Explain like I’m 5
Big pictures.
Few words.
Tiny true stories about space, math, and everyday wonders — told with bright SVG pictures.
Space
Crashy night-sky stories
All space →Leftover bricks
What Are Asteroids?
Asteroids are rocky leftovers from when the planets were being built.
Let’s go →Not what you think
Why Do Astronauts Float?
Astronauts float because they and their ship are falling around Earth together.
Let’s go →Sky on fire, quietly
What Are the Northern Lights?
Particles from the Sun crash into high air and make it glow like a neon sign.
Let’s go →Gravity turned all the way up
What Is a Black Hole?
A black hole is matter packed so tightly that light cannot escape its pull.
Let’s go →A dirty snowball
What Is a Comet?
Comets are icy leftovers that steam into a bright tail near the Sun.
Let’s go →Join the dots
What Are Constellations?
Constellations are shapes we drew on the sky — the stars are not really grouped.
Let’s go →Physics
Invisible forces you can play with
All physics →An invisible ocean
Air Is Pressing on You
Air has weight, and the whole atmosphere presses down on everything.
Let’s go →A hidden middle
What Keeps Things From Falling Over?
Things stay upright while their centre of gravity stays over their base.
Let’s go →Pressure from below
Why Does Water Push Up?
Buoyancy exists because water pressure is greater at the bottom of an object than the top.
Let’s go →Climbing without a pump
Why Does Water Climb Up a Paper Towel?
Water climbs a paper towel because it grips the fibres more strongly than gravity can pull it back down.
Let’s go →Passing motion along
What Happens When Things Crash?
In a collision, movement is passed between objects and never simply vanishes.
Let’s go →Light, sorted
Where Do Colours Come From?
Colour is which parts of white light an object bounces back at your eyes.
Let’s go →What things are made of
Atoms, metal, glass, plastic, and every kind of stuff
All what things are made of →Sour, and eager to give something away
What Makes Something an Acid?
An acid is a substance that hands out a tiny particle, which is what makes it sour and able to eat into things.
Let’s go →Wrong-sized atoms get in the way
Why Is Pure Gold Too Soft for a Ring?
Mixing metals makes them stronger, because odd-sized atoms jam the neat rows that let metal bend.
Let’s go →Light, cheap to reuse, and it protects itself
Why Are Drink Cans Made of Aluminium?
Aluminium is light, does not rust because it seals itself, and can be recycled with a fraction of the energy it took to make.
Let’s go →The part that would not burn
What Is Left When Something Burns?
Ash is the mineral part of the fuel — the bit that could not burn, left sitting there when everything else left as gas.
Let’s go →Pieces too small to see
What Is Everything Made Of?
Everything is built from atoms, and there are only about a hundred different kinds to build with.
Let’s go →Fire welds the grains together
Why Does Baking Mud Make Stone?
A brick is mud baked so hot that its grains fuse at the edges and become, in effect, a new stone.
Let’s go →Math
Number ideas with toys
All math →Putting together
What Does Adding Do?
Adding puts two groups together into one bigger total.
Let’s go →A recipe with no judgement
What Makes Something an Algorithm?
An algorithm is a sequence of steps precise enough that a machine can follow it without judgement.
Let’s go →Turn, not length
What Is an Angle Actually Measuring?
An angle measures amount of turn between two directions, so longer arms do not make a bigger angle.
Let’s go →Counting squares, quickly
Why Do We Multiply to Find Area?
Area is the number of squares covering a shape, and multiplying rows by columns counts them fast.
Let’s go →Counting without counting
Why Are Rows and Columns Useful?
An array arranges things in rows and columns so you can multiply instead of count.
Let’s go →Levelling everyone off
What Does an Average Actually Tell You?
An average is what everyone would get if the total were shared equally, which can hide a lot.
Let’s go →Earth & sky
Weather, light, and the air around us
All earth & sky →It thins rather than ends
Where Does the Air Stop?
The atmosphere has no boundary — air just gets thinner with height until it fades into space.
Let’s go →A weak layer buried inside
Why Does a Snowy Slope Suddenly Let Go?
Avalanches happen because snow builds in layers, and a weak buried layer can collapse and release the slab above.
Let’s go →Weighing the sky
How Does a Barometer Work?
A barometer measures the weight of air overhead, which falls before storms and rises before fine weather.
Let’s go →Ice you cannot see
Why Is Black Ice So Dangerous?
Black ice is a clear film of frozen water that looks like wet road and removes almost all grip.
