Confusion is the sweat of learning

Khan academy helped me catch up in math and gave me the confidence in it to pursue a degree in aerospace engineering. I owe that guy a lot.

KZfaq algorithm be like: hey this is 10 years old, you should watch it.

9 years of math and 6 years of physics learned in 7 months thanks to Khan Academy and my dedication. I wouldnt be where I am if not for Khan.

Thanks Derek, this video was clear, concise, and easy to understand. I feel more confident now!

The voice XD

Important note: Khan Academy is way different now than they were 10 year ago when this was made. They have tons of useful practice problems for people to engage with the material

Khan is to study towards a goal: the viewer wants to know the stuff to to pass exam and thus solve problems. It's not for casual edutainment, where you first have to awake the desire to know.

Khan academy got me in flightschool, i learnt 4 year worth of maths in 2 months

Khan academy helped me in math more than school

Here we go fellas...10 years...it took 10 years to get to me👏👏👏

Believe me I've been sitting in classrooms all my life and have never understood anything coming out of my teacher's mouths but these simple KZfaq videos from Khan Academy or Organic Chemistry tutor have helped me alot in these recent years. Let's not forget the almighty "Math and Science tutor" these people are providing students with free content and great explanations in a short amount of time. If a student wants to dive deeper into a subject they can do more research or read more books.

It's amazing how many people in these comments appearantly also have a PhD in this exact same topic.

The issue I have with veritasium's argument, is that he assumes the videos he showed are as equally informative or easy to understand as Khan's videos. I don't know about the science, but I've been going through the math modules, and he actually goes through practice problems. I follow along, pause the video, and try and get the answer before he completely works it out. It's active learning. Then I go on to the individual practice problems that test my knowlege. It's been working for me so far.

I personally learnt calculus (all of calc one and most of two) through channels like 3blue1brown for the intuition and blackpenredpen for the method. I think it's important to use multiple resources and see different perspectives on similar problems. Learning this earlier than my peers gave me a huge advantage this year, where we were only just formally introduced to the derivative. Although, at least in my country, I wasn't satisfied with how we were introduced to such concepts. I feel like the education system here lacks the variety in method and motive that one can get through online resources, building a fuller understanding of concepts which otherwise would be seen as memorisation.

I don't know how Khan Academy teaches Physics (would love if someone would point it out in reply), but in terms of Mathematics, firstly, as pointed out by many other people, the learning audience is completely different. They aren't watching the videos as pop-sci edutainment, like most are on KZfaq. They're doing it for academic purposes which forces them to either understand the lessons or fail the exercises and go back to rewatch the videos to understand where they went wrong. More over, while watching Khan Academy videos, you're encouraged to do the lesson examples before you proceed into the lesson, which is when you're exposed to your own misconceptions. You will then compare both the procedure and the answer with Khan. Also, Khan very commonly starts a new concept that you might have a misconception in with "well, at first you might think... Or otherwise try this... But as we can see...". How is that different to you going around in the streets asking people what they think. I think the difference is only that asking random strangers stuff might seem more fun. But then again, who's learning? A person seeking pop-sci edutainment or a person seeking acamedic advancement? Finally, how really useful is gathering misconceptions from random pedestrians that have their education long diminished and forgotten? Knowing my own personal bias, I might dismiss their misconceptions as soon as I hear something like "dinosaurs and humans lived together". I mean, I get it, people watch the Flintstones, but if I'm learning, I think I want to re-evaluate misconceptions that I have with people that are also learning. Random pedestrians have no interest in learning, and when you explain something to them, they only react "wow, cool, I didn't know that". This isn't helpful, at least to me personally. My bias makes me assume "if those are the common misconceptions, then surely I have it down much better". In Khan Academy, Sal Khan starts pointing out misconceptions as "at first you might think...", as I mentioned. This basically tries to mimick the logical thought process that you might have when you lack information. That's how, at least I personally, would be the most alert to re-evaluate my own misconceptions or see a slippery path that I would take a mental note in to watch out when solving problems. My two cents.

