This barely scratches the surface of Ben Franklin, any avid readers I would recommend reading his autobiography. He tells the full tale of his life and his road from obscurity to fame, pretty interesting.
I took out a 100 kronor bill but all I got on that was some due called Carl von Linné! Bah! What ever did he do to deserve to be money? One would think you had invent something like the thermometer or lay the foundations for modern taxonomy at least to deserve being on a bill!
I remember watching a documentary on Benjamin Franklin, and the author of a Benjamin Franklin biography was talking. He said that when he finished writing the biography, he cried because he was so sad to say goodbye to Benjamin Franklin. :'(
Dude your brother has a TH-cam channel too! Dude your brother wrote that book/movie "The faults in our stars" I had no idea. Your whole family seems bred for success.
*Hank Green*: So, Grandpa Nerd, what can you tell us about yourself? *Benjamin Franklin*: Well, I am a renowned author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. In my spare time I also quite enjoy sexual intercourse with as many ladies as possible.
Mostly a very nice video. However, Franklin didn't come up with his theory of positive and negative because of rubbing a glass and wax rod. That was Du Fay who came up with the "Two fluid" theory in 1733! Instead, Franklin used an electricity machine where he had an assistant spin a glass tube and it had a brush rub against it. Because you could be electrified by either touching the glass or the brush but they were equal and opposite charges Franklin came up with his conservation of charge idea. I made a video about it if you click on my picture (Number 8 is about Franklin, Number 4 is about Du Fay).
Robert Oppenheimer, Erwin Schrodinger, Max Planck, Wolfgang Pauli, Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, Edward Teller, Sir James Chadwick, and Stephen Hawking please.
It's easy to imagine what someone with the wide ranging gifts and talents like Ben Franklin would be doing, were he alive today: promoting a scientific perspective on environmental causes, fooling around with the internet, inventing 2-D glasses, organizing conventions, hanging out with the President . . . and probably touring with his own rock band this spring. He was that kind of a guy, basically.
0:25 "And who never slept because he was too busy..." Hank, I love you. But Franklin actually slept from 10:00pm-5:00am (at least according to his personal schedule) which means he got a healthy 7 hours. To quote Franklin "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise"
Some of my favorite Ben Franklin quotes: "When you run in debt; you give to another power over your liberty. Where liberty dwells, there is my country. Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic. Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power. There was never a good war, or a bad peace. It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority. Repeal that [welfare] law, and you will soon see a change in their manners. ... industry will increase, and with it plenty among the lower people; their circumstances will mend, and more will be done for their happiness by inuring them to provide for themselves, than could be done by dividing all your estates among them. It would be thought a hard government that should tax its people one tenth part. Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!" These days, my guess is that he would be a libertarian.
freesk8 He was a deist as well. That was the 18th century version of an atheist. He did not believe in a personal god that you could pray to and who could hear you. He believed in a god that created the universe, and then became the laws of science and of wisdom. Cool dude.
freesk8 It's not really the 18th century version of an atheist. There were atheists in the 18th century as well as deists. It is likely however that many atheists claimed to be deists to avoid criticisms.
ryuuseicha Yeah, Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin.. etc All "idiots". You disagree with the libertarian political and philosophical stances. That's fine, but there's no reason to insult it or the people who do support it. That's childish and rude.
Franklin also came up with the conventional current still in use by some today. where most people think charge flows from positive to negative. Although he was wrong and the electrons actually flow the other way.
To be fair to those old-timey scientists, although the ether thing is nonsense, electrons (and photons, the force carrier for electromagnetism) *are* excitations in an everywhere-permeating field. And waves, which electrons kind of sort of sometimes are, often go hand in hand with fluids.
No. You're right that the aether theories of the early modern era weren't nonsense, just wrong. But the pre-modern ideas from which the name was borrowed most certainly were nonsense.
People don't realize how significant the lightening rod really is. The lightening rod was invented in 1749, today there are 7 billion people on this planet. Coincidence? I THINK NOT!!!
Benjamin Franklin actually slept a lot and he made a very big deal about it. He had a very complicated sleeping routine that involved moving between multiple rooms at different temperatures throughout the night. He credited getting a good sleep to a lot of things, hence his saying "Early to bed early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."
Did you guys ever do an episode for Leonardo Da (Or is it Di/De? Sorry, I don't know why I can't remember) Vinci? If so, I missed it. Being multi-talented and having an IQ of 180-190, he definitely has a Great Mind. Based my Sr project on him in high school 11 years ago.
