Tech Explained

phk labs

About this app

How does a jet engine survive gas hotter than its own blades can melt? Why is a tree made mostly from air? How can a race car run on a battery that lasts just 11 seconds at full electric power?

Tech Explained cuts everyday things open and shows how they really work. Every object is an interactive 3D cutaway in an engineering-drawing style, with a live physics model behind it: change the controls and watch temperatures, pressures, currents and forces change right on the parts.

NEW: THE RACE CAR AND THE HUMANOID ROBOT
• A race car built to the 2026 rules: almost half its power is electric, from a battery that lasts about 11 seconds at full push. Tune it in a real setup garage (suspension, tyres, aero, brakes, gears, energy), then watch two setups race each other in a 3D replay with live telemetry. Open the steering wheel and try its buttons, blow wind at it in the wind tunnel, cut it open down the middle
• A humanoid robot: push it, and it catches itself with a step. Let it walk, then hand it an egg, a cup of water, a brick or a ripe peach and find out which needs the finest touch
• The World: walk around an island town where every object has its place, from the race track to the robotics lab

WHAT YOU CAN DO
• Turn, cut open and explode each object, and open up its inner parts
• Change it live: throttle a jet engine, lean a bicycle by tilting your phone, drag the diaphragm to breathe
• Solve mysteries: predict what happens, then test it in the 3D view
• Spot the mistake: each object hides explanations with one wrong sentence. Find it, then see in 3D why it is wrong. The key skill in the age of AI: judging whether a confident explanation is true
• Follow guided tours that fly the camera from part to part
• Go down the rabbit holes: each part leads to deep dives into the physics, chemistry, biology and maths behind it, with their own experiments and real formulas
• Explore the knowledge map: see how the same few principles power everything around you

OBJECTS
Hair dryer · refrigerator · microwave oven · human heart · noise-cancelling headphones · phone screen · GPS · jet engine · bicycle · computer chip · tree · phone battery · rocket · induction hob · sailboat · wind turbine · human ear · solar panel · candle · airliner wing · toilet flush · phone camera · lungs · helicopter · human eye · phone motion sensor · electric guitar · quadcopter drone · MRI scanner · satellite · heat pump · Wi-Fi router · mechanical watch · car engine · washing machine · ski · AI data centre · tap to pay · espresso machine · race car · humanoid robot

FOR CURIOUS PEOPLE OF EVERY AGE
Two reading levels over the same drawings: one for curious kids of about 8 to 12, one for teens and adults. Every deep dive notes where its topic is taught in school (German curriculum). Simplified where it has to be, never wrong: the numbers come from tested models and published data, and every object is reviewed for accuracy.

FEEL IT
Tilt your phone to steer a bicycle or fly a drone, play along with songs on a real-sounding electric guitar, pull an espresso shot, hear the heart valves close and an MRI scanner knock. Vibration and sound follow the real physics, and you can switch them off.

PRIVATE AND CALM
No ads. No account. No tracking. No in-app purchases. Everything runs on your phone and works offline.

In English and German.

Made in Germany by an aerospace engineer who wants everyone to understand the technology around them.

What’s new

New: the skyscraper. Your phone is the earthquake: shake it and the tower sways for real, storey by storey. Find out why resonance matters more than height, watch a giant damper ball swing against the motion, set the tower on rubber bearings, then build your own and see whether it survives a famous quake. In the world: a new downtown district and a harbour with the submarine. 45 objects now.