How to Speak Backwards - with Eric Laithwaite

When looking into a mirror, you see a likeness of yourself, but it is not you. Would you be able to communicate with your mirror double? Eric Laithwaite attempts speaking backwards as an option.
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The Royal Institution 2017 advent calendar ‘Transmissions Through Time’ looks through the lens of CHRISTMAS LECTURES past to share the best demonstrations around the science of communication. From Attenborough and Sagan to Woollard and Fong, we revisit old favourites and find new gems to bring you a little gift of science every day in the lead up to Christmas. bit.ly/RiAdvent17
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[@locouk]

Teacher: Simon, can you say your name backwards? Simon: No mis

[@PifflePrattle]

Green Silver Try recording 'no me ass' then playing it backwards

[@Jamison.u.s23]

Underrated comment

[@Simbosan]

I was there, Eric Laithwaite was a fascinating chap.

[@charleswest6372]

Wish I'd met him

[@astrazenica7783]

I couldn't think of a more timely, valuable lesson for mankind

[@Jamison.u.s23]

Right...I been having great conversations and thus week he only started answering me back...

[@mbirth]

2:36 … and thus the Finnish language was born.

[@cheerful_crop_circle]

Russian too

[@pridebelow]

this happy kid in red pants at 3:00 :D

[@juansantiago358]

Haha, he looks so excited.

[@e7540]

Thats Adam Savage! Lol

[@Ne777Xt]

cocaine is a hell of a drug

[@geekionizado]

Anyone who has a phone or a pocket recorder can do it nowadays so they aren't surprised, but in that epoch it seemed like a new thing for these people

[@pleindespoir]

Fascinating technical equipment!

[@CassetteMaster]

That is one NICE tape recorder!!

[@Shadobanned4life]

WHY is this guys' likeness not on English paper money ? WHY is he not known to every student today ? This man was a fantastic genius.

[@caulkwater]

The globalist did not want his creativity to come to light

[@charleswest6372]

As was Tesla.

[@othomile]

this guy is amazing, how come i didnt know he existed?

[@bvrunowerneck1234]

(a) Let him learn to write BACKWARDS. . . (b) Let him learn to walk BACKWARDS. . . (c) Let him. . . listen to phonograph records REVERSED (d) Let him practise speaking BACKWARDS. . . (e) Let him learn to read BACKWARDS. . ." (Aleister Crowley, Magick In Theory And Practice)

[@Rebsrebs100]

Exactly - look in the mirror - repeat reversed three times to invoke your other demeanor....

[@Jamison.u.s23]

That's correct and I'm sitting hear a Christian thinking what good wholesome fun

[@RussianAsian8D2]

SO saying steven backwards is just pretending to speak russian

[@yass5889]

And hello how are you is like pretending to speak finnish

[@cheerful_crop_circle]

😂

[@charlesphillips430]

Cool. We should do it in schools. I see too much computer stuff today and little practical experiments.

[@SpottedBullet]

That's awesome.

[@aminthas10]

Grande Dr. Eric

[@othomile]

this gives new meaning to song "man in the mirror"

[@samuelgolian9759]

is this somehow dependent on the recording and the playback devices used?

[@locouk]

Eric Laithwaite, didn’t he do work on magnetic levitation and gyroscopic precession?

[@zaaz4046]

Another instance is backward play of a video, just like audio. His best work was maglev rail system.

[@davidd4niel410]

Alister Cowley and Walt Disney come to mind .

[@kenmacallister]

This confuses mirror images with time running in different directions. They aren't really the same thing.

[@commander-fox-q7573]

Cool

[@CyclingSteve]

Very Twin Peaks.

[@stza16]

Surgeon cuff.

[@aundiwright9846]

Idk why but I’m getting the good ole STRANGER THINGS vibes lol

[@Slarti]

I guess he had to choose someone called Steven as Montgomery or Bartholomew may have been difficult names...

[@42lookc]

What did that prove? Play something recorded forwards backwards it sounds backwards. Play something recorded backwards forwards, it sounds forwards. It's not proof your mirror image doppleganger is going to speak backwards to you and have the electrons in their central nervous system circulating counter to your own.

[@cornemouton2740]

Where's Steven now ?

[@HometownUnicorn]

Stephen later in life moved to America changed his name to David lynch.

[@tpat90]

When I look back at those times and those ways of communicating ... ideas, I can understand why many people over the years had such a hate for science. This public shows weren't 'scientific' in a way and to some degree misleading. Yes a somewhat educated person can easily see what he implies to, but his entire intro is just some nonsense leading nowhere, and if I were an uneducated parent, seeing a person in a suit telling my children about some backwards world, I would be furious. Shows nowadays, even those for the younger community, have a way higher scientific base levels and teach more complex ideas. And if those shows go in a joke direction, they go full ad absurdum just to make sure everybody gets the joke and nobody is left behind thinking if he maybe meant it serious. The real world is entertaining enough, we don't need any made up mirror entities to make a science talk fun. ---- I enjoyed the video a lot and I have great respect for Eric Laithwaite, but I spoke to a friend of mine a few days ago about mathematical teaching and that young kids are hindered by wrong ideas about math at young days, what causes the student to have problem with mathematics for a long time, even if the student would be easily able to understand complex structures. The interest in any topic can be flawed by one wrong idea and the wrong environment (parents, friends, teachers, etc.).

[@Codyjb818]

The real flaw is the educational system itself. And you can thank Rockefeller for the reason it has gone off course. He invested an enormous wealth into educating the majority to be obedient assembly/factory workers and nothing more. A nation of independent-minded youth innovators would be much less profitable for big business. They would likely be creating profits for themselves and surpassing then-modern technologies.

[@tabaks]

Steven wasn't the sharpest knife in a family drawer.

[@bizzaromicky71]

You are no where near his level

[@tabaks]

@@bizzaromicky71 , back to school for you. Learn how to spell words.

[@utopiac679]

I heard “we are well,” when asked “how are you.” BTW, who’s that guy ducking out of sight in the corridor? Seemingly bolting when he notices the camera has panned toward him? 🤔 CIA? 😮

[@Rebsrebs100]

And the three men in first row

[@yoshtg]

whats the point?

[@ancbi]

YoshTG I would guess he wants to talk about chirality of hemoglobin. Trying to explain that mirror image of a familiar thing could be surprising.

[@ramblerandy2397]

You would need the full lecture to conclude the meaning of this fragment.

[@soshiusss]

sheeesh Steven drippy af

[@Jamison.u.s23]

Whoyawa whoella...I said that in the mirror...dodgy stuffs started happening I don't know what possessed me but that bloody Mary thing pooped into my head and I went with it...oh deary me

[@patazertyui]

Bob

[@ChaosPootato]

Hello how are you in reverse sounds like Finnish or Norwegian or something xD (I don't speak either pls no haterino :( )

[@cheerful_crop_circle]

Lol

[@iknowyoureright8564]

Harry styles started young.

[@glutinousmaximus]

Eric died back in the late 90's I think. A great guy though. Thanks for posting! :0)

[@JeanBaptisteDesJardins]

Why does English backwards sounds like Swedish to me 😂

[@cheerful_crop_circle]

Idk

[@1NEFFIBLE]

I AM MAI.

[@EdSmiley]

.rettoP yrraH ekil skooL

[@ExT1NcT]

Christopher Nolan clearly watched this video.

[@bizzaromicky71]

Why you say that

[@unvergebeneid]

WTF did I just watch?

[@simpinainteasy680]

Sounds like Hebrew