This Post = Fail

Hrm, it has happened. I have NO idea what to write about today. I was considering doing Music Theory for Dancers Part 2, but I don't really have the time and attention span required for that today. Fortunately, The BCS (BioChemist Sister) sent me a link to a nice little video this morning. She even said it fits the theme of my blog. So, I shall share it with you.


Go watch this video.



Did you figure it out?



I bet most of you did.



It also reminded me of a commercial from a few years ago. It was for a Dyson vacuum cleaner. I couldn't find the specific commercial so I can't quote it directly, but it was something about how failures are better than success because you can learn more from a failure. This video clip basically sums it up in non-commercial format. Same basic concept as the first video.

Science is not about perfection. It is not about "being right" all the time. Science is about finding out how things work. One of the best ways to understand how something works is to push it past its limits and break it. That is when you start to get a glimpse into the black boxes of the world. One of the best ways to find a solution is to gather a bunch of data from failed attempts and let that data guide you to what will work.

You know what else it reminds me of? Tap Dance. Yep, see what I did there?
In the tap dance community, if someone falls down during class, the following tends to happen:
1) Make sure the person is not injured
2) People clap and/or say "good job"
Why? Because if you fell down that means you were trying. In fact, you were trying so hard that you failed and fell down. Good for you! You'll never get better if you never push yourself.* Plus, now you have another data point of what NOT to do and that will help guide you to the solution.

*NOTE: The TDE does not condone reckless tap dancing. Push yourself, but not too far.  

It's about time we start celebrating failures. We should start a movement.
- Scientists should start throwing parties when experiments fail. It doesn't have to be over the top. Just have someone make some "hooray we failed!" cupcakes.
- Someone should design some "congrats on your failure" greeting cards. I searched the internet already and there appears to be a pretty big gap in the greeting card market here.
- The next time someone tells you about a failure say something like "Great, what did you learn?"
- Don't hide your failures from the world. Own them.

Go forth and fail!

Mouthwash Charades

I'd like to introduce you all to someone very important in my life. Please meet The Information Technology Husband (the ITH)!

He is a little ridiculous.

I'm not entirely sure how this first started, but at some point long ago we were getting ready for bed and the ITH took a swig of mouthwash and then decided there was something he needed to tell me immediately. This quickly became a Charades challenge which has turned into a game we play multiple times a week. Typically the message is very mundane. Its more about playing Charades.

Last night this happened:

ITH: mmm mmmmu *points at me*

TDE: me.

ITH: MMMM mmmu

TDE: me?
clearly he's trying to communicate the first word, but emphasizing the "mmm" really doesn't help.

ITH: *squats and sticks his butt out* MMM!

TDE: Poo.

ITH: *nods, but does that hand circling thing that means "please elaborate"*

TDE: poop?

ITH: *pushes palms towards each other clearly indicating "shorten it"*

TDE: poo?

ITH: *shakes head*

ITH: *starts making barking and howling sounds*

TDE: Dog?

ITH: *nods*

TDE: Dog poo?

ITH: *shakes head somewhat defeatedly*

ITH: *has "aha" moment and starts a new thought process*

ITH: *puts hands near the bedside lamp*

TDE: lamp?

ITH: *shakes head*

TDE: light?

ITH: *nods*

ITH: *holds hands as if he's holding an invisible orb and holds this over his head*

TDE: Light bulb?

ITH: *shakes head, points to the window*

ITH: (while pointing to the window) mut-mide
This was surprisingly easy to understand.

TDE: outside.

ITH: *nods*

ITH: *holds hands as if he's holding an invisible orb and starts to move it in a big arc*

TDE: the sun?

ITH: *nods*

ITH: *takes invisible orb and makes the orb "set" below a shelf*

TDE: sunset?

IHT: *nods*

ITH: *puts wrists on the bed and sticks fingers up*

TDE: *stares blankly at this*

ITH: mut-mide *does fingers thing again*

TDE: something growing?

ITH: *nods*

ITH: *rubs hand along the bed*

TDE: something growing out of the bed!
I knew he was going for "ground" but it's fun to mess with him

ITH: *shakes head and looks defeated*

TDE: the ground

ITH: *nods and does the fingers again*

TDE: grass?