As for that Lightning rod business, please don't forget this guy: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prokop_Divi%C5%A1 who was the actual inventor of the (grounded) lightning rod.
Interesting fact about Franklin: he was one of the few founders that held a life-long belief in irredeemable paper currencies. Most of the founders, due to their experiences with the Continental and various state-issued notes, were hostile to irredeemable paper currency. The rest of the Founders, by their later years, were firmly in the camp of hard money, i.e. gold and silver specie. So, it is only fitting that Franklin is on the hundred dollar bill. Also, Andrew Jackson, who hated central banks (think Federal Reserve) and the whole concept of irredeemable paper currency, would roll over in his grave if he were made aware that his face was on the $20 irredeemable paper dollar and that it was issued by the Federal Reserve system (a central bank).
Because Franklin realized that paper money is not totally ruled by inflation, and, like gold and silver, can be made to retain its value. I mean, gold and silver are symbolic, too-how would you use them except as currency? You only run into problems when paper money values are controlled by businesses, not regular people or governments.
Kneedragon1962 Well, the thing that seemed to generate a lot of gold for Franklin was his publishing business.... and that used lead type in the printing process... Perhaps he DID turn lead in to gold! :)
***** LOL. Have I perhaps made a humorous observation about a historical figure, and offended a man with a username of LetUzFuk? Permit me a moment to enjoy the slight irony in that... My point, very roughly, Mr Franklin is held up in American history as a shining example to all, a great scientific mind and a statesman, a founding father and better than Santa Clause. The real man, yes he did have a good mind, but he was a tiny bit eccentric, and he devoted a fair part of his life to the pursuit of things that don't exist. The Mr Franklin they talk about at Disneyland, is true, but he's only part of the truth. So I made a cheap shot about that. Would you perhaps like me to take a cheap shot at you? I think I could maybe figure one out...
These guys share a lot of the world's mysteries through mere 5 minute videos using knowledge that was probably put large amounts of money to acquire. So if Pewdiepie, a gamer can earn a larger revenue through his subscribers, why can't these amazing geniuses. Please hell them reach 10 million.
3:00 According to the Founding Nerd himself in his Autobiography, he performed the kite experiment only after a similar experiment was successfully carried out in Europe, and I quote, "What gave my book the more sudden and general celebrity, was the success of one of its proposed experiments, made by Messrs. Dalibard and De Lor at Marly, for drawing lightning from the clouds. This engag'd the public attention every where. M. de Lor, who had an apparatus for experimental philosophy, and lectur'd in that branch of science, undertook to repeat what he called the Philadelphia Experiments; and, after they were performed before the king and court, all the curious of Paris flocked to see them. I will not swell this narrative with an account of that capital experiment, nor of the infinite pleasure I receiv'd in the success of a similar one I made soon after with a kite at Philadelphia, as both are to be found in the histories of electricity."
Also, Benjamin Franklin was just awesome. "I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life, I absenteed myself from Christian assemblies." -Benjamin Franklin
So they actually managed to trap lightning in a bottle... That's surprising, you'd think that the lightning strike would just completely fry the leyden jar, what with it being too powerful to be contained by any modern capacitor.
Also the first real American playah.
The greatest nerds of history always are. Tesla was the talk of American ladies before he lost his fortune.
Old school pimp for life hehehehe
AdventureThroughLife The ladies couldn't have Tesla because he was in love with a pigeon.
Inventin' and still havin' time for the ladies!
ZombieMommy
Actually he supposedly died a penniless virgin unfortunately, though he was truly the real *God of Thunder*.
This barely scratches the surface of Ben Franklin, any avid readers I would recommend reading his autobiography. He tells the full tale of his life and his road from obscurity to fame, pretty interesting.
Yea let me just get out my 100 dollar bill to thank 'ol franklin.... Oh wait. I have no money
***** oh wait not everyone's american ;)
Danny Keeley You can exchange it XD
I have 3 currencies on hand, even with bills denominated as "100" but neither them is a dollar
***** The alternative is to get out a $10 bill and look at Hamilton. Just make sure you don't drop it, or we'll have to nickname you Burr.
I took out a 100 kronor bill but all I got on that was some due called Carl von Linné! Bah! What ever did he do to deserve to be money? One would think you had invent something like the thermometer or lay the foundations for modern taxonomy at least to deserve being on a bill!
I've just finished reading Franklin's autobiography. Such a great man.
Yeah, if you call slavery 'great'.
@@infinitecanadian it is
@@rft9776 let me guess, southerner?
@@infinitecanadian Franklin was an early advocate of freeing slaves in America
@@PuddintameXYZ He owned slaves.
