3 CRAZY Weather phenomena!

Hello internet. Today I will be talking about three CRAZY and DESTRUCTIVE weather phenomena.

Fire Whirl forming in a wildfire.

1. Pyro-tornadogenesis. Better known as "Fire Whirls." These things are very destructive, dangerous, and very cool looking. They even have a cool name. Fire whirls are a phenomenon where, under certain conditions, a fire acquires a vertical velocity and forms a tornado-like vortex of fire and destruction. They're usually 10-50 meters tall, a few meters wide, and only last a few minutes. However, some can be more than a kilometer tall. One notable one is the 1923 Great Kantō Earthquake (look, I know it says "earthquake", but during the earthquake large fires broke out). The fire whirl that formed was the single most destructive event that killed the most people that fire.

Opaque mammatus clouds

2. Mammatus Clouds. also known as mammatocumulus (meaning "mammary cloud" or "pouch cloud"), is a meteorologists term applied to a cellular pattern of pouches hanging underneath the base of a cloud. The name mammatus, derived from the Latin mamma (meaning "udder" or "pouch"), refers to a resemblance between the shape of these clouds and the pouch of a bag. These clouds present no precipitation, but when they are present, they usually mean the front or the coming of a huge thunderstorm. These clouds may appear as smooth, ragged or lumpy lobes and may be opaque or translucent.


3. Circumhorizon Arc. Better known as "Fire Rainbows". This is an optical phenomenon - an ice-halo formed by plate-shaped ice crystals in high level cirrus clouds. Formation of the halo requires that the sun be very high in the sky, at an elevation of 58° or greater, and that a cirrus cloud or haze be present and contain plate-shaped ice crystals. However, please note that even though most people use the misleading term "fire rainbow" to describe this phenomena (even me, but that was just to show you that most people use that term), but a circumhorizon arc has nothing to do with rainbows or fire.

Interesting fact of the day: There is a real life lightsaber created by the air force. The "blade" can reach 5000 degrees Fahrenheit, which is far above the Draper point (click for more explanation about the Draper point).

Immortality?

Hello internet. Today I will be talking about the subject of immortality and how we humans in particular can achieve it.

First off, there are two types of immortality, one is known as biologically immortality or total immortality (or simply, immortality).

Biological immortality is the ability to not die of biological means, which means the ability to not die from senescence (old age), or hunger/dehydration. However, the organism can still die from diseases or physical trauma. So the organism can still have a heart attack (from a disease), or being eaten alive (no duh).

Total immortality is the ability to not die of any means, such as biological hazards, physical trauma, or disease. This means the organism is totally invulnerable/invincible.

Right now, no known organisms are achieved total immortality, but some organisms have achieved biological immortality.

One of the organisms that have achieved biological immortality are basically just small bacteria. Like the Turritopsis Nutricula, otherwise known as the immortal jellyfish is...well...an biological immortal jellyfish that can survive without any food or water (why does it need water? IT LIVES IN THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN), and cannot die from aging means. Here's how it works:



Interesting fact of the day: The world's population is increasing substantially. Here's a rough guide;
Every second, for every 2 people that die, 4 people are born. Easy math here, so the population is increasing 2.5% per second. Jeez...

MIRRORS

Hello internet. Today I will be talking about mirrors. What makes them so reflective? And mainly, what  color is a mirror?

Now, the question seems kind of stupid. It's a reflective color, so it might be chrome or silver. They're highly reflective, right? Well...not really.

I'll explain it to you this way. Our brain sees colors in the visible light spectrum. We see colors in hertz. Mirrors best reflect light when it's in the 510 hertz range. Which is pretty much falls right into the "green" area. Green is about 520-575 terahertz. So you can say that a mirror is very slightly green. Which explains why when two mirrors are facing each other, what you see in the two mirrors are "tunnels" that get darker and greener  the deeper and deeper into the tunnel.

Sorry for the short post, but here's a video explaining the rest and them some...



Interesting fact of the day: Did you know that you cannot fold a 8.5″ x 11″ or smaller piece of paper in half more than 7 times. Try it!