ITH: *nods*

ITH: *does the sunset thing* mmmen *signs grass*

TDE: the sun sets THEN grass

ITH: *nods*

ITH: *takes a finger and rubs it on the kitty's mouth*
This one, once I knew what he was trying to do, is just absurd.

TDE: (because I have NO idea) kitty puke (she puked a few times this past week)

ITH: *shakes head and then tries to stick a finger in MY mouth*

TDE: *shakes head and covers mouth*

ITH: *indicates that the finger that was just on the kitty's mouth is NOT the one headed for my mouth*

TDE: I don't care. I just put on chapstick!
I didn't want him to wipe off the chapstick

ITH: *leaves the room, goes to the bathroom, does NOT spit out the mouthwash that he has been swishing for significantly longer than required. Instead, he gets his hands wet and comes back and does the "grass" sign again.*

TDE: wet grass?

ITH: *nods*

TDE: The sun sets and then wet grass

ITH: *holds palms up and shrugs a little* mmy? (inflection clearly indicated a question)

TDE: Why?.....   Condensation.
Yep, of COURSE I said "condensation." This could have been another case where I was just messing with him, but I really wasn't, which makes it even funnier.

ITH: *stares at me with a look that says "seriously?" and asks "why" again*

TDE: dew?

ITH: *nods enthusiastically!*

TDE: dew

ITH: MMM mmu *points at me*

TDE: Do you! Do I?

ITH: *nods enthusiastically!*

TDE: You did ALL that just to get to "do"?

ITH: *nods*

TDE: Do I what?

ITH: *pause*

ITH: *realizes that he has completely forgotten the rest of the question.*

TDE: *starts laughing hysterically as she puts together everything he was trying to do just to get to the word "do" and then laughs more that he's now forgotten what he wanted to say.*

ITH: *goes to bathroom and spits out mouthwash*

ITH: *comes back to the bedroom where the TDE is still giggling*

IHT: I don't remember what I was going to ask you. At all.

And really, that's OK. Because, Mouthwash Charades is rarely about the message, its about the communication process.

I Used to Have Super Powers

Its true. Or at least it sure FELT like a super power.

What was this power I speak of? Mental Math!

It used to be that buying a pack of 10 widgets was always cheaper (per widget) than buy a 5-pack or a single widget. Or, the 20 oz bottle was cheaper per oz than the 10 oz bottle. But, at some point that started to change. The bigger packs aren't always the best buy. Lately it seems that the bigger packs are rarely the best buy. I know this because I had my super power that let me figure out which pack of widgets WAS the best buy. I'd do some quick division and know for sure which one to buy.

Or, sometimes the single pack or smaller bottle will be on sale but the bigger quantity isn't on sale. Then which one should you buy? Well, with the power of mental math, I could figure it out! It felt like I had special insider info. Whenever I would find something unexpected (like the big pack costing significantly more per weight/unit or a sale price not being the best buy) I got the privilege of being one of the few who knew this information. I could grab the best buy and walk away with my head held high, feeling pretty darn proud of myself.

But alas, I have been stripped of my powers! Look at this:

Do you see it? This item's price is $2.39 or 14.9 cents per once. Its on sale for $1.88 or 11.8 cents per once. It hurts even more that they give the sale price per oz too. 

Kroger stores are particularly guilty of this; almost all items in our local Kroger have the price per oz/unit listed right on the price tags. I've seen it in other stores too. Its not brand new, but it seems to be taking off and becoming the norm. 

So now everybody can quickly and easily see what used to require the power of mental math to know. I can't help but feel a little miffed. Sure, it makes my shopping experience easier too, but now everyone has been giving my power. And once everyone has it, its no longer a super power. :(

The worst part... now I don't know what to say to students when they ask "when am I ever going to use this?" while learning long division. 

Music Theory for Dancers - Part 1 (Beat and Tempo)

Weeeeednesday! Blog day!

Today I'm finally going to bring a little Tap Dance into the Tap Dancing Engineer's blog. This will be part 1 of a multi-part series. I will do a new part every few weeks and depending on how much I like them, will then maybe compile them on a separate webpage or something. We're going to discuss very basic music theory for dancers. I'm writing with the assumption that my audience knows zip zilch zero about music and knows at least a little bit about dance. This is for all dancers, not just tap dancers. However, tap dancers will probably benefit more than other dancers as we are playing audible rhythms along with our music (or sometimes AS the music.)

