This PSSC film utilizes a fascinating set consisting of a rotating table and furniture occupying surprisingly unpredictable spots within the viewing area. The fine cinematography by Abraham Morochnik, and funny narration by University of Toronto professors Donald Ivey and Patterson Hume is a wonderful example of the fun a creative team of filmmakers can have with a subject that other, less imaginative types might find pedestrian.

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Reviewer: Halemane - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - June 12, 2020

Subject: Educational content at its best Such a succinct, witty and wonderfully produced science video. It holds up even to this day.



The production quality and script seem especially fine and the props and camera are used to amazing effect to explain the concept at hand.



Stumbled onto this from a PBS Space Time video on YouTube and I'm glad I did. Will look for more videos on science from this team of filmmakers and educators.



Thanks, Internet Archive! - June 12, 2020Educational content at its best

Reviewer: Vangel Vesovski - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - March 31, 2020

Subject: Thank You... This brings old memories. I saw this in high school first and then in Ivey's first-year physics class. Ivey was a great instructor. I miss the old guy. - March 31, 2020Thank You...

Reviewer: archivenovice - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - April 28, 2019

Subject: This is cool Notice one - April 28, 2019This is cool

Reviewer: leacevedo - favorite favorite favorite favorite - April 12, 2012

Subject: Small correction Hello, I just want to point to a detail in this movie Frames Of Reference that may create confusion. There is a part where one of the characters states that the motion of the Earth relative to the Sun produces even smaller fictitious effects than the motion of the planet around its axis. This is partially true because, even though these fictitious effects are smaller in the first case, they are in fact none, that is, they do not generate, because the earth is in a state of free fall with respect to the Sun. In a free fall state no fictitious effects arise. - April 12, 2012Small correction

Reviewer: aswegohomestead - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - August 3, 2011

Subject: Very Interesting Film I found this film extremely interesting and the information well presented. Very nice quality audio and video both. - August 3, 2011Very Interesting Film

Reviewer: Dr Bill - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - July 24, 2010

Subject: Why I became a physicist I first saw this film by Hume and Ivey in my PSSC Physics class in 1962. It was certainly a seminal moment, and likely the tipping point which flipped my future career from architecture to Physics.

After a BS in Physics, MS and PhD in Biophyics, and 35 years in industrial and government research, I have not forgotten this great work. Now teaching physics, I have spent the last a 5 years searching for a source of this wonderful film. Thank you Internet archive. - July 24, 2010Why I became a physicist

Reviewer: Aquaboogie - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - April 11, 2010

Subject: Awesome Our physics teacher showed us this in the early 90s (presumably he first saw it when he was a student in the 60s). At the time the biggest impact was the somewhat strained deliver of the line "I don't know about you, but I'm dizzy". The callowness of youth, etc.



Watching it now, however, I have a much better understanding at what Drs Hume and Ivey were getting at. Good work! - April 11, 2010Awesome

Reviewer: bcrowell - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - May 16, 2009

Subject: thanks! Thanks for making this classic video available! I use it every semester in my physics classes at a community college in California. I'm working on producing a version with DVD chapter marks, and possibly closed captions (which we're under legal pressure to include on all audiovisual materials). - May 16, 2009thanks!