Six Things, Volume 57

Airfoil | Rhapsody | Yeetability | Generation Gap | Pubs | Sandcastles

Thing 1 – Airfoil

Nobody does science-y explainers like Bartosz Ciechanowski. His latest, on the aerodynamics of flight, is brilliant (quite long, so set aside some time).

He takes you through the subject step by step, and there’s loads of illustrative interactive stuff in case the words don’t quite do the job. And if science-y explainers make your eyes glaze over you can always have fun fiddling with the many sliders and buttons.

As well as breaking down a complex subject into easily understood chunklets, he occasionally throws in a mindblowing fact.

A cubic centimetre of air contains over 25 quintillion air particles.

And he’s not without a dry sense of humour from time to time:

“These slow-motion demonstrations are intended to present the broad strokes of the delicate interaction between the air and the airfoil, but I would advise against relying on them when building an airworthy airplane.”

Thing 2 – Rhapsody

While we’re doing visualisations of complex things, here’s a lovely animated graphical score of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue by Stephen Malinowski.

(For those wondering, the recording used is the original 1924 recording, which is significantly shorter than the version usually heard in the concert hall these days.)

You might just enjoy watching it (ooh pretty colours and shapes), but if you want to know more (“is the animated graphical score accurate?” “In a word, no”), he answers some general questions here, and goes into a bit of detail about the colour scheme here.

If you enjoy it, he’s done plenty of others by a variety of composers, including Ravel, Bach and Beethoven.

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Thing 3 – Yeetability

The information chart you never knew you needed.

Bluesky user and scientific illustrator Franzanth has produced this “Pocket Guide to Responsible and Sustainable Animal Yeeting”.

In case you were wondering, he defines yeeting as “the act of throwing a projectile at a slightly upward angle with low initial velocity”.

There is, you’ll be relieved to learn, an upper size limit, and the guidelines are underpinned by a strict moral and ethical code to ensure minimum discomfort to the yeetee.

You can download the poster to Dropbox here and Franz has a website with his illustrations.

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Thing 4 – Generation Gap

A very short, very excellent piece of writing by Sarah Moss. It concerns theatre and parenthood and unexpected moments of humanity.

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Thing 5 – Pubs

I really enjoyed these photos taken by Marco Sconocchia in and around London pubs.

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Thing 6 – Sandcastles

There is a sandcastle university. I am in equal measure delighted and appalled.

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