Shadowing Practice: Unit Conversion & Significant Figures: Crash Course Chemistry #2 - Learn English Speaking with Video

2640 lumens. 1 foot. 2.3 kilograms. 9 volts. Aaah!

I just closed the circuit with my tongue and I felt all 9 of the volts.

So what do all these things have in common?

They're units. Yes, but they're also absolutely, completely arbitrary.

You know who decides how much a kilogram weighs?

A hunk of platinum and iridium known as the International Prototype Kilogram or IPK.

The IPK isn't just how much a kilogram weighs. In a very real sense the IPK is the kilogram.

Every other kilogram is exactly the same as the IPK, and the IPK is the lump of metal that decides what that mass is.

A kilogram is defined as being the same mass as the IPK.

We made kilograms up just like we made up seconds and weeks and volts and newtons.

There's nothing about these things that makes them them.

Someone just decided one day that that was a kilogram.

Now the fact that I find units fascinating probably says more about me then it does about units, but I can talk about them all day.

For example, did you know that the International System of Units only includes seven base units and every other unit is derived from those units?

Speed is length divided by time.

Acceleration is speed divided by time again, so meters per second per second.

Force is that acceleration multiplied by mass, cause F=ma remember?

Work done in joules is force multiplied by distance.

And power is work divided by time, so how much work can be done per unit of time. Makes sense.

It goes pretty deep, and it's absolutely correct to say that there are an infinite number of possible derived units, just most of them aren't useful enough to name.

But here's a bit of trivia for you. When I say watts or hertz, those things are just regular words.

No special capitalization necessary.

But Hertz and Watt, they were real people with like last names that were capitalized.

So what's up with that? Well, getting a unit named after you is kind of the holy grail of science.

To quote Richard Hamming: "True greatness is when your name - like hertz and watt - is spelled with a lowercase letter." Of course when these geniuses were first piecing together how the world works they had no idea that there were fundamental basic units beneath it all.

They were basing all of their units on arbitrary values because, well, how could there possibly be a fundamental amount of mass or distance.

Interestingly, one of the standard base units is derived from an actual value though not a universal one.

The second is 1/60th of 1/60th of 1/24th of the time it takes for the Earth to rotate a single time.

That's something, at least but it also illustrates an interesting point.

As fundamental as that seems, when you get down to the dirty details things start to get kind of cloudy.

The Earth's rotation for example is slowing down.

Does that mean that seconds should also slow down?

No. That would mess up every calculation ever.

So seconds are slowly becoming less and less based on reality.

Now don't worry. It's gonna take forever for the Earth to slow down noticeably.

And when it does we'll just keep adding leap seconds to keep things balanced.

But units are extremely important in chemistry and in sciences in general, as we learned when the Mars Climate Orbiter crashed into Mars because instructions were inputted in the wrong units.

Next time you get a B instead of an A because you didn't keep track of your units, just remember at least you didn't destroy a 300 million dollar mission to Mars.

But what do I mean when I say keep track of your units?

Well. I mean watch them. Do not let them do anything you didn't tell them to do because they're sneaky.

And a lot of chemistry is just converting between units.

So say you are in a car, and the car is going 60 miles per hour.

Now right now everyone who doesn't live in America is like: "Boo, miles are terrible. Convert to kilometers Hank!" Well I'll do you one better. From a scientific perspective, kilometers are terrible too.

They're just as arbitrary. We should use something more universal.

Like lightyears. The amount of distance light can travel in a year. And hours, hours is no fun.

So let's convert to lightyears per second. 60 miles per hour.

When you say it it sounds like a whole number with a single unit.

But it's not. It's actually a fraction. 60 miles over 1 hour.

Let's start with the easy part. Getting to the seconds.

So first we've got to get to minutes. So there's 60 minutes per hour. And also 1 hour per 60 minutes.

That fraction once we have it can flip either way.

We want it with the hours on the top, on the numerator. Why?

Because we want the units to cancel. We want to destroy the hours.

We don't want them in our units when we're done.

And then the same thing happens again with 1 minute per 60 seconds. Now we go to lightyears.

I asked Google, and there's 1 light-year in every 5.9 * 10^12 miles.

Looking at this we see that the hours cancel and the minutes cancel and the miles cancel.

Leaving us with lightyears per second. That's really what matters.

We've come out with the correct units.

The rest is just hammering at the calculator to discover that a car going 60 mph is also going 9.3 * 10^-12 lightyears per second.

Now we perform an important test. The "does this make sense?" test.

And yes indeed it does because 9.3 * 10^-12 is a very, very, very, very small number.

Which makes sense because when you're traveling in a car you're going a very, very, very, very, very, very, very tiny fraction of a light-year every second.

Now there are probably gonna be fifty to a hundred thousand people that watch this video.

And I'm gonna guess that maybe a solid seven of you did the math along with me with your calculator out.

Now I'm not giving you a hard time. That's just my guess.

If you want to follow along with your calculator in the future that might be helpful.

It would at very least be very nerdy.

But if you have been following along with your calculator, you might maybe have noticed something interesting.

