Popular YouTuber Derek Muller has recently made headlines for winning a $10,000 physics bet. Here’s what went down.
How it all started
Derek Muller, who runs the popular YouTube channel Veritasium, made a video addressing a famous physics debate. Essentially, he proved that a wind-powered vehicle moving downwind could move at a higher speed than the wind itself. By the end of the video, he also explained the theory behind how this was possible, even though it contradicted several laws of physics.
After this video was published, Professor Alexander Kusenko, a UCLA physics professor, challenged Derek’s theory. The YouTuber and the physics professor had a friendly banter over the matter, which soon resulted in a wager.
How Derek leveraged the situation
Derek and Professor Alexander had already worked with each other before, so this made it easier for them to come up with ideas and prove each other wrong. To make things spicier, they agreed on a $10,000 bet. This also became an excellent opportunity for Derek to create a YouTube video about everything that went down.
The wager was even more interesting when popular celebrities Bill Nye, Sean Carroll and Neil deGrasse Tyson witnessed the contract signing. Derek, Professor Alexander and the celebrities also had an interesting conversation about their theories in the debate.
The finale
The wager already garnered plenty of attention, with media coverage in the news, social media, and science websites. To settle the wager, Derek needed a prototype that could prove his theory. His friend Xyla Foxlin, another YouTuber, went on to create a mini-vehicle that disproved the theory. Xyla’s video not only showed how the mini-vehicle worked but also how viewers could build one of their own. Soon enough, Professor Alexander conceded and accepted Derek’s theory.
No matter who won, at the end of the day, the wager made for great content. Not only did Veritasium garner a lot of praise, but the extensive news coverage also brought in a fresh audience to the channel. Derek also went on to invest the money towards a science contest.
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