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1.The MegaPenny Project (www.kokogiak.com)
A good complement to Kalid's "How to develop a sense of scale" article.
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2.Nice description of the halting problem (www.cgl.uwaterloo.ca)
Much easier to understand than the formal explanation in Wikipedia.
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3.How to explain stuff (www.senthilgandhi.com)
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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.
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5.
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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.
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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).
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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.
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9.Simon Funk's SVD for collaborative filtering (sifter.org)
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10.
Abbot & Costello skit on math (www.youtube.com)How many times have you been given an explanation like this? :)
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11.
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.
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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!
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13.Yes, You have to keep rubbing your eyes in disbelief... (www.everythingforever.com)
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14.Calculus in 20 minutes (www.youtube.com)
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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].
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16.NOVA: String Theory (www.pbs.org)
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17.Learning Advanced JavaScript (ejohn.org)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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. -
23.Exclusive color footage of Einestein (corporate.gettyimages.com)
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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?
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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).
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