The five lessons

Lesson 1

What shape is light?

This is the thirty-first lesson of our Big Course... and the first lesson of Year 2. Along the way to the answer, you'll learn where our "intuitive" ideas about light actually come from, the story of the two brilliant scientists who fought over what light is made of... and something very odd about the Universe.

You'll also learn where wild curiosity comes from. (Just gonna throw that in for free.)

This is a free preview.

Lesson 2

How many colors in a rainbow?

This is the thirty-second lesson of our Big Course. Along the way to the answer, you'll hear stories from a century's worth of curiosity, learn what Newton didn't see about light... and discover what he oddly got right.

Lesson 3

Particle or wave?

This is the thirty-third lesson of our Big Course. Along the way to finally discovering which of these light is, you'll learn about a weird experiment from 1801, an even weirder version of the experiment from the early 1900s, and the WEIRDEST POSSIBLE INTERPRETATIONS that serious scientists have made of it.

Lesson 4

What are the deadliest colors?

This is the thirty-fourth lesson of our Big Course. Along the way to learning this potentially life-saving information, you'll learn the difference between a laser and a flashlight, understand the basics of lasers, and role-play the physics of being a sea witch.

(And if you squint, you might also catch some advice on how to make a wise decision about controversial health claims.)

Lesson 5

How could you measure the speed of light?

This is the thirty-fifth lesson of our Big Course. Along the way to learning the answer, you'll look through the proverbial telescope of a 17th-century ice cream fiend, grok how fast "fast" can be, and trace out the discovery of the solar system.

Secret Sixth

How could you get to the Andromeda galaxy?

This is one of our off-the-book "Secret Sixth" lessons; specifically, the one for "Fire". But you won't want to miss it - along the way to the answer, you'll learn about Galilean relativity, and why "how fast am I going?" is a surprisingly hard question to answer. 

You'll also learn the most obviously weird thing about the speed of light, and how Einstein's special relativity makes sense of that. And you'll see how all of this allows you to get out of this galaxy alive.