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Posts Tagged ‘Video’

Kill Math makes math more meaningful

05 Oct

Kill Math

After a certain point in math education, like some time during high school, the relevance of the concepts to the everyday and the real world seem to fade. However, in many ways, math lets you describe real life better than you can with just words. Designer Bret Victor hopes to make the abstract and conceptual to real and concrete with Kill Math.

Kill Math is my umbrella project for techniques that enable people to model and solve meaningful problems of quantity using concrete representations and intuition-guided exploration. In the long term, I hope to develop a widely-usable, insight-generating alternative to symbolic math.

As part of the early project, Victor developed a prototype interface on the iPad to help you understand dynamical systems. It probably sounds boring to you, but the video and explanation will change your mind:

Statistics has the same problem with concepts, and is one of the main reasons why people hate it so much. They learn about curves, hypothesis tests, and distribution tables, and the takeaway is that there are some equations that you plug numbers into. Sad. Of course there are plenty of people working on that, but there's still a ways to go.

[Kill Math | Thanks, Matthew]

 
 

Kill Math makes math more meaningful

05 Oct

Kill Math

After a certain point in math education, like some time during high school, the relevance of the concepts to the everyday and the real world seem to fade. However, in many ways, math lets you describe real life better than you can with just words. Designer Bret Victor hopes to make the abstract and conceptual to real and concrete with Kill Math.

Kill Math is my umbrella project for techniques that enable people to model and solve meaningful problems of quantity using concrete representations and intuition-guided exploration. In the long term, I hope to develop a widely-usable, insight-generating alternative to symbolic math.

As part of the early project, Victor developed a prototype interface on the iPad to help you understand dynamical systems. It probably sounds boring to you, but the video and explanation will change your mind:

Statistics has the same problem with concepts, and is one of the main reasons why people hate it so much. They learn about curves, hypothesis tests, and distribution tables, and the takeaway is that there are some equations that you plug numbers into. Sad. Of course there are plenty of people working on that, but there's still a ways to go.

[Kill Math | Thanks, Matthew]

 
 

Space Shuttle Atlantis Launch Video: The Final Flight

08 Jul


At 11:26 ET Friday, space shuttle Atlantis flew up in the sky toward the International Space Station, marking an end of an era: It was the last aircraft to launch as part of NASA’s space shuttle program.

Atlantis will carry four astronauts during the 12-day mission, bring supplies and spare parts to the International Space Station and conduct an experiment to test new refueling and repair technology for satellites in orbit, after which it will return to Earth and retire.

SEE ALSO: Space Shuttle Launch: Photos from the Final Atlantis Flight

If you’ve missed the live stream of the launch, you can see it in the archived video below. The actual liftoff starts somewhere around 18:00 in the video.


Photos from the Final Atlantis Flight


Stay tuned. We’ll keep updating this gallery with new photos.


Liftoff




Photo courtesy of NASA.


Liftoff




Photo courtesy of NASA.


Liftoff




Photo courtesy of NASA.


Liftoff




Photo courtesy of NASA.


Solid Rocket Booster Separation




Photo courtesy of NASA.


Liftoff




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Liftoff




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Liftoff




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Liftoff




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Liftoff




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Liftoff




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Liftoff




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Liftoff




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Liftoff




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Liftoff




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Liftoff




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Liftoff




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Liftoff




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Mashable Media Badge




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


NPR Tweeted




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Official Launch M&Ms




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Elmo Reports Launch




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Media Getting Signals




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


@SethGreen Tweeted




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Tweetup Participants




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Tweetup Participants




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Tweetup Badge




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Tweetup Participants




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Tweetup Participants




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Tweetup Participants




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


@schierholz Handed Out M&Ms




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


@schierholz Tweeted




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


@schierholz's Badge




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Shuttle Atlantis




Shuttle Atlantis moves into the Vehicle Assembly Building.

Photo courtesy of NASA.


Atlantis Sunrise




The sun rises over the launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Photo courtesy of NASA.


Atlantis Sunset




Sunset over Launch Pad 39A before the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module (MPLM) is delivered.

Photo courtesy of NASA.