I really like veritasium, though I must disagree here. Khan academy's videos may not be effective for some ''casual youtube watcher'' (for lack of a better term) who doesn't have any intention of actually gaining knowledge, but those videos are clearly not directed at them. They are there to reach people who want to actively study a subject like mathematics for example. Those videos are not meant to be used as casual public science education. I've been using these videos for the past year and a half or so while studying engineering and I've been making enormous progress with linear algebra, integral calculus, multi-variable calculus and even thermodynamics. Khan academy has even helped me study in advance some subjects in my mechanics of materials classes because of the advances I had taken with partial derivatives compared to my class and the only thing I can say about them is that their work is really effective for those who actually want to learn. The idea to talk about ''wrong ideas first'' is really not that helpful when you're trying to actually teach the right thing, especially in mathematics (though they usually talk about possible errors that might happen while calculating), and the idea of ''dumbing down'' their videos to help the general public would really be counter-productive for their purpose to teach in-depth mathematical concepts and others.

One of my college professors once said it would be really interesting if when he died, God was there, and he could ask any question he ever wanted to know. He would ask, "How many things do I know are true are actually wrong?" Consider it, we once knew that the Earth was flat; we once knew that time was universal and consistent; we once knew that mass and energy were not conserved. I live life knowing that what I "know" is actually just a best guess, really, based on the information I have available. I don't know how other people feel about this, but I really enjoy it when I learn something that blows my mind, especially when it was something I "knew" to be different.

I remember watching this video years ago and the algorithm decided to revisit me today. I joined Khan Academy about 10 years ago. My life was going nowhere, I had no structured learning in science and math. I loved the maths curriculum at KA. Eventually I ended up sitting for medical school entrance (for a publicly-funded spot, I was broke and have no inherited money to go to medschool like a lot of people these days). Anyway, I started working as a Doctor this year. It would never have been possible without Khan Academy. I make it a point to donate to Khan Academy every year.

I am a 9th grader- I recently discovered this channel- Khan Academy- & I really love it. I have learnt a lot from that channel already.

It takes a yee! :-D

Thumbs up if you're a Khan Academy student!

Khan Academy helped me get my first job for usps as maintenance being an electrician technician! Later on, it helped me be in university, brushing up on math, helping me get my aerospace degree!

11 years later i have to say that this channel khan academy also has a french version which helped me very often in my studies as an engineer

Man, I'm a physics teacher, and sometimes I spent a lot of time wondering why my students couldn't absorb what I was teaching... Now it makes sense why... Your videos are the best!

This video is years old, and Khan Academy might have changed a lot during that time. But the way it works now, the students aren't only meant to watch videos, but do exercises which will function both as a way to practice and a way to check your understanding. I'm a completionist, so I like to get a 100% on each of the little tests, so if I can't get it right, I have to go back and watch the videos over to review. So as it is, I think the system works pretty well. Also, Sal Khan isn't the only lecturer. In their physics section there is at least one other lecturer, whose name I don't remember, who is also very good at illustrating both the wrong and the right way to handle different concepts, and common pit falls. In any case, it's certainly important for educators to be aware of this phenomenon, not only for videos but for live lectures as well. Edit: Oh, and Sal often asks the students to pause the video and attempt to solve the example problems themselves, which gives the students a chance to see the difference between their (potentially erroneous) methods and the one he's trying to teach.

And this video is 10years old tf genius he is

I disagree. He never mentioned anything about intrinsic motivation. I never took a physics class in my life until I did on khan academy and it allowed me to score high enough on a Clep test to enter physics with calc 1 where I now have an A in the course. I had all the motivation in the world because I’m trying to change careers from English teacher to engineering. Taking some random people off the street and trying to teach them physics... I mean his results say it all. But if you consider people who actually want to learn, which is nearly 100% of the people showing up to khan, you don’t have to have “misconceptions” to learn. Khan is an excellent resource for people who want to learn about almost any topic. I used it for calculus 1 and physics to jump start my engineering career after nearly a decade with no math or science. Without them I’d be completely lost.

