What were you doing when you were 18 years old? If we had to guess, we'd say you probably weren't winning hundreds of thousands of dollars for a simple explanation one of Albert Einstein's theories. Unless you're Ryan Chester. In that case, hi Ryan!
In 2015, Ryan Chester made a 7-minute video explaining Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity. You know, as teenagers are wont to do. Chester's video won the Breakthrough Junior Challenge, earning a $400,000 prize. Of this money, Chester took home a $250,000 scholarship; his suburban Cleveland school got $100,000 for a new science lab; and Chester's favorite teacher, Richard Nestoff, a physics teacher at North Royalton High, went away with $50,000. Not too shabby for a YouTube clip.
If you need to be convinced that Chester's video is worth all this cash, just check it out below. Spoiler: Yes, it really is that good. In the award-winning video, Chester uses real-life demonstrations to describe the otherwise complex science term soup that is Einstein's ground-breaking 1905 theory. He uses a bowl of popcorn, a moving van, cute on-screen graphics, and more to make this heady topic relatable, clear, and — dare we say it? — simple.