I have spent most of my career with an eye towards fighting science misinformation. This has been a losing battle, of course, but one I feel a duty to see through. Typically, I take aim at outlandish claims made by people with hidden agendas, from classics like "Burning fossil fuels does not contribute to climate change" to "Just wear this bracelet and your ailments will disappear." Those hits keep on coming, but there is a new kid on the block that really has me scratching my head.
As 2025 begins, there has been a sudden uptick in the number of fake physics videos appearing in my social media feeds. Fake physics videos are not to be confused with deep fakes, which involve AI. In these fake physics videos, we have random people setting up what look to be legitimate physics demonstrations. They lay out spoons and batteries and suddenly a coin appears to levitate. In the next, they show a collision between marbles that appears to defy Newton's laws. After some digging, I discovered that the former uses a camera trick and the latter hides a magnet in some of the spheres.
I am a bit dumbfounded over this... I despise the traditional McScientists who seek to disinform people, but at least I understand that foe. They have a purpose, misguided though it may be. Like, the way a wasp buzzing around your head is just an unfortunate manifestation of nature, so too are McScientists. But what to make of this new thing?
There are so many excellent physics videos out there. The best of them show an experimental setup, allow the audience to formulate a prediction on what will happen, then run the demonstration, and finish off with a clear explanation of the physics principles at work. Veritasium and The Slow Mo Guys are two of my favourite YouTube channels containing countless videos of this sort. The take home message is that physics is fascinating. Nature, without trickery, is mind-blowing on its own. What purpose does misleading people about science serve? Like, "I have them questioning Newton's Laws!" or "Now they'll learn physics wrong, hah!"
When you stop and think of it, magic shows are similar to this. Whether it is sleight of hand or another illusion, magic always seeks to leave audiences surprised by what they are seeing. But there is an important difference: in a magic show, the whole premise is "I am going to try to fool you, see if you can spot how." The audience is, effectively, in on it. And besides being (sometimes) entertaining, magic shows test the audience's critical thinking. Fake physics videos are posing as the real deal. If they began by stating, "The demo you are about to see has been faked in some way, see if you can figure out how," I could get on board with that.
I'm proud that I was able to spot that these videos were disingenuous. If I'm being honest, I kind of enjoyed debunking them. I'm even tempted to show them to my students.
But I still don't understand the motivation for making the videos. Is it just for attention? It is, isn't it? Geez. The twenty-first century is no time for an idealist like me.