7:56 "Joe, Put your trousers on!"

The problem, I believe, is fairly obvious: these people are not autodidacts. They do not know how to teach themselves. What do you think will happen if you throw ordinary people into the jungle? Obviously, some will pick up survival skills along the way, some will die, but none of them will instantly and magically learn how to fend for themselves in a certain situation just by being thrown into it. Being an autodidact is not an easy task. Expecting "ordinary" students to suddenly achieve an autodidact's level of focus, patience and self-learning just by putting them into the same situtation for a few minutes is hopelessly unrealistic. You can't expect to beat an experienced BJJ fighter just because you're wearing a similar kimono. It's not something everyone can instinctively do from birth. It takes time to learn how to survive, how to find the information you want, and specially how to focus for long periods of time, sometimes going over the same few pages dealing with a given subject for days or weeks. In short, you asked those people to do something they don't know how to do. They can watch the video and read the book, but they don't know how to absorb the content presented. They don't know how to survive in the jungle without a guide, they are just students. Autodidacts are more than that, they also need to be their own teachers, an experience you don't get from the system you come from. The most important rule is that everything is important, nothing is irrelevant. There is always something you can learn even from the simplest video detailing a subject you're familiar with.

All of my teachers who cannot explain anything clearly: ‘see, I’m actually a wonderful teacher’

Who else randomly had this in their recommendations 9 years later

It's interesting. The students don't actually disagree about the shape of the trajectory of the ball. They only disagree about the somewhat obscure concept of a force. Coincidentally, none of the videos seem to define what forces are.

Derek's research is incredibly informative and spot on! I have a question and two things to consider. Consider: 1) Khan Academy videos are not meant to "teach," but rather to "tutor." I have used Khan Academy through most of my formal education to help grasp topics that have already been introduced by the teacher, or are coming up on a test. Where as Veritasium's intent is to "teach." From a student's perspective, the intended use of the videos plays a big part in determining their effectiveness as educational tools. 2) Clearing up misconceptions is obviously an important thing to do; but showing misconceptions by quizzing people on the spot is something that should ONLY be used in videos, NOT in an actual classroom. Quizzing a class before teaching a topic can be detrimental. What happens is students that already know the answer, or have a preconception, participate in answering pre-lesson "quizzing" questions. All of the other students are alienated; from their perspective the students who attempted an answer have some "natural smartness," or extra ability. Leaving the ones with zero preconceived knowledge on the topic feeling like they are "naturally incapable," or dumb. This is often what turns off students from the maths and sciences in the first place. My question to Derek is: How does his research translate to person to person teaching? What can I do as a math and science teacher to clear up misconceptions while ALSO avoid pre-lesson quizzing (and further, alienation)

It is awesome that you kept that idea of "starting with the misconception" even to this day in your videos. You are a legend...

I had to re-watch this video then consult a khan academy-like video to better understand the concept of "gravity being the only force that affects the ball". Its feels more intuitive to think of the initial velocity of a thrown ball as some sort of a shrinking active force that is being applied to the ball, from the throw, throughout its trajectory--like the Asian dude in the second video explains. However, the math better helps show how when you look at the forces on the ball over time, it's only gravity whose force is consistently being applied to the ball. Like an invisible hand constantly imparting a downward 'throw' force on the ball, if you will. Honestly, I feel that the question itself here is a little overly construed, because I think that the entire goal of this exercise is merely to get the learner to divorce the idea of an object's velocity from any forces that might act on it to change said velocity. Funny how I couldn't find a single comment about this in the comments section after 10 years lol.

