first principles — the art of breaking everything down to fundamental truths and building up from there

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science · engineering
Artemis Ii
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Four humans are about to strap themselves to 4 million pounds of thrust and leave Earth. Their destination: a loop around the Moon and back. 10 days. 1.3 million kilometers. The farthest humans have...

Escape the Well
Test the Ship
What Comes Next
science · engineering
F1

A Formula 1 car hits 370 km/h on a straight. Three seconds later, it's doing 80 km/h in a corner. That's decelerating at 6g -- your organs shift forward inside your body, your eyeballs flatten, blood...

Make It Grip
Survive 6g for Two Hours
When Regulations Change
science · engineering
Pyramid Of Giza

You're standing in the desert. The sun is 45°C on your skin. Sand stretches flat in every direction. And you have a problem. The pharaoh is dead. Or will be. And when he dies, his body must survive —...

Fight the Weight
Solve the Ramp
Outbuild the Planet
biology · physics · engineering
Dinosaur

66 million years ago, something the size of San Francisco hit the Earth at 20 kilometers per second. Within hours, every animal over 25 kilograms was dead or dying. The sky burned. Then it went dark...

Stand Up
Breathe Enough to Run
Die
science · engineering
Standard Model

You are made of atoms. You know this. But what are the atoms made of? Peel back the skin of matter and you find electrons orbiting a nucleus. Crack the nucleus open and you find protons and neutrons....

Find the Smallest Thing
Give Everything Mass
Unify the Forces
how it looks
firstprinciplescroll.com/build-gravity
PHASE 1: Make Things Fall
You need a force. But what does it grab onto?

Options:
├── Color? No — arbitrary
├── Temperature? No — changes constantly
└── Mass? Yes — universal, never cancels
PHASE 2: Make Things Orbit
Everything falls straight down. Your universe will last 20 minutes.

An orbit is FALLING — it just keeps missing.
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