Frictionless CD Hovercraft: Gliding in the Vacuum of Space
Table of Contents Hacking Friction with Air The Genius of the Sports Cap Quick Summary: The CD Hovercraft 10 Ultimate Brain Teasers The Wrap Up If you roll a bowling ball across a grassy field, it will eventually slow down and stop. If you roll that same ball across a smooth ice rink, it will […]
DIY Venus Greenhouse: Why Venus Will Melt You
Table of Contents The Ultimate Heat Trap Hacking the Sun with Glass Jars Quick Summary: The Venus Greenhouse 10 Ultimate Brain Teasers The Wrap Up If you want to find the absolute worst, most dangerous place in the entire solar system to take a vacation, you should go to Venus. You might think Mercury is […]
The Parallax Trick: How to Measure Star Distances
Table of Contents Hacking the Brain with Geometry Turning the Earth into an Eyeball Quick Summary: The Parallax Trick 10 Ultimate Brain Teasers The Wrap Up When you look up at the night sky, you see thousands of glowing stars. Some look incredibly bright, and some look incredibly dim. But how in the world do […]
Centripetal Force Bucket: The Physics of Orbits
Table of Contents Why the Water Doesn’t Spill Hacking Gravity with Speed Quick Summary: The Orbit Bucket 10 Ultimate Brain Teasers The Wrap Up If you have ever seen an astronaut floating completely weightless inside the International Space Station, you probably thought it was because there is zero gravity in space. That is entirely wrong. […]
DIY Moon Craters: The Physics of Asteroid Impacts
Table of Contents Why the Moon Has Scars (But Earth Doesn’t) Hacking the Physics with Flour Quick Summary: DIY Moon Craters 10 Ultimate Brain Teasers The Wrap Up If you look at the Moon through a telescope, it looks like a giant golf ball that has been shot with a shotgun. It is covered in […]
Pizza Box Solar Oven: Cooking with Space Radiation
Table of Contents The Physics of the Heat Trap Cooking Like an Astronaut Quick Summary: The Solar Oven 10 Ultimate Brain Teasers The Wrap Up The Sun is a massive, raging ball of nuclear fire located 93 million miles away from Earth. It is so insanely hot that you don’t even need to touch it […]
The Expanding Universe Balloon: Seeing the Big Bang
Table of Contents The Illusion of the Center Why the Balloon Trick is Genius Quick Summary: The Expanding Universe 10 Ultimate Brain Teasers The Wrap Up The universe is getting bigger every single second, and it is happening so fast it will literally make your head spin. But here is the crazy part: space isn’t […]
The Gravity Well: Bending Spacetime in Your Living Room
Table of Contents Why Spacetime is Basically a Trampoline Setting Up Your Own Solar System Quick Summary: The Gravity Well 10 Ultimate Brain Teasers The Wrap Up Drop everything you think you know about gravity. If you think gravity is just some invisible magnetic force pulling you down to the floor, you are completely wrong. […]