Awesome Learning

A penny-farthing is one of those old-timey bicycles with the giant wheel in front and a tiny one in the back. We see them on the streets once in a while and always wonder how tricky they must be to ride. Serial learner Mike Boyd is here to answer that question, with a little help from the guys at the UK branch of Unicycle.com.

We’ve previously taken a behind-the-scenes tour of a bowling alley. This video from 3D animator Jared Owen offers a more in-depth explanation of the engineering and mechanics that go into the machine that magically straightens and resets the pins between balls.

Few things in life are worse than suffering from severe pain. But as this clip from TED-Ed points out, our sense of pain can act in some truly mysterious ways, sometimes even triggering solely from thinking that we’ve been injured.

Because of their power and extreme nature, black holes are some of the most awe-inspiring objects in the universe. Kurzgesagt offers a deep dive into these regions of spacetime and ponders what might happen if their immense gravity got a hold of you. Also, we just learned an awesome new word: spaghettification.

In the early 1900s, electricity was about to take the world by storm. But live wires couldn’t safely be used without insulation. Resin harvested from insects worked, but was too expensive to harvest. Necessity being the mother of invention, it drove chemist Leo Baekeland to develop what would become the world’s first plastic.

Every living thing on Earth is made up of mix of chemical elements, including carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. This animated short from NM State University’s Learning Games Lab provides a laypersons’ explanation of how chemical bonds create life and provide the nutrients needed to keep it going.

When we think of how trains get their locomotion, it’s typically from diesel engines, electric motors, or maybe steam power. But there was a time when train builders thought they could make railroad cars go faster by fitting them with airplane engines. Curious Droid has the story behind these forgotten relics.

If you know anything about electronics, you know there are tons of different types of switches. Engineer and inventor Tim Hunkin delves into some of the many kinds of switches, how they work to complete circuits, and how to choose the right type for your projects.

Between the risks of injury and the often precarious locations, parkour and freerunning can be pretty exciting to watch. SciShow goes beyond the athleticism to the physics of the sport, digging into the things that need to happen mechanically to climb walls, vault over obstacles, and land without trauma.

Science video makers Kurzgesagt teamed up with author and online personality John Green to create an animated clip to accompany an excerpt from his podcast The Anthropocene Reviewed. The focus of the episode is on the possible meaning of cave paintings, and what they might tell us about the human condition.

Geek out and expand your tech skills with this collection of e-books from No Starch Press. Pay as little as a buck to unlock the first four books or more than $18 to access the full library, which includes books on problem-solving, development strategies, and practical programming in Java, Python, C, C++, Rust, and more.

Despite what you might think, prison inmates sometimes have access to technology. In order to prevent people from hiding contraband, there are special see-through versions of gadgets. Techmoan looks at some of these unusual devices and the sometimes arbitrary rules about what items are permitted.

Artificial intelligence tech is everywhere these days, informing everything from credit decisions to diagnosing diseases and keeping cars from crashing. TED-Ed’s Briana Brownell explains the three main kinds of machine learning technology, how they differ, and how little we really know about how AI works.

Engineer and inventor Tim Hunkin is back with the second episode of his in-depth series celebrating the components used to build things. This time he turns his attention to light-emitting diodes, the now ubiquitous source of illumination that can be found in everything from televisions to cars to flashlights.

Engineer and inventor Tim Hunkin is the man behind the beloved UK educational series The Secret Life of Machines. Each episode of his new YouTube series will dive deep with a specific component. Episode 1 teaches everything you’ve ever wanted to know about chains and belts, along with their history, physics, and varieties.

Among the awesome creatures in the rainforests are animals and insects that can camouflage into their surroundings, along with ones designed to scare off predators. Zefrank talks about these amazing evolutionary traits, accompanied by incredible imagery by photographers David Weiller and Thomas Marent.

We look forward to the day when everything on every device just happens instantly. But until then, we will continue to see progress bars and spinning beachballs. Tom Scott digs into these First World annoyances and their most irritating properties – an inconsistent rate of movement and inability to predict completion time.

Our first experience with simulation games was playing SimCity on a Macintosh SE around 1990. Will Wright’s city-building series led to numerous sequels and spin-offs and gave birth to an entire genre of games, including his people simulator The Sims. Mental Floss walks us through the origins and history of the popular series.

The closest we’ll ever get to defusing a bomb is Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes. But badass Chris Fuller has gone face-to-face with countless real-world explosives. UNILAD interviewed the former British Army Bomb Disposal Officer, who now does humanitarian work in the Middle East defusing bombs left behind ISIS.

This humorous history book offers a unique perspective on past events and how they can often still be relevant today. Penned by Kyle Creek (aka “The Captain“), the book compiles a mix of obscure trivia and historical facts, drawing parallels between them and modern situations we can all relate to.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, MTV was the place to go for the latest music videos. But over the years, the network has lost its way and its cultural relevancy. Slidebean’s Company Forensics digs into MTV’s history, their explosive growth, and the gradual changes that moved them away from their musical roots.

Everything you’re watching and reading has already happened – even if it was just a few seconds ago. It’s Okay To Be Smart gets really deep with an exploration of how time is relative, and therefore experienced differently for each person depending on their place in the universe.

Most content is shot digitally these days, but there’s something special about the look of movies shot on film. Gav of The Slow Mo Guys shows us the insides of a vintage 16mm camera for an up-close look at how it works as the film rolls past its shutter. It’s amazing how those sprockets keep each frame perfectly exposed.