The Statistics of Microwave Popcorn

Let’s use physics to ensure that we get the most out of our bag of popcorn. This video explains the science of popcorn kernels while introducing the normal distribution and the central limit theorem. We’ll also learn some techniques in signal processing, including convolution and filters, and we’ll learn how wavelet transforms helped detect gravitational waves. Try out the code yourself: 0:00 Introduction 1:21 Popcorn physics 4:16 An experiment with kernels 8:30 Results Corn Textbook: Hallauer, Specialty Corns . Microwave popcorn characteristics: Gravitational Wave first observation: Coherent WaveBurst algorithm for GW: ,