Get the next why Subscribe
Histoire · Temps
Quaé Chronève, mascotte de Quarelia
← All universes

Chroneve

History · Time

7 whys told, 3 on video

  • history
  • civilizations
  • inventions
  • traditions
  • memory
Start with the most surprising

The whys of this universe

An engineering decision made in 1873 on a long-dead mechanical machine. No one ever undid it, because millions of fingers had already learned it.
  • Oddity
  • Video 32 s
  • 4 min

Why isn't the keyboard in alphabetical order?

QWERTY was not designed to slow typists down. It separated the type bars that collided in mid-flight, and suited the Morse telegraphists of 1870s newsrooms.
Overhead view on a cream paper background showing a horizontal row of twelve rounded rectangular plates outlined in dark navy. The eight on the left are pale, with the two at the far left overlapping, and slanted hatching above them. The four on the right are weathered terracotta bearing engraved notch marks grouped in fives of seven, eight, nine, and ten strokes.
  • Video 38 s
  • 4 min

Why does September mean seven when it's the ninth month?

September, October, November and December carry wrong numbers because, according to Roman tradition, January and February were placed before March.
A large circle whose rim is split into small even notches, like an ancient sundial, in terracotta and gold on cream; a navy Sun marker moves one notch forward, with a cuneiform clay tablet beneath.
  • Video 38 s
  • 4 min

Why does a circle have 360 degrees?
Histoire · Temps
  • 4 min

Why did the Vikings reach America nearly 500 years before Christopher Columbus?

In 1960, a Norwegian couple lifted the turf of a Newfoundland shore and found Scandinavian rivets. A solar storm trapped in tree rings dates the camp to AD 1021.
At France's National Assembly in 1789, supporters of the king sat to the right of the chair, the revolutionaries to the left. The word stuck.
  • 3 min

Why do we talk about "left" and "right" in politics?

In the autumn of 1789, the deputies split over the king's right of veto and sat either side of the chair. The seating plan of one room became a vocabulary.
As they grow, empires pay more for their own complexity than that complexity returns. The same internal strains come back every cycle.
  • 4 min

Why do empires always end up collapsing?
Each new year is a smaller slice of a life, and routine leaves fewer dense memories to look back on.
  • 3 min

Why does time seem to speed up as we get older?

Ask people to date an event and they shrink the past: five years ago feels like three. By the oldest explanation's arithmetic, half a subjective life ends at eight.

Newsletter

One why every Sunday, in your inbox.

Unsubscribe in one click, no spam ever. By subscribing, you agree to our privacy policy.

Quaé Chronève, mascotte de Quarelia

Shh: Quaé is sleeping until the next why, Sunday morning.

Chroneve on video

All videos

Chronève is the corridor where the past refuses to pass. Here you find why the keyboard isn't in alphabetical order, why the Vikings reached America five centuries before Columbus, or why empires always end up collapsing. Many of our certainties are just old habits left in place, like the very way we cut the week into seven.

On n'y avait jamais pensé

We'd never thought about it

Evelie

The universe next door

EvelieWe'd never thought about it

Evelie is the crossroads of obvious little things nobody ever quite stopped to look at. Why are eggs shaped that way? Why do envelopes seal better when moistened? Here, wonder is a way of life.

Explore Evelie →All universes