The Golden Ratio and Leaves written by Deborah S. In our previous article, we learned about the Fibonacci Sequence. Today, let’s discuss another mathematical concept that is lesser known, yet also intricately linked: the Golden Ratio. Just as you may have heard of π (pi), which is equal to 3.14159…, and perhaps another constant, e, which […]
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Fibonacci and Trees written by Deborah S. 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144… You may recognize the numbers above as the famous Fibonacci Sequence. Developed by Leonardo Bonacci – that’s right, his name is not Fibonacci; Fibonacci is short for filius Bonacci, which means “son of Bonacci,” and was applied by historians to distinguish this
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Eclipse Glasses In North America, we’re on the precipice of a total solar eclipse. On 8 April 2024, a swath of the continent, from Mexico, through the heart of the United States, and a small part of Canada, will experience one of the natural world’s great expositions. In some places, for up to four minutes,
Hubble Tension Our current cosmological history begins with the Big Bang. The model suggests that if one could go back far enough in time, the discernible universe would be packed into a highly dense and hot quantum, which then exploded into the dynamo reality we experience today. First proposed by Catholic priest and physicist Georges Lemaître,
Seasonal Lag In the previous article, we learned multiple ways exist to demarcate seasons on Earth. The traditional method of observing the change from one season to the next depends on the interplay between our planet’s axial tilt and the sun. One of the interesting aspects of this method presents at the solstices. The longest day
Like a Moth to a Flame Thus hath the candle singed the moth. –Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice Many of the oldest similes and metaphors feature an elemental timelessness. The notion of “a moth to a flame” connects us to our ancestors around fire rings before the advent of artificial light. Watching an insect inexorably drawn to
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Timeline of the Far Future This article features the first new content for this project after its fourth birthday. Anniversaries inherently elicit exercises in tense: Where have we been? Where are we now? Where are we going? I tried to envision what an episode of The Mountains Are Calling might look like in a year or five.
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Hair Ice/Frost Beard Documentarian Ken Burns called the National Parks “America’s Best Idea.” The splendor conserved within the boundaries of the park system features some of the planet’s greatest scenery. The humans who serve within the National Park Service also deserve plaudits. They oversee the pragmatics of the units and contain a wealth of knowledge to share
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The Whitest White We learned the Blackest Black has some incredible applications, beyond turning objects into mind-melting black holes. A substance that can absorb nearly all the light that hits it can work marvels on telescopes or solar cells. The secret to carbon nanotubes – the structures that make the serious blacks possible – is to bounce
Eigengrau Close your eyes. What color do you see? Disregard any of the artifacts that linger from light sources that impacted your eyes before you closed them. Those kaleidoscopic blobs are fascinating, but they’re not what we’re after here. They should fade relatively quickly. Some people experience these light shows all the time, thanks