Six STEM Tweets - June 12 2024

Perlin noise, frosty Mars, punch cards and more

Author

Harshal Chhaya
June 12, 2024

Six STEM Tweets

Six tweets that celebrate engineering and all things STEM.

I scroll so you don’t have to.

For all the new subscribers, welcome!

If you like what you see, hit ‘forward’ and share with someone you like.

If you don’t fully like what you see, hit ‘reply’ and let me know.

Today’s date: June 12 24 - has a half-dozen, dozen and two dozen.

Or a dozen, half-dozen and two dozen (if you use the more logical date format 😃 )

The last issue had a post about Apollo Eight astronaut William Anders, who died at age 90. Anders was known for capturing the most famous image ever taken in space — the Earthrise.

He was an engineer’s engineer - had to test everything to make sure it all worked right.

Noah Garfinkel (@NoahGarfinkel on X/Twitter) shared this incredible story.

Now that’s dedication!

#1

Frost on Mars!

How cool is that!

#2

#3

This is a fantastic image to get a perspective on our place in the universe.

#4

4.5 Mega bytes. That’s about a single photo on a smart phone.

We can store terabytes on the size of one of those punch cards.

What a technological achievement!

#5

Love this take on a beautiful photo.

The wikipedia entry on Perlin noise has some background:

Perlin noise is a type of gradient noise used by visual effects artists to increase the appearance of realism in computer graphics. The function has a pseudo-random appearance, yet all of its visual details are the same size. This property allows it to be readily controllable; multiple scaled copies of Perlin noise can be inserted into mathematical expressions to create a great variety of procedural textures.

Synthetic textures using Perlin noise are often used in CGI to make computer-generated visual elements – such as object surfaces, fire, smoke, or clouds – appear more natural, by imitating the controlled random appearance of textures in nature.

#6

Math memes are irrational and fun!

That’s it for this issue.

We ended up with half of the posts being space themed. I didn’t plan it that way but the events of the past week justified it.

Is there a specific topic that you like? Let me know and we can dive deeper into it.

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