Atlantis Sunrise




Another sun rises over the Shuttle Atlantis.

Photo courtesy of NASA.


The Crew Celebrates




The STS-135 crew wave American flags in honor of Independence Day. From left: Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley, and Mission Specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim.

Photo courtesy of NASA.


The Crew Heads for Final Launch Preparation




The STS-135 team departs for the Astronaut Crew Quarters in Kennedy's Operations and Checkout Building.

Photo courtesy of NASA.


Firing Room 4




In Firing Room 4, NASA team members prepare for launch.

Photo courtesy of NASA.


Launch Pad




Atlantis was "hard down" at its seaside launch pad by 3:29 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, June 1.

Photo courtesy of NASA.


Atlantis Flag




The Atlantis flag flutters below the American flag.

Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Launch Pad




A view of the launch pad from across the water.

Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Media Gathers




News crews prepare their equipment at tents near the launch pad.

Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Media Tents




Two-tier media tents provide better views of the Atlantis.

Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Launch Clock




Ryan Matzner, lead strategist at Fueled, a mobile app development firm, stands in front of the countdown-to-launch clock.

Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Media Tripods




Media stakes out their turf with tripods aimed at the shuttle launch.

Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Tweetup




Media and spectators alike participate in the lunch Tweetup.

Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


En Route




The van will lead the procession of astronauts to the shuttle.

Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


En Route




The astronauts en route to the launch pad.

Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


En Route




Precious cargo on the way to the launch pad.

Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Vehicle Assembly Building




An impressive spectacle in itself, the Vehicle Assembly Building has been used to assemble NASA vehicles since 1968. It is the largest single-story building in the world.

Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Vehicle Assembly Building




A view of the vehicle assembly building.

Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


BONUS: Amazing Photographs From Endeavour’s Last Voyage


NASA recently released these breathtaking images from the last voyage of Endeavour following its return from space last month. Until October 2010, it was believed that the Endeavour mission would be the last space shuttle flight — now Atlantis is set to take that honor.


Endeavour's final voyage





Endeavour's final voyage





Endeavour's final voyage





Endeavour's final voyage





Endeavour's final voyage





Endeavour's final voyage





Endeavour's final voyage





Endeavour's final voyage





Endeavour's final voyage





Endeavour's final voyage





Endeavour's final voyage





Endeavour's final voyage




More About: flight, NASA, space, space shuttle, Space Shuttle Atlantis, video

For more Tech & Gadgets coverage:

 
 

This Is The Best Timelapse You Will Ever See… This Week

04 May
I know that we have shown a lot of timelapses lately but our readers really love them and each month someone seems to raise the bar on quality or creativity. It is now Dominic Boudreault's time in the spotlight with his film "The City Limits". This film has the most amazing cityscapes I have seen to date. Make sure you watch this thing in HD full screen.

 
 

"Life is Hell, Then You Become One With The Force": Darth Vader explains Sartre [Video]

28 Apr
What if Star Wars was really a foreign movie, exploring the depths of the human soul and the meaning of life? A recut version of the film (packed with Jean-Paul Sartre quotes) replays Star Wars as an existential journey. More »
 

An amazing infographic explains what we’d have done with the 205 million gallons of oil if the Gulf Oil Spill hadn’t happened [Video]

27 Apr
Last year's Gulf Oil Spill released 205 million gallons of oil — such a huge amount, it's hard to get your mind around. To help conceptualize it, Chris Harmon created this amazing animated infographic. More »
 
 

What we learned from 20 minutes of footage from J.J. Abrams’ Super 8 [Video]

24 Mar
Last night, we got a sneak peek at 20 minutes of J.J. Abrams' Super 8. So did the mysterious film live up to our expectations? And just how does Abrams' movie pay tribute to Steven Spielberg? We asked, he answered. More »
 

IBM Researcher Explains What Makes Watson Tick [VIDEO]

18 Feb


Humanity took a beating from the machines this week. The world’s best Jeopardy player is no longer from the human race.

This week, IBM’s Watson supercomputer defeated Jeopardy‘s greatest champions, and it wasn’t even close. When all was said and done, Watson won $77,147, far more than Brad Rutter ($21,600) or 74-time champion Ken Jennings ($24,000). Its ability to dissect complex human language and return correct responses in a matter of seconds was simply too much for humanity’s best players.

