A comprehensive, carefully curated list of Explorable Explanations: interactive resources that allow readers to actively engage with and explore complex ideas and concepts, following the concept of reactive documents and active reading as championed by renowned computer scientist and interaction designer Bret Victor.
Explorable explanations are interactive, hands-on explanations that allow readers to understand complex ideas and concepts by actively manipulating variables and observing the results in real-time.
They often take the form of web-based interactive graphics or simulations, and can be used to explain a wide range of topics in fields such as mathematics, science, and computer science.
Notable authors in the field include Bret Victor, Nicky Case, Vi Hart, Dan Shiffman, and William Fenton. These interactive explanations can be a powerful tool for learners of all ages, allowing them to engage with difficult concepts in a meaningful and immersive way.
- Math
- Algorithms
- Science
- Physics
- Psychology
- Systems And Thought Experiments
- Creativity
- Other
- About Explorable Explanations
- Tools & Resources
- Books And Essays
- Explained Visually
- Better Explained - Math without endless memorization.
- Euclid: The Game
- The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Mandelbrot set
- vf.rohanp.xyz - Interactive demonstration of vector field flow.
- World of Mathematics
- Primer on Bézier Curves
- Math Insight - Copious interactive diagrams and ingenious experiments with digital publishing.
- Circles Sines and Signals - Compact primer on digital signal processing.
- Epiplexis - Interactive videos on a variety of math topics
- Conditional Probability
- Exploring Histograms
- Humans Suck At Entropy
- Interpreting Confidence Intervals - Interpreting Confidence Intervals.
- Markov Chains
- Ordinary Least Squares Regression
- Principal Component Analysis
- Probdef - Open-source game about probability and inference leading up to Bayes Theorem.
- Seeing Theory - Visual introduction to probability and statistics.
- Simpson's Paradox
- Science Isn't Broken - On scientific method (p-values).
- Years You Have Left to Live, Probably - Great illustration of survival analysis, and of probabalistic proccesses in general.
- Eigenvectors and Eigenvalues
- Interactive 2d Matrix
- Immersive Math - Linear algebra book with ully interactive figures.
- Invitation to Another Dimension
- How to Fold a Julia Fractal - Brilliant use of animation to show complex mathematical processes geometrically.
- Sine and Cosine
- The Incredible Proof Machine - Visual approach to propositional logic.
- Compression Decompression - Or, Making Things Smaller: A Visual Introduction.
- Visualizing Algorithms - Visualizing algorithms, by mike bostock.
- VisuAlgo - Interactive computer science algorithms and data structures.
- Quicksort - The quicksort algorithm, illustrated with playing cards.
- Second-Order Controls
- How to Use t-SNE Effectively - Visualizing high-dimensional data.
- Promisees - Promise visualization playground for the adventurous.
- Back to the Future of Handwriting Recognition - Active Essay Revisiting the GRAIL Handwriting Recognizer.
- Bloom Filters
- Calculating The Intersection Area of 3+ Circles
- Line-intersection - Responsive parallel representations for the Bentley–Ottmann algorithm.
- Split Packing: An Algorithm for Packing Circles with up to Critical Density
- Coloring Maps - Transforming numbers into colors.
- Interactive Diagrams for Wikipedia
- Visualizing Map Distortion
- Procedural Dungeon Generation: Cellular Automata
- r2d3.us - Visual introduction to machine learning.
- Visual Interactive Guide To The Basics Of Neural Networks
- Neural Networks And Deep Learning - Free online interactive book about Neural Networks and Deep Learning.
- playground.tensorflow.org - Neural network playground.
- Attention and Augmented Recurrent Neural Networks
- Four Experiments in Handwriting with a Neural Network
- Confounding Variables
- Red Blob Games - Visual and interactive ways of explaining math and computer algorithms.
- Introduction To A* – How pathfinding algorithms work, by amit patel.
- Hexagonal Grids - Interactive guide on implementing hexagonal grids.
- Intro To Graph Theory
- Generating Fantasy Maps - Generating fantasy maps, the math behind.
- gamejolt.com - Topology, via asteroids, narrated.
- Interactive Introduction To Quantum Computing
- The Book Of Shaders - Gentle step-by-step guide to fragment shaders.
- What is code?
- Algojammer - An experimental code editor for writing algorithms
- Quadtree - Interactive explanation of quadtrees, by jim kang.
- Bitcoin Blockchain - The basics behind decentralized cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.
- ncase.me - Simulating the world (in emoji😘).
- ncase.me - Neurotic neurons, an interactive animation on how exposure therapy works.
