A few months ago, I got the idea of making a notebook that explains how various things in the world around me work; the notebook was vaguely inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks: that is, well illustrated, well articulated, and clarifying. However, da Vinci’s notebooks were for his original inventions where this notebook is more so I could glean some practical knowledge about how the modern world works, more or less.
At some point early during my senior year of college, I mentioned this notebook idea to my girlfriend and she said that she was interested in helping out too. So we came up with a system: we each assign each other something that we want to know more about. Because I’m a coward who is afraid of change, she would start. Her task: explain to me how a doorknob works. It’s something I’ve interacted with for the majority of my life, yet I don’t really understand how one works on a piece-by-piece basis.
After she has adequately explained to me how one works, it would be my turn and then we would go back and forth until we got sick of it. Unfortunately, we never got around to it during the actual school year. But, better late than never, I suppose. This website page is supposed to be a more fleshed out version of the notebook, i.e. more written explanations accompanying the diagrams.
I hope you enjoy reading about some of these day-to-day objects, and learn a thing or two along the way.