The Physics That Doomed Amelia Earhart

The mistakes of Amelia Earhart’s final flight, and the physics that could have saved her. Use code VERITASIUM to get 50% off your 1st club crate when you join a club for kids aged 3+ or go to https://kiwico.com/veritasium 00:00 Amelia Earhart’s fatal flight 01:52 How Earhart prepared for her final mission 03:33 Who was Amelia Earhart? 05:36 The flight plan 07:13 How celestial navigation works 09:16 Invention of radio technology 12:02 Radio waves explained 22:44 Earhart makes her critical decision 24:55 Communication failures 28:30 “Gas is running low” 31:39 Her desperate final message 33:01 The small detail that could have saved her Special thanks to Clifford Heath for his help putting together the radio demo, and the folks at the Victorian ARDF group for connecting us. Thank you to Brian Harrison and Michael Murphy with the AWA Communication Technologies Museum for their assistance with early research. Thank you to Peter Bevelacqua over at Antenna Theory for help filling in some missing details. Sharp-eyed viewers might notice there doesn't seem to be a loop antenna in the flight simulation shots. It sadly wasn't included in the simulator's model of Earhart's Electra, but it features prominently in old photos. The Secret Life of Radio video credits: Tim Hunkin - https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=4AyDKVi6brMqSIMD&v=LMxate9gegg&feature=youtu.be Join us on Patreon for early access videos, bonus content, and to support Veritasium! https://ve42.co/PatreonDE Patrons: Adam Foreman, Albert Wenger, Alexander Tamas, Anton Ragin, Balkrishna Heroor, Bertrand Serlet, Bill Linder, Blake Byers, Bruce, Dave Kircher, David Johnston, Evgeny Skvortsov, Garrett Mueller, Gnare, Greg Scopel, I. H., John H. Austin, Jr., Juan Benet, KeyWestr, Kirill Shore, Kyi, Lee Redden, Marinus Kuivenhoven, Matthias Wrobel, Meekay, Michael Krugman, Orlando Bassotto, Paul Peijzel, Reed Spilmann, Richard Sundvall, Sam Lutfi, TTST, Tj Steyn, Ubiquity Ventures, gpoly, john kiehl, meg noah, wolfee If you’re looking for a molecular modeling kit, try Snatoms, a kit I invented where the atoms snap together magnetically - https://ve42.co/SnatomsV References: https://ve42.co/RefsEarhart Directed by Sulli Yost and Derek Muller Written by Sulli Yost and Derek Muller Edited by Peter Nelson Animated by David Szakaly, Fabio Albertelli, Ivy Tello, Mike Radjabov, Mohamed Alhaj, Emma Wright Illustrations by Jakub Misiek, Emma Wright, Maria Gusakovich Filmed by Derek Muller and Bernard Lau Additional Research by Gabriel Bean, Geeta Thakur Produced by Sulli Yost, Derek Muller, Rob Beasley Spence, Emily Lazard, Tori Brittain, Umar Ijaz Thumbnail contributions by Peter Sheppard, Ren Hurley Additional video/photos supplied by Getty Images and Storyblocks Music from Epidemic Sound and Jonny Hyman