AboutSee how it really works
Everything has layers. We open them.
Layerfall is a visual learning platform for discovering how the world really works, one fascinating question at a time. We start with something you have noticed, follow it down through every layer, and leave you with the principle underneath, and the urge to ask the next question.
- YouHow can headphones make silence with more sound?Switch them on and the engine hum fades.
- HardwareHow do they hear the noise?Tiny microphones on every ear cup.
- DataHow does a chip understand sound?It measures the wave thousands of times a second.
- SoftwareHow does it make the opposite?It flips the wave upside down.
- Moving partsHow does a speaker play a flipped wave?Its cone pushes the air the other way.
- The principleHow can two sounds make less?Crest meets trough. They cancel.
Why we exist
Every child starts out asking how. Nobody should have to stop.
Four-year-olds asked their mothers 26 questions an hour at home. At nursery school they asked their teachers 2.
Tizard & Hughes, 1984In Gallup's 2016 poll of students whose schools opted in (not a representative sample), 74% of fifth graders were engaged at school, against about a third of students in grades 10 to 12.
Calderon & Yu, Gallup, 2017Children as young as two can tell a real answer from a brush-off. After a non-answer they were more likely to ask again; after a real explanation, more likely to ask a follow-up.
Frazier, Gelman & Wellman, 2009
“The prize is the pleasure of finding the thing out, the kick in the discovery.”
Richard Feynman, BBC Horizon, 1981
What we believe
Mind-blowing, and true.
Curiosity is the interface
You follow the question. The curriculum is underneath, and you only notice it when we show you how much you learned.
Pictures first
Animated diagrams, cutaways and zooms show what you cannot see. Words explain what the picture shows.
Never dumbed down
Clear enough for a 12-year-old, exact enough for an engineer. We never talk down to anyone.
Never made up
Every fact is checked and keeps its source. Corrections are public, and free.
Everything connects
The same principles run through every subject. Learn one once, and you will see it everywhere.
Never boring
If it isn't exciting, we haven't explained it right yet.
Two maps of the world
A map of questions. A map of knowledge.
Above: every How question, linked to the questions it leads to. Below: the concepts of mathematics, science and engineering, linked to what you need first. Every question knows which concepts it teaches, so curiosity and a curriculum arrive at the same place.
Truth is the product
Money never changes what is true.
Sponsors are always named
They fund a genuine question. They never decide what we say is true.
Claims stay with their owners
What a company says about its own product is attributed to it, and never added to our checked facts.
Sources and corrections are free
For everyone, always. Nothing that was free is taken away.
What we will never be
Some things we leave to others.
- A technology-news site
- An explain-anything chatbot
- Lectures filmed module by module
- A shop of logo merchandise
- A feed that needs constant moderation
- Anything generic, rushed or made up
One question. Many layers. Real understanding.
Every fact, checked
Don't trust us. Check it.
Every number on this page comes from one of these studies.
Tizard, B., & Hughes, M. (1984). Young Children Learning. Fontana.
Calderon, V. J., & Yu, D. (2017). Student enthusiasm falls as high school graduation nears. Gallup.
news.gallup.com/opinion/gallup/211631/student-enthusiasm-falls-high-school-graduation-nears.aspxFrazier, B. N., Gelman, S. A., & Wellman, H. M. (2009). Preschoolers' search for explanatory information within adult–child conversation. Child Development, 80(6), 1592–1611.
doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01356.x