I remember watching a documentary on Benjamin Franklin, and the author of a Benjamin Franklin biography was talking. He said that when he finished writing the biography, he cried because he was so sad to say goodbye to Benjamin Franklin. :'(
I read the title as "Benjamin Franklin: Fucking Nerd"
wutrulaffinat To be fair, he did a lot of that too.
Dude your brother has a TH-cam channel too! Dude your brother wrote that book/movie "The faults in our stars" I had no idea. Your whole family seems bred for success.
*Hank Green*: So, Grandpa Nerd, what can you tell us about yourself?
*Benjamin Franklin*: Well, I am a renowned author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. In my spare time I also quite enjoy sexual intercourse with as many ladies as possible.
Cosmic Rogue That is some resume.
Moonlitwatersofaqua Franklin was quite the polymath. Side note: I totally have a Yoshi t-shirt identical to your profile pic.
Cosmic Rogue Polymath indeed. Also Yoshi is amazing.
Moonlitwatersofaqua Agreed! I may or may not also have a Yoshi pillow on my bed.
I'm an adult.
Clearly.
Cosmic Rogue I have three Yoshi plushies and I am 18. This is obviously the actions of an adult.
Hank, your shirt produces an optical illusion! Take it off!
That may have come out wrong...
Mostly a very nice video. However, Franklin didn't come up with his theory of positive and negative because of rubbing a glass and wax rod. That was Du Fay who came up with the "Two fluid" theory in 1733! Instead, Franklin used an electricity machine where he had an assistant spin a glass tube and it had a brush rub against it. Because you could be electrified by either touching the glass or the brush but they were equal and opposite charges Franklin came up with his conservation of charge idea. I made a video about it if you click on my picture (Number 8 is about Franklin, Number 4 is about Du Fay).
Robert Oppenheimer, Erwin Schrodinger, Max Planck, Wolfgang Pauli, Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, Edward Teller, Sir James Chadwick, and Stephen Hawking please.
I love the concept of a channel like this, collecting nerds from all over the planet and uniting them. I love it.
Uhm, I don't live in the US - could someone please send me an American 100 dollar bill so I can thank Grandpa Nerd?
Thank grandpa nerd or buy yourself a sports car?! This was 4 years ago, you’re probably a 1%er by now! Genius!
100 dollars is alot in the us. There is a coin with bens head on it, minted by the us from the late 40s to 1963 it costs around $6.50
funny thing is, on his grave, there's only one word that remind him, PRINTER...lolx
It's easy to imagine what someone with the wide ranging gifts and talents like Ben Franklin would be doing, were he alive today: promoting a scientific perspective on environmental causes, fooling around with the internet, inventing 2-D glasses, organizing conventions, hanging out with the President . . . and probably touring with his own rock band this spring. He was that kind of a guy, basically.
The original billionaire genius playboy philanthropist.
I don't think he was a philanthropist nor rich.
i think was a cool guy at that time...
It is wonderful to observe an individual in a species push the boundaries of knowledge and science.
Thank you Father Nerd..!!
Don't forget the glass harmonica!
I didn't like early electricity theories ether.
Boooooo! Hiss!
Watt are you talking about?
All these puns are revolting.
juststeveschannel Agreed. These puns hurt as bad as a kick to the Family Joules.
I dunno, these nerdy jokes get me all amped
...And helping to found the first public library in America. Don't forget about that, Hank.
“It’s Ben Franklin with a key and a kite... you see it right?”
i think hank should be on a bill. the $3 bill, because hank is an odd one
0:25 "And who never slept because he was too busy..."
Hank, I love you. But Franklin actually slept from 10:00pm-5:00am (at least according to his personal schedule) which means he got a healthy 7 hours. To quote Franklin "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise"
Some of my favorite Ben Franklin quotes:
"When you run in debt; you give to another power over your liberty.
Where liberty dwells, there is my country.
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.
Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power.
There was never a good war, or a bad peace.
It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.
Repeal that [welfare] law, and you will soon see a change in their manners. ... industry will increase, and with it plenty among the lower people; their circumstances will mend, and more will be done for their happiness by inuring them to provide for themselves, than could be done by dividing all your estates among them.
It would be thought a hard government that should tax its people one tenth part.
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!"
These days, my guess is that he would be a libertarian.
freesk8 He was a deist as well. That was the 18th century version of an atheist. He did not believe in a personal god that you could pray to and who could hear you. He believed in a god that created the universe, and then became the laws of science and of wisdom. Cool dude.
freesk8 It's not really the 18th century version of an atheist. There were atheists in the 18th century as well as deists. It is likely however that many atheists claimed to be deists to avoid criticisms.
nobody with a brain is a libertarian, sorry
classical or the first Liberalism was Libertarianism. So he could have been a liberal.
ryuuseicha Yeah, Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin.. etc
All "idiots".
