Hey Physics Friends,

Late March. The post-spring-break wall has officially been hit. State testing is looming. You're running on coffee, spite, and the countdown to summer.

We get it. So here's the deal: zero prep required today. Just three wild physics stories you can drop into Monday's warm-up, a 60-second demo using a tortilla, and some news about those shirts Shawn keeps wearing in every video.

Let's go.

🚛 CERN Is Delivering Antimatter in a Truck

For the first time ever, scientists at CERN are loading antiprotons into a special vacuum chamber and driving them across campus in an actual truck. The catch? Antimatter annihilates the instant it touches regular matter, so the whole thing is suspended in a magnetic field inside a vacuum. The goal is an "antimatter delivery service" shipping the stuff to labs across Europe.

Monday warm-up: "If you had to transport a box of antimatter across town without it touching the sides and blowing up the city, how would you do it?" Let them argue for 3 minutes. Then explain magnetic confinement. Watch their faces.

Read the full story →

🥞 A Physicist Solved the Physics of Folding a Crêpe

A French physicist got annoyed that his crêpes kept unfolding, so he created a formula to predict exactly how many times you can fold a flexible disc before it fights back. It's a tug-of-war between gravity pulling it flat and elasticity springing it open. A 26cm crêpe? Four folds. A thick American pancake? Two.

Monday warm-up: Hand a student a tortilla. "Fold it as many times as you can. What two forces are fighting each other?" Gravity vs. elasticity. You just taught material physics in 60 seconds with a snack.

🌍 Climate Change Is Literally Slowing Down Time

Earth's rotation is slowing at a rate not seen in 3.6 million years because melting polar ice is redistributing mass from the poles toward the equator. Just like a figure skater throwing their arms out — mass moves away from the axis, spin slows down. Our days are getting 1.33 milliseconds longer every century.

Monday warm-up: Spinning stool + weights in hands. Arms in = fast. Arms out = slow. "Congratulations, you just demonstrated why melting ice caps are making days longer."

Read the full story →

Every day, 4.5 million readers turn to 1440 for their factual news fix. We sift through 100+ sources to bring you a complete summary of politics, global events, business, and culture — all in a brief 5-minute email. No spin. No slant. Just clarity.

Join for free today!

The Crêpe Challenge (60 seconds, one tortilla)

Toss a tortilla (or piece of paper) to a student. Say: "Fold it as many times as you can. Go."

After they max out, ask: "Why couldn't you keep going? What's stopping you?"

This opens up forces, material properties, elasticity, and gravity — all from a snack. Works for any unit. Zero prep. Kids remember it forever.

Teaching energy this spring? We built a full unit with labs, slides, and answer keys so you don't have to. 👇

Those shirts Shawn wears in every TikTok? They're finally available.

17 designs. Premium Comfort Colors heavyweight tees. "Blame Inertia," "Women Belong in Science," "Spooky Action at a Distance" — physics merch that's actually cool enough to wear outside the classroom.

SPRINGPHYSICS gets you 20% off everything in the shop — labs, escape rooms, bundles, the works. One week left.

ChatGPT is insanely powerful.

But most people waste 90% of its potential by using it like Google.

These 1,000+ proven ChatGPT prompts fix that and help you work 10X faster.

Sign up for Superhuman AI and get:

Claim your free prompts

A physics teacher asks the class: "What's the unit of power?"

Student: "Watts."

Teacher: "I said, WHAT'S THE UNIT OF POWER?"

Student, louder: "WATTS!"

The greatest physics joke ever told. We will not be taking questions.

Hang in there. Summer is closer than it looks. ☀️

Stay Wildly Curious,

— Lauren & Shawn

P.S. Hit reply and tell us: which of the 3 stories are you using Monday? We read every single email.