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Explaining the world one sketch at a time

Sketchplanations makes complex ideas simple with clear, insightful sketches. Explore topics from science, creativity, psychology, and beyond explained in pictures.

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Learn something new in a sketch each Sunday

Recent sketches

Buoyancy and how ships float explained showing 1m3 of water displaced supporting a tonne of weight and the same principle floating a 50,000 tonne ship

Buoyancy

It’s always been mind-boggling to me how some of the largest and heaviest things we build on Earth are ships that float on water. Cruise ships are like floating towns, some able to accommodate over 5,000 people. How can it be that these gigantic, impossibly heavy objects made of steel can float on water? The key is displacement and realising the considerable weight that the water already supports. In a lake or ocean, each drop of water is supported by the water around it. 1m³ of fresh water weighs 1 metric tonne, which is 1,000 kg. If a ship displaces 1m³ of water, the buoyant force of the surrounding water supports 1 tonne of the ship’s weight. Therefore, a ship weighing 50,000 tonnes will just float if it displaces 50,000m³ of water. Sea water contains salt, which makes it denser than freshwater. As the denser water supports a greater weight, a ship will float slightly higher in salt water than in fresh. The International Load Line, previously called the Plimsoll line, shows how deep a boat sits in the water. To realise the immense power of water, you can try submerging a biscuit tin in a bath. It’ll put up quite a fight. Also see: Plimsoll line Watch out for barnacles Sonic boom Iceberg orientation Siphon
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Kitchen table survival skills — skills that keep you out of a scrape in the wild that you can practice at your kitchen table

Kitchen table survival skills

Kitchen table survival skills are survival skills you can put into practice from your kitchen table. I humbly submit my set of tried and tested (and at times learned from bitter experience) non-glamorous, but effective, kitchen table survival skills: Checking the weather There's not always a choice, but having a good handle on the weather (know your clouds) can mean the difference between a nice day out and a disaster. Sensible route planning As Alistair Humphrey's writes in his book Local, "Unfolding a map is the ritual that launches all good journeys." There's art and science in route planning—considering the needs and abilities of your party, the terrain, the effect of the weather or altitude, availability of water, interest and views, access, timing, trail condition and more. So many varied aspects go into it. When planning a family hike now, we weigh up a very different set of factors than we did for two fit twenty-somethings happy to endure a little hardship. Telling someone where you're going If you're going to the wilderness, go with somebody if you can, and leave your intended plan with friends or family back home. If you're not back when expected, at least you'll have someone looking out for you, and a rescue party will know where to start looking. Hiring a guide OK, so it doesn't seem like a survival skill exactly, but going with a local guide will work wonders for your survival. You might not need one for a walk in the local woods, but if you fancy hiking on a glacier or venturing down a river, and it's not something you do too often, then hiring a guide will be the best survival decision you make. Reading up on your route Sure, you can head out and figure it out when you're out there, but mountains, and wilderness generally, are capricious places. There's so much a good hiking book, or a recent trip report can teach you before you set out. Is a river crossable? Is there still snow on a pass? Are the mosquitoes out in force? How long is it likely to take? How much up and down will there be? Where can you camp? And on and on. Taking the right gear Whenever I've been on semi-serious expeditions, I've been very impressed with the kit lists provided by our guides. Every item is carefully chosen—like, say, bringing the 10 essentials—and lists are refined and revisited after each trip. It's rarely exciting assembling your kit and running through lists, but if it means you remembered spare batteries, the water filter, mosquito repellent, or a fire lighter it may prove your saving grace in the wild. More mundane perhaps, but still helpful, is packing your gear in the right places and order in which you'll use it. You're much more likely to stop and put on sun lotion or a warm hat if it isn't stuffed under your sleeping bag in the depths of your backpack. Staying within your limits When we're tired, it's easy to make poor decisions. The best defence I know for this is to plan trips within your limits so you aren't trying to find a camp spot in the dark, feeling too tired to filter the water, or too tired to keep track of where you're going. After a long day, it's easy to start skipping the things that keep us safe, like putting on an extra layer or stopping for water. A guide once told me, "don't be too lazy to be comfortable." Keeping track of time A small, but very useful practice, I've adopted is having a good awareness of time on your excursions. Plan in advance and estimate how long different sections may take. Making a mental note of when you set off from the trailhead or from a rest stop gives you a sense of your progress, lets you know what it might take to get back if you need to, and teaches you how far you might get ahead of you. If your pace is changing, you'll have a good idea of how strong everyone is still feeling. Knowing when the sun rises and sets and how much daylight you have left means you're less likely to find yourselves in the dark without a headlamp. I'm sure you might have more to add to the list. This set came from reflecting on our survival skills before a brilliant chat with Brendan Leonard of the excellent Semi-rad about all things Ultra on the Sketchplanations podcast (episode out in Autumn 2024). Growing up in the 80s, for me survival skills were things Crocodile Dundee had, or perhaps MacGyver. More recently, Bear Grylls would demonstrate making a shelter in the jungle, starting fires, or catching salmon to survive in the wild. However, I realised that my survival skills were much less glamorous, but still rather effective, and most of them are used before I head out on a trip. In other words, my survival skills are ones that mean (touch wood) I don't get into a scrape that need the traditional survival skills most of us think of. As with so much in life, it's often the unglamorous stuff that makes the difference, like showing up every day, replicating before innovating, writing a rubbish first draft, or re-writing. I hope this set may keep your expeditions Type I or Type II fun, rather than Type III. Also see: The fun scale The 10 essentials Why camp 50yd from water The automation paradox Don't make important decisions on an empty stomach Glacial erratic Microadventure Perhaps you were really expecting something about a kitchen table: how to set a table
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Gestalt principles of visual perception showing proximity, similarity, continuity, closure, figure and ground, symmetry and order, and common fate.