First of all, I did a quick Google search for "music theory for dancers." There are some resources out there, but I still feel its useful to discuss it here. If you're interested in learning more about this topic, you should consider getting the DVD "Music Theory for Tap Dancers" with Rusty Frank and Steve Zee here. I've not actually watched this DVD, but Rusty and Steve are solid tap dancers and have great personalities so I'm assuming the DVD is equally solid and fun.

Then there is this online course. It seems to be more for ballroom dancers and the little bit I went through jumped immediately into things that aren't actually necessary for dancers to know, at least not when first learning about music. It's also not the most user-friendly site. A navigation side bar would do a lot of good there. However, the content seems to be solid so if you want to dig into this more, it's worth checking out.

Now, where to start? Lets start with something you already know. The beat!

One of the first things dancers learn is to dance to the beat of the music. Well, I mean, after you've gotten past the phase of dance where it's just about being able to pay attention to something for an hour and mimic your instructor. Once you're old enough to actually start learning dance, you learn to dance to the beat. The funny (and sad) thing is that most dance instructors don't actually teach you this. Instead, dancers pick it up along the way. So, lets go back and pick up some details you may have missed.

What is the beat? Can you actually define it. I bet a lot of dancers would struggle to put it into words. In fact, I'm even struggling with the best way to define it for you. The "beat" refers to the downbeats of the music. The downbeats are the numerical counts that your teacher yells out (2, 3, 4! or 5, 6, 7, 8!) We'll go into downbeats in much more detail in a later post. The beat is a hard thing to define because it's mostly something you feel. If I put on a catchy song, you might start tapping your toe to the beat of the music. It is the underlying meter of the song. The pulse. The beat defines and is defined by the tempo of the song.

I know you're all imagining the heartbeat scene in Dirty Dancing... or you SHOULD be. Nobody puts Baby in the corner!

Wait, what's tempo? That's a crazy music term and we don't know anything about music!

The tempo is essentially the speed of the song. It is defined in beats per minute. The pulse that you feel in a song that makes you tap your toe is the beat. The tempo is how many times you tap your toe in a minute. You can find the tempo of a song by counting toe taps in a minute (or in 10 seconds and then multiply by 6, or a happy medium of counting beats in 30 seconds and multiplying by 2.) In live music settings, someone will count in the song before everyone starts playing. They count in the downbeats (the beat of the music) to set the tempo of the song so that everyone starts playing at the same time and at the same speed. The same song can be played faster or slower by changing the tempo of the song. This will also make the beat faster or slower. The beat and the tempo are intertwined.

Think of driving down the road at a constant speed. Those white (or yellow) dashed lane markers fly past you at a steady rate. They are spaced equally apart from each other so that if your speed is constant they come past in a predictable way. The white dashes on the road are the beat. The speed of  your car is the tempo. When your car goes faster the white dashes go faster. The beat is there, equally spaced in time just like the white dashes are equally spaced on the road. The faster your tempo the faster the beat.

Photo via Flickr: Julie Tauson http://flic.kr/p/2boMsY

The reflectors are &s! More on that later.

In music the tempo is defined by beats per minute. Imagine if instead of the speed of your car being defined in miles per hour it was instead defined as "lane marker dashes per minute." We could even work out the conversion factor between mph and car tempo in dashes per minute (dpm) because the lane markers have a standard length and spacing. Hey, lets do it!

First of all, this wikianswer explains that there are 176 lane marker dashes in 1 mile. Next we just convert from miles per hour to dashes per minute as shown below:

Now we know that 1 mph = 2.93 dpm. So, if you're going 45 mph that would be 132 dpm and 65 mph would be 191 dpm. Now the analogy really works! The dashes are the beat and speed of the car in dpm is the tempo. Huzah!

Note: Apparently the TDE is incapable of writing a post without including some sort of geektastic math/science. 

Better yet, think about driving through a construction zone. Sometimes you get pushed onto the shoulder and have to drive over the rumble strips. These are also equally spaced. In this situation you can actually hear and feel my analogy. The rumble strip sections are the beat. The faster you go the more often you hit a rumbly patch of pavement. If you're going at a steady speed, the frequency of the rumble noises will be predictable. You could even tap your toe to it!