You disagree with the libertarian political and philosophical stances. That's fine, but there's no reason to insult it or the people who do support it. That's childish and rude.
I especially liked this one. Thanks, Hank!
Franklin also came up with the conventional current still in use by some today. where most people think charge flows from positive to negative. Although he was wrong and the electrons actually flow the other way.
0:52 0:57 THAT WAS STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON FIRE, those bars
To be fair to those old-timey scientists, although the ether thing is nonsense, electrons (and photons, the force carrier for electromagnetism) *are* excitations in an everywhere-permeating field. And waves, which electrons kind of sort of sometimes are, often go hand in hand with fluids.
Matthew Prorok The ether idea makes good sense, it's a good theory. It just isn't right.
Fair point. The borrowing of the name from the classical "fifth element" just makes it seem sillier than it is.
Matthew Prorok ... I figure you're joking... right?
No. You're right that the aether theories of the early modern era weren't nonsense, just wrong. But the pre-modern ideas from which the name was borrowed most certainly were nonsense.
Matthew Prorok Agreed.
Thank you Grandpa Nerd for this video.
this man did a remarkable amount of things at once
I like the new style of the videos. The new intro is cool!
People don't realize how significant the lightening rod really is. The lightening rod was invented in 1749, today there are 7 billion people on this planet. Coincidence? I THINK NOT!!!
Hank, your shirt is a scintillating grid illusion!
Nice new intro! Good job, whoever made it!
Ty for learning me some stuff.
Early to bed early to rise makes a man rich and wise
Edit: thank you grandpa nerd.
I've often wondered about the truth behind the legend of Ben Franklin
Benjamin Franklin actually slept a lot and he made a very big deal about it. He had a very complicated sleeping routine that involved moving between multiple rooms at different temperatures throughout the night. He credited getting a good sleep to a lot of things, hence his saying "Early to bed early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."
Did you guys ever do an episode for Leonardo Da (Or is it Di/De? Sorry, I don't know why I can't remember) Vinci? If so, I missed it. Being multi-talented and having an IQ of 180-190, he definitely has a Great Mind. Based my Sr project on him in high school 11 years ago.
As for that Lightning rod business, please don't forget this guy: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prokop_Divi%C5%A1 who was the actual inventor of the (grounded) lightning rod.
Do a Great Minds on Norman Borlaug!
Another "great minds" video! Yaayy!
Franklin proved, by way of his kite experiment, that lightening is a form of electricity.
That shirt is playing tricks on my brain, black dots appearing everywhere! o_O
thank you
I like the new titles.
Thanks for the info :)
Do more of these episodes.
Question: *Why do pets enjoy being pet?*
you forget the invention of the glass armonica
SciShow! y u no annotate the People vs. Lightning reference?!
You guys should do one on Pasteur
In this video you mentioned how electricity was used before, may you please give me the source of it if you have?
Much Resssspect!
Electricity flows from negative to positive. God damn it Franklin
Interesting fact about Franklin: he was one of the few founders that held a life-long belief in irredeemable paper currencies. Most of the founders, due to their experiences with the Continental and various state-issued notes, were hostile to irredeemable paper currency. The rest of the Founders, by their later years, were firmly in the camp of hard money, i.e. gold and silver specie.
So, it is only fitting that Franklin is on the hundred dollar bill.
Also, Andrew Jackson, who hated central banks (think Federal Reserve) and the whole concept of irredeemable paper currency, would roll over in his grave if he were made aware that his face was on the $20 irredeemable paper dollar and that it was issued by the Federal Reserve system (a central bank).
Because Franklin realized that paper money is not totally ruled by inflation, and, like gold and silver, can be made to retain its value. I mean, gold and silver are symbolic, too-how would you use them except as currency? You only run into problems when paper money values are controlled by businesses, not regular people or governments.
A weird fact: The Leyden Jar had a precessor called Baghdad Battery which was sort of a thing because it was invented between 250 BC and 250 AD.
Here are 3 people you should cover on Great Minds:
1. Isaac Newton
2. Albert Einstein
3. Enrico Fermi
Can you do an episode of SciShow about Kepler-186f?
What I never understood was Brian Greene refers to it as cosmic foam rather than ether. What's the difference?
thanks for the amazing facts!
