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The Chemical History of a Candle (engineerguy.com)
55 points by beefman on July 3, 2016 | hide | past | favorite | 5 comments


While we are at it, the Engineering Guy has a really good youtube channel. His videos are not very frequent most of them does a great job explaining how mundane objects are designed and manufactured. I thought I was familiar with some of his subjects but I always end up learning something new after watching.

Personal favourites:

Aluminium cans: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUhisi2FBuw

Wind-up music box: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COty6_oDEkk

Nerf guns: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCxco6227xo


My personal favourite is his analysis of Albert Michelson’s harmonic analyzer [1], a 19-th century mechanical Fourier Analysis machine.

- [1] http://www.engineerguy.com/fourier/


I watched this series, seemed boring at first but really it is crazy what this machine does (with 19th century tech)

Definitely recommend this series (and the other videos)


I read a fascinating new biography of Faraday recently. I didnt know he did a lot in chemistry also, like these lectures.

We are approaching the 200th anniversary of his invention of the continuous electric motor in 1821. We have a specific origin-story in his notebooks as how he presented it as a novelty to nephew.


Gotta take a sec to recommend his book Why Engineers Need to Grow a Long Tail. It's an unusual and inspiring book.




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