Let’s go →Light getting bounced
Why Is the Sky Blue?
Air scatters blue light sideways, so it reaches your eyes from everywhere.
Let’s go →Water dissolving stone
How Do Caves Form?
Caves form when faintly acidic water slowly dissolves limestone away.
Let’s go →Life & body
Seeds, hearts, senses, and growing things
All life & body →A defence aimed at nothing
Why Does Pollen Make Some People Sneeze?
An allergy is your immune system mounting a real defence against something harmless, and the symptoms are the defence, not the pollen.
Let’s go →A planned demolition
Why Do Leaves Change Colour?
Trees break down their green pigment and cut leaves loose before winter, revealing the colours underneath.
Let’s go →A windscreen wiper you never think about
Why Do You Blink?
Blinking spreads a fresh layer of tears across your eye, and your brain edits out the moment of darkness.
Let’s go →Four things in a river
What Is Blood Made Of?
Blood is mostly water, carrying red cells, white cells and platelets around the body.
Let’s go →The one blush you cannot fake
Why Do You Go Red When You Are Embarrassed?
Blushing is blood vessels in your face opening on their own — a signal you cannot start, stop, or fake.
Let’s go →Stiff and springy together
What Are Bones Made Of?
Bone mixes hard mineral with flexible protein, giving strength without brittleness.
Let’s go →Animals
Creatures on land, in the sea, and in the air
All animals →A filter, not a plan
Why Do Animals Fit Where They Live?
Animals fit their homes because the variations that survived best got passed on, over and over.
Let’s go →Chemical trails
How Do Ants Find Food?
Ants find food by laying scent trails that automatically favour the shortest path.
Let’s go →Shouting at the world and listening back
How Does a Bat See in the Dark?
A bat finds its way by shouting and timing the echoes — and it is the only mammal that truly flies.
Let’s go →A deal, not a favour
Why Do Bees Visit Flowers?
Bees visit flowers for food, and carry pollen between them as payment.
Let’s go →One animal in every four
Why Are There So Many Kinds of Beetle?
Beetles are the most numerous kind of animal on Earth, and a pair of armoured wing cases is a large part of why.
Let’s go →Everything about it is built for lightness
How Does a Bird Stay Up?
A bird flies on curved wings that bend passing air downwards, carried by hollow bones and enormous chest muscles.
Let’s go →Everyday wonders
Kitchen, bubbles, echoes, and odd little magic
All everyday wonders →Fruit rusting
Why Does a Cut Apple Turn Brown?
A cut apple browns because a released enzyme reacts with oxygen to build brown pigment.
Let’s go →A gas being made
Why Does Baking Soda Fizz?
Baking soda fizzes because it reacts with acid to make carbon dioxide gas.
Let’s go →Air pushing back
Why Does a Balloon Stay Blown Up?
A balloon stays inflated because air molecules inside push outward against the stretched rubber.
Let’s go →Water turning to gas inside itself
What Are the Bubbles When Water Boils?
Boiling bubbles are water vapour forming inside the liquid, not trapped air.
Let’s go →A wire crossed
Why Does Ice Cream Give You a Headache?
Brain freeze is a cold reflex in the roof of your mouth that your brain reports as head pain.
Let’s go →A fungus breathing out
Why Does Bread Rise?
Bread rises because living yeast produces gas bubbles trapped inside the dough.
Let’s go →How things work
Everyday machines, taken apart
All how things work →Throwing air downwards
Why Does a Wing Hold a Plane Up?
A wing holds a plane up by deflecting air downward; the air pushes back, and that push is lift.
Let’s go →Wide, narrow, wide
How Does a Shop Scanner Read a Barcode?
A barcode is a number written as stripes, and the scanner reads it by measuring reflected light as it sweeps across.
Let’s go →A sealed tank of chemicals
Why Does a Battery Run Out?
A battery goes flat because it holds a fixed amount of reacting chemicals, and each electron spends some.
Let’s go →Constant, invisible steering
Why Does a Moving Bike Stay Up?
A moving bike stays up because tipping steers the front wheel into the fall, and the curve pushes it upright again.
Let’s go →Turning speed into heat
How Does Rubbing Stop a Car?
Brakes stop a car by squeezing pads onto a spinning disc, turning the car's movement into heat.
Let’s go →Counting light in tiny buckets
How Does a Photo Get Caught?
A photo is a count of light: a lens focuses it, a shutter times it, and a grid of wells measures it.
Let’s go →