Interviewer: "Is the following statement true or false: Humans lived at the same time as the dinosaurs?" Me: oh god don't say true Pedestrian: *thinking* Me: OH GOD DON'T SAY TRUE Pedestrian: "l'll say true" Me: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I feel that Sal's videos are quite excellent when you are filling in content gaps. For example, if you want to learn more about Carbonyl chemistry , most students watch the video to fill acknowledged gaps in thinking rather than gaps they aren't aware of. You watch the video and learn the mechanism, you do the in video practice, and you apply the learning to your problem set. I can see this inactive learning and presumptive process occurring in kids in situations where the videos are mandated (and thus the interest and self motivated learning is non-existent) , but if someone is using the videos to fill in gaps, I don't see how they present an educational conundrum in the slightest.

Khan academy much better than most available videos online, you cannot rely on them only but they will help students to study their own pace and that is the beauty of them and Khan's point is right, they have to go back to find what they do not know

10 years ago and Tibees commented

HOW AM I ONLY FINDING THIS ACADEMY NOW???! This is the best thing that happened to mankind!

I think one problem that I've noticed is not that videos are passive in teaching, it's that students are passive when watching a video. this goes to your "utmost attention" point. In a class based on the politics of a funny and very political show, the vast majority of students would reference the reading from the previous night, rather than the episodes they had just seen. I think it's that people have no idea how to, or no interest in, actively watching movies, videos, or television. when I ask people what they thought of a movie, they can tell me if they liked it or not, but often they don't have a clear reason why. there, enjoy a wall of text and learn nothing by the end.

Those who think 'Ah, this again' will never learn a thing... But those who think they don't know everything and passionate to learn, will learn something new everytime they watch the same video... More than the source, the attitude of the recipient is important..

Just commenting for everyone who suddenly got this in their recommendations 10 years later. This is a critique of the Khan Academy KZfaq channel from 10 years ago. It's not relevant to Khan Academy, the free education website of today. Khan Academy is much more than just watching videos.

i believe that knowing about this greately improves the effectiveness of science videos because i dare say that now that i am aware of this i pay more attention and are more likely to doubt my own preconcieved notions i watched the "Best Film on Newton's Third Law. Ever." right after this and i was actively thinking about weather i have the wrong ideas about things

7:50 This kinda summarizes youtube for me...

I felt something was off before realizing this video is 12 years old. KZfaq algorithm putting in work 😂

This is an amazing video. I finally understand why I am not able to learn much from a lot of science videos. Humility is the way forward.

Exellent... thats how i actually teach my students. its interactive, i ask them questions and make learning enjoyable.

I think another issue might be that we watch these videos casually with little focus ( without a pen , paper , a study/focus mindset, a proper desk setup ) - if I watched math videos to prepare for an exam, maybe I would be as focused as I am in a classroom

When looking at behavioral sciences and learning science, all the data suggests that the effectiveness of the mode of learning is mostly up to the learner.

Recommended after 10 years

Well, I got the question right and my first exposure to physics was on Khan Academy. I passionately hated the traditional school environment and shouldn't even have graduated high school. Until discovering Khan Academy a few years ago, the extent of my mathematical and scientific knowledge was multiplication and photosynthesis. I now have a solid understanding of quantum physics, calculus and linear algebra. All of which I owe to KZfaq University.

This is the third time I watch this video and I don’t remember what it says, even though it was clear, concise and easy to understand. I forgot what it said and in the end, I got more confidence with my previous idea that Khan Academy is great.

Gotta love when KZfaq recommends the very inception of this stellar channel.

It's really interesting that after 10 years, this video has new relevance in the age of misinformation and the recommendation algorithms that reinforce the confidence in falsehood.