Seeing as it is Emmy Noether's birthday I think SciShow should do a Great Minds: Emmy Noether.
That grandpa nerd part got me lolol
What makes foods/beverages taste different when they are hot vs cold?
LOL. He was also a rather keen alchemist, quite eager to turn lead into gold...
Kneedragon1962 Well, the thing that seemed to generate a lot of gold for Franklin was his publishing business.... and that used lead type in the printing process... Perhaps he DID turn lead in to gold! :)
freesk8 LOL, good point.
***** LOL. Have I perhaps made a humorous observation about a historical figure, and offended a man with a username of LetUzFuk? Permit me a moment to enjoy the slight irony in that...
My point, very roughly, Mr Franklin is held up in American history as a shining example to all, a great scientific mind and a statesman, a founding father and better than Santa Clause. The real man, yes he did have a good mind, but he was a tiny bit eccentric, and he devoted a fair part of his life to the pursuit of things that don't exist. The Mr Franklin they talk about at Disneyland, is true, but he's only part of the truth. So I made a cheap shot about that.
Would you perhaps like me to take a cheap shot at you? I think I could maybe figure one out...
***** I'm not saying he was without value - it's like a knock - knock joke. Relax.
***** You lost me at "You ain't" ........
I reckon you should do some great mind videos about Wolfgang Pauli and Niles Bohr
His shirt is doing an optical illusion! The one where you see dots in the intersections of lines!
i would kinda like to know why 7up helps with stomach pains and how epoxies work!
liked the intro
Your shirt has black dots appearing outta NOWHERE!
Wow, the "fluids flowing through the ether" theory is like the ancient precursor to quantum field theory
The white squares on his shirt are creating the black and white dot illusion
You should do a great minds episode on one of the following Native Americans: John Herrington, Mary Ross, Dr. Jani Ingram or Dr. David Burgess
Thank you granddad Nerd! :D
how many black dots are there on his shirt? :O
i love unexpected optical illusions
These guys share a lot of the world's mysteries through mere 5 minute videos using knowledge that was probably put large amounts of money to acquire. So if Pewdiepie, a gamer can earn a larger revenue through his subscribers, why can't these amazing geniuses. Please hell them reach 10 million.
Do Michael Faraday he was brilliant
I share in the celebration of nerds. Bravo, Benjamin Franklin!
In France, when he visited there, he was viewed as a sort of a rock star scientist... Maybe like a Steve Jobs or something...
Why does your shirt have black squares flashing every time you move?
Franklin was so frank that he demanded his pic on $100
3:00 According to the Founding Nerd himself in his Autobiography, he performed the kite experiment only after a similar experiment was successfully carried out in Europe, and I quote, "What gave my book the more sudden and general celebrity, was the success of one of its proposed experiments, made by Messrs. Dalibard and De Lor at Marly, for drawing lightning from the clouds. This engag'd the public attention every where. M. de Lor, who had an apparatus for experimental philosophy, and lectur'd in that branch of science, undertook to repeat what he called the Philadelphia Experiments; and, after they were performed before the king and court, all the curious of Paris flocked to see them. I will not swell this narrative with an account of that capital experiment, nor of the infinite pleasure I receiv'd in the success of a similar one I made soon after with a kite at Philadelphia, as both are to be found in the histories of electricity."
he is the nerdiest of them all
What I learned today: old Ben caused the first Wilhelm scream.
Is it weird that I did a woop of joy when Michael Faraday was mentioned?
Did Georg Wilhelm do the classic Wilhelm scream when he died?
It is sort of strange to think that I go to the same high school as Georg Wilhelm Richmann (the kite dude, who died) did...
Great Minds episode for Carolus Linnaeus?
Was that a new SciShow intro?
Do you think it's easier to be innovative today than it was back then?
I think scishow should do a piece on Jonas Salk
He had a 50-50 chance to get electrical charge right and he didn't. That is why we talk about electricity flowing from negative to positive.
Question: Can writing on your hand actually poison your blood?
Ben Franklin never invented electricity but only proved it could be contained and used
Do DaVinci next!!
And we all know that Ether is really just an item that restores a moves PP.
His shirt is tripping me out. It's like that optical illusion where you see the black dots where there are none
Also, Benjamin Franklin was just awesome.
"I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life, I absenteed myself from Christian assemblies." -Benjamin Franklin
the link to people vs. lichtning is NOT WORKING !!!
So they actually managed to trap lightning in a bottle...
That's surprising, you'd think that the lightning strike would just completely fry the leyden jar, what with it being too powerful to be contained by any modern capacitor.