I was a professor for over 15 years, and I cannot express how much I appreciate this professors teaching, personality, and frankly how he just seems like a good person. In my experience, the quality of a class cannot rest on a professor’s, attitude alone, but without enthusiasm for his subject, his students, and where he’s teaching, the subject matter doesn’t matter. You have to teach students first. You don’t teach science. you teach science students. This guy is great!!
The biggest downfall of general public education is that most schools discourage working together as cheating. When in the scientific community and real world, debate and collaboration are essential to making new discoveries.
@@benkleschinsky exactly, and even if someone helps you to understand a topic, it's usually someone considered smart among your peers, not necessarily a person who can explain it better than a smart student or a teacher.
@@MSDOS128 The ironic twist is that some of the most brilliant people make terrible teachers. There are actually two kinds of scientists. The dreamers and the skeptics. You need both a Fermi and a Teller to push forward science.
This teacher really is a great example of what a university lecturer should be. Clears out how the rest of the semester ties in with the current lesson etc, what questions will be answered, clears out that the class don't need to know all this from the get-go. Really great, instead of just shoving information and tells the students to solve it themselves
I agree. He introduces us to topics we know of but not deeper - causes, the danger, the time it may last , the chemistry of the various danger toxic chemicals so we can make sensible opinions of how safe such reactions are and Whether we can forgo that process even if it seems great. After all the remains of radioactive materials will remain some for hundreds of years but the reaction towers begin to lose their strength some 40 to 60 hrs and need to be replaced!
I am 57, just stumbled over this series of lectures. I feel like a fly just found the honeypot. Students can feel honored to have such a professional teacher. Thanks MIT for sharing.
Love the internet for this type of things that are actually free for us expect viewing some ads before to start and let creator earn and have money. Love it
Some professors have the ability to make any simple subject extremely complex and unclear; this man does exactly the opposite. He takes an incredibly complex subject and explains it in such simple terms that it all seems to make sense.
Maybe nuts but also spot on, no? I’m now understanding things I never got at school because questions were just left open. Probably similar to how Michael Short felt when he went to MIT as a high school student.
Fun fact the term “Nuts” comes from a US General during the Battle of the Bulge (late 1944). So your colloquialism to describe your incredulity is a century newer than your scientific knowledge on nuclear physics :)))
@@benartee9493 see the thing is, I don't think it's been that way for a good while, a couple decades at least. in primary school they have you carrying around a periodic table for no reason in particular, but what it does is ensure your first ideas about the structure of things are motivated by particle physics and atomic theory, not anything out of newtonian physics or classical field theory; high school science is then almost all modern nuclear physics and basic quantum chemistry the principles of QM may be counterintuitive, but the fact that the theory is linear makes any of the math you do so much easier that this becomes actually irrelevant in the average curriculum. the historical narrative has more or less been turned on its head, attempting to find HS students' competence in any of the higher mathematics required by the earlier, more complete theories really seems like something they just don't have time for
Im a physics undergrad student at a state school, and have been "taking" this course along with my regular coursework. Michael Short's teaching style is incredible!
I’m so glad that the algorithm has presented me with a video by Michael Short. I am now embarking on watching this series of videos to switch off from my job as a banker. Also I have been highly skeptical of nuclear power which then makes it morally difficult to embark on financing the building of new nuclear power stations. I’m looking forward to gaining a much better founded opinion on this, whichever way my opinion will swing after this series.
You will find that "both sides" are wrong, but one tends to be much wronger than the other, because some of those things cannot be simplified without then becoming wrong...
as a new mechanical engineer going into the nuclear industry in the UK, this is incredibly useful and i'm shocked and kind of embarrassed the lack of nuclear basics I know / have been exposed to!! This is extremely helpful and I'm excited to follow this course.
Old guy here, I wish I could have had a lecture like this back in the days simply to understand the process of producing a scientific paper (the nuclear stuff was straight forward).
I remember my first radioactive practical course in the former USSR. At the first safety briefing, the instructor (an old prof) said that there is nothing to be afraid of and that the amount of activity we will be handling cannot possibly hurt us. That was the end of the safety briefing after which we went on to pipet P32-labeled material.
I love that this class is available. My life took another path, but have always had an interest in the nuclear world. Looking forward to learning more from this course. Also work for an academic institution, and been a small part of them slowly sponsoring more open educational materials. Really hoping this trend continues and florishes.
I should really get back to doing my own engineering homework, But this class is just so engaging I am procrastinating by watching other chemistry chemistry videos videos lol
i ended up going to art school, but i had a deep interest in physics when i was in highschool. this is an awesome find for me - learning without the pressure of exams at the end of the semester!!
I believe Nuclear Energy is highly undervalued and under-appreciated, especially in today's energy and climate crisis. I do want to understand and get involved in Nuclear Energy this course I believe would be beneficial to understand nuclear energy and maybe look into applying with my Mechanical Engineering background. Thank you, MIT!
