Awesome Infographics

Jared Owen has made some pretty amazing 3D illustrations to teach us how things work, but his digital model of the Titanic is the most awe-inspiring yet. This incredible video shows us virtually every detail of the ill-fated ship from the outside and in – deck-by-deck, and part-by-part.

Most cars sold these days have an automatic transmission. But it’s hard to beat a manual gearbox and its three-pedal setup when it comes to driver engagement. Jake O’Neill from Animagraphs created this 3D animation that shows us how the clutch, gears, and shifter work in concert to send power to the drivetrain.

VCRs might be obsolete technology, but they still featured some pretty smart engineering. That’s why illustrator and educator Jared Owen put together this in-depth look at the mechanisms that lie behind the VHS cassette flap. It’s cool to see how VCRs loaded and unloaded tapes without tangling them… most of the time.

Jake O’Neal from Animagraffs creates detailed see-through 3D illustrations which show how things work. In this video, he walks us through the inner workings of a typical fire engine for a look at how firefighters ride inside the truck, its lights and sirens, its powerful water-pumping system, and onboard safety gear.

Earth gets hit by small meteorites all the time, but most full-size asteroids burn up into smaller pieces when they hit our atmosphere. Still, they do make it through now and then, causing serious damage. This video from MetaBallStudios estimates the relative destructive power of asteroids based on their size and mass.

We keep thinking MetaBallStudios is going to run out of things to compare the sizes of. But as long as they keep coming up with new videos, we’ll keep posting them. This time, we’ve got a look at the relative sizes of piloted Mecha robots, from The LEGO Movie’s tiny Construct-o-Mech to the mighty Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.

3D illustrator Jared Owen previously showed us the inner workings of an M1A2 Abrams tank, the Statue of Liberty, and a WWII Enigma machine. Now he’s back with a detailed look at the insides of London’s Elizabeth Tower aka Big Ben, which is both an architectural and engineering marvel of enormous proportions.

Because of their positions at the top and bottom of the Earth, the North Pole and South Pole experience both the longest and shortest days of the year. This fascinating time-lapse animation shows how the top of our planet goes from 24 hours of sunlight a day in the summertime to complete darkness in the winter.

After journeying to the bottom of the ocean, MetaBallStudio takes us beneath the surface on dry land. This comparison infographic shows the relative depths between underground locations, from sewers and subways to catacombs and bunkers. We had no idea that people worked that far down in gold mines.

Standing nearly 600 feet tall, the tallest statue on Earth is India’s Statue of Unity. To put its enormity in perspective, Real Data created a size comparison using 3D models, starting with the height of an average human, then a number of other iconic statues around the world.

Stuart Gardiner Design makes a variety of informative kitchen towels, including this duo which help you decide what wine to pair with dinner. Simply pick the red or white wine towel, select your foods, and the grid will tell you what wine styles work and what won’t. They also make a beer pairing towel.

In 1971, the 1,250 foot-tall Empire State Building was the tallest building on Earth. Today, the Burj Khalifa, is more than twice that height, at 2,717 feet. MetaBallStudios offers up a visual comparison of the tallest skyscrapers along with some planned and conceptual future projects which could tower over the Burj.

If you’ve ever wondered how big a blue whale is compared to a human, check out Goji Center’s video, which compares the relative sizes of various marine life. What makes it more interesting is that the animated chart also includes extinct sea creatures. We had no idea that there was a 120-foot-long jellyfish out there.

After following James Cameron’s epic journey to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, we knew Earth’s oceans were deep. But it wasn’t until MetaBallStudios put together this video infographic that illustrates relative depths that we realized just how far down the bottom is… like 7000 feet further than the top of Mt. Everest.

Solar energy is out there for the taking, but is it really free? Wren from Corridor Crew digs into the realities of generating power from various energy sources, and illustrates the number of solar panels and space we’d need to replace dangerous fossil fuels with clean solar energy.

Celebrate your love for Scotch whisky with Pop Chart’s cartographic catalog of Scotland’s deliciously drinkable export. This 24″ x 36″ print explores the nation’s Scotch-producing regions, maps their distillery’s locations, and lists their various expressions in a detailed table below.

Some organisms and structures are so small that they can’t be seen by the naked eye. To give us a sense of how big they are compared to each other, MetaBallStudios scaled up some of these tiny objects to the size of more relatable objects like soda cans and skyscrapers to give us a much better idea of their relative sizes.

Ever wanted to know how slowly a sloth moves compared to a rocket sled? This infographic video answers that question and many more. MetaBallStudios used lines of varying lengths to illustrate the relative speeds and distances traveled by various things, first comparing things slower than a human walking, then faster.

Now that we know how slowly objects fall on various planets, learn how fast you’d need to be moving to escape those same planets in a rocket. Dr. James O’Donoghue’s animated infographic might seem counterintuitive at first, but you can escape planets with larger masses faster because your velocity would be higher.

Just how different are the gravitational forces on the planets in our solar system? Planetary scientist Dr. James O’Donoghue provides a great visual that compares the speed of a ball being dropped from 1 km onto each planet, as well as the sun, moon, and the asteroid Ceres where things take a really, really long time to fall.

While most cars have less than 300 hp, there are some sports cars that can hit 1000 hp or more. In this collab between Reigarw Comparisons and MetaBallStudios, they look at the power produced by everything from a Toyota Corolla to the Thrust SSC rocket car. They also compared cars to airplanes, tanks, and rockets.

We’re used to seeing our solar system illustrated in concentric rings. This helps us to understand their positions, but this animation by Dr. James O’Donoghue provides a different perspective, showing the relative sizes, rotational speeds, and axial tilts of everything from the dwarf planet Ceres to our mighty Sun.

It’s been some time since we set foot into a video arcade, but back in the day, we pumped more than our share of quarters into arcade machines. Captain Gizmo gathered data on which games raked in the most coin over the years, and it’s amazing how little the rankings changed since the 1980s once you adjust for inflation.