We get taught a lot of things at school, but sometimes it would have helped if our teachers had found a way to demonstrate something to us visually. We’re not talking about some kind of abstract diagram here — what both children and adults need is a real-life example to make sense of an idea.

That’s why we picked out a selection of 20 GIFs and images which we think can help brilliantly to fill in gaps in your understanding of the world. If only we’d seen some of these when we were kids!

What your hands look like after you’ve washed them:

What happens when you put a key in a lock:

gawkerassets

What happens when you put on sun cream:

How dogs drink water:

googleusercontent

The size of the Earth in comparison to the largest known star in the universe, the hypergiant Canis Major:

buzzfed

How braces affect your teeth:

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You can do this with your own computer:

gizmag

What the contents of an egg looks like underwater:

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How water refracts light:

shenqiusa

What happens when you swallow:

googleusercontent

The number of flights which take place in 24 hours:

How a person’s face is formed inside the womb:

bestgifsdotnet

The flowering of a dandelion:

coub

Proof of Pythagoras’ theorem (a² + b² = c²):

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What happens when a star is drawn into a black hole:

wikipedia

How beans grow:

dayleak

How a helmet is covered in camouflage:

naosalvo

How a trumpet produces music:

fooyoh

How a cheetah uses its tail to reduce its inertia:

buzzfed

How a ladybird takes flight:

buzzfed