Stuff in Space

Stuff in Space is a realtime 3D map of objects in Earth orbit, visualized using WebGL.

The website updates daily with orbit data from Space-Track.org and uses the excellent satellite.js Javascript library to calculate satellite positions.

The creator of this site is James Yoder; He's an alumnus of FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Team 624 and an incoming Electrical and Computer Engineering freshman at the University of Texas at Austin.

Visit this site. 

The Internet in Real-Time

Click the animation to open the full version (via PennyStocksLab).

The Internet in Real-Time looks at a number of websites and services, including app downloads from Apple and Google, You Tube videos watched, items purchased on Amazon, tweets sent, hours viewed on Netflix, and so much more.

If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel - A Model of the Solar System

Artist and designer Josh Worth wrote on his blog:

"I was talking about the planets with my 5-year-old daughter the other day. I was trying to explain how taking a summer vacation to Mars in the future will be a much bigger undertaking than a trip to Palm Springs (though equally as hot). I kept trying to describe the distance using metaphors like “if the earth was the size of a golf ball, then Mars would be across the soccer field” etc., but I realized I didn’t really know much about these distances, besides the fact that they were really large and hard to understand. Pictures in books, planetarium models, even telescopes are pretty misleading when it comes to judging just how big the universe can be. Are we doing ourselves a disservice by ignoring all the emptiness?

So I thought I would see if a computer screen could help make a map of a solar system that’s a bit more accurate (while teaching myself a few things about javascript, SVGs and viewports along the way). Not that pixels are any better at representing scale than golfballs, but they’re our main way of interpreting most information these days, so why not the solar system?"

Click here to visit some of the big spaces out in space and be prepared to scroll!

African Fractals

A fractal is a pattern that repeats itself at different scales. It is ideal for modeling nature: a tree is a branch of a branch of a branch; mountains are peaks within peaks; clouds are puffs of puffs, and so on. But modern computer scientists aren't the only ones to use fractals: Africans have been using them for centuries to design textiles, sculptures, architecture, hairstyles and more. In this website you will learn how fractal geometry is used in computing and science, and apply that knowledge to simulating African designs.

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Roman Numeral and Date Conversion

Ever find yourself wondering as the credits roll on a movie when that movie was made? You wait right to the end for the copyright date and what do you see? © MCMLXXXVII

Help is just a web site away. This site includes a handy Arabic number and Roman numeral convertor. Just enter MCMLXXXVII and press the button, all will be revealed.

Visit: Roman Numeral and Date Conversion with Roman Calculator & Test

ACT, GRE, SAT, Free Test Prep

"Number2.com was founded by professors and graduate students who wanted to make high quality test preparation universally accessible. Vin Crespi, now a professor of physics at Penn State, launched a preliminary version of the site in 1995, but it was in 2000 that Vin joined forces with Eric Loken and Josh Millet to form a company and undertake a comprehensive site redesign. Eric and Josh, who were at that time pursuing doctorates at Harvard, had taught free SAT courses in inner-city Boston and seen first hand the demand for test prep from students who couldn't afford to pay the fees charged by traditional test prep companies. Delivering test prep over the internet, at no charge to students, was the best way to reach as many students as possible. Number2.com is able to provide its courses for free because of the generous support of its sponsors: mostly Universities and student loan companies."

ACT, GRE, SAT, Free Test Prep from Number2.com.

Five sundial projects for you to make.

Here are five sundial projects which will demonstrate the principles of a sundial and ensure that you end up with a sundial which tells accurate sun time.

Five sundial projects for you to make.