braintruffle

braintruffle is a science education channel run by a former researcher in nonlinear dynamics who has a PhD. Each video draws on many research papers and the creator’s own computer simulations.

Videos are long and carefully built, taking a complex system and explaining how it behaves. Topics include fluid dynamics, traffic flow, crowd behaviour, chaos and orbital simulation. Animated simulations do much of the explaining. The level is high in places, so these suit older students who enjoy maths and physics. The creator puts a very large amount of time into each video, so uploads are rare but substantial. Viewers who want to go further can find coding tutorials linked to the simulations, so the ideas can be explored hands on.

Some highlights include:

An explanation of fluid dynamics that builds it up from quantum mechanics.

Why traffic jams form even when everyone drives calmly, and what can prevent them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m74zazYPwkY

The computer methods that changed how engineers and scientists simulate orbits.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCg3aXn5F3M

braintruffle has over 150,000 subscribers.

Simulation is one of the main tools of modern engineering. Fluid dynamics shapes aircraft, cars and pipelines, and traffic modelling is used by transport and civil engineers. This channel is a good way into those fields, and into computational engineering. It also shows how maths, physics and coding come together to solve real problems.