So, that basically sums up beat and tempo. Next time we'll go into time signatures and relate that to how your teacher counts you in (6, 7, 8!) Eventually we'll discuss topics such as upbeats/offbeats and syncopation, different types of notes (1/4 notes, 1/8 notes, triplets, 1/16 notes, etc.) and song structure/form. There will probably be some other topics that come up as I do this. And, in between we'll have fun with random math and science and whatever else I feel like sharing.

Tackling Cat Gravity

Today we are going to talk about Cat Gravity. I have been working on some additions and variations to the original theory and would like to share them with you. Most importantly, I have developed a method for escaping from underneath a high-gravity cat.

First, a quick refresher on Newton's law of Universal Gravitation:
The force of gravity acts between two objects, proportional to their masses and the distance between them. So, the closer two objects are to each other, the more they pull on each other. Also, a bigger object "pulls more" than a smaller object.*

*Really the force on both objects is the same, but the equal force has a larger effect on the smaller object due to its smaller mass and this makes it seem like bigger objects pull harder than smaller ones.

For example, the Earth and the moon both exert an equal gravitational force on each other. The Earth is quite a bit bigger than the moon, so the pull of gravity from the Earth causes the moon to stay in orbit around the Earth. However, the moon pulls with equal force on the Earth, but the force isn't big enough to move the entire Earth. Instead we get ocean tides due to the pull of the moon's gravity.

So, applying this to a case of cat gravity, you see that the cat gravity pulls on the Earth as well as on any human that may be trapped by the cat. The increased gravity in the cat is not only acting downward towards the Earth, but also pulling on any object near the cat. The closer the cat is to you, the stronger the gravitational force. This may explain why you often find yourself unexpected trapped by a cat. "Wait, how did this happen?" you may ask yourself when you look down and discover you are now stuck by cat gravity. Well, the attractive gravitational forces between you and the cat pulled the cat unto your lap. One must be very diligent in order to successfully fight against the powers of cat gravity.

Thankfully, cat gravity is weaker than the Earth's gravity. If this were not the case, then all sorts of objects would be attracted to the cat when its gravity levels are high. Luckily the combination of the Earth's gravitational pull and friction generally keep household objects in place. Also, when trapped with a cat on your lap, you may have noticed that the cat doesn't FEEL significantly heavier than you expect. This is because the added force of cat gravity acting downward to the Earth isn't the main force at play here.* The bigger issue you must overcome is the gravitational force between you and the cat.

*Note: This theory is vastly different than Wood's original theory of cat gravity and represents an alternative theory to the original. Much work is required before we know for sure which theory better explains the phenomenon of cat gravity.

When a cat is on your lap, the distance between the two objects (you and the cat) is basically zero, meaning that the force between you and the cat is nearly infinite.* THIS is why it is so hard for you to remove the cat from your own lap. Additionally, the cat sneakily traps you in a way that you must depend on arm strength alone to overcome the force between you and the cat. This same attractive force between you and the cat is also what makes it so difficult to stand up. The attractive force is so strong that you have effectively become one object with a new mass distribution. With a cat stuck to your lap by a nearly infinite force of cat gravity, your center of mass is suddenly significantly skewed towards your thighs. Of COURSE its hard to stand up with all this mass in the "wrong" place.

*Note: The gravitational constant of cat gravity is much smaller than that of the Earth's gravity. Also, the mass of the Earth is much MUCH larger than the mass of a human. This explains why the Earth's gravity can overcome even "nearly infinite" forces of cat gravity acting between a cat and a human. The Earth's gravitational force acting on the cat is always larger than even the strongest force of cat gravity acting between cat and human. This is why cats like laps so much. In this position, the human is trapped by both the cat-gravity-center-of-mass-skew phenomena described above and the Earth's gravity pulling down on both cat and human. 

This also helps to explain why it is so hard for you to remove a cat from your own lap, but it is quite easy for someone else to remove a cat from your lap (or for you to remove a cat from someone else's lap.) When the second person gets close enough, cat gravity attracts the cat to both people. This force pulling in the opposite direction reduces the force that must be applied to the cat in order to remove it from Person A (who was previously trapped-by-cat.) Person B is able to make use of physical strength other than arm-only dead lifting, plus make use of the attractive force now pulling the cat towards themselves. You can now see why Person B can easily remove the cat. Person B then has the option to either keep the cat or make use of the Earth's stronger gravitational force in order to put down the cat. Because the Earth's gravity is so much stronger than cat gravity, it can be used to assist in removing the cat. As you will see later, this is the key to escaping cat gravity.

