Transport
Discover facts about transport. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Transport
Some children get to school by zipline
A normal morning routine is remarkably boring when you can just strap yourself to a rusting metal cable and literally plunge across a 1,200-foot deep canyon…
Discover more
Hang gliders were born from a military landing problem
That triangular fabric wing you see drifting over steep cliffs was actually developed by researchers desperately trying to invent a functional way for heavy…
Discover more
Banks fire your cash through tubes
Handing money directly to a teller requires entirely too much human interaction. We actively rely on vacuum-powered capsules to aggressively blast our deposit…
Discover more
Wakeboarding requires an external motorized watercraft
Because paddling yourself is a chore, this extreme sport relies entirely on holding tightly onto a synthetic rope while a noisy internal combustion engine…
Discover more
How hospitals send blood samples through the walls
There is absolutely no time for someone to jog down a hallway when bodily fluids are involved. Medical centers depend on complex pressurized networks to…
Discover more
Human cannonballs are launched by a giant piston
Using actual gunpowder would instantly vaporize the performer. Instead, the iconic circus stunt is essentially just a giant mechanical piston that ruthlessly…
Discover more
STACKY FOR IPHONEA bigger world.
One discovery
at a time.
Keep discovering with Stacky. Interesting facts in an app that is always within reach.
Why monofins make swimmers move like dolphins
Independent kicking is entirely stripped away. This massive single flipper binds your feet permanently together, demanding you use your core to aggressively…
Discover more
Quebec forests pump maple sap through tubes
Why carry buckets when you can turn a forest into a giant sugary circulatory system? Producers use vacuum-powered pipelines strung directly between thousands…
Discover more
Paragliding began as a shortcut down mountains
Trudging back down a steep peak is awful for the knees. Some brilliant mountaineers realized they could just pack lightweight ram-air canopies and…
Discover more
People used wooden skis thousands of years ago
Sliding across the snow is an ancient survival tactic. Archeologists have dug up incredibly old, beautifully preserved wooden planks that prehistoric people…
Discover more
Early surfboards were astonishingly heavy
Modern foam is lightweight and weak. The original wave-riders carved their floating transport from massive, solid trees, requiring immense physical strength…
Discover more
How drop towers stop without electricity
Plummeting in freefall is only fun if you actually survive the landing. These rides use eddy currents, an ingenious magnetic braking system that requires…
Discover more
Laundry chutes use pure gravity to transport dirty clothes
Carrying heavy baskets down multiple flights is completely unnecessary when you can just drop your soiled garments directly down a smooth vertical shaft cut…
Discover more
Ancient wheelbarrows were kinder to your arms
Modern designs heavily burden your arms. The ancient builders were vastly smarter, positioning the wheel dead center so they could move massive amounts of…
Discover more
Longboards are specifically shaped for high-speed coasting
Performing regular kickflips is terribly exhausting, so these elongated wooden planks were meticulously crafted for those who prefer to just lean back and let…
Discover more
Flyboards use pressurized water hoses to lift you up
Why master basic buoyancy when you can simply strap heavy boots to your feet that blast hundreds of gallons of pressurized water downward, violently lifting…
Discover more
Grocery checkout lines use motorized belts for your food
Pushing your own cereal box two feet forward is clearly exhausting, so we designed heavy rubber belts with optical sensors to do the tedious lifting at the…
Discover more
Magic carpets slowly roll beginners up tiny snow hills
Lacking the basic coordination for actual ski lifts, novices are generously provided with a literal rubber belt that slowly glides them up the gentlest slopes…
Discover more
When hearses doubled as ambulances
In a massive conflict of interest, the people responsible for saving your life used to be the exact same people profiting off your death. Up until the 1970s,…
Discover more
The first driverless cars followed wires under the road
The obsession with taking our hands off the wheel started long before sophisticated lasers and AI. In the late 1950s, RCA and General Motors successfully…
Discover more
Your garage may be more dangerous to your bike
You bought a titanium U-lock and chained your precious commuter bike to a streetlight like Fort Knox, totally ignoring the actual danger. Statistical analysis…
Discover more
The woman who drove a Model T around the world
In the 1920s, a Canadian woman named Aloha Wanderwell became the first female to circumnavigate the globe in a Ford Model T. To make the brutal trek across…
Discover more
Why fighter jets are built to be unstable
If an F-16 loses its computerized flight controls, it will violently flip out of the sky in seconds. Engineers deliberately build them to be inherently…
Discover more
Dutch drivers open car doors with their opposite hands
In the Netherlands, forcing yourself to reach across your body to open a car door naturally twists your torso to look over your shoulder. This simple…
Discover more