I have to disagree about the purpose of the khan academy's videos. The videos you showed to the people may not be uninteresting, but the people don't have anything in for it. thus not paying any attention doesn't hurt them or they don't gain anything useful.(maybe some academic knob -information). People are inherently lazy. If learning something doesn't make profit in immediate future, they will not want and wont learn it. ("knowledge because of knowledge" is a rare thing.) The users of khan, AK lectures,Doc Physics,lasseviren1, or similar,_have_ to understand the topic, or fail the semester/year/life lectures. This why there must be no misconception in the videos. It would only cause confusion. And these people have something in the line. Like their whole career. Put a 1k$ bet for the video watchers and try again. I thing the learning curve will tip over towards the straight forward video.

Ironically, it only takes reading through the comments section of this very video to see how extensive the problem described in the video really is. There are many insightful comments here, but a great deal of them are nothing more than defense of the very misconceptions the video explicitly calls out! Are there studies comparing video learning to classroom which indicate the value of an instructor actively providing feedback? I like the idea of providing examples of common misconceptions, but I often observe that the same false confidence that will allow someone to overlook the logic of a correct explanation will often work just as well to ignore attempts to explicitly call out the misconception. Interaction with an instructor gives an opportunity to walk a student through their own thought process to the point of being forced to confront a logically impossible situation. It's hard for a video to stumble upon the exact collection of words necessary to steer the thought process accurately for any one person's misconception, let alone all potential viewers. That said, I think videos can be a great learning tool when there are few misconceptions to overcome.

Thats nice. 11 years but great video!!

Veritasium : mentions Khan Every indian ever : whomst has summon us

PBS Spacetime is a great example of the better science channels

Khan academy is amazing now. Much better it seems than 10 years ago. Its helped me a ton in highschool sceince and maths btw.

I wouldn't have passed my exam without that guy.

As a teacher, misconceptions, especially in mathematics, are the enemies.

I know Derek is a really positive guy and he has such great insight for educating everyone. This is just him pointing out the obvious fault that causes misconceptions among youth and students, he has spoken about it because he doesn't wanna let people have more wrong concepts.

I think learning by will is what really differs from those experiments and real life. In the videos, the students might not be willing to learn a lot, maybe they just wanted to be a part of it... If one is opening Khan Academy with the will to learn, I am sure they would listen everything carefully.

Questioning is the best way to learning. It challenges our conception and after figure it out we really master the knowledge not just a feeling of learned.

This website is absolutely great. Im learning trigonometry in middle school now.

I totally agree with Derek but the same effect of tackling misconceptions can be achieved by focusing on mastery. It's like you read the chapter of a textbook and then you go and solve the exercises but at the beginning you fail almost everytime and then gradually as you keep doing the damn questions and try to solve the exercises, you get the correct answers (and along with that you see what you did wrong). Perhaps the most effective way would be to tackle misconceptions and say to students how things are not (not only how things are) during the teaching period and then achieve mastery through lot's of exercises and problems.

What also concerns me is that in today's classrooms, in my country at least, teachers will often respond to students' misconceptions with the right answer but will fail to dismiss the earlier notion, trying to accept or value the student's (incorrect) contribution. I think, too often, in an effort to make the learning environment comfortable, one doesn't tell people when they are wrong. The real truth is, however, that real learning often takes place when one is uncomfortable.

12 years later 🎉

Needed this one. I am exactly one of those students trying to understand my way through early physics. It hard. Fascinating, but hard.

Don't know about you guys but Khan Academy made math easy for me.

So obviously Khan academy videos work unequivocally. Just as I suspected. Thanks for proving my preconceived ideas! ;) All joking aside, this was really valuable to learn. I'm going to see how I can implement this technique of emphasizing the misconceptions in how I educate people (both online and in the classroom).

I’m an engineering professor. This video identifies something I’ve been wondering about just this week. I’m teaching a senior level course on application of electronics. I observe that students who have had other senior courses on electronics think they know what I am talking about already. I have taught some of those other courses and I know that I am teaching things at a different level in this course than what these seniors have seen before. They don’t realize that they don’t understand what I’m saying till they try to do the homework or take the test. Meanwhile, sometimes juniors with very little exposure to electronics take this course, realize they don’t understand the topic, and they actually pay attention! They end up learning the material quicker and more thoroughly than the seniors.

