Six STEM Tweets #51 - Nov 17 2024

Transistor's birthday, New year on Mars and other celebrations

Author

Harshal Chhaya
November 17, 2024

Six STEM Tweets

Six tweets that celebrate engineering and all things STEM.

I scroll so you don’t have to.

Hello friends, a slight formatting change today. Thanks to JC for the suggestion. My comments look slightly different - hopefully this will help distinguish the original, insightful tweets from my commentary.

As always, please ‘reply’ and ‘forward’ to share this with others who would enjoy this.

Also, the question from last week’s issue #50 is still open: 50 is the sum of three squares and the sum of four squares. Hit reply and tell me which ones.

#1 🤯 

From a single transistor to fitting billions of them on a fingernail sized chip in just a few decades! Astounding engineering progress!

I am always amazed that I work in the same building as Jack Kilby who invented the integrated circuit. And I feel so privileged to have reaped the benefits of these amazing scientists!

#2 🤯 

The one that started the microprocessor era!

There are cathedrals everywhere for those with the eyes to see them

#3 🤯 

The Aussies are truly living in the future - literally and figuratively!

This is such a fun way to make science real! What a great way to make it interesting for students

I wish more science agencies did something similar and made science fun.

Also, I am glad smello-vision never really became a thing. Because I would like to read their report without the additional sense. 😆 

#4 🤯 

‘e’ is everywhere!

#5 🤯 

Love this! These students will remember this for the rest of their lives. Another fun way to make students connect with science and curiosity

#6 🤯 

One of the best things of living in a multicultural society is the plethora of “new year” celebrations! For example, my family just celebrated the start of Samvat year 2081 (don’t worry, I still write 2024 on my cheques 😃 )

Now, with more awareness of multi-planetary calendars, we have even more new year celebrations.

But how did this all start?

Scientists count Mars years starting from the planet’s northern spring equinox that occurred in 1955 – an arbitrary point to begin, but it’s useful to have a system.

Numbering Mars years helps scientists keep track of long term observations, like weather data collected by NASA spacecraft over the decades.

About

This newsletter is my way of sharing interesting science-related news with my curious friends. I enjoy finding science and math connections in our world.

Please share this newsletter with others. Let’s encourage curiosity.

- Harshal (@hschhaya on X/Twitter and @hschhaya.bsky.social on BlueSky)

This is issue #51. A few fun facts about 51:

  • The atomic number of antimony - symbol Sb (from Latin stibium). It is a lustrous grey metal and is one of the elements called pnictogens. Other pnictogens are nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), arsenic (As), antimony (Sb), bismuth (Bi), and moscovium (Mc)

  • The code for international direct dial phone calls to Peru

  • The 6th pentagonal number. The nth pentagonal number pn is the number of distinct dots in a pattern of dots consisting of the outlines of regular pentagons with sides up to n dots, when the pentagons are overlaid so that they share one vertex

  • In the 2006 film Cars, 51 was Doc Hudson's number.

  • The Area 51 (wikipedia link)

That’s it for this issue.

Hit ‘reply’ to tell me what you think.

And hit ‘forward’ to share with your friends and family.

Let’s all celebrate science and engineering and curiosity.

Best wishes,

Harshal