Explaining my research with xkcd's Simple Writer
I recently stumbled upon the xkcd Simple Writer, a tool that encourages you to write with only the most 1000 common words in the English language. Here’s my Simple Writer description of my research:
The big idea is to make the thing that stores power for your phone, and maybe some day your car, last longer. There is a layer that forms inside this power-storing-thing that takes away its life, kind of like what air and water do to metal after a long time. This is a big problem for people who want to buy a phone or a car that will last a long time. We are trying to understand how and why this layer is made inside the power-storing-thing. This layer is really small, much smaller than a human hair, so it’s really hard to study it. It’s actually pretty interesting because it’s so hard to figure out how it works. We found out that this layer grows quickly when you’re adding more power to the power-storing-thing, but it grows slowly when it’s being used. We’re also trying to take pictures of the layer as it’s growing.
We also use computers to try to guess when these things will die. It’s kind of like guessing how long a baby will live. We have some cool ways of trying to figure it out and can actually guess its life pretty well. We then try to figure out the best way to make the power-storing-thing add more power quickly without killing it. Last, we break them down and open them up to see what happened to them. Now, we want to try different kinds of power-storing-things and see if we can guess how long they will last too.