About Ukaia

What Ukaia is

Ukaia writes about the systems that behave well enough to teach and badly enough to surprise: pendulums, springs, gear trains, and the other machines people build and then watch with curiosity. The work comes in three forms. Studies are short and focused. Guides are long and patient. Instruments are small programs you can run in a browser, with labelled controls and results stated in words.

Who it is for

• Teachers who want a demonstration that does not need a laboratory, and a clear way to show why a result holds.
• Students who have met differential equations and want to see what they describe.
• Engineers who want a clear picture of sensitivity before it arrives in a project.
• Curious readers who would rather have the mechanism than the mystery.

How a study is made

Each study starts from one idea and one question. We write down the relevant equation, check it against a known limit, and then write the explanation. An instrument is built from the same equations, with a fixed integration step that we can describe in full. When we are not sure of a claim, we say so, and we leave the claim out until we are.

Every study ends with a question to answer on paper. We think the question matters more than the answer, because it is the part you have to do yourself.

What we decline to do

• Give personal financial, legal, medical or investment advice. Our subjects are mechanical, and we keep them that way.
• Present a model as a forecast of a real device, or as a safety assessment.
• Invent numbers, testimonials, client names or awards to make a page look more finished.
• Hide the parts of a model that do not fit. The idealisations are stated at the top of each piece.

How we write

Plain sentences, exact nouns and no exclamation marks. We would rather say that we do not know than guess with confidence. Units are given every time they are needed.

Questions, corrections and requests for a topic go to the contact page.