• Login or register

BetterExplained

Share your "aha!" moments

  • Popular
  • Recent
  • Submit
  • 1.
    The MegaPenny Project (www.kokogiak.com)

    A good complement to Kalid's "How to develop a sense of scale" article.

    1 point by d_malt 6 days ago
    • 1 comment
  • 2.
    Nice description of the halting problem (www.cgl.uwaterloo.ca)

    Much easier to understand than the formal explanation in Wikipedia.

    1 point by Kalid 8 days ago
    • comment
  • 3.
    How to explain stuff (www.senthilgandhi.com)
    19 points by anonymous 1 month ago
    • 1 comment
  • 4.
    How to write a spelling corrector (norvig.com)

    Great discussion about how to solve a problem in an elegant way. Has source code so you can try it out yourself, and shows the steps involved in understanding the solution (not "Here's the final answer, chumps"). Again, being able to recognize that others are starting from zero really helps get the right explanation mindset across.

    12 points by kalid 1 month ago
    • comment
  • 5.
    The Absolute Minimum Every Software Developer Absolutely, Positively Must Know About Unicode and Character Sets (No Excuses!) (www.joelonsoftware.com)
    11 points by motxilo 1 month ago
    • comment
  • 6.
    Lockhart's Lament [pdf] (www.maa.org)

    Excellent diatribe on problems with math education. We focus on the mechanics and not the core idea.

    9 points by kalid 6 months ago
    • comment
  • 7.
    How much information is in a raindrop? (math.ucr.edu)

    Interesting analysis of the amount of information stored in a single raindrop (when viewed at a molecular level). Another way to get a sense of scale -- notice how he relates units to things we can wrap our minds around (all email sent in a 2002).

    2 points by Kalid 21 days ago
    • comment
  • 8.
    Feynman on light (5:00 video) (www.youtube.com)

    Just a *wonderful* description of light and what's happening when we look around a room. He's one of my explanation heroes -- the ability to speak simply about topics which are considered complicated.

    6 points by kalid 1 month ago
    • 1 comment
  • 9.
    Simon Funk's SVD for collaborative filtering (sifter.org)
    6 points by anonymous 1 month ago
    • comment
  • 10.
    Abbot & Costello skit on math (www.youtube.com)

    How many times have you been given an explanation like this? :)

    5 points by kalid 1 month ago
    • comment
  • 11.
    Talks Hans Rosling: New insights on poverty and life around the world (www.ted.com)

    TED is so full of "better explained" topics and a-ha moments, but I have a particular fondness for Hans Rosling's visual explanation of world statistics. He has other talks on the TED web site, for anyone interested.

    5 points by d_malt 1 month ago
    • comment
  • 12.
    Javascript Closures For Dummies (blog.morrisjohns.com)

    Excellent description of javascript closures, with live, inline examples. So few programming tutorials take advantage of the dynamic nature of the web!

    5 points by kalid 2 months ago
    • comment
  • 13.
    Yes, You have to keep rubbing your eyes in disbelief... (www.everythingforever.com)
    4 points by anonymous 1 month ago
    • comment
  • 14.
    Calculus in 20 minutes (www.youtube.com)
    4 points by anonymous 1 month ago
    • comment
  • 15.
    Let's dig a hole so deep it came out the other side of the Earth (www.objectmatrix.info)

    See the other side of the world.

    The antipodes refer to lands and peoples located on the opposite side of the world compared to the speaker. This has a general, linguistic meaning and a technical, geographical meaning (Wikipedia].

    4 points by anonymous 1 month ago
    • comment
  • 16.
    NOVA: String Theory (www.pbs.org)
    3 points by anonymous 1 month ago
    • comment
  • 17.
    Learning Advanced JavaScript (ejohn.org)
    3 points by anonymous 1 month ago
    • comment
  • 18.
    Discussions on mathematics (www.dpmms.cam.ac.uk)

    I really like the approach taken here. Topics are covered in detail, but with the mindset that "Yes, this stuff can be tricky" instead of "Just learn these facts". Especially titles like "What is so wrong with thinking of real numbers as infinite decimals?" (http://www.dpmms.cam.ac.uk/~wtg10/decimals.html). Being able to empathize is a huge part of having a nice explanation.

    3 points by kalid 1 month ago
    • comment
  • 19.
    DNA seen through the eyes of a coder (ds9a.nl)

    Interesting analogy of how to understand DNA from a programming point of view. DNA is the source code for us, after all! Shows how you can make a subject more approachable and enjoyable by tackling it from a different angle.

    3 points by kalid 1 month ago
    • comment
  • 20.
    Wonderful astronomy tutorial -- learn to tell North by the night sky! (www.quietbay.net)

    Simply excellent presentation / tutorial about the constellations and how to tell direction using the night sky. Fun and useful -- I wish more history was taught in this manner.

    3 points by kalid 2 months ago
    • comment
  • 21.
    The Mechanical Universe ... and Beyond (www.learner.org)

    52 half-hour videos. Watch for free online (with free registration). These were produced by Caltech with Tom M Apostol, David Goodstein, James F. Blinn, and Richard Olenick. The books that support this series are also reissued with the same title.

    I like to think of this video series as the Better Explained version on video about physics and calculus.

    2 points by etoipi 1 month ago
    • comment
  • 22.
    Dimensions – A walk thru mathematics (www.dimensions-math.org)

    A film for a wide audience! (I've shown parts to second graders, but it's not child's play, some of it can get complex, literally, from the complex numbers chapters and beyond.)
    Nine chapters, two hours of math, that take you gradually up to the fourth dimension. You can download two quality versions or watch it online.

    2 points by etoipi 1 month ago
    • 1 comment
  • 23.
    Exclusive color footage of Einestein (corporate.gettyimages.com)
    2 points by anonymous 1 month ago
    • comment
  • 24.
    Possible Existence of a Neutron (www.geocities.com)

    The text of a 1932 paper hypothesizing the existence of a particle with mass but no charge. Impossible, right?

    It's interesting to keep in mind that today's "facts" (atoms have protons, neutrons and electrons) were often wild conjectures a few generations ago.

    So, how do you treat new ideas that come your way?

    2 points by kalid 1 month ago
    • comment
  • 25.
    Resonances, waves and fields (resonanceswavesandfields.blogspot.com)

    An interesting, very visual explanation of infinite series and their relation to our favorite functions (e^x, sin).

    2 points by kalid 1 month ago
    • comment
next
  • Widget
  • Recent Comments
  • Leaders
Powered by slinkset.com