Engineering explainers · every claim sourced

How things work.
With the working shown.

We cut open the machines around you, animate them, and explain them in under a minute. Every fact on screen carries its source.

Cog, the Working Shown mascot: a gear drawn half in section
How we source

No claim without a source.

  1. Re-read the source

    Before a script is written, every source is fetched again: government agencies, university references, manufacturer documents, patents.

  2. Quote it, line by line

    Each spoken line is matched to the exact sentence that supports it. Lines without one are cut.

  3. Label the illustrations

    Schematic drawings and simulations are marked on screen as illustrative or not to scale.

  4. Correct in public

    If we get something wrong, we pin the correction under the post and fix the caption.

Example, reel 03. "No pumps are used at the Panama Canal, the water does its work by force of gravity alone." · Autoridad del Canal de Panamá, Design of the Locks

The Workbench · prototype

Run the machine yourself.

Operate the Gatun locks with valves and gates, using real chamber sizes and no pumps. Lift a ship 85 ft and see how much lake water it costs.

Chamber110 × 1,000 ftLift, Atlantic → Gatun Lake85 ft in 3 stepsLake water to lift one ship (best play)≈ 23.3 million gallons