, I love hearing the entire story of humanity working to refine a certain piece of knowledge Puts it all in perspective so well! And the beautiful animation makes it really digestible, bravo!

Thank you so much for all your amazing work. Your videos have inspired me to learn so much more than I would have otherwise, and they have had a measurably positive impact on my life.

Always interesting, always educational, always . . . fascinating. Can't wait for the next video, Professor O'Dowd.

Exceptional stuff. Great visualisations.

I live not far from Vardø in the arctic circle one of the places from which the transit of venus was observed to make the solar parallax measurement.

5:49 "Those half-full points are technically called quarter moons. Don't ask me why." That's because "first QUARTER moon" and "third QUARTER moon" are at a 1/4 and 3/4 of the lunar cycle. Other significant points are at half ("new moon") or zero/1 ("full moon"). That's the reason why they are called "Quarter Moons". For the first time ever, I can explain something to Matt - it feels amazing 🤣

I'm stunned by Aristarchus 7:24. He had 300 IQ. He calculated the size and distance to the Pac-man we see on the sky 300BC 🐒

Enjoyed the animations!!

I would love an entire series that explains how we got to our current understanding across many disciplines!

Fascinating episode!

this was such a high quality video!

I really enjoy this video, as it is not about a heavy science topic and speaks about curiosities about eclipses

Fantastic video, as always!

Wow vastly improved speech delivery/ presentation on this one - thanks, very much appreciated!

This was fascinating, as usual. And yet I couldn't help but be mesmerized by the moons on Matt's shirt "floating" above his hands at 6:00 and again at 7:20!

You have explained in detail what I need. Thank you very much

Perfect Soundtrack to go with the Eclipse: Eric Whitacre - Deep Field.

I find it jaw dropping to understand how intelligent these guys were.

This is one of your best videos

Thanks you for this amazing video! ❤ it!

Praying for clearing skies.

@AlanTheBeast100

Ай бұрын

Here - statistically cloudy on April 8. We will have clear skies!!!!

I can say proudly I understood everything of this pbs video. finally.

What I loved in totality, is how it didn't turn to nigh time, as people have expected, but it became electric blue. Normally, when you see the sunlight, the color is a mixture of very intense orange and diffuse blue from the atmosphere. And you never question it. But then, during an eclipse all of the orange gets blocked, but the blue atmospheric glow persists. It is as if the light becomes bathroom-fluorescent. The brain starts freaking out, and telling me that I'm inside a giant bathroom with the ceiling so tall, that I can't see it, and the dim blue light is coming from everywhere. Plus the stars are temporarily visible. It was a very short experience, but I'll cherish it all my life, because despite reading a ton about it, I was still blown away by the actual event. I wanted my friends to travel with me to see it, but they all had plans, and I ended up going completely on my own. And it's their loss. If you haven't seen an eclipse, find the next one on the calendar and make travel arrangement to some place that doesn't get much rain. It doesn't happen every year, which only makes it more special. It does make you feel different afterwards. Makes the universe more scary. We're tiny little fleas on a wet baseball in space, orbiting an unshielded fusion reactor. Happy days!

@JusticeLeGrand10101

29 күн бұрын

We are humans on a planet in a solar system. Science rebukes metaphors. Silly Human!

@Didymus20X6

29 күн бұрын

@@JusticeLeGrand10101 Seriously, lay off the crack. Get help.

Got that sweater 3 days ago. Besides the lume, it's pretty comfy.

I'm only an hour from 100% totality. Can't wait to see the rest of you all in Evansville for the eclipse.

When I saw the total solar eclipse in Oregon I absolutely gasped in awe. Even though I knew exactly when and where to look, and exactly what I was looking at, it was still an almost "spiritual" experience. I cannot imagine what I would have felt/thought if I had that same experience without knowing it was coming or much about what caused it. I'm very sad I cannot make it to the path of totality this time.

@Stossburg

Ай бұрын

My 2017 experience was the same. Was truly awestruck. Hey, at least we saw that one. I am missing this one too.

Thanks ! (and thanks for the french subtitles)

This was amazing!

I remember being a kid and watching a total solar eclipse. A group of nearby chickens immediately went to roost, then returned a few minutes later as if nothing had happened. I'm honored I get to live as a scientist. Much love from Zimbabwe.

YO SATURDAY VID LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOO

It really is cool being an organism that is technically capable of figuring all of this out on its own. Good job, us.

I'm soo extremely lucky that I'm in the path of totality. I'm beyond excited!!

Off topic, but this channel has really inspired me. I graduated with a degree in interdisciplinary studies, which is basically the GED of college. It got me a decent job, but nothing too exciting. However, thanks to you, I've decided to dive into physics, which I've always found intriguing but above my pay grade. But thanks to your videos I've started studying on my on and am starting to get the hang of calculus, a subject I used to avoid like the plague.... I'm even thinking about going back to school. So, thanks for everything. Once I've got a good grip on all this math, I'm going for that physics degree and aiming for astrophysics.

What a beautiful episode !

For anyone who missed the totality, I wanted to let you know it was awesome.

New PBS Space Time video, hooray

Thank you for this fascinating history episode! I had the pleasure of relating some of the history and math discussed here to my Bible study class this morning while talking about the upcoming eclipse. I'm excited for it! I drove to Missouri in 2017 for the last one, and it was glorious. It's a miracle to witness. God be with you out there, everybody. ✝️ :)

Just watched the eclipse. I know the astronomy behind it. But it's still an event that breaks the human brain. This is one of those rare occasions where I lament the impact "awesome" has nowadays because there is no way to describe it. It fills you with awe.

Great video! Very interesting.😊

It happened today! One of the coolest things I've ever witnessed

Gorgeous!

Am in Arkansas now... hoping for clear skies 2morrow -- very glad though about this episode! Thanx Dr. Matt!

Dude I live in Dublin right now and Monday at ~8pm, for the partial eclipse there, is literally the moment when there will be the most rain and clouds. Couldn't even see it if I tried... I'm kinda sad about that... Great episode very informative! It's easy to forget how to do simple distance calculations when we're engrossed in all the gravity/unification stuff. Many people online scoff at flat earthers because they get moon size wrong, etc, but I always say to be kind, because it's actually quite challenging with nothing but your eyes, to measure distance and size. It took 2000 years of effort and collaboration to do it. I think we should be kind. Firm, but understanding. Math is hard.

An episode where I understood everything, without having to look stuff up! 😮

Wow, the global collaboration to measure Venus’ transit across the Sun… super impressive! 😲

Missed one final important set of eclipses. Rømer was able to use the eclipses of Io on Jupiter to measure the speed of light based on variations in arrival times due to increased lag in seeing the observations. Kind of need to make a cutoff somewhere so settling on the physical geometry makes sense. Otherwise we'd get to the point of including exoplanet atmospheres eventually. :)

It's really cool how much can be calculated by just looking at the sky

0:00 Confirmation Matt has a time machine...

@sozetsukokai9327

Ай бұрын

Correction: Matt IS a time machine

There's always time for PBS Space Time.

PBS spacetime aka Matt's lectures on physics to spooky dungeon music

Poking the algo. 🎉 Love this stuff.