Mathematically speaking, distance and travel time now — in this technological age — have a relatavistical relationship, even at speed far, far lower than the speed of light. This new study explains: “Further We Travel the Faster We Go,” Levente Varga, András Kovács, Géza Tóth, István Papp, Zoltán Néda, PLoS ONE, 11(2): 2016, e0148913. The […]
Tag: distance
Personal space gauges (one’s arms)
Much has been written about the concept of ‘proxemics‘ and the notional invisible bubble that can be used to depict one’s ‘personal space’. But how big is the bubble? And is there a simple and reliable way to measure it? Italian researchers Nicola Bruno (Dipartimento di Neuroscienze, Unità di Psicologia, Università di Parma) and Michela […]
The distance between musical notes
Today’s quick calculation exercise is to calculate the relative distances between different musical notes and a trombone player’s face. Watch this video of a trombone player playing a tune on a trombone. A GoPro camera has been affixed to part of the trombone, and aimed at the musician’s face: (Thanks to investigator Dorothy Bond for […]
Ants with stilts: An experiment
Alex Bellos writes: In the first chapter of my book I mention experiments at the University of Ulm that discovered that Saharan desert ants have a sense of number. Researchers first sent ants down a tunnel for food. Once the ants reached the food some of the ants had pig bristles attached to their legs, […]
Paxton on Sea Monsters
“The Plural of ‘Anecdote’ Can Be ‘Data’: Statistical Analysis of Viewing Distances in Reports of Unidentified Giant Marine Animals, 1758–2000,” Charles G.M. Paxton, Journal of Zoology, vol. 279, no. 4, 2009, pp. 381–7. Paxton and three colleagues shared the 2002 Ig Nobel Prize in biology for their report “Courtship Behaviour of Ostriches Towards Humans Under […]