These 20 Educational Gifs Will Teach You More Than A Textbook Can

The internet is flooded with hilarious animated gifs of jumping cats, running babies, and hilarious fails. But there’s a whole different class of gifs out there – gifs that can educate and fascinate. These 20 awesome gifs will do precisely that – show you how the world works.

The cool thing about these animated gif images is that they show just how effective a well-chosen video clip can be, no matter how brief. For example, the gif with the Earth situated next to various stars takes only a few seconds to communicate the incomprehensible differences in scale between our planet and the biggest star we know of. The bean sprout gif explains how this plant can find solid objects to climb quickly in just a short clip.

Enough with the silly fail and cute puppy gifs – educate yourself with these! (H/T)

01. This is how an energy-absorbing slinky falls when dropped

02. This is how the internal mechanism of a lock works

03. Beans’ tendrils slowly rotate to find solid supports to climb

04. This clip illustrates how small the Earth would be compared to NML Cygni, the most giant has known star

05. This is what an egg looks like underwater without its shell

06. Here’s what happens when you dump a pot of boiling water into -41C air

07. This is how a ladybug unsheathes its wings and lifts off

08. This is how military helmet camouflage is applied

09. Dogs cup their tongues like this to lap up water

10. A cheetah uses its tail to counter torsion and keep balance as it chases its prey

11. The chrysopelea, or flying snake, can glide as many as 100 meters through the air

12. The sun never sets during an arctic summer – here’s what a “day” looks like

13. These boxes demonstrate why the Pythagorean Theorem is true

14. One theory claims that the Easter Island statues were “walked” to their places

15. This gif shows the development of the human face in the womb

16. Here’s how chains are assembled

17. This gif demonstrates why snake venom is deadly

18. How to remove your computer monitor’s polarizing filter

19. Sulfur hexafluoride, a gas much denser than air, is poured into a boat that is floating on it

20. Some octopuses have uncanny and excellent camouflage skills

Like what you’re reading? Subscribe to our top stories.