The Strange Physics Behind the Oberth Effect

Kinetic energy is stored in the balls

Science in the front, party in the back.

I heard that if you say Electroboom three times, a capacitor explodes somewhere.

If you keep that mullet going they’re going to force you to join an Australian psych rock band.

Showing that the ball had the missing kinetic energy was some VERY satisfying physics

where you at?

I see that Kerbal Space Program!! Love that game.

I've known about the Oberth Effect for at least 10 years now, but I think I just understood it for the first time. That was a damn good explanation!

Bruh this is by far the best explanation of the oberth effect I ever heard. Well done mate. Well done.

And it's worth noting that gaining speed from a planet or a star actually slows down the movement of the planet or star by a small amount so the energy isn't coming from nowhere and it's not technically inexhaustible either

Nearly 1000 hours in Kerbal Space Program and I didn't feel like I really understood the Oberth effect until now. I knew about it, and that that doing burns at periapsis was best, and that it had something to do with the propellant carrying kinetic energy. But I never got the idea that the exhaust would end up having less, or even negative, energy compared to doing burns at lower speed.

Yk the world is changing when he stops smiling by default

I love how the Kerbal rocket launched from an explosion.

I love that it's not just that you make more efficient use of the energy of the booster, but you also steal the kinetic/potential energy of the propellant itself. So yeah using the sun, the potential energy of a bunch of fuel and boosters floating in space with respect to the sun is huge, much more than the chemical energy you get by burning it, so you're not just "getting more from your fuel", you're also basically stealing its potential energy that it had already started with and you never had to pay for to begin with.

Grab your free seat to the 2-Day AI Mastermind: /ACTLB. 100% Discount for the first 1000 people. Dive deep into AI and Learn Automations, Build AI Agents, Make videos & images – all for free! Bonuses worth $5,100+ if you join and attend

2:16 video start

Is this why when you are on a playground swing, that you should swing your legs at the bottom of the swing instead of the top, because you’re fastest at the bottom and will get the most energy out of it?

Power electronics engineer here. I have been designing a class of switched mode power supplies known as resonant converters. They use a resonant tank that consists of a capacitor and an inductor. This resonant tank is used to transfer energy from the input of the converter to the output. All the math and theory that is used to be make this class of converter super efficient is based on this same theory. By carefully controlling when energy is added to the tank and when it is removed then you can make the conversion efficiency really high.

0:36 RIVALRY APPROVED

1:40 "generate video and visuals with AI." Bro, how could you? 😭