Sketchplanations
Big Ideas Little Pictures
Get the book!
Sketchplanations podcast photo of Rob Bell, Tom Pellereau and Jono Hey
Prefer to listen?
🎉 Help keep Sketchplanations ad-free by supporting me

Science sketches

Explore sketches, drawings, and illustrations that simplify ideas related to Science.

What is systolic and diastolic blood pressure — diagram showing heart contraction (systolic) and relaxation (diastolic) with 120/80 example and pressure graph.Systolic and Diastolic Blood PressureThe difference between Science and Engineering: quote by Theodore von Kármán "Scientists discover the world that exists; Engineers create the world that never was."Science and Engineering: What’s the Difference?The Figure Skater's Spin and Conservation of Angular Momentum Illustrated with equationsThe Figure Skater's Spin and the Conservation of Angular MomentumTemperature palindromes: Handy reference points for converting fahrenheit to celsius - 82-28 and 61-16Temperature Palindromes: Converting Between Fahrenheit and CelsiusWhat are topography and bathmetry, and their meaning, shown as land elevation and ocean depthTopography and BathymetryLooking back in time as we look to the stars: A visual explanation of how light from the Moon, Sun, stars, and galaxies shows us the past because light takes time to travel.Looking Back in Time: The Speed of Light and the Night SkyBuoyancy and how ships float explained showing 1m3 of water displaced supporting a tonne of weight and the same principle floating a 50,000 tonne shipBuoyancyIceberg floating orientation explained: Icebergs are usually drawn floating vertically, while a stable iceberg orientation is usually on its sideIceberg orientationWhat is parallax explanation - how parallax works showing different layers moving at different speedsParallaxOrbit illustration: how a satellite stays in orbit - the balance between its velocity and gravity pulling it towards EarthOrbitWhat is redshift diagram: Astronomer watching the light of one star moving away being redshifted and one star moving towards being blueshiftedRedshiftPhysics envy: a football coach looks on exasperated as none of his young team play according to the planPhysics EnvyBrilliance bias: A group of people in a gallery of portraits of famous people lament that the brilliant women were forgotten againBrilliance biasSampling bias: a presenter proudly shows the conclusion of a bar chart of responses from people who were asked if they love responding to surveys. A resounding 'yes'.Sampling biasWhat is the meaning and difference between biceps, triceps, and quadriceps - all about ceps meaning headsBiceps, Triceps, Quadriceps: Meaning and DifferenceA fisherman illustrates the parable of the fishing net by concluding a minimum size of fish because they never see any smaller in their nets — you get what you measureYou get what you measureDiagram of the states of matter showing a solid, liquid, and gas, showing all the transitions between each stateStates of matterThe BS Asymmetry principle, also known as Brandolini's law explained with one person struggling to persuade their friend that the moon isn't made of cheeseThe BS asymmetry principleThe Keeling Curve illustration: A line graph shows a tight zig-zag red line rising from around 310 parts per million (ppm) monthly average CO2 concentration in the air at the top of Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii in 1960, up to 410 ppm in 2020. The smaller graph at the top shows the reason for the zig-zag nature of the line; the seasonal variation of CO2 concentration in the air due to more plants blooming and photosynthesising in Spring and Summer. The Keeling curveWhat is the scale of solar system distances explained: show how big is the solar system, what is an astronomical unit and the distances between planetsSolar system planets: how big is the solar system?What is a blue Moon illustration: on a year-long timeline, the occurrence of full moons is plotted for each month. A blue moon is when a full moon occurs twice in the same month - once at the beginning and again at the end of the month. What is a blue moon?The beard cycle illustration: a virtuous circle is shown where beards being rare in society (on the left) makes them more desirable which leads to beards becoming more common in society (on the right), making them less desirable, which leads to fewer beards again. And so on... The beard cycleWhat is an underwater moon pool explained example: showing how a moon pool works with a neat underwater base with divers entering the water underwater, like it was a poolMoon poolEarth is a big magnetEarth is a big magnet.What is the potato radius example explained: showing a bumpy potato-like asteroid at the centre of an expanding circle and how it becomes rounder and more planet like as it gets largerThe Potato Radius: When Asteroids Turn SphericalHow to remember if it's a Stalactite or Stalagmite (or stalagtite or stalacmite): Stalactites Cling tight to the Ceiling of a cave. Stalagmites Grow on the GroundStalactites, StalagmitesBortle ScaleAnimals that regenerate - flatworm head, axolotl legs, lizard tail, sea star, moose, deer...Animals that regeneratePhases of the moon diagram: new moon, full moon, crescent moon, gibbous moon and waxing and waning phasesPhases of the moonMoore’s LawHow to tell a centipede from a millipedeAsteroids, meteors and meteoritesSleepy foodsAn explanation of the plimsoll line, the international load line, for how high a ship sits in the waterThe Plimsoll lineThunder cloudsDarwin's 5 principles of natural selection: Reproduction, Excess, Variation, Selection, Divergence, illustrated in a tree of variation of childrenDarwin’s 5 principles of Natural SelectionCurly hair is oval illustration showing the cross-section of a hair follicle from oval to round and labelling it with curly, wavy, and straightCurly hair is ovalKnow your cloudsThe magic of soapMake a wine glass singOur atmosphere is as thick for the Earth as the skin on an appleOur atmosphere is as thick for the Earth as the skin on an appleDark and light are the keys to one-way mirrorsThe position of a rainbow is predictableGlacial erraticPollution is highly localized—take the back streets. Showing a family in city traffic and family cycling in the back streetsPollution is highly localized: take the back streetsGive air a pathway to avoid gluggingWhy ice doesn’t sinkSupermoon illustration: showing the moon large at its perigee, when it is closet to Earth, and smaller at it's apogee, when it's furthest from EarthSupermoonMore is differentAnatomy of a wave illustration showing the key features of crest, amplitude, trough, wavelength and when it starts to break on a beachAnatomy of a waveOn microwavesIncredibly, we only ever see one side of the moonthe Angle of Incidence equals the Angle of ReflectionSonar or echolocation explainedSonar + Echolocation
Buy Me A Coffee