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The Pale Blue Dot

 

This pale blue dot is us. Find out what the amazing Carl Sagan said of this photo.

 

It remains the most distant photo of our home. Taken 14 February 1990 by the Voyager 1 spacecraft (photo below). It was taken as Voyager left our Solar System.

 

It now has a 40,000 year journey to reach its next point of call. Lets hope the receipients can read our instructions on how to build the record player to play the gold record disc on board.

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Interesting Links:

The Golden Ratio

 

Some of the greatest mathematical minds of all ages, from Pythagoras and Euclid in ancient Greece, through the medieval Italian mathematician Leonardo of Pisa and the Renaissance astronomer Johannes Kepler, to present-day scientific figures such as Oxford physicist Roger Penrose, have spent endless hours over this simple ratio and its properties.

 

The fascination with the Golden Ratio is not confined just to mathematicians. biologists, artists, musicians, historians, architects, and psychologists have pondered and debated the basis of its ubiquity and appeal.

 

It is probably fair to say that the Golden Ratio has inspired thinkers of all disciplines like no other number in the history of mathematics.

Squaring the Circle is a problem proposed by ancient geometers. It is the challenge of constructing a square with the same area as a given circle by using only a compass and straightedge.

 

The areas of this square and this circle are equal, BUT In 1882, it was proven that this figure cannot be constructed using pencil and paper. Dam those transcendental numbers!

 

Note: the shaded area is the same as the triangle ABC.

The Double Slit Experiment !

 

This is one the the most amazing things in the whole world (probably THE most amazing).

 

It proves absolutely, in repeatable experiments ,that matter (electrons in this case) alter their physical behaviour subject to whether they are watched or not.

 

Such is the world of physics that exists inside every atom of our bodies. it seems impossible, but it's real baby!

 

The Worlds First Computer....   

Not an electric or electronic computer post the industrial revolution but a Mechanical Computer constructed in 200 BC to a design by Archimedes....   The Antikythera Mechanism !

 

The BBC documentary on the right is well worth watching.... the astronomical knowledge that was so ingeniously computed in an extremely complicated gearmed mechanical device.

 

It is mind-blowing how advanced the Greeks were in 200 BC.

Lost? Just look up at the night sky and you can find a very good approximation of South using these stars.

The 3 Door Problem  Can you solve it?

 

On a game show there is a car and two goats hidden behind the three doors. You select Door 2. The host opens Door 3 to reveal a goat. Do you stay with your choice or swap to Door 1.......  

 

Yes is does make a difference! You should always swap doors in this situation.  Can you work out why?

Above - Drake's Equation is a probabilistic argument used to estimate the number of active, communicative extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy.

 

Left - DNA: Deoxyribonucleic acid is a molecule that encodes the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms and many viruses.

The Pioneer plaques are a pair of gold-anodized aluminium plaques which were placed on board the 1972 Pioneer 10 and 1973 Pioneer 11 spacecraft, featuring a pictorial message, in case either Pioneer 10 or 11 is intercepted by extraterrestrial life.

 

The plaques show the nude figures of a human male and female along with several symbols that are designed to provide information about the origin of the spacecraft

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