Has the law of gravity suddenly taken a vacation? Au contraire. Is the trickster in this video using sleight of hand? Nope. Can you use this trick to pick up women at cocktail parties? Possibly. Let’s analyze just what's going on here.

This video provides a beautiful illustration of Newton’s Second Law in both its linear and angular form. The discombobulated newscaster experiences a linear acceleration in a backward direction, and a clockwiseangular acceleration that gets him spinning, all as a result of the force of the sled’s impact.

The only thing more frustrating than creeping your way toward the site of a bottleneck on the highway only to discover the accident is on the other side of the median are the times when you make it through and discover, as far as you can tell, nothing was holding up the traffic. Japanese researchers have now demonstrated that the "nothing" may in fact be the traffic crossing a threshold of density of cars on the road. Too many cars means that small slow downs by a few drivers equals up to big backups miles away.

Tic, the unfortunate hamster in this video, loses his footing while getting some exercise and gets pulled into the spin cycle, completing nearly 12 revolutions in about four seconds before ignominiously dropping out of the wheel. However, while Tic may be bewildered by what happened during his morning training session, we need not be.

Why does he get pulled into the spin? How does he remain in orbit for 12 rotations before falling off of the wheel? How does he finally escape? These are the questions we will address “for Tic’s sake.”

The counterintuitive demonstration in the video is a beautiful example of the concept of center of gravity. It sure looks like the fork and spoon should immediately teeter off of the glass and crash onto the table. And it’s even more dramatic when half of the matchstick burns away but the contraption still balances on the edge of the glass. But it’s all physics.

Wow. It’s hard to say whether this skill is a talent or a curse. Either way, the two contestants in this attempt at the world record for most head-spins in sixty seconds must have seriously strong stomachs.

Thomas Blackthorne has performed numerous impossible acts over the years, including swallowing swords and even a jackhammer, so the idea of lifting 25 pounds with his tongue probably didn't intimidate him all that much. The tongue itself doesn't actually look like it's doing the lifting; it's not like he's doing bicep curls here.

We're going to deviate briefly from the physics of strange stunts on YouTube, and look instead at the new movie I Am Legend. Yes, there's a virus-based cure turned scourge that infects the vast majority of humanity, and plenty to think about along those lines, but we're going to stick to what happens to New York City.