1. Silk: draw with glowing threads

Silk turns drawing into flowing, luminous patterns. Its controls let you change colors and experiment with symmetry, including mirroring across the center.

Start here: Make a slow curved line, then try a second line with a different symmetry setting. Leave some empty space around the result so the pattern has room to stand out.

Try this: Design the cover of an imaginary album called Plants From Another Planet. Give yourself two colors and stop when you have something that looks like it belongs in a record sleeve.

2. Thisissand: build a landscape one layer at a time

Thisissand is built around a pleasingly simple idea: make pictures from colored sand. Piles and layers become the picture, so you can think in hills, bands, and slopes.

Start here: Pour a small amount, watch the shape it makes, and build another layer around it. Let the first pile decide where the landscape goes.

Try this: Invent a desert on a planet with a lavender sky. Use one color for the foreground and another for the dunes behind it. Treat any unexpected ridge as part of the geography.

3. Sandspiel: make a tiny world and see what happens

Sandspiel adds experimentation to the falling-sand idea. Creator Max Bittker describes it as a pixel physics sandbox where you paint with materials such as sand, water, ice, and plants.

Start here: Choose one material, place a little on the canvas, and observe it before adding a second. Change one thing at a time so you can follow the result.

Try this: Build a miniature island and give it an unnecessarily grand name. Then let a friend choose the next material. Whatever happens becomes the island's official history.

4. Chrome Music Lab Song Maker: build a tiny tune

Song Maker gives you a visual way to arrange a song. Google describes it as a browser experiment for making and sharing music, with no account required.

Start here: Add a few notes to the grid and press play. Listen before filling every available space. A short pattern gives you something recognizable to change.

Try this: Make a theme tune for an extremely minor household event: the kettle finishing, a sock disappearing, or someone finding the remote. Ask a friend to guess which event deserves your masterpiece.

5. Blob Opera: conduct four very expressive blobs

Blob Opera, created by David Li with Google Arts & Culture, lets you control four synthesized opera voices. Dragging changes pitch and vowel sounds while the other voices respond with harmonies.

Start here: Move one blob slowly and listen to the change. Try a small movement before attempting your grand finale.

Try this: Perform a dramatic musical farewell to the last chip in the bowl. One person conducts while everyone else decides what tragedy the opera is about.

Device note: Google warns that this experiment may perform less well on older devices.

6. Typatone: hear what your words sound like

Typatone assigns musical notes to letters, turning typing into a musical activity. The appeal is the connection between something familiar on the screen and something unexpected in the speakers.

Start here: Type a short invented sentence. Change one word and listen for the difference.

Try this: Write the world's least convincing fortune-cookie message, such as “A moderately interesting sandwich awaits.” Then try to make the sentence sound more elegant without improving its advice.

Keep the text playful. You do not need to enter private messages or personal information to experiment.

7. Patatap: turn taps into sound and moving shapes

Patatap pairs sound with animated shapes, making each input part of an audiovisual performance. It is a good pick when you want to try a rhythm and see a response.

Start here: Make a few individual taps, then repeat a short pattern. Leave pauses so each sound and shape gets a moment.

Try this: Create a three-part sound effect for a spaceship that is having trouble parking. Have someone else invent the pilot's increasingly polite announcements.

Visual warning: The creator explicitly warns that Patatap contains flashing images. Choose another entry if flashing visuals are unsuitable for you.

8. Radio Garden: find out what another city is listening to

Radio Garden lets you explore live radio around a globe. Choose a place and listen to a station from there.

Start here: Pick a city you know little about. Give the station enough time to hear what kind of broadcast you have found.

Try this: Take a three-stop listening trip. Choose somewhere nearby, somewhere across an ocean, and somewhere selected simply because you like the name.

Live radio can include advertisements, conversation, news, or explicit material. The next sound is up to the station, and individual streams or regional access may vary.

9. Earth Nullschool: follow the planet's weather patterns

Earth Nullschool visualizes wind, weather, and ocean conditions on an interactive map. The project's data notes explain that the weather display uses computer forecasts. Think of it as a data visualization rather than a live camera above Earth.

Start here: Explore the wind view, then open the menu and change one layer. Check the displayed date and selected settings as you go.

Try this: Find a spiral, a broad sweep, and a place where the pattern changes direction. Describe each as if you were naming a painting.

10. NASA's Eyes: take a closer look at the solar system

NASA's Eyes offers browser-based visualizations of planets, moons, spacecraft, and other objects. Eyes on the Solar System lets you explore a 3D simulation and move through time.

Start here: Open the Eyes page, choose Eyes on the Solar System, and pick one planet or mission to explore.

Try this: Choose a moon you have barely thought about before. Find one detail that would make you want to read more about it tomorrow.

These are scientific visualizations, so the moving spacecraft view should not be mistaken for a live video feed.

11. Stellarium Web: browse a map of the night sky

Stellarium Web is an online planetarium. It gives the sky names and structure, making it an interesting place to explore when you want to follow a star, a planet, or a constellation.

Start here: Check the location and time settings, then explore a small area of the sky. Look up one object instead of trying to learn every label at once.

Try this: Pick the most intriguing name you encounter and invent a science-fiction book title around it. The book can be terrible. Its title should be excellent.

12. The Deep Sea: scroll into a very different neighborhood

Neal Agarwal's The Deep Sea presents ocean life and depth milestones in a long illustrated descent. The format gives a simple scrolling action a sense of destination.

Start here: Move down the page gradually and pause at animals you do not recognize. Read a few names before continuing.

Try this: Choose three creatures for an imaginary underwater neighborhood. Decide who runs the bakery, who makes mysterious noises upstairs, and who keeps complaining about the parking.

If deep-ocean imagery makes you uncomfortable, the museum tour below is another way to follow your curiosity.

13. Smithsonian virtual tours: visit one exhibit properly

The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History's virtual tours offer self-guided views of selected exhibits. The Deep Time fossil tour includes exhibit text, fossil photographs, and other material.

Start here: Choose the Deep Time tour from the museum's page and use its navigation menu to explore one area.

Try this: Find an exhibit you would insist on showing a friend. Explain your choice in one sentence, then go back and read the label.

There is no need to complete the whole museum. One object that makes you stop is enough for a good visit.

14. Draw a Perfect Circle: take your best questionable attempt

Neal Agarwal's Draw a Perfect Circle asks you to draw around a center point and gives your attempt a percentage score.

Start here: Make one attempt without a practice round. Accept whatever shape appears.

Try this: Give each person three turns on the same device. Award an imaginary second prize for the drawing that most resembles a potato.

The score belongs to a novelty game. It is not a measure of sobriety, coordination for real-world tasks, or whether anyone can drive.

15. Little Alchemy 2: see what two things might become

Little Alchemy 2 is a discovery game built around combining items. You begin with basic elements and experiment with pairs to unlock more possibilities.

Start here: Try a few combinations and read the results. The game's official hints confirm that experimenting carries no penalty and that you combine two items at a time.

Try this: Before each combination, have everyone predict the result. Give the funniest explanation as much credit as the correct one.

Leave a little room for surprise before opening the hint guide. Discovering something unexpectedly is part of the appeal.