Badly Drawn Answers
Everyday questions about science, history, technology, and the systems around us—answered clearly, if not beautifully.
Clear explanations. Unreliable circles.
Big ideas, badly drawn.
Crooked stick figures explain everyday questions, philosophy, remarkable lives, money, and science.
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Badly Drawn Philosophy
Arguments, paradoxes, ethics, and thought experiments made easier to see through crude scenes and concrete examples.
Badly Drawn Biographies
Lives shaped by work, failure, luck, and legacy—without smoothing away uncertainty or forcing them into tidy lessons.
Badly Drawn Finance
How banks create money, how shares trade, and how financial systems work, explained with rough drawings and concrete examples.
Badly Drawn Science
Explore physics, space, chemistry, biology, and the human body through simple explanations and deliberately rough drawings.
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Badly Drawn Science
Why Earth's Tectonic Plates Keep Moving
Cold sinking slabs help pull tectonic plates along. See how slab pull, ridge push and mantle flow interact, and why starting subduction is a harder question.
- Plate tectonics
- Earth science
- Mantle convection
Badly Drawn Philosophy
If Your Choices Are Determined, Do You Deserve Blame?
Does a caused choice deserve blame? Separate determinism, control, ultimate responsibility and the reasons to seek repair without demanding suffering.
- Free will
- Moral responsibility
- Determinism
Badly Drawn Science
How Did a Possible Dwarf Planet Hide Beyond Pluto?
Rubin found 2026 ED138 by connecting moving dots across images. Discover why its orbit, estimated diameter and dwarf planet status are separate questions.
- Solar system
- Dwarf planets
- Astronomy
Badly Drawn Finance
Why RBC Is Blocking Outside AI Agents From Online Banking
RBC’s restriction separates AI help from account access. Learn how credentials, payment authorization, consumer protections and open banking differ.
- Banking
- AI agents
- Consumer protection
Badly Drawn Philosophy
How Do You Know You're Not a Brain in a Vat?
A perfect deception could imitate every test. Explore the brain-in-a-vat argument, Putnam’s language-based reply and why knowledge may not need certainty.
- Brain in a vat
- Skepticism
- Hilary Putnam
Badly Drawn Biographies
Hedy Lamarr: The Movie Star Who Co-Invented a Torpedo Radio System
Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil patented synchronized frequency hopping for torpedo control. Explore the design, its limits and the later Wi-Fi myth.
- Hedy Lamarr
- George Antheil
- Frequency hopping
Badly Drawn Science
How DNA Fits Inside a Cell — and Still Gets Used
Histones, flexible chromatin and DNA loops let cells pack long molecules while keeping genes accessible. See why chromosomes are not always shaped like an X.
- DNA
- Chromatin
- Nucleosomes
Badly Drawn Answers
How Ancient Persians Made Ice in the Desert
Persian yakhchals made or collected winter ice and protected it for summer. Learn how shallow pools, the night sky and insulated storage shared the work.
- Yakhchal
- Radiative cooling
- Ice storage
Badly Drawn Science
Can a Turning Molecule Let More Electricity Through?
A helicene between gold contacts showed a sharp current increase. What the measurements, calculations and limits tell us about rotation-enhanced conductance.
- Molecular electronics
- Molecular motors
- Conductance