Gestalt principles

The Gestalt principles of visual perception describe how our brains make sense of what we see. For example, they explain how we associate a photo with the text of a newspaper article or understand a series of words as a sentence on a billboard. These principles originated from the field of Gestalt psychology in the early twentieth century. In laying out sketches, I try to consider how a viewer will understand what connects with what, the order in which the viewer will read the sketch with their eye, and how colour or formatting link related elements—skim through the back catalogue to see it in action. In creating each sketch, consciously and unconsciously, I use many of the standard Gestalt principles of design. There are many Gestalt principles and some variations in the names. I chose seven common principles to illustrate: Proximity Objects that are close together are perceived as a group Similarity Similar objects are perceived as a group Continuity Elements on a line or curve are related Closure Completing missing parts of images to create a whole Figure-Ground Identifying what's in the foreground or background Symmetry & Order Perceiving symmetrical or orderly elements as a group Common Fate Objects moving together are perceived as part of a group The Gestalt principles are helpful for information design, user interface design, user experience design, graphic design and just about any design. It is also fascinating to spot how you unconsciously use them when interpreting designs you see. For example, look at the signs in an airport, a menu, or a page of your favourite app and see which principles are in play. The Interaction Design Foundation has a great article on the Gestalt principles that explains their use in design in more depth. You'll also find many others. Also see sketches on: UX Information design Graphic design Web design The isolation effect
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The Olympic Flag and the meaning of the ring colours, interlocking of the rings representing the union of the 5 continents competing against each other. and the 6 colours in each of the National flags. And a little flag bearer showing how it's done.

The Olympic Flag

The Olympic Flag, which consists of five interlocking coloured rings, was created by Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic games, and unveiled in 1914. Coubertin said that the five rings represent the five parts of the world embracing "Olympism" and competing against each other: Africa, The Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania. The interlacing of the rings represents the unity and coming together of athletes from all parts of the world. Coubertin did not associate individual rings with individual continents. The six colours of blue, dark yellow, black, green, red and white—the field on which the rings are set—"reproduce the colours of every country", and at least one is found on every national flag (I believe that’s still true). I was thinking of including a sketch of each of the Olympic sports, but depending on how you count them, there are 32 sports and over 300 events. You can learn more than you ever wanted to know about the history of the Olympic Flag in The Story of the Rings by Karl Lennartz (pdf). The Olympic flag and various other Olympic Properties (like the rings, torch and motto) are © IOC. Also see: The Union Jack Great Britain, the British Isles, the United Kingdom - eh?
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The magic of open-air kitchens for Asian street food shown calling out each aspect that makes it such an ingenious set up