I said 9.3 * 10^-12. When your calculator...

Your calculator probably said something like 9.3487658140029 * 10^-12.

So why, when I had so many more numbers to give, did I only give two? Was I trying to save time?

Well obviously not, because now I appear to be wasting time talking about it.

Do you think that it would be too hard for me to remember all those numbers?

Well obviously not, because I just did it. So I will tell you why.

When you're doing experimental calculations, there's two kinds of numbers. There's exact and measured.

Exact numbers are like the number of seconds in a minute or the number of eggs in a dozen.

They're defined that way and thus we know them in effect all the way out to an infinite number of decimal places.

If I say that there are a dozen eggs you know that that's 12. It's not 12.0000000001 or 11.9999999. It's 12.

But that's not true for the number of miles per hour my car was going.

That car wasn't going 60.0000-out into infinity mph.

I only know the speed of my car to two decimal places because that's all I get from the speedometer.

So the car could have been going 59.87390039 mph or 60.49321289 mph; the speedometer would still say 60.

And no matter how well I measure the car's speed, I will never know it at the same level of precision that I know the number of eggs in a dozen.

So that's the second type of number, measured numbers.

Now the cool thing about measured numbers, because you never ever know them exactly, is that they tell you two things at once.

First, they tell you the number that was measured.

And second, they tell you the precision at which that number was measured.

People often get their heads all tangled up about this, but with a measured number you just have to remember that the actual number goes out to infinite decimal places, you just never know all of them. You can't. It's impossible,.

So when my scale says 175 lbs, that doesn't mean 175.000000 lbs. It means 175.something lbs.

And all those numbers after the five? We don't know them.

And here's the thing, a measured number can be pretty unhelpful if you don't have knowledge of the precision of the measurement.

So you have to conserve the precision through your calculations or else you might end up killing someone with an imprecise dose of insulin or something.

So we have a set of rules for what are called significant figures: these are the digits in your number that you actually know.

With my speedometer there are two: 6 and 0.

But 0 is weird, because sometimes it's just used as a placeholder.

Like if I said that the fastest plane can go 13,000 mph, which it can by the way.

An unmanned military test glider did it in 2011.

That's not an exact number, those zeroes are just placeholders.

100

So when a number ends in a zero, or two or three zeroes, it's hard to tell if those zeroes are significant.

101

But this all gets so much simpler when you use scientific notation, which since it's science we should.

102

So 60 mph would instead be 6.0 * 10^1. We get that zero is significant because we wrote it.

103

Otherwise it would just be 6 * 10^1. We keep that zero around because we actually know it.

104

Scientific notation is awesome by the way, once you get the hang of it.

105

If you're having trouble you can always just type it into Google or your calculator to see exactly what number we're talking about, but the number of the exponent just tells you how many places to move the decimal point.

106

So to the 1st power you move it one to the right and you get 60.

107

To the negative 1st power you move the decimal point one place to the left and you get 0.60.

108

To the fifth power, one, two, three, four, five, and you get six with five zeroes or 600,000.

109

Of course your significant figures get preserved, so 2.4590 * 10^-4 is 0.00024590 and you still get the same five sig figs.

110

Now to the magic of figuring out how many sig figs your answer should have.

111

There are two simple rules for this.

112

If it's addition or subtraction it's only the number of figures after the decimal point that matters.

113

The number with the fewest figures after the decimal point decides how many figures you can have after the decimal in your answer.

114

So 1,495.2+1.9903 you do the math.

115

First you get 1,497.1903 and then you round to the first decimal, because that first number only had one figure after the decimal. So you get 1,497.2.

116

And for multiplication just make sure the answer has the same sig figs as your least precise measurement.

117

So 60 x 5.0839 = 305.034, but we only know two sig figs, so everything after those first two numbers is zeroes: 300.

118

Of course then we'd have to point out to everyone that the second zero but not the third is significant, so we'd write it out with scientific notation: 3.0 * 10^2. Because science!

119

Now I know it feels counterintuitive not to show all of the numbers that you have at your fingertips, but you've got to realize: all of those numbers beyond the number of sig figs you have? They're lies.

120

They're big lying numbers. You don't know those numbers.

121

And if you write them down people will assume that you do know those numbers.

122

And you will have lied to them. And do you know what we do with liars in chemistry? We kill them!

123

Thank you for watching this episode of Crash Course Chemistry.

124

Today you learned some keys to understanding the mathematics of chemistry, and you want to remember this episode in case you get caught up later down the road: How to convert between units is a skill that you'll use even when you're not doing chemistry.

125

Scientific notation will always make you look like you know what you're talking about.

126

Being able to chastise people for using the wrong number of significant digits is basically math's equivalent of being a grammar Nazi.

127

So enjoy these new powers I have bestowed upon you, and we'll see you next time.

128

Crash Course Chemistry was filmed, edited, and directed by Nick Jenkins.

129

This episode was written by me, Michael Aranda is our sound designer, and our graphics team is Thought Bubble.

130

If you have any questions, comments or ideas for us, we are always down in the comments.

