All Seasons

Season 1

  • S01E01 Forces and Collisions

    • PBS

    Walker is the stuntman, performing a few karate moves. Dressed as a samurai, he explains the physics behind breaking a board in half. Later in the program, he gets sandwiched between two beds of nails while two ""former friends"" stand on top. If that were not dramatic enough, he gets sandwiched again, this time with a concrete block on top – and a woman smashes that concrete block with a sledgehammer.

  • S01E02 Rotation

    • PBS

    The program opens at Geauga Lake Amusement Park in Aurora, Ohio (just outside Cuyahoga County). Walker rides the rotor to explain ""centrifugal force."" In a neighborhood playground, he uses a simple merry-go-round to discuss the difference in speed when a rotating body has its mass spread out or pulled in. He takes angular momentum one step further, spinning around on a rotating chair with a spinning bicycle wheel in his hands. In the studio, Walker illustrates judo and aikido moves with a partner. He also illustrates the differences in spinning a hard-boiled egg vs. spinning a fresh one. Finally, Walker shows how a diver uses torques to land in the water in a certain way.

  • S01E03 Fluid Flow and Friction

    • PBS

    The show opens, and the remote camera crew finds Walker in a bathtub. It's an opportunity for Walker to explain the myth of water draining in a certain direction–the ""Coriolis force"". In the studio, Walker does a number of demonstrations about fluid flow, explaining why liquid poured from a bottle will sometimes run down the side of the bottle. Then Walker delves into friction, ultimately pulling a tablecloth from a set of dishes. The piéce de résistance is Walker balancing a spoon from his nose.

  • S01E04 Viscosity

    • PBS

    Beginning with maple syrup on a plate of pancakes, Walker sheds light on viscosity and how it decreases with an increase in temperature. His second lecture is on non-Newtonian fluids, which act a little weird, such as Slime and Silly Putty. For a grand finale, Walker thrusts his fist into a bowl of fluid corn starch–which doesn't spill because its viscosity shoots up.

  • S01E05 The Leidenfrost Effect

    • PBS

    Walker prefaces this show with a warning about some of the stunts he is about to do with the Leidenfrost effect. He dips his hand quickly into molten lead, pours liquid nitrogen into his mouth (and breathes it out like fire from a dragon), and walks on a bed of hot coals.

  • S01E06 The Science of Cooking

    • PBS

    Jearl Walker's lab is now a kitchen, as he explains the molecular framework behind lemon meringue and crepes. He tenderizes pork with pineapple juice, inserts a steel rod filled with water into a chicken, and for dessert, mixes a small quantity of Jell-O.