Physics in Focus

Change of name

When you are deciding on the name for a new channel, it is usually best if you choose one that is the same as the URL or username you will be using. Unless you’re Ray William Johnson, of course, but I think he’s the notable exception in this matter.

When I chose Mastering The Universe, I was under the impression that this username was not taken on YouTube. Of course, I was wrong. It’s the username of what appears to be either a small-time band, or a fan of small-time bands. It has also been in use for six years. Whoops.

So I’ve changed the name to Physics in Focus; which was as close as I could get to alliteration as possible. It’s hard to find two words that start with “P” and can be run together without sounding stupid, so I had to run the sounds together rather than the words. Either way, the title is here now so we’re going to have to run with it.

The first episode is due to go online during the summer. I have a team of physicists ready, willing and able to read over my scripts once I finish them (having studied alongside them when we were all at Durham helped me to find them - at least some things are falling into place) and I’m looking forward to getting started.

Look out for a “coming soon” video being released in the next couple of weeks, during which I’ll give you a run-down of the major topics we will be covering.

The Purpose of this show

Physics has a bad reputation for being full of really difficult subjects; mathematics that is impossible to understand unless you’re the NerdMaster General; and stuffy lecturers who know how to use a semi-colon.

All of this is untrue. Especially the bit about the semi-colon.

Mastering the Universe will teach you about the many subjects covered by Physics in weekly chunks of no more than 15 minutes per topic. We will cover everything from classical physics with Newton’s Laws of Motion (“every action has an equal and opposite reaction”, and so forth) to the oddities of Wave-Particle Duality, Quantum Tunnelling and Anti-Gravity.

We are aiming for 40 episodes in series one of this show, each of which has to be painstakingly fact-checked before recording can take place. It’s therefore going to be a couple of weeks before we begin, but we’re looking forward to the ride.