131

Thank you for watching Crash Course Chemistry.

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Woordenschat en spreektips bij deze les

Deze video bevat 131 zinnen en 2144 woorden om na te spreken. Het gesproken deel duurt 11:13. De spreker praat snel, ongeveer 191 woorden per minuut, dus reken op verbonden en ingeslikte klanken. 85% van de woorden hoort bij de 3.000 meest gebruikte Engelse woorden; de rest kun je beter vooraf bekijken.

Belangrijke woorden in deze video

15 woorden uit de video die het leren waard zijn, met uitspraak en betekenis:

Woord	Uitspraak	Betekenis
chemistry zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈkɛm.ɪ.stɹi/	chemie, scheikunde
calculator zelfstandig naamwoord	/kæl.kjə.leɪ.tɚ/	rekenmachine, zakrekenmachine
fig zelfstandig naamwoord	/fɪɡ/	vijg
cancel werkwoord	/ˈkæn.sl̩/	doorhalen, schrappen
precision zelfstandig naamwoord	/pɹɪˈsɪʒ.ən/	precisie
egg zelfstandig naamwoord	/ɛɡ/	ei
fundamental bijvoeglijk naamwoord	/ˌfʌn.dəˈmɛn.təl/	fundamenteel
infinite bijvoeglijk naamwoord	/ˈɪnfɪnɪt/	oneindig, eindeloos
mathematics zelfstandig naamwoord	/mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/	wiskunde, mathematiek
divide werkwoord	/dɪˈvaɪd/	verdelen
fraction zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈfɹæk.ʃən/	fractie
arbitrary bijvoeglijk naamwoord	/ˈɑː.bɪ.tɹə.ɹi/	willekeurig, arbitrair
calculation zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˌkælkjuˈleɪʃn̩/	berekening
watt zelfstandig naamwoord	/wɑt/	watt
derive werkwoord	/dɪˈɹaɪv/	afleiden

Phrasal verbs die je zult horen

Woord	Betekenis
slow down werkwoord	afremmen
end up werkwoord	belanden, terechtkomen
figure out werkwoord	uitvogelen, er achter komen
mess up werkwoord	verrommelen, in de war brengen

Grammatica in deze video

De structuren die de spreker het meest gebruikt, met de exacte woorden uit de video:

Structuur	In de video
Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — iets dat eerder begon en nog bezig is	have been following · have been going
Lijdende vorm be + voltooid deelwoord — het gaat om wat er gebeurt, niet om wie het doet	is defined · is derived · is speed
Present perfect have/has + voltooid deelwoord — iets uit het verleden dat nu nog telt	We've come · have noticed · have bestowed

Uitspraak om op te letten

De spreker gebruikt 43 samentrekkingen en verkorte vormen, zoals they're, you're, don't. Spreek ze kort uit, zoals je ze hoort.

De “th”-klanken: mathematics /mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/, beneath /bɪˈniːθ/
De klanken “sh” en “zh”: precision /pɹɪˈsɪʒ.ən/, fraction /ˈfɹæk.ʃən/, calculation /ˌkælkjuˈleɪʃn̩/, measurement /ˈmɛʒ.ə.mənt/, acceleration /əkˌsɛl.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/
Lange woorden — let op de klemtoon: calculator /kæl.kjə.leɪ.tɚ/, fundamental /ˌfʌn.dəˈmɛn.təl/, mathematics /mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/, arbitrary /ˈɑː.bɪ.tɹə.ɹi/, universal /ˌjunəˈvɜɹs(ə)l/

Zo oefen je met deze video

Luister de hele video één keer zonder te spreken en noteer de woorden die je niet kent.
Begin op 0,75× snelheid, spreek zin voor zin na en ga terug naar normale snelheid zodra het makkelijk gaat.
Neem jezelf op en vergelijk met het origineel; let daarbij op woorden als chemistry, calculator, fig.

Wat is de Shadowing-techniek?

Shadowing is een wetenschappelijk onderbouwde taalleermethode die oorspronkelijk is ontwikkeld voor professionele tolkentraining en gepopulariseerd door polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. De methode is eenvoudig maar krachtig: je luistert naar native Engelse audio en herhaalt het onmiddellijk hardop — als een schaduw die de spreker volgt met slechts 1–2 seconden vertraging. In tegenstelling tot passief luisteren of grammaticadrills, dwingt shadowing je hersenen en mondspieren om echte spraakpatronen tegelijkertijd te verwerken en te reproduceren. Onderzoek toont aan dat het de uitspraaknauwkeurigheid, intonatie, ritme, verbonden spraak, luisterbegrip en spreekvaardigheid aanzienlijk verbetert — waardoor het een van de meest effectieve methoden is voor IELTS Speaking-voorbereiding en echte Engelse communicatie.

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Woordenschat en spreektips bij deze les

Belangrijke woorden in deze video

Phrasal verbs die je zult horen

Grammatica in deze video

Uitspraak om op te letten

Zo oefen je met deze video

Wat is de Shadowing-techniek?