Biology / Computing / Earth & Space / Economics / Engineering / Food Science / History / Language / Maths / Mind / Music & Sound / Physics

Step away.
Come back smarter.

Short, interactive explainers for your break from work. Read one in thirty seconds, dive deeper if you like, then get back to it.

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History4 min read Why Egyptians poured water on sand: the wet-sand trick for dragging giant stones A wall painting in an Egyptian tomb shows 172 men hauling a colossal statue on a sledge, while one man pours water onto… Maths4 min read Why no walk can cross all seven bridges of Königsberg once: Euler's odd-places rule Seven bridges, two islands, two river banks: in 1700s Königsberg nobody could find a walk crossing each bridge exactly… Earth & Space4 min read How astronomers find planets by their shadow: the dip in starlight Most planets around other stars are far too faint to see directly, so astronomers watch the star instead. When a planet… Language4 min read How babies find words in a stream of sound: transitional probabilities Babies hear speech as one unbroken smear, with no gaps between words, yet somehow they start picking out words long… Music & Sound4 min read Why dragging a bow makes a steady note: stick-slip and Helmholtz's travelling kink A bow moves at a steady speed, yet the string under it vibrates in an exact rhythm hundreds of times a second. The… Computing3 min read How your phone finds the quickest route: Dijkstra's shortest-path algorithm Your phone finds the fastest route across millions of roads without trying them all. The trick is a rule Edsger…

Categories

01 BiologyCells, bodies, evolution and everything that grows. 13 breaks 02 ComputingThe ideas inside the machines we use all day. 12 breaks 03 Earth & SpacePlanets, weather, oceans and the sky above them. 13 breaks 04 EconomicsPrices, incentives and why markets do what they do. 12 breaks 05 EngineeringHow things are built, and why they don't fall down. 12 breaks 06 Food ScienceThe chemistry happening in your kitchen. 13 breaks 07 HistoryThe decisions, accidents and people that shaped now. 14 breaks 08 LanguageWords, grammar and how people make meaning. 13 breaks 09 MathsPatterns, chance and the numbers hiding in everyday things. 12 breaks 10 MindPsychology, perception and the quirks of the brain. 12 breaks 11 Music & SoundVibrations, harmony and why some sounds feel right. 13 breaks 12 PhysicsForces, light, time and the odd behaviour of the very small. 13 breaks

How it works

30 Second Break is a collection of short explainers for curious people of every age. Each break is one idea you can read in thirty seconds, with an optional deep dive that has its own interactive design.

01
Pick a topic
Browse by category, or hit Random.
02
Read for 30 seconds
Go deeper if you have a few more minutes.
03
Back to work
One thing smarter than before.