The Statistics of Microwave Popcorn

Let's use physics to ensure that we get the most out of our bag of popcorn. This video explains the science of popcorn kernels while introducing the normal distribution and the central limit theorem. We'll also learn some techniques in signal processing, including convolution and filters, and we'll learn how wavelet transforms helped detect gravitational waves. Try out the code yourself: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_NhQMvRr8sakCBkRxT51S_tOcmkIYU43?usp=sharing Become a Patreon member: https://www.patreon.com/PhysicsfortheBirds 0:00 Introduction 1:21 Popcorn physics 4:16 An experiment with kernels 8:30 Results Thank you to Caleb Birtwistle for captioning! Corn Textbook: Hallauer, Specialty Corns p.205-240. http://pustakapertanianub.staff.ub.ac.id/files/2012/12/Specialty-Corns.pdf Microwave popcorn characteristics: https://ift.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2621.1990.tb03934.x Gravitational Wave first observation: https://arxiv.org/abs/1602.03837 Coherent WaveBurst algorithm for GW: https://arxiv.org/abs/1602.03843, https://arxiv.org/abs/0802.3232