SparkFun Spooktacular – Information – SparkFun Electronics

Completely happy Halloween! In honor of at present’s vacation, we thought we might do a roundup of some spooky (or simply downright unusual) issues in science, math and know-how. From freaky climate to mysterious numbers, maintain on to your hats as a result of it is about to get bizarre.

1. Ball Lightning

Ball lightning is a pure phenomenon that has individuals scratching their heads. It normally exhibits up throughout thunderstorms as these glowing, spherical orbs that may vary from the dimensions of a baseball to one thing a lot bigger. They appear to drift or dart round within the air, usually showing proper after a lightning strike. Whereas many individuals have claimed to see them, scientists are nonetheless attempting to determine what precisely causes them.

In contrast to common lightning, which we are able to clarify fairly properly, ball lightning appears to defy our understanding of physics. It’s powerful to review as a result of it doesn’t seem on command and cannot be replicated within the lab. This has led to a bunch of untamed theories about what it could possibly be — the whole lot from burning fuel, unusual plasma formations, and even ghosts! The truth that it pops up randomly throughout intense climate and sometimes leaves no hint behind retains people guessing and fascinated, making ball lightning certainly one of nature’s coolest enigmas.

2. Belphegor’s Prime

Prime numbers – there is a ton of em! 1, 2, 3… 37; the checklist goes on! Nevertheless, there is a very huge prime quantity that comprises lots of superstitious parts, which makes some individuals fairly suspicious of it. Belphegor’s Prime (named for one of many princes of Hell, cool) is as follows:

1000000000000066600000000000001 (10³⁰ + 666 × 10¹⁴ + 1)

Belphegor’s Prime is a palindromic prime quantity, which suggests its digits are the identical forwards and backwards. Across the 666 within the center, there are 13 zeroes on all sides. Anybody who’s superstitious ought to have the ability to avoid this quantity, however do not suppose you are in peril of summoning a demon or something by typing it into your TI-89, I feel you will be okay.

3. What’s Infinity, Actually?

You’ve got heard of infinity, I am positive. You begin slapping it in all places when you get to calculus, you noticed the image in all places in case you went anyplace close to a Perpetually 21 in 2012, however have you ever ever sat and ruminated on it? Seems, there’s many alternative sorts of infinity, perhaps even an… infinite quantity? The 2 principal classes are countable and uncountable infinities, and I am positive you possibly can guess what units them aside.

Countable infinity refers to units that may be matched one-to-one with the pure numbers (1, 2, 3, …). Consider the set of integers and even the set of rational numbers (like fractions). Regardless that these units are infinite, we are able to nonetheless think about counting their parts in a scientific method. As an example, we are able to checklist the integers as 0, 1, -1, 2, -2, and so forth. This concept of with the ability to “depend” the weather, even in an infinite set, is fairly intuitive, however it rapidly turns into mind-bending whenever you notice that not all infinities behave this fashion…

Then we’ve uncountable infinity, which introduces a complete new stage of complexity. Essentially the most well-known instance is the set of actual numbers, which incorporates not simply the rational numbers but in addition irrational ones like √2 and 𝜋.
The mathematician Georg Cantor confirmed that the actual numbers are uncountable by way of his diagonal argument, which illustrates that irrespective of which method, or how arduous you attempt to checklist all the actual numbers, there’ll all the time be some you miss (bummer). This revelation challenges our understanding of what it means for one thing to be infinite and highlights that some infinities are merely “bigger” than others.

4. The WOW! Sign

The Wow! sign (named for the written rationalization on the sign’s printed readout) is without doubt one of the most well-known tales that has emerged within the seek for extraterrestrial life. Detected in 1977 by astronomer Jerry R. Ehman whereas engaged on the SETI challenge, this robust radio sign got here from the route of the constellation Sagittarius and lasted for about 72 seconds. What made it notably fascinating was its distinctive traits — it had a frequency of 1420 MHz, which is similar frequency emitted by hydrogen, probably the most plentiful ingredient within the universe.

Previous to this, some scientists had theorized that technologically superior extraterrestrial civilizations might attempt to talk utilizing this identified frequency. This led some to invest that it could be an alien sign, sparking pleasure and curiosity amongst scientists and lovers alike. Nevertheless, all that pleasure by no means actually led anyplace.

What retains the Wow! sign shrouded in thriller is that, regardless of quite a few makes an attempt to detect it once more, the sign has by no means been repeated. This unpredictability raises questions on its origin, resulting in quite a lot of theories starting from pure phenomena to extraterrestrial communications, to a mass ejection of vitality from a hydrogen cloud disturbed by a super-magnetic star. Who’s to say!

5. Area (All of It Actually, However Largely Darkish Vitality)

There’s lots of spooky issues on Earth, however zoom out a bit and you have no scarcity of unsettling observations and unsolved mysteries. There are the black holes, a spot the place gravity is so robust not even mild can escape its pull. We have additionally bought rogue planets, planets that do not orbit a star simply hurtling by way of empty house. There are mysterious interstellar objects that present up with no rationalization, like ‘Oumuamua. Maybe probably the most mysterious factor on the market, although (except for simply the baseline creepiness of the infinite, increasing void of house) is darkish vitality.

The universe is increasing at an accelerating fee, pushed by… we do not fairly know. Because of this the whole lot within the universe is getting farther away from the whole lot else, and within the very distant future we can’t have the ability to see something besides our personal galaxy, all because of this power that is propelling spacetime outwards.

That mysterious power is known as darkish vitality, despite the fact that nobody has seen or measured it. There are lots of theories about what may trigger this, just like the vitality of empty house itself being a trigger for cosmic acceleration, or that one thing is simply mistaken abut the way in which we perceive gravity. Who’s to say! All in all, very spooky certainly…

What’s your spookiest science curiosity? Tell us within the feedback or on socials, and benefit from the vacation!