Christopher Gilmartin

Vol. I · 2026 · New York

Christopher Gilmartin

Spreading the love of learning in the flux of reality.

I believe people can truly love to learn. What's stopping them isn't always the difficulty, it's a question that nobody has seemed to truly answer: why should I care? Every paper is free, as a PDF, right here. The essays around them are on Substack.

Open the archive Request a paper
Chamaeleon · constellation EST. 1597

Yes, it's a real constellation.

Chamaeleon sits in the deep southern sky, so close to the south celestial pole that it never rises over New York; I named this archive after a piece of sky I cannot see from here.

It entered the charts in 1597, when the cartographer Petrus Plancius drew twelve new southern constellations onto his celestial globe from the observations of the Dutch navigators Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman. The engraver, Jodocus Hondius, gave the chameleon its tongue out, aimed at Musca, the fly constellation next door. The catch has been frozen mid-air for four centuries.

№ IV2026 The Fly Did Not Push It In № IV · Mechanics · sample № III2026 The Physics of Drake's 405-Tonne Ice Block Installation № III · Heat transfer · sample № V2026 Who Pays for the Extra Knockout Round at the 2026 World Cup? № V · Rating systems · sample № II2026 Some NYC Subway Transfers Are Mathematically Worse № II · Transit, variance · sample Cover of 4.6 Degrees of Separation № I · Network science · sample № V2026 Who Pays for the Extra Knockout Round at the 2026 World Cup? № V · Rating systems · sample № II2026 Some NYC Subway Transfers Are Mathematically Worse № II · Transit, variance · sample Cover of 4.6 Degrees of Separation № I · Network science · sample № IV2026 The Fly Did Not Push It In № IV · Mechanics · sample № III2026 The Physics of Drake's 405-Tonne Ice Block Installation № III · Heat transfer · sample

How a paper gets made

Ideas mostly just pop into my head; I rarely go looking for them. But every paper begins with the same test: would the answer make someone care? If the question passes, I research it, work the math, and write the paper. Some papers become videos on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube; some videos send me back to the desk to write the paper. Each paper gets a behind-the-paper essay on Substack: the thinking process, the math that did not make the public version, the blind alleys, the references, and what got cut.

The papers never cost anything: the findings, figures, and core math stay free everywhere. The paid tier ($7/mo, on Substack) is the thinking around the result. And if there is a question you have always wanted answered properly: request a paper.

Papers
Free PDFs, here
Essays
Substack · $7/mo
Videos
TikTok · IG · YouTube
Requests
From $25