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Eureka! is a Canadian educational television series which was produced and broadcast by TVOntario in 1980. The series was narrated by Billy Van, and featured a series of animated vignettes which taught physics lessons to children. It is currently available online. Eureka! was also broadcast on some PBS stations in the United States.
1980
How can physics be about movement if nothing wants to move? Ah, but forces in the universe make things move and stop moving. But at heart, the first rule of physics says: ""Things like to keep doing what they're already doing.""
This program introduces the kilogram as a way to measure the mass of an object, and proves that small things can me more massive than large things.
Expert ball-handling proves force varies with mass and speed.
Force varies with mass and rate of change of speed. It's much easier to stop a slow-moving cannonball than a rapid tennis ball.
It takes only a few seconds for something to accelerate to a max speed. This is demonstrated with a vintage locomotive.
What is gravity? Through the fictional story of Newton's apple, we learn about gravity and shed some light on weight.
Physics has to be specific in distinguishing weight from mass. This is why physicists measure weight in newtons.
How much work are you doing? Whatever the force you apply is measured in newton meters–or joules, after James P. Joule.
The physics of billiard balls begins the first of two programs on energy itself.
David and Goliath characters demonstrate how potential energy differs from kinetic energy.
Streaming availability information not available
1981
How can someone lift a very heavy load? If one could slice the load into pieces, that would trade increased distance for decreased effort. But since one can't break things because they are so heavy, the inclined plane comes into play.
A teeter-totter is the perfect demonstration of the lever, particularly if you are trying to ride a teeter-totter with someone heavier than you. Such is the Principle of the Lever.
Two professors compete to see who can lift a book with a lesser amount of force. The professor who uses a lever is more efficient than the inclined plane, once we factor in a basic double-edged sword called friction.
All machines in the world can be traced to just two: the inclined plane and the lever. Even the wheel is just a circular lever whose fulcrum has become an axle. The screw? It's just a spiraling inclined plane.
Jack and Jill went up the hill and found a problem: how can they pull a pail of water from the bottom of a well? In this expanded nursery story, we find there is more to a pulley–and its mechanical advantage–than meets the eye.
The first of six shows on heat and temperature, introduces molecules. Even though a solid object looks motionless, its molecules move back and forth in a lattice-work dance.
This episode sacrifices a chocolate rabbit on a hot day to illustrate the movement of molecules in liquids.
No end of problems await the man who keeps fish for pets. Evaporation forces one to refill the tank. And he who thinks he can outsmart water vapor by keeping his fish in a refrigerated water tank, falls prey to Nature's countermeasure: condensation.
This lecture-packed show compares a balloon to a bunch of angry wasps to explain why gases expand and contract. It goes further than that. The expansion process also affects matter when it changes from one state to another.
Given three bathtubs of varying temperature, the star of the show ""blunts"" his feet so that they can't tell temperature. Sure they can't. The human body can only tell changes in temperature in comparison to what it had been used to. It's up to an independent device: a thermometer and the scale devised by Anders Celsius.
What is better to warm up a kiddie pool: a teacup of boiling water (100° Celsius) or a bucket of water at 50° Celsius? The answer tells you the difference between temperature and heat.
There's more to matter than the molecules we had spent discussing in the previous six shows. This fourth unit produces that first look at atoms.
An atom is made of mostly empty space. The electrons in an atom zoom around at fantastic speeds to create existence out of something that is mostly nothingness (at the atomic level).
All objects conduct heat, of course, but get a look at objects from the atomic level and you'll see why some objects conduct heat faster than others.
To set up audiences for The Convection of Heat, this question is posed: how can you fit eight junky cars into a small space?
How come an anchor is easier to lift if it's in the water than in open air? It lies in the density of an object versus a certain quantity of water.
Now that the Principle of Buoyancy is understood, one can fully grasp The Convection of Heat. This is demonstrated with a furnace not being in the attic of a house.
An animated Count Rumford demonstrates, for the first time, how heat can be used to produce energy. The show converts a Calorie as the amount produced from 4200 joules of work.
Why does somebody stand in the shade on a hot day? This show introduces the third method by which heat can be transferred: radiation.
Is it just your imagination that you are warmer when you wear dark clothes over white clothes? That actually sets off a reveliation on what color really is.
Billy Van
Luba Goy