Before we discuss the escape method, we must discuss an important safety issue. There is a serious risk involved with overcoming the force of cat gravity between you and the cat. Improper cat removal often leads to Claw Related Injuries (CRIes.) If you are strong enough to simply stand up with your new skewed center of mass, then the Earth's gravity will take over and pull the cat to the floor. This is known as the "Brute Strength Stand Up (BSSU) method. If you can achieve BSSU, you will be free. However, the cat will be confused and will struggle to know up from down. The nearly infinite force of cat gravity pulling the cat to you will still be acting on the cat until the Earth's gravity takes over and when the Earth's gravity does take over, the cat will want to stay attached to you instead of being pulled to the ground. In its fear and confusion of what is happening, it is likely to try to cling to you, often leading to a CRI. CRIes can range from minor scratches to more severe scratches requiring medical attention. Therefore, it is best to avoid CRIes whenever possible.

You might also be tempted to make use of the Earth's gravitational force by "dumping" the cat onto the couch next to you via twisting your lap one way or the other, also called a "Tilt and Dump" (T&D.) The TDE's experimentation in this area found that the strength of the force of cat gravity acting between human and cat requires that the lap angle to be tilted to near 90 degrees before the Earth's gravity begins to have any effect at all. This then creates a situation very similar to the BSSU method described above. The risk of CRIes is too high in both BSSU and T&D for either to be a viable solution to trapped-by-cat situations. Additionally, a T&D often leads to immediate cat gravity re-attraction due to the small distance between cat and human after a T&D. For these reasons, neither the T&D method or the BSSU method are recommended.

So, HOW do you escape cat gravity?

First of all, this escape should only be used when absolutely required. If the cat learns this behavior, it will be able to suspect your escape ahead of time. The pull of cat gravity is emotional as well as physical. The cat will not want to leave your lap. Once your cat has learned the escape behavior well enough to predict what is coming, it could lead to panic and unexpected CRIes. This means that if you are in a trapped-by-cat situation while another person is in the room with you, that person is still obligated by the rules of cat gravity to bring you food and drink. For safety reasons, you must only use this method when no other option is available to you.

The TDE's Cat Gravity Escape Method consists of 3 simple steps:
1) Pull the cat towards your center of mass
2) Stand up
3) Use the force of the Earth's gravity to set the cat down


Please note that I have never claimed this to be an "easy" way to escape cat gravity. There is NO easy way to do this. I believe the emotional pull of cat gravity plays a large role in the difficulty. All three steps described above are quite difficult to execute both emotionally and physically. However, the TDE's experimentation has found this to be a reliable and safe method when escape is required. Below is a more detailed explanation including pictures so you can better understand the process.

The Tap Dancing Engineer's Cat Gravity Escape Method:
First, prepare yourself emotionally. Is this escape absolutely required? Is there any way to avoid it? If not, take a deep breath and get ready. Some people find it helpful to apologize to the cat just prior to escaping. The TDE recommends that this only be used when first learning the escape method. If overused, it could cause the cat to learn and predict the escape method more quickly. We have already discussed the dangers associated with the cat predicting your escape.

Next, prepare yourself physically. Sit up straight. Take another deep breath (but not too obviously as we don't want the cat to learn this predictive behavior either.) Free both arms and remove any nearby objects that could be an obstacle. Move slowly as you do not want to startle the cat.

Execute step one: Using both arms, lean over and envelop the cat (placing your hands near your knees) and slide (or rotate) it upwards towards your torso. Because you are not breaking the connection between you and the cat, you should be able to slide the cat along your body. Think of two magnets that are difficult to separate, but can slide along each other. The force of gravity between you and the cat is similar. Again, this will be challenging, but much easier than trying to actually remove the cat from your body.

Once you have pulled the cat towards your torso, pause. Depending on the personality of your cat, you may want to spend 30 seconds to a minute here. For some cats, this disruption will be enough to cause them to leave on their own. However, these cats are generally not high-gravity cats. People who often find themselves in severe trapped-by-cat situations typically have higher-gravity cats who will not walk off at this point in the process. What you do in this pause depends on your cat. The TDE has found snuggling the cat at this point leads to a false sense of security and helps to avoid CRIes.