- Exploring Emergence - Introduction to cellular automata (from 1996! requires flash).
- internet-atlas.net - Critical atlas of internet.
- Visualizing Projections - Visualizing multiple camera projection techniques.
- Entropy Explained, With Sheep
- Pink Trombone - Hands-On Vocal Tract Simulation.
- GPS - Global Positioning System - A detailed interactive explanation on how the Global Positioning System works.
- Angry Physics
- arogozhnikov.github.io - Hamiltonian monte carlo explained.
- Inside Einstein's head - Explorable explanation of relativistic spacetime, inspired by Albert Einstein's thought experiments.
- Interactive Introduction To Optical Modulation
- Nukemap - Nuclear explosion simulation tool by alex wellerstein.
- PhET Home Page - Interactive math and science simulations, based on extensive education research.
- Physics Simulations - Physics simulations which show how the math is derived.
- Waveforms - Let's Learn About Waveforms.
- Math and Physics Applets - Various interactive educational applets. By Paul Falstad.
- Electronics Circuit Simulator - Electronics circuit simulator also available in an offline version.
- The Evolution Of Trust
- Hooked: how slot machines are designed to be addictive.
- How Uber Uses Psychological Tricks to Push Its Drivers’ Buttons
- Complexity Explorables - Collection of interactive explorable explanations of complex systems in many fields.
- Many Tiny Things - Every big thing in the world is made up of many tiny things.
- To Build A Better Ballot - an interactive guide to alternative voting systems
- Parable Of the Polygons - Simulation about segregation and diversity.
- Who’ll Freeze First ? - Puzzle about size and staying warm.
- Joy.js - Make happy little programs.
- Recursive Drawing - Create complex patterns from simple building blocks, by toby schachman.
- Ishkur's Guide To Electronic Music
- Learn Music - Experiment with beats, melody, harmony, basslines, and song structure.
- kevinhayeswilson.com - Redraw state boundaries with 2016 US election data.
- Kern Type - Explorable on kerning in typography.
- How Does Inequality Begin ? - Interactive simulation.
- How Government Expenditures Finance Themselves ? - A macroeconomic model from Wynne Godley and Marc Lavoie.
- Virus, The Beauty Of The Beast
- Inner Workings of a Mechanical Watch
- Explorable Explanations
- worrydream.com - Scientific Communication As Sequential Art.
- worrydream.com - Up and down the ladder of abstraction – a systemic approach to interactive visualization.
- worrydream.com - Bret Victor's essay which coined the term "explorable explanations".
- Reinventing Explanation - Prototyping an accessible explanation of simpson's paradox.
- blog.ncase.me - Design patterns for explorable explanations.
- simblob.blogspot.de - Amit patel of red blob games looks back on 5 years of creating interactive explanations.
- Learning By Doing
- Explorabl.es - Hub for learning through play!
- aprt.us - Open-source graphics editor and programming environment for creating interactive diagrams.
- awesome-livecoding - Curated list of live-coding resources.
- Coeffects - Context-aware programming languages.
- DynamicLand - Incubating a humane dynamic medium.
- Flex - YC Research - Interactive programming and solution exploration tools
- GeoGebra - Dynamic mathematics for learning and teaching.
- Human Advancement Research Community - YC Research
- How I Make Explorable Explanations - By Nicky Case.
- Implementing Draggable Handles
- Improv.js - Tool to make explorable explanations.
- Data-driven Web Applications
- Idyll - Tool for making interactive narratives for the web.
- Iooxa - Web components and layouts for interactive scientific writing and creating explorables
- Lively Kernel
- Loopy - Tool for thinking in systems.
- Tangle Js Library for reactive documents.
- TangleDown
- Outside the box On SVG and Arrows.
- RactivePlayer React library for creating interactive videos ("ractives")
- RedBlobGames - Making Of
- Self-Lang Prototype-based dynamic object-oriented programming language, environment, and virtual machine.
- Mindstorms - "mindstorms: children, computers, and powerful ideas", an influential 1980 book by seymour papert
- Elements of Euclid - oliver byrne's edition of euclid's "elements" uses colored diagrams and symbols instead of letters to proof theorems about math and geometry
- Envisioning Information
- Understanding Comics - "The pedagogical potential of the comic form is vast and mostly untapped" —Bret Victor
- Topological Picturebook
- Dynamics, the Geometry of Behavior
- Proofs without Words
- Relativity Visualized
- The Shape of Space
- Visual Group Theory
- Environment and Economy - Interactive guide to the eco-pragmatist philosophy.
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