The Biggest Misconception in Physics

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A huge thank you to Prof. Geraint Lewis, Prof. Melissa Franklin, Prof. David Kaiser, Elba Alonso-Monsalve, Richard Behiel, Prof. Leo Stein and Jakob Schwintenberg for their invaluable expertise and contributions to this video.

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0:00 What is symmetry?
4:25 Emmy Noether and Einstein
7:33 General Covariance
11:59 The Principle of Least Action
15:29 Noether’s First Theorem
18:24 The Continuity Equation
23:20 Escape from Germany
24:49 The Standard Model - Higgs and Quarks

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References:

Additional References:

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Special thanks to our Patreon supporters:
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Directed by Matthew Davies
Written by Matthew Davies, Casper Mebius, Derek Muller and Pablo Rovetto
Edited by Trenton Oliver, Peter Nelson and Nick Lear
Animated by Fabio Albertelli, Emma Wright, Andrew Neet, Alessandro Roussel and Ivy Tello
Illustrations by Jakub Misiek, Cainejan Esperanza, Tommy Stevens, Maria Gusakovich and Emma Wright
Additional research by Henry van Dyck, Gabe Strong and Darius Garewal
Produced by Matthew Davies, Casper Mebius, Derek Muller, Zoe Heron, Rob Beasley Spence and Tori Brittain

Thumbnail contributions by Jakub Misiek, Ren Hurley, Ben Powell and Peter Sheppard

Additional video/photos supplied by Getty Images and Pond5
Music from Epidemic Sound

[FraanzG]

For the people that don't know Emmy Noether passed away on April 14. Exactly 90 years ago, same day this video was published.
I don't know if this was a coincidence or on purpose but nice memorial none the less.

[Kid.Nimbus]

Blows my mind this content is free. No filler, no weak episodes, just pure unadultred gas

[dragonfrvit]

one day veritasium should compile all of his "history of physics" videos into one continuous storyline 👀

[entspannter_hase]

I feel honored that Veritasium thinks I possess a large enough amount of intelligence to follow this video

[gallium-gonzollium]

12:07 "Previously on Veritasium..." immediately made me realize that Veritasium is turning into something beyond a simple youtube channel; whatever this could be may be very deserved among your team.

[stefaness]

Greetings from Erlangen, Emmy Noether’s and my hometown! I live just around the corner from the Emmy-Noether-Gymnasium (college prep high school), yet only now through this video did I truly grasp her groundbreaking impact on physics. Thanks Derek for shining a light on her legacy!

[DavideTestuggine]

Derek, what you are doing with your channel lately is absolutely OUTSTANDING. You are blowing my mind with this series! This series is truly a "best of all time" on YouTube. Thank you for providing education at the highest levels of quality, free for all. You are going to inspire the next generation of scientists!

[mohdsadiqalzikry]

One of your fans and old veteran followers here since the beginning of your channel.

I rarely comment on YouTube vids but i thought it's the least i can do to show my support, so THANK YOU Derek!

Love your videos. However, i love these 30 min or more vids you do now much more. They are more quality oriented and dive deeper. They tackle the common concepts of the physical world with mesmerizing historical visualization, and with such attention to math beauty.

Veritasium stands now as the only YouTube channel that provides such content and we are very grateful for the hard work and time you and your great time put into it.

Thanks again and keep the hard work 👍🏻

[jimmyzhao]

6:12 Einstein has 'Happiest Thought of his Life'

Me: Whoa ! This is going to be good
Einstein's thought: Window washer falling off a building
Me: 👀

[MG]

Who knew that a single video on some obscure phenomenon like Snell's Law would blow-up into this saga. Brilliant

[pav]

I feel like when I started out at a university's initial math lectures, where the prof would go: You know the "unbreakable rules" that were drilled into you in high school? Yea, forget those, they aren't really unbreakaable.

Amazing video <3

[emonx]

Once he said Lagrangian, I knew it was time for me to stop trying to understand the math and start trusting the process

[Person-ze]

I love how Veritasium shows us people we have likely never heard of, yet are so important to their respective fields.

Thank you to everyone working at Veritasium.

[atharvabahekar]

Particle physics grad here - This video (and a few others on this channel) should most certainly be part of the curriculum of any university degree course aiming for Particle Physics comprehension; the amount of clarity it provides regarding the flow of how one concept leads to another, while also providing enough skeletal mathematical structure where crucial, is beyond amazing. Looking forward to the next one!

[huhufish]

Please keep up the great and amazing job you and your team have been doing. Even 15 years after obtaining my PhD in Nuclear Physics, i still learn so much from your channel. And to bring such knowledge to the world literally for free is a testament to your kindess and love for science.

[andrewlaws]

Symmetries being so important to the framework of the universe makes so much intuitive sense even to someone with no formal university level schooling in the subject. Glad to see it is backed up with math and presented and communicated in such a great way by this channel. I have a feeling that Dialectics has a similar intuitive and mathematical form but the math just hasn’t been figured out yet

[ismiregalichkochdasjetztso]

Between the last video on the Axiom of Choice and this one on Noether's theorems, I'm floored by the production quality, the ability to explain topics that are by no means easy, and daring to show actual math. My understanding of the world has grown significantly. Thanks!

[daesikkim]

I'm constantly amazed that Veritasium, as a science YouTube channel for the public, doesn't content itself to build upon established impressions of modern science and challenges itself to popularize what actual scientists think is important. The principle of stationary action was what made me decide to study theoretical physics in my undergraduate years, and Noether's theorems taught me how to think in symmetries. You made a series of videos about the former, which has got more than 20M views in total, and now there will be another one about the latter as well. Who would have ever imagined that? Thank you so much for realizing this, Derek.

[ASQW-R]

As a 15 year old this amount of matmatics blows my mind.
I have never thought about math in this way.
It simply amazed me that how important is it to solve our universe.
We need more videos like this great job of veritasium crew ❤

[KodirekkaGeethika]

Will forever be grateful for the knowledge you provide.
I learnt a lot about the world and scienece from you, Derek.