The Big Picture
Like Duolingo, but for The Big Picture. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.
A short one: 9 levels across 2 sections, about 18 minutes end to end, roughly 4 days at five minutes a day. It moves through The Building Blocks and The Rules of the Game. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in The Big Picture
- All physical matter is built from the same basic building blocks
- The nucleus of an atom is tiny compared to the space its electrons occupy
- Atoms are the universal ingredients for everything in the physical world
- Electrical forces provide the 'solid' feel of matter by repelling other atoms
- The diversity of objects comes from how these few ingredients are combined
- Matter is more like a vast void than a continuous solid block
- The universal composition of all physical objects
- The structural reality of solid-feeling matter
- The state of matter depends on how much the atoms are moving
- Closeness and freedom of movement determine if something flows or holds its shape
- Heavy elements are created through the intense heat and pressure of stars
- Supernovas and dying suns scattered these ingredients across the universe
- Human biology is a direct recycling of ancient cosmic material
- Matter cannot be destroyed, only rearranged into different forms
- How atomic spacing and movement define states of matter
- Missing mass in a reaction usually escapes as invisible gases like smoke or vapor
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives The Big Picture the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
If you looked inside an atom, what would you mostly find?
Get it right to open this lesson and 8 more in the app.
Where The Big Picture takes you
Understand how the universe fits together, from the atoms in your fingertips to the galaxies at the edge of space. This course connects the dots of existence into one satisfying story.
- 1
The Building Blocks
- The Microscopic Foundation
- The Cosmic Neighborhood
- 2
The Rules of the Game
- The Universal Laws
2 sections · 3 units · 9 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
The Big Picture is taught in the The Bestie style: your friend who just gets it. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
More Science on Tomo
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The Cosmic Web: Mapping the Universe
Explore the largest structures in existence, from vast cosmic voids to the intricate filaments of dark matter that connect the galaxies.
Quantum Physics: The World of the Very Small
Discover the strange and beautiful rules that govern the universe at the smallest scales, from particles that act like waves to objects that exist in two places at once.
Astrophysics: The Life of the Cosmos
Move beyond basic stargazing to understand the physical laws governing stars, galaxies, and the fabric of space-time itself. Learn how we measure the unmeasurable and predict the fate of the universe.
Gravity's Extremes: From Big Bang to Black Holes
Explore how the curvature of spacetime dictates the birth of the universe and the mysterious physics of its most dense objects.
Start The Big Picture today.
Download Tomo, search The Big Picture, and play your first lesson in under a minute.