Khan Academy is great because he starts with fundamentals and builds knowledge in small steps allowing one to make new connections in their memory, thus better retaining the information.

When you presented the basketball question I was definitely in the camp of thought voiced by the asian guy in the misconception video. Even after watching the whole video I was still convinced of my initial thinking. It was actually kind of distressing. I was thinking 'Is Science MAD? wtf?' I had to go back to the beginning of the video and hear the question again. "...AFTER the ball leaves the players HAND..." If I pay careful attention to the wording then I think ok, the hand is only applying force as long as it touches it, whereas gravity is constant. The video afterwards with the Australian lady is even more confusing because she says " now consider a case the gravitional force is the only force acting on an object"; based on what I know if that were the case the ball would never leave his hand unless to roll off and fall to the ground. Gravity does not cause balls to fly upwards. So that brings me back to what I was initially thinking. Like why is the ball going up if no force other than gravity is acting on it? is it inertia? so the initial force isn't being applied, but that force is still the cause for it's upward flight path. Technically the initially force is not "acting on" the ball...but it's really not surprising that anyone would get that question wrong. It seems as much a problem of language as of understanding concepts.

This is what most teachers need to realize. Giving kids an answer or telling them how stuff works is half the effort and half the result. I bet you if classes were taught correctly, getting 50% would be the bare minimum you could score. Because when you're challenged, you'll actually remember something. This is why I love your video's. when you see people making mistakes and then the explanation follows, you're picking up the thought process much quicker. I don't remember everything from your video's obviously, but I'll take a lot of bits an pieces out of everything allowing me to construct the logic or theories around them. I really can't thank you enough for everything you've made and clearing up a lot of topics I never learnt at school or learnt wrong.

I was constantly re-reading a topic on chemistry and still didn't understand. I found Khan Academy and got it right after some pauses and watch. 2h class + 2h reading didn't hold a candle to what a concise video could provide in 10m. I don't mean to say that school or traditional teachers are useless but if you could have videos explain the universal basics and then teachers supplement, that would be amazing.

[Disclaimer: I do not have a PhD in this topic] My inexpert thoughts are that if a person is seeking knowledge then Khan's videos are indeed a wonderful resource (as are yours Derek). Perhaps when students are made to watch videos, as they themselves are not seeking the knowledge, this is where the problems start. I would imagine that there are always a small percentage of students who absorb most of the video's content correctly. The real question is: how do we motoivate students to feel motivated to seek out knowledge themselves?

But Khan Academy has actually improved my test scores. I am Kausik from India and I really like the videos of Khan Academy. Many people have liked it. It has helped me in excelling in my Science exams. It has helped me understand thing quickly. You cannot oppose it like this. But matters the most is writing!!! JUST WRITE WRITE AND WRITE!!!

In a few words, what this says is: You have to be humble in a way to learn. What this teaches is: Most people start in a very much arrogant position, so, you first have to break their arrogance (and make them understand they are just stupid 😂) and then you teach them what is right. Basically what parents did when they first gave you a slap in the ass and then taught you how to properly behave. xD Great PHD study case, Veritasium. I certainly will not forget what your study has shown and will acknowledge it both when learning and teaching something. Thank you!

Being very ADHD, I often hear without listening, see without looking, and read without paying attention. I have to re-read the same page 5 times sometimes because my mind wanders as I read rather than putting it together. When I re-read something after this happens, I remember all words but no sentences. Because of this, I enjoy listening to videos on 2x speed because it's more engaging and doesn't give my mind time to drift between words. When using Khan (which I've found very useful thus far) I'm mindful of these very frequent attention lapses, and I catch my mind wandering and rewind to well before the last part I was actually paying attention to. Sometimes I have to rewatch something multiple times, and I often pause to verbally repeat concepts in different words or say how this ties into a related concept. I personally find this approach works very well for me and I'm curious if that's because it's less passive a process than the way you're assuming (possibly correctly) the way most take in video lessons.

