If you're a grown human and you don't understand how car engines, speakers, or other everyday engineering work, then you may feel like you're past a point of no return—the point when it becomes too embarrassing to ever ask. Jacob O'Neal's GIFs are your answer. His amazing and captivating Animagraffs are annotated animations that show the inner workings of popular mechanics.

Says O'Neal: "Subject material for Animagraffs has to be able to loop indefinitely (since that's all animated GIFs can do), and should require animation to tell the story, as opposed to adding animation as a gimmick."

*Click to expand the GIFs to read the text more clearly.

Four-stroke cycle of a cylinder

Jacob O'Neal

First we're introduced to a single cylinder…

Four-cylinder car engine

Jacob O'Neal

…then four of them. O'Neal also shows what else an engine needs to work—things like oxygen, oil, and fans.

Jet engine

Jacob O'Neal

Driving is great, but flying is even greater.

Speakers and magnets

Jacob O'Neal

You ears sense sound by sensing movements in air; speakers make sound by moving air. Magnets are key.

Handgun

Jacob O'Neal

The only major component missing here is the person who pulls the trigger.

Flat-panel display

Animagraff's aren't limited to the purely mechanical. Here's an exploded view of a flat-panel display that shows how light is changed as it travels from source outward:

Jacob O'Neal

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