The open-air kitchen

While travelling in Southeast Asia, I was in awe of the open-air kitchens of street restaurants. Just by wheeling out a few carefully stocked trolleys and some prepared ingredients, one person was able to run a bustling street-side restaurant serving a score of customers delicious, fresh-cooked food each night. It's a remarkable feat of ingenuity and efficiency. Some of the attributes I noticed about the best ones: Menus with prices visible from a distance We made some of the decision about whether a place looked good as we approached a stand. A clear menu with large prices you can see as you walk up is a simple way to slow down the right customers before they've walked past. Fresh ingredients on display Seeing the fresh ingredients at the front of the stall builds trust in what you're about to eat and whets the appetite. Pre-chopped ingredients and giant rice cooker Having boxes of pre-chopped ingredients to throw in makes cooking super speedy, and as so many dishes were served with rice, a single giant rice cooker enabled preparing meals in moments. Trolleys on wheels and everything within reach Having everything on wheels allows quick and easy deployment and packing up, and a chef can adjust each unit to have everything in easy reach. The right kit A single high-powered gas stove with a large wok cooks nearly all the dishes Trolleys stacked with plates, bowls, cups and utensils A waste bin handles scraps and excess liquids A multi-use towel wipes surfaces and hands We had a delicious meal from an old lady in Vietnam who'd just carried her entire restaurant on a bamboo pole over her shoulder, with two large baskets at either end. The pole held everything necessary to cook, including several small stools to sit and eat on. It helps to have the right kind of weather. A warm and generally dry climate means you don't need to rent indoor space, heat it or cover it. This enables so much creativity with food, reducing prices and barriers to entry and increasing selection. Alas, I'm in the UK for this one. It also suits food that is quick and simple to cook, often using pre-prepared, flavourful sauces and fresh ingredients that cook quickly, as opposed to dishes that require long preparation, ovens, or simmering times. Thai and Vietnamese food, in general, lend themselves well to this. It's remarkable how these simple yet effective setups can spin up a restaurant at the side of the street, turning a few trolleys, some carefully chosen gear and a talented chef into a culinary treat. Also see: Hedgehog a mango Cut an onion into teeny pieces Deseed a pomegranate Open a coconut Arrange kitchen storage to minimise excess travel Learn kind words first The kitchen working triangle 3 miscellaneous cooking tips And all sorts of other food and drink sketches
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The automation paradox explanation, or paradox of automation, summary with a hiker choosing their phone in place of a physical map and then getting lost in a landscape when there's no signal

The Automation Paradox

The Automation Paradox is that the better our machines get, the more we struggle when they fail. When heading out for a hike in the woods, it's tempting to skip the map and compass and rely on our phones and apps for navigation. Yet when we encounter no signal or lose power, we can find ourselves in a sticky situation. Or perhaps, like me, you've come to rely on popping your destination into the satnav or Google Maps whenever you get in the car and have nearly forgotten the ability to navigate without it. These situations illustrate the paradox of automation, where the more sophisticated and automated our machines and technologies become, the more bewildered we find ourselves when they inevitably fail. Or: the smarter the machines get, the dumber we might get. In his book Messy, Tim Harford suggests three strands to the paradox as our machines get more sophisticated: Automation covers up our mistakes, hiding our incompetence, meaning we may not learn to correct ourselves—consider autocorrect cleaning up our typos as we go. When we rely on automation, we get less practice for our skills, so even highly skilled individuals may find their expertise diminishing—perhaps you've found yourself using your phone calculator for a trivial calculation. When the easy scenarios are taken care of, failures may occur in complex or unpredictable ways that we may find especially difficult to recover from—like a subtle but persistent failure in the steering of a passenger plane, recovering from a skid on an icy road, or when you're deeply lost in the wilderness. More sophisticated technology can even make it useless or more dangerous when it fails. Older cars used to be reparable forever. Now, if your vehicle fails, it's likely to need plugging in at the dealership to figure out what's up. How many electronic devices are thrown away because somewhere inside, some tiny loose connection or component makes the whole thing worthless? Were pilots and flight crews better prepared and able to improvise before the autopilot became ubiquitous? I often wish our devices would fail more like an escalator or an electric toothbrush. If an escalator fails, you can still walk up it. If your electric toothbrush dies, you can still use it to brush your teeth. These could be called Technology-Enhanced Products, perhaps. But when most of our devices die, they're often rendered worthless. Automation and sophisticated machines help me so much. I did use Grammarly to help check this post. I use Google Maps nearly every time I put in my destination to home, and I often use a calculator to check my maths. But I do pay attention to grammar corrections, bring a paper map when I can, and keep trying to do the maths in my head. But as Tim Harford explains it, we still face "the paradox of automation: the better the machines get, the more bewildered we are when the machines fail." Also see: The bus factor Normalisation of deviance Chaos monkey Know your tech Jevon's paradox The law of unintended consequences The Dunning-Kruger effect (send me proof of purchase of Big Ideas Little Pictures, and I'll send the sketch to you) More paradoxes: The coastline paradox The transparency paradox The Abilene paradox The paradox of choice The liar paradox Tolkein-style landscape inspired by the excellent Lord of Maps.
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