How everyday technology works
Electricity, batteries, computers, the internet, GPS and encryption, explained from the ground up. 7 guides, about 55 minutes of reading.
- Electricity and circuits
Charge, current, voltage and resistance, with the analogies that help and the ones that mislead.
- Electricity and the power grid
How electricity is generated, sent across countries and delivered to a wall socket, and why the grid must balance every second.
- Batteries and energy storage
How chemical reactions store electricity, why lithium-ion took over, and what limits the batteries in phones and cars.
- How computers work
From transistors and binary to processors, memory and software, the layers inside every computer.
- How the internet works
Packets, addresses, routers and protocols: what actually happens between typing an address and seeing a page.
- Encryption and online security
How secret codes evolved from Caesar's shifts to public-key cryptography that protects every online payment.
- How GPS works
How a phone works out where you are from timing signals sent by satellites 20,000 kilometres overhead, with a little help from Einstein.