To be honest, I barely understand the math behind the explanation, but I know it's good stuff to listen to. When I feel i've learnt enough in life, I come to MIT'S open course to remind me that there students and professors are studying n explaining complex stuff and they take it so seriously; it makes me feel that I've wasted my time while other are busy learning. Thank you MIT for the FREE open course❤
An extraordinary teacher that reminds me of the wonder (and fear) of being able to achieve the goals of higher education. The last 200 seconds is a beyond-brilliant caveat re: where we are mired...
Watching these videos makes me really intrigued by nuclear engineering. I am currently studying at the University of Minnesota Twin cities for Chemical Engineering, and I am not planning on switching degrees either, but I would definitely be interested in maybe completing a B.S. in nuclear engineering.
Yes me too!! I've always wanted to be a nuclear engineer but right now I'm finishing the course in chemical engineering. When I'm done Im gonna do a Msc in nuclear engineering.
I am so thank for you doing this Mr. Short. This is helping me a lot to become since I lack the resources to pay for college. Thank you because this will help to achieve my career goals.
This stuff is making me want to go right back to the start and give Physics a real go rather than bitching out at age 16 like what happened. Great teacher!
What an enjoyable, funny and well presented lecture. This professor has really mastered his craft at delivering interesting information whist keeping it light and engaging. Thanks very much from England
Greenpeace is an excellent example of the Dunning-Kruger Effect in just about everything, including environmental protection, but especially nuclear risks.
Watching Kirk Sorensen talk up LFTR's made me realize how cool it would be to revolutionize energy production. I'm a 36yo truck driver with a high school education, so this is way beyond my ability to comprehend. If you're young, and taking this course, count yourself lucky. You could literally change the world some day.
thank you for making this open for the public, im a collage student trying to follow along as i love nuclear physics and this course is absolutely amazing
The math portion of your courses are way over my understanding........but curiously, I totally enjoy your presentations and look forward to viewing many more. I especially enjoyed your Chernobyl lecture.......thanks, Wayne
This is really awesome ... and I don't normally use that word. Another good resource on understanding nuclear power - which we really need considering that nuclear is probably the only real clean energy generation method that can scale up to power the whole world.
Woahhh I've never expected that I'm gonna watch this on internet it's seriously awesome I'm so inspired from history lecture........... Thank you so much for such an awesome introduction ND to the channel who provide this.....
I haven't studied this stuff in 25 years. I forgot how fascinating and wonderful all this is! Here's hoping I can learn as well at 40 as I did at 15. Thank you for posting this course. A side note: Prof. Short is rather handsome. That helps keep my attention! 🥰
I wished this video series was available when I was in the 8th grade in the 1970's, I would of ended up being a nuclear engineer. Thank you for making it available!
This is the most exciting class introduction I’ve ever heard I have two masters degrees in a BS degree material science and nuclear materials I would be very excited to take this course even with what I already know
Prof. Short has done an amazing job explaining these concepts. I have been a "hobbiest" nuclear engineer (did not pursue it in full during university). I can easily understand the material. What I really enjoyed was the grading expectations for the course. Extremely fair! Even some great incentives to go that bit further and gain the priviledge to apprentice with the professor on some interesting experiments. I'm happily going to listen to these while I clean my room (A Dr. J. Peterson reference)
I'm nowhere near as educated as any of the people in the room. The only time I ever used E=MC² was during a physics test in high-school equivalent where I had forgotten the formula for energy. (Got full marks though!) and yet, I learned a lot from this.
The teacher is awesome, I'm practically an illiterate compared to the students, and I understood a lot thanks to his explanations and the background I built myself through reading science divulgation books like "the goddamn particle" by Leon Lederman.
I've been calling it the 60 Hz shuffle for about 25 years now....It originally debuted as the 400 Hz shuffle when I brushed against a power supply while working on a periscope.
You rarely make that mistake twice. As a marine engineer, I learned a lesson about induction the hard way. I was installing the wiring to an additional CO2-alarm in the aft-most cargo hold, and had run the cable to the alarm in the cable tray in the engineer's passage way. Next to the cable were the 6,600 V power cables to the aft reefer trafos. So when I was almost finished and about to connect the cable to the alarm to the terminals in the junction box, I touched the wires and got zapped, and learned to factor in induction in the future :-)
So I'm literally a speech therapist, and I just wanted to know more about radiation after watching the Chernobyl series, and now I think I'm hooked on this lecture? I'm not supposed to like this...why is it so interesting???
Fascinating and amazing teacher. (I was a bit disappointed to the student’s definition of “science”, I define it by discovering things and learning how they work by putting them through all critical tests as well as making sure your theoretical explanation of them and their processes are 100% factual to the best of your ability, then harnessing that knowledge to create new things and knowledge. At least that’s my attempt to define it. Do “science” not “The Science”).
You can tell when a teacher knows what they're talking about when they can explain in such a way that anyone can understand. If you can't explain things simple, you don't know what your talking about.