Execute step two: Keep your arms wrapped around the cat, holding it near your stomach with your arms below/around the cat. Move yourself forward to the edge of your seat slowly and carefully. Take a deep breath in and then exhale while you stand up. This is probably the most difficult step in the process. Take your time. Do not attempt to stand up until you are sure you are ready. Failure at this point may lead to you and the cat tumbling to the ground or to a startled cat and CRIes.

Again, depending on your cat, you may want to pause here. The TDE's cat can again be lulled into a false sense of security by some snuggling. The pauses also help the keep the cat from learning the steps of the process too quickly.


Finally, execute step three: This step will feel easy after completing step two, but it is still difficult. You should vary how you set the cat down to prevent it from learning the behavior too quickly. Sometimes turn and set the cat down where you were sitting. Other times, you should walk a few steps and set the cat down on the ground or on a different piece of furniture. You may want to put the cat in a cat bed or near a favorite toy to distract it from what is happening. Sometimes you should walk around holding the cat for a minute or two before setting it down. The hardest part of this step will be pulling the cat away from your body (breaking the cat gravity bond between you and the cat.) However, this is easier than trying to lift the cat while seated as the Earth's gravity will be assisting instead of hindering the process. Once you have added some amount of distance between you and the cat, the Earth's gravity will take over and it should be relatively easy to set down the cat.


As soon as you have set down the cat, move yourself away from the cat. Walk briskly, but do not run. You need to increase the distance between you and the cat quickly to prevent cat gravity re-attachment. However, running away will startle the cat and the key to this method is keeping the cat calm and unaware of what is happening until its over. So, set down the cat and move away quickly but calmly.

Once away from the cat, take some time to recover mentally and physically from your ordeal. This is not easy, but is sometimes necessary. Enjoy your freedom while it lasts!

Yes there IS a Halloween blanket on my couch. In January.

And yes, that IS an Albert Einstein doll and a clock with the first 12 elements on it. Because science!

The TDE would like to thank Wood et al. for their original work on cat gravity. Without this work, my above theories and methods would not be possible. If you'd like to learn more about their work, there's a book.

Three Awesome Content Creators and One Amazing Book

I recently finished a book that I got for Christmas. I want to tell you about it. And then you should go read it.

The book is Wild Ones by Jon Mooallem.

I first heard about this book on the podcast 99% Invisible. If you're not listening to this podcast, you should be. Technically it's about architecture and design. It's also about many many other things and is almost always fascinating. It is good.

The episode about Wild Ones is actually some audio recordings from a live show featuring Jon Mooallem reading parts of the book with musical accompaniment from the band Black Prairie. As usual, it is fascinating. I wanted to hear more of the story, so I added the book to my Christmas list.

What is the book about? It's so hard to put into words. The subtitle of the book does a whole lot better than I can. It reads "A sometimes dismaying, weirdly reassuring story about looking at people looking at animals in America." Yeah, it's pretty cumbersome as far as subtitles go, but it's the most concise description I've found.

The author digs into the story of 3 different endangered species: Polar Bears, Lange's Metalmark Butterflies, and Whooping Cranes. All of it is underlined by the fact that he is doing this as a way to be sure his young daughter is able to experience these animals before we loose them entirely. However, the story is actually about humans more than any of the 3 species he investigates. He meets conservationists and scientists working to save each of these species. He gets insider info on what we are doing for each one. He goes out in the field to watch and help. He summarizes his thoughts and feelings beautifully. You are left feeling simultaneously hopeless and hopeful somehow. You question everything we are doing yet feel motivated to do more to save our planet and endangered species. I can't explain it. It is "a sometimes dismaying, weirdly reassuring story about looking at people looking at animals in America."

The book also talks a lot about shifting baselines. Its a great way to start to understand the concept of shifting baselines. Its a common theme that he comes back to multiple times. I pondered if I should do a post about shifting baselines next week, but I think you should just read Wild Ones instead. Oh, and you can also learn a bunch about Hornaday who has also been featured on The Brain Scoop recently. I think Emily and Jon would get along great. Jon should probably be a guest on The Brain Scoop. That would be some YouTube magic. And if you're not watching The Brain Scoop, stop reading my blog and go watch it right now. Seriously.

