HowStuffWorks is a commercial edutainment

Edutainment

Edutainment is a form of entertainment designed to educate as well as to amuse.-Overview:...

 website

Website

A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...

 that was founded by Marshall Brain

Marshall Brain

Marshall David Brain is an American author, public speaker, and entrepreneur. A former college instructor and computer programmer, Brain is the founder of HowStuffWorks.-Background:Marshall Brain was born in Santa Monica, California...

 with the goal of giving its target audience an insight into the way in which many things work. The site uses various media in its effort to explain complex concepts, terminology and mechanisms, including photographs, diagrams, videos and animations, and articles. A documentary

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 television series with the same name also premiered in November 2008 on the Discovery Channel

Discovery Channel

Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...

.
In 1998, former North Carolina State University

North Carolina State University

North Carolina State University at Raleigh is a public, coeducational, extensive research university located in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Commonly known as NC State, the university is part of the University of North Carolina system and is a land, sea, and space grant institution...

 professor Marshall Brain

Marshall Brain

Marshall David Brain is an American author, public speaker, and entrepreneur. A former college instructor and computer programmer, Brain is the founder of HowStuffWorks.-Background:Marshall Brain was born in Santa Monica, California...

 started the site as a hobby.