lathiatApr 2021Strongly recommends
"Where do trees get their mass?" - ▶ this video This was highly enlightening the first time I watched it :)
in “Where does a candle go when it burns?” · View on HN
Where Do Trees Get Their Mass?
Where Do Trees Get Their Mass? on HackerTube: recommended by 3 Hacker News commenters across 3 separate months, 2015–2021.
Veritasium
Open on YouTubeexplainer · evergreen
Veritasium asks people where a tree's mass comes from, then explains that most of a dry tree's mass originates from carbon dioxide in the air. It combines street interviews with a short explanation of photosynthesis.
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN uses it as the go-to demonstration of how unintuitive mass conservation is, especially in weight loss and burning threads.
- people recommended it
- 3
- separate months
- 3
- strong recommendations
- 1
- discussed on HN
- 2015–2021
“Veritasium has a fun video demonstrating how unintuitive this is”
What HN commenters said
4 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.
JshWrightNov 2017Recommends
An interesting corollary to this is "Where do trees get their mass?" Veritasium has a fun video demonstrating how unintuitive this is: ▶ this video
in “When somebody loses weight, where does the fat go?” · View on HN
lkbmApr 2015Recommends
There's a nice Veritasium episode wherein he asks people on the street where a tree's mass comes from: ▶ this video (This isn't just one of those "let's laugh at how dumb people on the street are" videos; it's done explicitly as a learning exercise. His PhD looked at how addressing misconceptions and going from there to correct explanations works much better than simply providing explanations: [link] ) I thought of it upon seeing the first chart in the BMJ article.)
in “When You Lose Weight, Where Does It Go?” · View on HN
MarcScottApr 2015Cites it
And the reverse biochemical process is equally misunderstood. I used to teach high school Science and everyone thought a tree's mass came from the soil. ▶ this video
in “When You Lose Weight, Where Does It Go?” · View on HN
Topics & tags
Scientific method & science communicationBiology & biotechnologyEveryday physics & science demostreesphotosynthesiscarbon dioxidemisconceptionsscience education