SciCast Notes:

Good clear presentation, this, and well-constructed. Things don’t quite go to plan, however. If you watch carefully, you’ll notice that the experiment doesn’t actually do what the team say it does. Their physics is correct, I believe — they’ve been caught out by the pesky habit the real world has of not doing what it’s told whenever a camera’s rolling.

“As you’ve just seen, ramp number one comes first”, assures the speaker. Wait a second… rewind… does it, monkeys! Mind you, if you go frame-by-frame you can see that the marbles aren’t released at the same moment. It’s extremely hard to get this sort of thing right, and I can’t blame the team here. Lessons for the rest of us, however:

1. If you have an experiment that’s quick, do half a dozen takes of it. Then when you’re looking back, pick the one that works most successfully. You might want to use this approach to discuss the difference between a ‘demonstration’ and an ‘experiment’ — selecting your data is terribly bad experimental design, but that’s fine in this context!

2. The sound in this film is almost — almost — wonderful. However, either the microphones or the camera input are set with too much gain, with the result that it’s distorting and very harsh to listen to. Always either monitor the sound you’re recording with headphones, listening for this sort of thing, or record some tests and check them back before recording the whole thing.

Ah, so much to remember.

This is still a good film, mind. I’m just being picky again.

— Jonathan.