Latest news with #RayPetelin
CBS News
14-06-2025
- Science
- CBS News
Resonant frequency fun
If you have ever rubbed a clean, wet finger on the edge of a wine glass, you may have heard the wine glasses make a singing sound. They say you can't hear pictures, but I bet you can hear this one! Ray Petelin As your finger moves along the rim of the glass, it sticks and slides. This causes the glass to vibrate. According to if you reach the glass's resonant frequency, or the natural frequency at which the glass will vibrate the most and create a sound of the same frequency. You can change that frequency by adding or removing water. This makes the sound higher and lower in the glass by changing the resonant frequency and lowering the pitch. A simple experiment that you probably have seen before. We are going to take this experiment an additional step. Alright, right now, there are no vibrating molecules in the air, so it's quiet! Ray Petelin We can't hear anything if molecules in the air aren't vibrating. We know the glass is vibrating to create a sound, but those sound waves are traveling through the air molecules for us to be able to hear them. This means, if we have another glass with a similar resonant frequency, we can send vibrations from one glass to another through the air. So we need another wine glass. Some call this a party, I call it science! Ray Petelin If we set the glasses next to each other, but don't allow them to touch. Make sure to fill them as close to the same amount as you can. Set a toothpick or two on the rim of one of the glasses. This toothpick is key to our high-pitched experiment. Ray Petelin Then, wet your finger and create sounds with the other glass. You will see the toothpicks fall into the glass! This happens because the vibrations from one glass travel to the other through the air. Down goes the toothpick! Ray Petelin Since they both have the same resonant frequency, they both vibrate! You can test your friends by saying you bet they can't make the toothpicks fall into the glass without touching or blowing them in. When they can't figure out how to do it, perform the experiment. Sweet music and science!
CBS News
17-05-2025
- Climate
- CBS News
The Cone of Silence
Have you ever noticed that blank hole on the radar near a radar site when you are trying to look at precipitation? Have you ever noticed that sometimes in a weather forecast, there's a "donut" hole? KDKA Weather Center The setup that causes this is one of those weather words that may sound silly, especially when you may have heard it used differently in the past. Our weather word has to deal with radar, but it also deals with a word used in the old TV Show "Get Smart". That word is "cone of silence". Ok, it's not actually a cone of silence... Ray Petelin It is not a pod to keep others from hearing your conversation, it is one of the limitations of weather radar! Also, you don't notice this cone until there is precipitation for the radar to detect. To understand a radar's cone of silence, you have to first understand how the radar sends out its beam. The radar shoots its beams out at several different angles. This creates what we call a "volume scan" of the atmosphere. So, the lowest beams are the closest to being straight out from the radar, and the angles continue to go upward. As this happens, it creates a cone-shaped void over the radar. You can see this occurring with a recent rain in the area. That spot right above? It's the "Cone of Silence!" Getty Images The radar beam only tilts upward 19.5°. Since the radar does not shoot a beam straight up, that void is an unscanned part of the sky! This means if rain, snow, or storms are happening right above the radar, we cannot get a sample of what is happening. It is just that blank hole we showed you, and according to the National Weather Service, that void is one nautical mile! This creates momentary blindness to what is happening. Putting into a map, this is what the cone of silence looks like in action! KDKA Weather Center There are ways to see the missing data by filling in the hole left by the cone of silence. The best way is to use other nearby radars like a Terminal Doppler Weather Radar or "TDWR". These are weather radars operated by the Federal Aviation Administration to look for hazards for air traffic. We have one in Pittsburgh that helps fill in the Cone of Silence! Pittsburgh: helping out as usual! Getty Images Now you know why there is sometimes a doughnut hole by the radar!
CBS News
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Finding something special in a deck of cards
A deck of cards may not seem special, and a deck really isn't special until you give it a good shuffle. That is where a deck becomes very special! Want to play 52 Pickup?? Ray Petelin Mixing up those cards can lead to something really order of cards no one has ever seen before and may never see again! However, by looking at 52 cards, it does not seem like there would be that many combinations to call a particular order "rare" or "special," though. 52 cards, and how many combinations? Ray Petelin When you do the math, you can see just how many combinations there could be. The number of combinations is a "52!" or "52 factorial". That is where you take the number of cards and multiply up. We have 52 different cards in a deck, so that would be you keep going until you hit 52. We call it 52 or 52 factorial! Ray Petelin You can see how that would cause the number of combos to grow! This is how the combinations grow! Ray Petelin According to McGill University in Canada, this number is so large that there are more different combinations in a deck of cards than there are atoms on Earth! Usually, it is easier to manage the number by writing it as 8x10^67. That is 8 followed by 67 zeros, or 8 unvigintillion! A number most of us had never heard of and probably cannot even comprehend. At least I can't! That's a lot of there are more combinations in a deck of cards than this?? Getty Images NASA estimates that there are 200 billion galaxies in the observable universe. NASA says astronomers estimate those galaxies have one septillion stars. A septillion is one followed by 24 zeros. That means there are way more card combinations in a deck of cards than the number of stars in the known universe! Are you seeing why a shuffled deck of cards is special? Now, imagine doing this but for the Powerball... Getty Images Think of how few people win the Powerball or Mega Millions jackpots. If you bought a ticket, you have a one in 292 million chance of winning the Powerball and a one in 290 million chance of winning the Mega Millions, according to the Pennsylvania Lottery. Those chances are very, very low, but way higher than ever, seeing the order of a well-shuffled deck of cards repeat. So, whether you are holding 'em or folding 'em, that deck was essentially one of a kind.
CBS News
24-04-2025
- Science
- CBS News
Rare smiley face will light up Pittsburgh-area sky on Friday morning
The moon, Saturn and Venus will create a rare smiley face in the sky later this week. Sometimes things line up in fun ways. That is set to happen early Friday morning in the night sky as the moon, Venus and Saturn will line up to create what will look like a smiley face. A Smile in the Sky is expected on April 25. Credit: Getty Images Venus and Saturn will be in just the correct spot in their revolution around the sun to match up with the waning crescent moon, making the smiley face appear. When will the smiley face in the sky be visible? Everything is expected to line up Friday morning around 5:30 a.m. If you are lucky enough to see it, you will need to tilt your head or rotate the photo a bit to make this truly look like a smile. The rare event will be visible to the naked eye, but a pair of binoculars or a telescope will enhance the view. A Smile in the Sky is expected on April 25. Credit: Getty Images Weather forecast for Friday's smiley face in the sky With rain approaching Western Pennsylvania, KDKA First Alert Meteorologist Ray Petelin is not sure the weather will want to cooperate, which will make for many frowns on Earth. Celestial events in 2025 Friday's alignment is the latest celestial event this year. The Lyrid meteor shower peaked overnight Monday into Tuesday morning, while March featured a total lunar eclipse, a Blood Moon and a partial solar eclipse. Later this year, the Perseid meteor shower will peak between Aug. 12 and Aug. 13. NASA calls it the "best meteor shower of the year."