I learned quite a bit from this book. I think that's the best part. It is nonfiction, but written in story form. You feel like the author is talking to you directly, just telling you this fascinating story of his experiences. He weaves science into it without it being awkward or dry. You gobble up the story and end up with a bunch of new knowledge. Just go read it! 

And, if you're not convinced yet, I want to share a few quotes from the book that I found particularly profound. They probably won't resonate as much out of context, but they are still good.

From Section 1: Bears
"We seem to be forever oscillating between demonizing and eradicating certain animals, and then, having beaten those creatures back, empathizing with them as underdogs and wanting to show them compassion. We exert our power, but are then unsettled by how powerful we are."

From Section 2: Butterlies
"It was a tragedy of charisma. Because of their affection for a single celebrity whale, hordes of people had jeopardized an entire species of anonymous butterfly. They weren't an angry mob; they were a loving mob. But they loved only certain things."

Discussing the "soup stage" of butterfly metamorphosis (which was also recently discussed on the Brain Scoop!):
"'You're not what you were before' Jana told me, 'but neither are you what you're going to be. The soup stage really sucks, but you have to embrace being soup for a while.'"

From Section 3: Birds
Quoting Joan McIntyre while discussing how she survives in a world she finds so discouraging.
"'You try to stay virtuous in your immediate life, you try to be correct - because you only feed the monster if you interfere too much.'"

And, I shall leave you with one last tidbit. Billy Possum: the Teddy Bear's underachieving little brother. To make sense of that statement you'll have to either read Wild Ones or listen to the 99% Invisible episode about it. Then go watch some Brain Scoop.

PS: Sorry for the lack of visuals this week. If things go as planned, I will more than make up for it next week.

Graph Fraud

Happy Wednesday BlogLand!

There are actually a bunch of things I want to post about today, but I'm going to save some of it for a later post.

First of all, go check out this article about clave and percussion rhythms. It is SO cool! I couldn't justify dedicating a whole post to this one awesome article, but I can at least throw it in at the beginning of this one. I absolutely LOVE this sort of stuff that combines math with arts and culture. Plus, it has awesome visual representations AND its about the clave which I also LOVE. This might be the best thing ever. Go read it!

OK, on to the real post. We have to talk about a serious problem plaguing the world of science. Graph Fraud! Even if your data are accurate, there is still so much manipulation that can occur in how you choose to represent that data. Often, we can let our biases and expectations to get in the way of presenting clear data. Here's a fun little story as an example.

In the spring of 2013, the Tap Dancing Engineer went to visit some of her Canadian Tap friends. Recently, the weather had been strangely warm (or maybe it had been strangely cold, I don't recall.) The TDE and the Canadian Tap Dancers hit a conversational stumble. You see, we Americans simply refuse to convert to the logical system of measurement that just about everyone else in the world uses. This system of measurement includes using Celsius instead of Fahrenheit. The Canadians have little reason to learn our system of measuring temperature (only motivation is for small talk with Americans) and vice versa. So suddenly we could not fully communicate and I could not understand exactly HOW unusually warm (or maybe cold) it had been there.

Being the scientist that I am, I of course know that to convert form C to F you simply multiply by 1.8 and then add 32. I generally do this in my head by A) multiply by 2 B) Divide that number by 10 (giving me 0.2 of the original number) C) Subtract B from A and finally D) Add 32. Its a fairly involved process and all of us spaced out for a minute to try to do the conversion in our head. This absurdity made us talk about how to quickly convert between the two numbers.

Canadian Tap Dancer Kylie said "Oh, I usually just multiply by 2 and add 30." Could it be that simple? We did the math both ways and they were pretty close. Something like 72F vs 74F (yep, must have been unusually warm.) As soon as I had access to a computer and a spreadsheet I quickly made a graph to be able to understand the full picture visually. Here is what I found:

WOAH! They are almost identical! Amazing! Its so simple and I can't believe I've been doing all that mental math for all these years. 

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Or, actually, it might have gone something more like this:

Canadian Tap Dancer Kylie said "Oh, I usually just multiply by 2 and add 30." Could it be that simple? We did the math both ways and they were pretty close. Something like 72F vs 74F (yep, must have been unusually warm.) As soon as I had access to a computer and a spreadsheet I quickly made a graph to be able to understand the full picture visually. Here is what I found:

Well, its pretty good at lower temperatures, but its WAY off at higher temps and its just getting worse and worse as it goes. I don't know. Maybe I do need to do all that math. Dang.