Kudos to the guy who corrected himself

As far as learning through science and technology videos, wether or not they are generally helpful... I'm extremely lucky to have a personality that allows me to very easily absorb and apply information that interests me... These kinds of videos are extremely useful for someone like me to study at my own measure.

Khan academy is gem for students nowadays

Don't know why youtube suggested this in 2023. I've been watching veritasium for 3/4 years now

What a clearly stated video, this Derek guy should be a science communicator!

After more than an exact human decade since the release of this video, this same page is still up-to-date and its one of the few factors that nowadays are saving billions of grades.

In my own teaching, I tend to start with the misconceptions/common mistakes, and repeat several times, verbally and in writing, that they're wrong, with lots of underlining. Otherwise, I fear students who aren't paying enough attention will think I'm showing them how it's done, and hopefully it really catches the attention of the people who've been doing it wrong.

I think the thin with Khan academy is that it does ask questions by the end of almost everything, so if you have a misconception you will end up finding it out....

How very awesome of you to share your PHD. I'm reading through the first pages now, and it's good stuff. Good video. I should've seen it sooner. It demonstrates the quality content you've consistently been putting out there for years.

Thank you derek. This went straight off my head.

After a year of teaching kids using online distance learning due to pandemic this video proves to be very insightful. I wished I have watched this earlier.

I never thought Derek can also mimic someone like this much perfect:))))

The global online education industry should pay very close attention to videos like this as this is what teaching is really all about...... "Learning how we learn" and them improving as much as we can

The videos alone aren't what makes the Khan Academy great, it's the examination methodology which both allows for failure and encourages persistence towards mastery which makes it so fantastic. Your example seems still stuck in the Prussian educational model mindset, where you test how well students came to terms with aspects of a subject that you mentioned to them in passing, permanently brand the students with a score that is arbitrarily labeled as "passing" or "failing", and then moving on to the next topic. Using the Khan Academy, your first group of students would have known immediately that what they had answered the second time around was incorrect. They would then be encouraged to review what they didn't know about the topic, and would be re-examined after their review. They'd keep at it till they could correctly answer ten questions, and would then be prompted to be re-assessed at a later time to make sure that they had obtained mastery. This is game-changing for many students (including myself) because the failure which is important for the learning process is not punished, it's acknowledged, and how far one is able to go in a subject is limited only by the amount of time and effort that we're able to put into it. I went from barely having a grasp of pre-algebra to being accepted into Cornell's engineering program over the course of a couple years thanks to the Khan Academy.

I disagree with this to a point. I use Kahn Academy all the time, but as a student, but more now as a science teacher. In school it was really great for showing the mechanics of problems and seeing the flow of logic so I could apply it to my work. Now I use it when I'm developing lesson plans. Like most forms of education, engagement is key. You can't watch the videos "dry" and expect to get much out of them. But they are great if you are following along and trying to work on the same or similar problems.

To Veritasium and to all the great science KZfaqrs who inspired me, When I watched my first ever science KZfaq video in 7th grade from Minutephysics, it was mind-blowing. I literally spent hours thinking of what the video was about and searched on the internet to find more about it. I watch videos from Veritasium, Minutephysics, and many other KZfaq channels, one thing I love in particular was that they always caused me to drift off from my school works and spent hours thinking about it. When I first watched many of them, they were confusing, but there was a deep and strong desire in me that I just wanted to understand. I often took a lot of time for me to understand them, but once I understood them, there was a strong satisfaction. What I learned became what matters to me, instead of just something I have to know. To many great creators out there on KZfaq, you opened a door to me and inspire me to have a deep passion in learning.

I love the use of science to confirm if a method of teaching science is working.