Dr Hugh Hunt
TV, radio and popular press

Hugh Hunt's Cambridge University home page )

TV

Dambusters: Building the Bouncing Bomb

  • 2 May 2011 (repeated 24 September 2011), Dambusters: Building the Bouncing Bomb, Channel 4 (UK) (to appear in USA PBS and Canada History Channel)
      .
    Award winning documentary remake of the Barnes Wallace Bouncing Bomb. Cambridge University press release ,
    Newspaper coverage: Telegraph 1 , Telegraph 2 , Independent , Mail , Mirror.
    Twitter feed from 1-3 May 2011. Some photos from the project
    The One Show 17 May 2013 Part 1 and Part 2
    BBC Radio 2 Friday 17 May 2013 Chris Evans' Breakfast Show (see also here)

    Escape from Colditz

    9pm Monday 13 Auguest 2012, Escape from Colditz, Channel 4 (filmed on location in Colditz Castle, Germany)
      .
    Youtube video of the flight

    Digging the Great Escape

     9pm Monday 28 November 2011, Digging the Great Escape, Channel 4 (filmed on location in Poland)
      .

    Fifth Gear Stunt Special - loop-the-loop

  • May 2009,"Fifth Gear Stunt Special", Channel Five.
    "Gravity-defying Brit stuntman Steve Truglia set a new world record speeding round the massive 40-foot high track,
    nicknamed the Dunlop Death Loop. If Steve drove too slow the car could have crushed him as it plummeted to the
    ground, too fast and he risked blacking out due to the bone-crushing G-Force.Cambridge Mechanical Dynamics expert
    Dr Hugh Hunt helped calculate the stunt to ensure brave Steve did end up on the Tarmac."
    Overview on youtube or here as MPEG4, 50MB

    Fifth Gear Stunt Special - entire show as WMV

    or here in five separate parts:
    youtube Stunt Special Part 1 of 5 MPEG4 or WMV
    youtube Stunt Special Part 2 of 5 MPEG4 or WMV
    youtube Stunt Special Part 3 of 5 MPEG4 or WMV
    youtube Stunt Special Part 4 of 5 MPEG4 or WMV
    youtube Stunt Special Part 5 of 5 MPEG4 or WMV

    youtube "the science bit" MPEG4
    youtube "behind the scenes" MPEG4
    youtube "the loop itself" MPEG4

    Hamish and Andy's European Gap Year

    Channel Nine, Australia -     attempt to pedal an Aquabike across the Strait of Gibraltar

    Youtube of the whole show (Episode five)

    Richard Hammond's "Engineering Connections

  • June 2011, National Geographic, Richard Hammond's "Engineering Connections" on Japan's Bullet Train

    Japan's Bullet Train describes how an advanced warning system works for protecting the bullet train against earthquakes.

  • November 2009, National Geographic, Richard Hammond's "Engineering Connections" on HMS Illustrious

    youtube HMS Illustrious Part 1 of 5 MPEG4 or WMV describes how a gyroscope is used to stabilise an aircraft carrier, and how this links in to spinning tops and boomerangs.

  • March 2006,"Boomerangs", ITV Anglia News report on Boomerangs lecture to Schools for the National Science Week Schools Roadshow.
    WMV, 2.2MB see also links to video of the news bulletin on the Gyroscope and Boomerang page
  • January 2006,"Warplane", Channel Five documentary, also televised in the USA on the National Geographic Channel.
  • December 2005, "The Greatest Ever Weapons", Discovery Channel and Channel Five documentary.
  • March 2004, "Bells in the tower of St John's Brisbane", Channel Seven News, Brisbane
  • 1999 "National Science Week, Spinning into Space", BBC Look East
  • 1997 "Titan the Cat" (see also Titan )
  • 1996 "self-drilling seeds" BBC Look East
  • 1994 "Trinity Punts", Anglia News

