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A great optical illusion – the diamonds that change colors
by Marshall Brain | November 25, 2009
Watch the video – this illusion will blow your mind: How does this optical illusion work? The first thing to understand is that ALL of the diamonds on the sheet of paper, as well as the hand-held diamond, are identical. That seems impossible, but it is true. The key is that the diamonds are shaded [...]
Most leather is made from processed cattle skin, although synthetic and other varieties exist. Learn more about leather in this episode of BrainStuff.
In this episode of Stuff Mom Never Told You, Molly and Cristen discuss the origins, history, practices and stereotypes of the debutante tradition.
Nowadays, Thanksgiving has become an official holiday, complete with its own trappings of tradition and mythology. But how much of the conventional Thanksgiving story is true? Join Sarah and Katie as they take a closer look at the first Thanksgiving.
How does the Panama Canal’s system of locks and dams work?
by Marshall Brain | November 24, 2009
You Asked: How does the Panama Canal’s system of locks and dams work? — Pam, Rex, Ga. Marshall Brain Answers: The Panama Canal is a system of artificial and natural rivers and lakes dug across the isthmus of Panama to connect the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. A boat can go through the Panama Canal in [...]
You Asked: Do dust mites bite? — Ronnie, Indianapolis, Ind. Marshall Brain Answers: Dust mites are tiny – only about 1/80th of an inch (0.3 mm) long. For comparison, a human hair is about 0.1 mm in diameter. Dust mites do not burrow into the skin, or bite like mosquitoes do to suck blood, or [...]
Invention – Swype, A much faster way to type on a phone
by Marshall Brain | November 24, 2009
The video demonstrates the difference between using a Swype-enable keypad and a “normal” click-each-letter keypad to type on a smart phone. With Swype, you trace out the letters of the word rather than clicking on each letter of the word. The Swype software interprets changes in the angle of the finger-stroke (along with word probabilities) [...]
World Record #114 – The world’s largest earthquake-proof building
by Marshall Brain | November 24, 2009
The world’s largest earthquake-proof building is an airport terminal built in Istanbul: Istanbul Opens World’s Largest Earthquake-Safe Building Stretching across more than 2 million square feet, the terminal doesn’t sit directly on the soil, but rather on more than 300 isolators, bearings that can move side-to-side during an earthquake. The whole building moves as a [...]
The bar code patent celebrated its 57th birthday this year. According to the Telegraph, a couple of Drexel grad students came up with the bar code as a novel way to uniformly encode product information on goods. Initially, Norman Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver envisioned the bar code as a series of concentric circles rather than parallel lines, but in 1974 a pack of Wrigley’s chewing gum began the first item sold with the coding style we recognize today.
It isn’t too difficult to read a bar code to see what numbers those black and white lines represent. For the common Code 39 bar code, Wired’s how-to guide recommends following the decoding method devised by crackerjack student Jonathan Washington. After testing out the method myself, I can attest to its simplicity.
James Cameron’s New 3-D Epic Could Change Film Forever – “In 1977, a 22-year-old truck driver named James Cameron went to see Star Wars with a pal. His friend enjoyed the movie; Cameron walked out of the theater ready to punch something. He was a college dropout and spent his days delivering school lunches in [...]
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