Sonic barber pole. If you never heard an auditory illusion before, here is your chance. This particular tone is called a Shepard glissando, and to your brain it seems as if it constantly descends, while in fact, it is a looped sound.
This is the same as staring to a moving barber pole. Here is the spectrograph analysis to prove it.
- vertical: frequency
- horizontal: time
- black intensity: amplitude (volume)
Source: Wikipedia
How do electromagnetic waves go through the vacuum of space?
Be it light or some other electrical field (say X-rays or microwaves), this doesn’t make sense really. So how do they travel when there is no medium to travel through?
Every electrical field produces a magnetic field as a side effect: they are offset from each other by 90 degrees, like the mathematical sin and cos functions. The interaction at the middle helps transfer the energy from one point to another. This is not made without a loss, hence the dimmed light of a distant star.
Fields of any kind do not need matter to exist (this also makes gravity behave the way it does).
Source: quora.com
Did you know there are over 500 apple varieties? Many temperate climate countries have their own history in breeding this wonderful fruit.
Characteristics important for the consumer are acidity, texture and aroma. (sugars content is important for diabetics, too). Some apples keep their shape when cooked.
Pictured is a rare red-fleshed hybrid from Sutton, England. They say the taste has hints of raspberries.
Our favourite is the Cox Orange Pippin. It won’t win beauty contests, but certainly is the gold standard regarding taste in apples. Sadly, it is difficult to grow this variety due to its small yield and susceptibility to moulds and diseases.
Source: orangepippin.com
What human thoughts and activities cannot be computerized?
What human thoughts and activities cannot be computerized and automated?
Ever wondered if T-800 expressed genuine feeling for the O’Connor family in Terminator 2?
Be prepared for long answers and heated debates.
Why plastic-eating fungi won’t save our wasteful habits
A few months ago lots of news websites, both legit and sensationalist boomed with the seemingly incredible study that a certain fungi class, mainly hailing from the Amazon jungle, slowly degrade polyurethane (PUR) to simpler chemicals like acetates and CO2.
Why this won’t work to solve the landfill porblem we have? Many reasons:
- adapting a microorganism to work in any environment, including one filled with a toxic atmosphere and dry conditions may proove troublesome
- this may unbalance ecosystems more, adding to the damage
- ridiculous idea to implement on a large scale - how exactly are we going to get feedback?
- not that many plastics are PUR. The main use is in insulating foam. Your bottles are PET, clothes are polyesters (PS), industry use polypropylene (PP)…
- alternative treatments, such as subjection to intense UV bursts and microwaves show more promise for rapid degradation
Source: aem.asm.org
What are the most common tricks used by dumb people to seem smart?
A little gem from Quora. 30+ answers
Source: quora.com
Ever wondered what makes animals’ eyes shine in the dark?
Introducing tapetum lucidum. It is a thin layer of cells covering the retina of the eye or sometimes situated inside the retina itself. The layer is transparent at first sight, but it exhibits strong transflective properties, enabling more light to be sensed under dark conditions. (Essentially “traps” the light in).
Glossy LCDs use a similar technique to artificially increase perceptible brightness and contrast… and that’s why they are illegible under full daylight.
Source: britannica.com
How do planes fly upside down?
How do planes fly upside down? (Quora)
Daltonism colour spectrums. Up: protanopia (red blindness) Middle:normal ; Down: tritanopia(blue blindness)
Believe it or not, about 1 to 8% of the male population has vision defficiencies if arious studies are to be trusted. A consensus is that about 5% have partial (deuteranopia) or total red-green blindness
Deuteranopia was originally described by John Dalton in the 19th century, hence the name daltonism.
Far less disabling are trichromatic colour disabilities, where a particular wavelength (colour) is replaced with another one. They are less frequent, and there is a more even distribution among males and females.
The carrier is a recessive gene in an X chromosome, that’s why it is less common among females.
Never use online charts and tests as a sole method for diagnosing a chromatic perception disorder.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_blindness
http://www.colblindor.com/2007/04/17/deuteranopia-red-green-color-blindness/#comments
Source: Wikipedia