    Radio

    Click on either image to play

  • The Naked Scientists, podcasts for the BBC:
    Click here for the Naked Scientists Web Page
    29 December 2011 7-9pm BBC Radio 5 live Phone-in
    June 2011 Engineering the Bouncing Bomb; ( mp3 clip , transcript text ). Here is another more technical mp3 clip . See also here for more on this topic.
    March 2011 What is the most efficient way to heat water?; ( mp3 clip , transcript text )
    February 2011 The SPICE project - Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering; ( mp3 clip , transcript text )
    February 2011 How fast do I have to go to be lifted off the ground?; ( mp3 clip , transcript text )
    January 2011 Cat's Eyes and Retroreflectors; ( mp3 clip , transcript text )
    April 2009 Do magnets remove lime scale from water pipes?; ( mp3 clip , transcript text )
    15 Feb 2009 Musical Milk - Why does the sound of steaming milk change?; ( mp3 clip , transcript text ). See also here for more on this topic.
    14 Nov 2008 Gun silencers; ( mp3 clip , transcript text )
    2 Mar 2008 blowing-on-bottles; 2 Mar 2008 squashing-bottles, ( mp3 clip - best heard through headphones , transcript text )
    13 Jan 2008, How does a boomerang work and what is the principle behind that? ( mp3 clip , transcript text )
    4 Feb 2007, Why sausages split lengthways ( mp3 clip , transcript text )
    28 Jan 2007, thermal conductivity and heat capacity: "what's hot and what's not in the dishwasher" ( mp3 clip , transcript text )
    26 Nov 2006, "the aerodynamics of a ping pong ball" ( mp3 clip , transcript text )
    15 Oct 2006, bouncing balls: "bouncing off the walls" ( mp3 clip , transcript text )
    1 Oct 2006, instability of rigid bodies in space: "what happens when you hurl your homework into the air" ( mp3 clip , transcript text )
    21 May 2006, music: "science of music, harmonics and making music in a tea cup" ( mp3 clip , transcript text )

  • 1998 Radio Cambridgeshire News, Boomerangs.

    Popular Press

  • Reader's Digest
    October 2008, "Prince Charles's Hogwarts", report of the Prince of Wales' Summer School for state secondary school teachers, held at Homerton College in Cambridge, July 2008. ( text here )
  • New Scientist - The Last Word
    15 April 2009, "Surround Sound", I live a kilometre north of a busy motorway. When the wind is coming from the south the noise of the motorway is noticeably greater than when the wind is coming from the north. Assuming a wind speed of a mere 30 kilometres per hour, how can the wind direction affect the level of traffic noise I hear when the speed of sound is more than 1235 kilometres per hour? Jim Turton, by email, no address supplied ( answers )
    17 July 2008, "Ice Maths", I took this photo of an impressive icicle that was hanging from a roof. It had formed over a couple of days in sub-zero but sunny conditions as melting snow running from the roof froze as it trickled down the icicle. What caused the horizontal ripples, and what properties of the water and air determined the precise wavelength of the ripples? ( answers )
    12 Sept 2007, "Highly Sprung", Photographed are six springs taken from various ballpoint pens. Why are they so different from each other? In particular, why do some pens have a "squashed-up" bit in the middle? And is it unusual for someone to dismantle pens compulsively during meetings? ( answers )
    8 Sept 2007, "How much force is required to stop the world spinning?", How much force would be required to stop the world spinning? If you used, for example, the engines of the space shuttle to do it, how long would it take? And what would be the effect on the planet, in particular the weather and the tides? ( answer )
    3 Feb 2007, "Like falling off ...", continued ( answer )
    9 Dec 2006, "Like falling off ...", Why is it easy to balance on a moving bike, but almost impossible to stay upright when it stops? ( answer )
    12 Aug 2006, "Burger bending", Why do hamburgers change shape from round to oval when barbecued? ( answer )
    6 May 2006, "Crash course", In the film The Italian Job Michael Caine drives his talking car up and onto a moving lorry via a ramp projecting from the back onto the road. But is this possible? ( answer )
    25 Nov 1995, "Silly cone", Why does a roll of sticky tape telescope itself into a cone shape after it has been left unused for a long period? ( answer )
  • Home page

    hemh (at) eng.cam.ac.uk