Six STEM Tweets #56 - Jan 5 2025

Parker Solar Probe, Pythagoras' path and more

Author

Harshal Chhaya
January 05, 2025

Six STEM Tweets

Six tweets that celebrate engineering and all things STEM.

I scroll so you don’t have to.

New year, new discoveries, new wonders 🤩 

Let’s go!

But first, today’s date is 1/5/25 i.e. 50 /51 /52

Now, let’s go!

#1 🤯 

I saw a really good example of science communication about this.

@Dr_ThomasZ describes it "To use a sports analogy, if the distance between Earth and the sun were reduced to the length of a football field, the Parker Solar Probe will be at the sun’s 4-yard line, deep within the red zone. It will also be traveling 430,000 miles per hour — approximately 60 times faster than the fastest airplane ever, and just a smidge slower than the speed of lightning strikes here on Earth."

Makes it much clear how big a deal this is. I can’t grasp 3.8 million miles but I can get 4 yard line line 😄 

A big thanks to SB for sharing this

#2 🤯 

True!

(Do you agree? Or do you think software engineering is an endangered career? Hit ‘reply’ and let me know.

#3 🤯 

RIP, President Carter

#4 🤯 

As a someone who has spent way-more-than-normal time thinking and arguing about version numbers, this makes perfect sense.

I would pick this approach over 'semantic versioning' and other methods that the industry has been using for years. 😃 

#5 🤯 

I bet this is pretty close to what actual happened 😆 

#6 🤯 

Since this is the first issue of 2025, I couldn’t let this one go.

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)

This is issue #56. Here’s what makes 56 special:

  • The atomic number of barium - Ba. Barium is a soft, silvery alkaline earth metal. Because of its high chemical reactivity, barium is never found in nature as a free element.

  • In humans, olfactory receptors (cells that detect smells) are categorized in 56 families.

  • The maximum speed of analog data transmission over a telephone line in the 20th century was 56 kbit/s. (raise your hand if you remember the 2 competing standards for 56Kbps modems)

  • +56 is the code for international direct-dial phone calls to Chile.

  • The number of men who signed the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776.

  • The number of bits in a key used in the Data Encryption Standard.

  • The sum of six consecutive primes (3 + 5 + 7 + 11 + 13 + 17)

  • A semiperfect number, since 56 is twice a perfect number.

    • In number theory, a perfect number is a positive integer that is equal to the sum of its positive proper divisors, that is, divisors excluding the number itself. For instance, 6 has proper divisors 1, 2 and 3, and 1 + 2 + 3 = 6, so 6 is a perfect number. The next perfect number is 28, since 1 + 2 + 4 + 7 + 14 = 28.

  • Fifty-Six is an incorporated town in Stone County, Arkansas, United States (Check the Wikipedia link for details - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifty-Six,_Arkansas

  • And just to keep things interesting, there’s a totally different unincorporated community in the same state named Fiftysix - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiftysix,_Arkansas

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