What Actually Happened To Amelia Earhart?
The mistakes of Amelia Earhart’s final flight, and the physics that could have saved her. Use code VERITASIUM to get 50% off your 1st club crate when you join a club for kids aged 3+ or go to https://kiwico.com/veritasium
00:00 Amelia Earhart’s final flight
03:33 Who was Amelia Earhart?
05:36 The flight plan
07:13 How celestial navigation works
09:16 Invention of radio technology
12:02 Radio waves explained
22:44 Earhart makes her critical decision
24:55 Communication failures
28:30 “Gas is running low”
31:39 Her desperate final message
33:01 The small detail that could have saved her
Special thanks to Clifford Heath for his help putting together the radio demo, and the folks at the Victorian ARDF group for connecting us.
Thank you to Brian Harrison and Michael Murphy with the AWA Communication Technologies Museum for their assistance with early research.
Thank you to Peter Bevelacqua over at Antenna Theory for help filling in some missing details.
Sharp-eyed viewers might notice there doesn't seem to be a loop antenna in the flight simulation shots. It sadly wasn't included in the simulator's model of Earhart's Electra, but it features prominently in old photos.
The Secret Life of Radio video credits: Tim Hunkin - https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=4AyDKVi6brMqSIMD&v=LMxate9gegg&feature=youtu.be
Join us on Patreon for early access videos, bonus content, and to support Veritasium! https://ve42.co/PatreonDE
Patrons: Adam Foreman, Albert Wenger, Alexander Tamas, Anton Ragin, Balkrishna Heroor, Bertrand Serlet, Bill Linder, Blake Byers, Bruce, Dave Kircher, David Johnston, Evgeny Skvortsov, Garrett Mueller, Gnare, Greg Scopel, I. H., John H. Austin, Jr., Juan Benet, KeyWestr, Kirill Shore, Kyi, Lee Redden, Marinus Kuivenhoven, Matthias Wrobel, Meekay, Michael Krugman, Orlando Bassotto, Paul Peijzel, Reed Spilmann, Richard Sundvall, Sam Lutfi, TTST, Tj Steyn, Ubiquity Ventures, gpoly, john kiehl, meg noah, wolfee
If you’re looking for a molecular modeling kit
Watch on YouTube ↗
(saves to browser)
Sign in to unlock AI tutor explanation · ⚡30
Playlist
Uploads from Veritasium · Veritasium · 0 of 60
← Previous
Next →
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
Scientific Notation - Explained!
Veritasium
I'm Atoms (Scientific Cover of Jason Mraz's I'm Yours)
Veritasium
Scientific Notation - Example
Veritasium
What is a Force?
Veritasium
Khan Academy and the Effectiveness of Science Videos
Veritasium
Supercooled Water - Explained!
Veritasium
Galileo the Scientific Parrot
Veritasium
Radiation vs Radioactive Atoms
Veritasium
What Is Electricity? (Are You Gonna Be My Girl?)
Veritasium
Why Is Ice Slippery?
Veritasium
Impress Her With Nanodiamonds
Veritasium
Chain Drop Experiment
Veritasium
What Colour Is Most Attractive?
Veritasium
States of Matter
Veritasium
Slinky Drop Answer
Veritasium
Slinky Drop
Veritasium
Atomic Rant
Veritasium
What Is The Magnus Force?
Veritasium
A Human Being Is A Part Of The Whole
Veritasium
Spinning Tube Trick Explained
Veritasium
Where Do Trees Get Their Mass?
Veritasium
Why Do You Make People Look Stupid?
Veritasium
Gyroscopic Precession
Veritasium
How Does A Slinky Fall?
Veritasium
Spinning Disk Trick Solution
Veritasium
Does a Falling Slinky Defy Gravity?
Veritasium
Northern Lights From 100,000 ft!
Veritasium
The First Meeting of EDUtubers! ft. CGPGrey, Vsauce, Smarter Every Day, Numberphile +more
Veritasium
Free Higgs!
Veritasium
How Can Trees Be Taller Than 10m?
Veritasium
What Now For The Higgs Boson?
Veritasium
How Trees Bend the Laws of Physics
Veritasium
Paralysed Rats Made To Walk Again
Veritasium
What Could Survive An Atomic Bomb?
Veritasium
Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle Explained
Veritasium
Why Do Venomous Animals Live In Warm Climates?
Veritasium
Veritasium Trailer
Veritasium
What Can Frogs See That We Can't?
Veritasium
World's Roundest Object!
Veritasium
Epic Slow-Mo Drum Implosions!
Veritasium
Empty Space is NOT Empty
Veritasium
Your Mass is NOT From the Higgs Boson
Veritasium
How Does a Transistor Work?
Veritasium
Bullet Block Explained!
Veritasium
How We’re Fooled By Statistics
Veritasium
Facebook Fraud
Veritasium
The Most Common Cognitive Bias
Veritasium
Anti-Gravity Wheel?
Veritasium
Anti-Gravity Wheel Explained
Veritasium
Why Trees Are Taller Than They Need To Be
Veritasium
Misconceptions About the Universe
Veritasium
Why Women Are Stripey
Veritasium
What is NOT Random?
Veritasium
Explained: 5 Fun Physics Phenomena
Veritasium
Climate Change is Boring
Veritasium
13 Misconceptions About Global Warming
Veritasium
CapitolTV's DISTRICT VOICES - District 5: Electric Sparks From Falling Water
Veritasium
Sparks from Falling Water: Kelvin's Thunderstorm
Veritasium
The Most Persistent Myth
Veritasium
The Most Radioactive Places on Earth
Veritasium
More on: Reading ML Papers
View skill →Related AI Lessons
⚡
⚡
⚡
⚡
The ABCs of reading medical research and review papers these days
Medium · LLM
#1 DevLog Meta-research: I Got Tired of Tab Chaos While Reading Research Papers.
Dev.to AI
How to Set Up a Karpathy-Style Wiki for Your Research Field
Medium · AI
The Non-Optimality of Scientific Knowledge: Path Dependence, Lock-In, and The Local Minimum Trap
ArXiv cs.AI
Chapters (11)
Amelia Earhart’s final flight
3:33
Who was Amelia Earhart?
5:36
The flight plan
7:13
How celestial navigation works
9:16
Invention of radio technology
12:02
Radio waves explained
22:44
Earhart makes her critical decision
24:55
Communication failures
28:30
“Gas is running low”
31:39
Her desperate final message
33:01
The small detail that could have saved her
🎓
Tutor Explanation
DeepCamp AI