With highbrow content but defiantly low production values, the Numberphile YouTube channel might be considered the antithesis of the platform’s biggest successes. While stars such as the controversial MrBeast orchestrate elaborate stunts and giveaways, Numberphile videos feature mathematicians talking through complex concepts at length. There are occasional questions or prompts from the unseen cameraman. The props are usually a sheet of brown paper and a marker pen. The closest the episodes get to clickbait are titles such as Tau vs Pi Smackdown or The Lazy Way to Cut Pizza; a typical video is More on Bertrand’s Paradox, or An Amazing Thing About 276.
None of this sounds like catnip for young viewers. Yet since it launched in 2011, the series has become a cult hit. Eleven million people have now watched the physics professor Roger Bowley discuss Kaprekar’s Constant. The Institute of Mathematics and its Applications and the London Mathematical Society have just awarded Numberphile’s creator, Brady Haran, the Zeeman medal for the communication of mathematics. As the citation notes, the channel has material for everyone from primary school kids to graduate students. It’s a fair bet that Numberphile – along with similar channels such as Stand-up Maths and 3Blue1Brown – has inspired at least some of the record 100,000-plus children who took maths A-level in England this year.
Others are being drawn to biology, economics or technology; 25 million people have watched Veritasium’s half-hour video on the invention of blue LEDs. What was the Maya myth of the morning star? How do you make superconductors? Why didn’t Austria-Hungary try to make peace earlier in the first world war? Educational channels are offering a fascinating glimpse into new worlds and the opportunity to delve deep into passions. A dazzling wealth of knowledge is out there, delivered with enough insight, and sometimes passion and wit, to keep viewers coming back.
On History Matters, South Park-esque cartoon figures enliven analysis of Sweden’s geopolitical decline. Map Men, co-hosted by a former geography teacher, employs songs and deliberately amateurish costumes to keep people watching explainers on topics that his former students might have balked at, such as English county boundaries. NileRed’s chemistry videos on making bulletproof wood and turning cotton balls into cotton candy are clearly created with an eye to virality. But others, such as Numberphile, are distinguished more by their enthusiasm than their entertainment value.
Some videos – like Ted Ed’s beautiful five-minute animated films on history, science and society, or the in-depth paleontology discussions by PBS Eons – are created by established institutions now looking beyond adult audiences. Others are the work of lone enthusiasts such as the German physicist Sabine Hossenfelder, who explains why Einstein’s general relativity can’t be quite right and asks: Does the past still exist? Across science, culture and history, the material can take students of any age further than the shelf of encyclopedias their parents might once have relied upon. If some offer superficial explanations, many more are surprisingly complex and nuanced.
Concerns about the impact of screen-time on the mental and physical health of children – and adults – need to be addressed. As the videos proliferate, the quality might deteriorate. But spending hours watching influencers isn’t necessarily bad and can allow children to learn at their own pace and in depth. This is a golden age for geeks.