Article
• April 16, 2010
Learn Anything Online for Free, Always
Khan Academy is an easy way to brush up on thermodynamics (and other basic staples)
Even self-professed nerds can learn a thing or two. There’s so much knowledge out there in so many fields—economics, finance, biology—that it can overwhelm even a big brain.
Unless that brain belongs to thirty-three year old Salman Khan, creator and star of the Khan Academy, a not-for-profit video site that aims to provide high quality education for everybody.
Khan is an obscenely well-educated MIT engineering grad (and Harvard MBA) who offers more than 1,200 lucid tutorials on everything from linear algebra to collateralized debt obligations to the French Revolution.
Originally posted on YouTube, the videos allow a layperson to understand esoteric and long-forgotten concepts that rarely get explained outside of the classroom.
And, more importantly, they manage to make them accessible and interesting.
Find a subject you like and scroll through the long list of available lessons. Khan records individual videos for each topic—which means that users interested in biology, say, can study embryonic stem cells or the anatomy of a neuron at their own pace.
In each video, Khan draws extensive diagrams and writes important terms on a black Microsoft Paint chalkboard. He has a steady hand, so the writing (thankfully) is clear enough to read.
The voice in the background is Khan going through each concept in a mellifluous tone. He struck us as calm and inviting—exactly what you’d want in a professor.
For a little know-how from a generous know-it-all, look no further than Khan Academy.
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