Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words
E926543
"Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words" is a nonfiction book by Randall Munroe that uses only the thousand most common English words and simple diagrams to explain complex scientific and technical concepts.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Thing Explainer | 3 |
| Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words canonical | 2 |
| Thing Explainer (book) | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T11449462 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words Context triple: [Randall Munroe, notableWork, Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words]
-
A.
The Science of Things
The Science of Things is a 1999 alternative rock album by Gavin Rossdale’s band Bush, known for blending post-grunge guitar work with electronic influences.
-
B.
This Explains Everything (as editor)
This Explains Everything is a popular science anthology edited by John H. Brockman that collects short essays from leading thinkers offering their favorite deep, elegant, or beautiful explanations about how the world works.
-
C.
Die fröhliche Wissenschaft
Die fröhliche Wissenschaft is a philosophical work by Friedrich Nietzsche that blends aphorisms, poetry, and reflections on art, science, and the famous proclamation of the "death of God."
-
D.
It's Okay to Be Smart
It's Okay to Be Smart is an educational YouTube series hosted by Joe Hanson that explores scientific concepts and curiosities in an accessible, entertaining way.
-
E.
The Intelligent Man's Guide to Science
The Intelligent Man's Guide to Science is a comprehensive popular science book by Isaac Asimov that explains major scientific concepts and the history of scientific thought for general readers.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words Target entity description: "Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words" is a nonfiction book by Randall Munroe that uses only the thousand most common English words and simple diagrams to explain complex scientific and technical concepts.
-
A.
The Science of Things
The Science of Things is a 1999 alternative rock album by Gavin Rossdale’s band Bush, known for blending post-grunge guitar work with electronic influences.
-
B.
This Explains Everything (as editor)
This Explains Everything is a popular science anthology edited by John H. Brockman that collects short essays from leading thinkers offering their favorite deep, elegant, or beautiful explanations about how the world works.
-
C.
Die fröhliche Wissenschaft
Die fröhliche Wissenschaft is a philosophical work by Friedrich Nietzsche that blends aphorisms, poetry, and reflections on art, science, and the famous proclamation of the "death of God."
-
D.
It's Okay to Be Smart
It's Okay to Be Smart is an educational YouTube series hosted by Joe Hanson that explores scientific concepts and curiosities in an accessible, entertaining way.
-
E.
The Intelligent Man's Guide to Science
The Intelligent Man's Guide to Science is a comprehensive popular science book by Isaac Asimov that explains major scientific concepts and the history of scientific thought for general readers.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (51)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
nonfiction book ⓘ |
| author | Randall Munroe ⓘ |
| basedOn | Up Goer Five ⓘ |
| basedOnWorkAuthor | Randall Munroe ⓘ |
| countryOfPublication |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| creator | Randall Munroe ⓘ |
| feature |
cartoon-style illustrations
ⓘ
labeled blueprints ⓘ simple diagrams ⓘ |
| followedBy | How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems ⓘ |
| genre |
popular science
ⓘ
science communication ⓘ |
| hasFormat |
ebook
ⓘ
print book ⓘ |
| hasPart |
Machine for Burning Cities diagram
ⓘ
Sky Boat diagram ⓘ The Bag of Stuff Inside You diagram ⓘ The Big Computer Building diagram ⓘ The Big Flat Rock We Live On diagram ⓘ The Food-Heating Radio Boxes diagram ⓘ The Pieces Everything Is Made Of diagram ⓘ The Pieces of the Sky Toucher diagram ⓘ The Space Boat diagram ⓘ The Tree-Builder diagram ⓘ The World Machine diagram ⓘ Tiny Bags of Water You’re Made Of diagram ⓘ Up Goer Five diagram ⓘ |
| illustrator | Randall Munroe ⓘ |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0544668256 ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mediaType |
hardcover
ⓘ
print ⓘ |
| notableFor |
explaining complex concepts using simple language
ⓘ
use of restricted vocabulary for scientific explanation ⓘ |
| pageCount | 64 ⓘ |
| precededBy | What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions ⓘ |
| publicationDate | 2015 ⓘ |
| publisher |
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ⓘ
linked to:
Houghton Mifflin
|
| subject |
buildings
ⓘ
engineering ⓘ human body ⓘ machines ⓘ nuclear power ⓘ planet Earth ⓘ
linked to:
Earth
science ⓘ spaceflight ⓘ technology ⓘ |
| targetAudience |
general audience
ⓘ
young readers ⓘ |
| usesVocabularyRestriction | thousand most common English words ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words Description of subject: "Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words" is a nonfiction book by Randall Munroe that uses only the thousand most common English words and simple diagrams to explain complex scientific and technical concepts.
Referenced by (6)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject linked to:
Munroe
linked to: Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words
linked to: Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words
linked to: Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words
linked to: Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words