Thunderstruck

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Richmanns_Tod_1753.jpg

Georg Wilhelm Richmann was attending a meeting at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences in August 1753 when he heard thunder. He ran home with another man, hoping to record how an insulated rod responded to an electrical storm.

He succeeded, in a way: A ball of lightning leapt from the rod and struck Richmann in the head, killing him instantly and knocking his companion unconscious. That makes Richmann the first person in history to die while conducting electrical experiments.

Joseph Priestley wrote, “It is not given to every electrician to die in so glorious a manner as the justly envied Richmann.” That’s one way to look at it.

| Death · Science & Math

Who’s in Charge Here?

“A hen is only an egg’s way of making another egg.” — Samuel Butler

“A zygote is a gamete’s way of producing more gametes. This may be the purpose of the universe.” — Robert Heinlein

“The nucleic acids invented human beings in order to be able to reproduce themselves even on the moon.” — Sol Spiegelman

| Science & Math

Right Side Up

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Gomboc2.jpg

Set a beetle or a turtle on its back and it will right itself.

Remarkably, so will the Gömböc — a mathematical shape that can’t be knocked down. Set it down in any position and it will always “get to its feet”:

| Science & Math

Applied Math

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/326255

Each term in the Fibonacci sequence is derived by adding the two preceding terms:

0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21 …

Remarkably, you can use successive terms to convert miles to kilometers:

8 miles ≈ 13 kilometers
13 miles ≈ 21 kilometers

This works because the two units stand in the golden ratio (to within 0.5 percent).

| Science & Math