So, which one is the "real" data? They BOTH are. Yep, its true.

Whats the difference here? The ranges used for both the x axis and the y axis. First, lets look at the x axis. In the first graph it only includes 0C to 20C (32F to 68F.) Where I live, that covers a pretty large part of the year, but definitely leaves out some critical data. Now look at the second graph. It's x axis range is 10C to 60C (50F to 140F.) If we're discussing the weather, then this graph isn't even applicable. It leaves off way too much on the cold side and, for the US and Canada at least, goes too high on the hot side.

Now, lets look at the y axis. Notice how the first graph has "white space" above and below the highest and lowest points on the curves. The y axis range has been increased in order to reduce the appearance of the white space between the two lines and make them look more similar. In the second graph the y axis range has been reduced as much as possible without the curves disappearing off the top or bottom of the graph. This magnifies the differences (white space between the curves.)

And finally, I also used a different line thickness for the two graphs. By using a 3pt line thickness for the first graph (as opposed to the 2pt thickness default that was used for the second graph) I was able to make the lines look even more "on top of each other." 

So, always check your ranges. Are they reasonable for the data that is being represented? Is there a bunch of unnecessary white space on the graph? If you are comparing two (or more) graphs ALWAYS be sure to check that the axis ranges are the same. You cannot compare graphs with different ranges! And, if you ever see an article making a point with graphs that have different ranges, that is a very good sign that the author is not a good scientist and is presenting data that is skewed to support their cause. It may not be intentionally skewed and even if you unskew it, it may still support their cause, but you should still take all information from that source lightly and skeptically. 

So, lets unskew this data! I did some quick Wikipedia searching for average January temps in various Canadian cities (~-20C) as well as the Ave July high in various Arizona cities (~110F.) I have decided to set my x axis range to be -20C to 45C and set my y axis range to -20 to 130 (this is 10 degrees F outside of my lowest and highest points.) I also left all line thicknesses at the default of 2pt. Here's the graph I made:

Oh good! They are pretty darn similar. Not exactly the same, but close enough. Right?

Or ARE they?

I think its pretty obvious what I did here right? The only difference is the size and shape of the two graphs, but they look really different. Now imagine you are writing a scientific article and trying to fit a graph in without messing up the formatting of the rest of the paper. You want badly for that graph to fit in the small amount of white space you have for it. If you are trying to show that these two lines are the same, you probably wouldn't think twice about smushing it down to be only a few lines of text high. If however, you were trying to show that these two lines are different, you wouldn't dare smush your graph and risk reducing the effect of your visual. You'd probably just make it HUGE and dedicate a whole page to it instead. See how easy it can be to unintentionally skew your visuals? 

The take away? Pay attention. Especially pay attention when multiple graphs are being used to tell a story. Good scientists with solid data don't need to resort to these tricks. Good scientists with less than solid data will still present that data properly even if it means their visuals are not as clear as they'd like it to be.

Finally, a quick little note about how far off the Kylie conversion is from the actual conversion. By simple subtraction we see that for every 5 degrees C, the Kylie conversion gains 1 degree F in error. 

So there you have it. For general weather use, you'll probably be off by less than 5 degrees F. If you live someplace like Arizona or Minnesota, use the Kylie conversion with caution during extreme temperatures. Also note that using the Kylie conversion at very high and very low temps just makes you exaggerate the extremes. If its -22 and you claim it to be "about -30" I still see that and think "so its really REALLY cold. Same for the hot side. People that do not live in areas that regularly experience these weather extremes have a hard time wrapping their heads around what -22 or 110 feels like so being off by a few degrees doesn't change the conversation that much if you're talking to someone from outside of your area. To be safe, however, you should probably shave a few degrees off your statements at extreme temps (perhaps say "Its about -25." and then you're not off by much at all.)

Hopefully none of us will have to deal with temperatures quite that cold again for a while... 

Is the Kylie conversion good enough? When discussing the weather with her Canadian friends, the TDE will be using the Kylie conversion from now on. If you're writing a research paper or lab report, you should the official conversion. 

I hope I've made you a little more aware of Graph Fraud. Together, we can help others learn to eliminate Graph Fraud from their lives. Pass it on!