A few years ago though, Watson couldn’t even answer 20% of the questions it was given correctly. And it took hours, not seconds, for Watson to process a question.

At an intimate event in San Francisco, John Prager, one of the researchers developing Watson’s ability to answer complex questions, gave a presentation detailing the work he and his colleagues did to turn Watson into a Jeopardy champion. During his presentation and a Q&A afterwards, Prager and fellow researcher Burn Lewis revealed some key nuggets of information, such as why Watson made those odd, uneven bets during Daily Doubles (an IBM researcher thought it would be boring if Watson’s bets ended with zeros, so he added random dollar amounts for kicks) or which programming languages the researchers used to build Watson (Java and C++).

So what’s next for Watson? Prager says that the next frontier is health care; he hopes that Watson’s technology can help diagnose ailments by analyzing vast quantities of data against patient symptoms and queries.

Check out the video to get a deeper dive into the technology behind Watson. Check it out in HD if you want to read the slides.

More About: IBM, IBM Watson, Jeopardy, video, watson, youtube

For more Tech & Gadgets coverage:

 

Our World, Slowed Down 100 Times [VIDEO]

12 Feb

Come with us into a world where everything is slowed down more than 100 times. Thanks to an expert videographer and editor named Tom Guilmette and a Vision Research Phantom Flex camera, we get a peek into an alternative universe — the same one we inhabit, but where the temporal element has been distorted in a variety of ways.

According to Guilmette on his Vimeo site:

“I was working a gig in Vegas with a brand new Phantom Flex high speed digital cinema camera. I had to try it out. In fact, I never did go to bed that night. I opened up a wormhole shooting at 2,564 frames per second.”

Most video ambles by at somewhere between 24 and 30 frames per second when it’s shot and viewed, but when you play back this 2,564 frame-per-second video at the usual speed of 24 or 30fps, things are slowed down so much, you can see things you’d never be able to detect in real time.

I’m always amazed at the way extreme slow motion techniques can turn everyday occurrences into mind-bending art. Beyond that, I’m impressed with the way Guilmette makes his video so entertaining with convincing sound effects, music and sharp editing, further playing with speed differences to create an astonishing timescape.

Want to shoot one of these yourself? Get yourself a Phantom Flex camera, available for rental for $3000 a day.

More About: Digital Cinema, Slow Motion, Tom Guilmette, trending, video, Vision Research Phantom Flex camera

For more Tech & Gadgets coverage:

 
 

Zero Motorcycles unveils faster-charging, even quieter 2011 motorcycle lineup (video)

08 Feb
To those who are still convinced that loud motorcycles make you more safe: it's best you look away now. The quietest bikes in the business just got even more silent. Zero Motorcycles just has unveiled its 2011 lineup of electric motorcycles and among a suite of generally tidy enhancements comes a change to belt drive. This means no more chains, no more chain lube, and no more rattling and grating noises. There's nothing but the sound of the wind and the faint scream of the motor, which you can hear for yourself in the video below. Also new is a 12.5 percent boost in battery capacity and a quick-charge option that drops charging times in half -- but does so at an up-front cost of $595. That's on top of the $9,995 for a road-going Zero S. Meanwhile the dual-sport Zero DS starts at $10,495, off-road Zero X at $7,995, and the higher-spec Zero MX $9,495. All are available for order right now.

Update: We spoke with the kind folks at Zero and got a little more information on that new trick charger. A current Zero S or Zero DS will take about four hours to charge, but if you opt for the $595 quick-charge it'll go down to just two hours -- though you can get a 90 percent in about an hour. The X and MX, meanwhile, can be fully charged in about an hour. This is without requiring any fancy plugs or DC converters, it's still just a standard 110 outlet!

[Thanks, Darius]

Continue reading Zero Motorcycles unveils faster-charging, even quieter 2011 motorcycle lineup (video)

Zero Motorcycles unveils faster-charging, even quieter 2011 motorcycle lineup (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Feb 2011 10:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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