Have you any comments about the articles on this page? Visit Skytopia's Whirlpool of Knowledge Forum. Fruit Emporium How much is a pineapple worth? Is a strawberry really better than a cherry? What does that spikey fruit at the supermarket actually taste like - does it taste any good? Where does the humble apple fit into all this? Every fruit analysed and rated according to how weird they taste and how /good/ they taste. Music theory & Art aesthetics What actually makes a piece of music or a picture..... good? It's way too complex to even begin to answer this question, but what my article addresses is the important point that all music can be rated and given a definitive universal aesthetic score outside of human opinion. This is light reading for everyone, so don't worry about getting swamped in music theory. Dynamic Optical Illusions Even though the majority of the optical illusions here are already popular, I have enhanced many with the use of animation. Also, a few of the optical illusions on display I've actually made myself =) Soundburst Shrine - free mp3 music The site's main feature. Relax to the dreamy chords of 'Sky City', or groove to the rhythm of 'New Millennium'. Complex and rich melodies are sure to keep you entertained and your speakers happy. Oh, and don't leave without hearing the 'Grand Finale' of music! Misc articles Miscellaneous articles are kept here, with more appearing as soon as I get the inspiration to write about something. Examples include an illustrated comparison of the best MP3 players, and an overview of how printers have progressed over the years. Or maybe you'll find my thoughts on whether 'souls' exist - you name it. Super Magnet Welcome to 'SuperMagnet' - one of my longest running projects. What happens when a thousand-atom 'comet' collides into a giant ball of 4000 'atoms'? The best way of describing what SuperMagnet does is to say that it manipulates an array of 'atoms' to create all sorts of cool effects. For example you could have a lovely stretchy bridge made up of, say, 20 atoms, with a giant ball of mini-magnets or 1 big magnet jumping on it. Or you could simulate a pipe system with water (hundreds of tiny magnets) running through it - all while being affected by gravity! Or maybe you could run a small scale solar system with the planets orbiting the sun (you could track any of the planets). Even a snooker table with real-world physics and friction. The possibilities really are endless. You are, in effect, creating a world of atoms all with their own individual properties. Page includes many more pictures and even animations! World's Most Unanswered Science Project Welcome to the most interesting list of un-answered scientific questions around! Whether you're a nuclear scientist or someone who's just curious about science, you'll no doubt find stuff of interest here. What happens when two mirrors face each other? What happens to water if you compress it more and more and more... (It can't just disappear)? What's the temperature of a candle flame? What on earth would liquid diamond or gold taste like if it was cool enough to drink? Can liquid diamond be made and if so, what temperature would be needed? All of these (and lots more) are answered (or will be hopefully in the future). See if you could help too! Colour and light oddities A graphically illustrated guide to various oddities about colour and light. You'll find various amusing contradictions about the perception of colour. Have you ever wondered how many pictures (or movies!) you could ever ever ever see? Did you know that blue and yellow actually makes grey/white (well, it's true!). Also, the shocking news - "Is your monitor displaying a fake green?". You'll not only find it probably is, but have a chance to see what /real/ green looks like. All this and lots more! What are you waiting for? Mystery of the 3D Mandelbrot Could there ever exist a true 3D analogue of the Mandelbrot which isn't just an extruded mountain, lathed rotation or Quaternion cross section? If such an object did exist, it could look indescribably beautiful. This article goes in search of the mythical beast, and gives hope that we may even find it one day. There's also a nice 'cream of the crop' collection of 3D fractal pics on display at the end (from many artists) which are well worth a look. STOP PRESS: The new discovery of the Mandelbulb is very close to the holy grail we've been searching for. Click for amazing pictures! Quest For Profound Truth About 5 percent of people will have an Near Death Experience at some point in their life. But is it a real encounter with the afterlife - or the product of an overactive imagination on the brink of death? This page is dedicated to answering some of the most universal questions, and as a side effect will hopefully determine scientifically if the phenomenon is real. Lucid dream journal Lucidity is a state in dreams where you are fully conscious and are aware that what you are experiencing /is/ a dream. Maybe once or twice throughout your lifetime, you've already had a lucid dream. According to its level of lucidity, this can be a wonderful experience allowing you (for example) to fly above an amazing star-lit city dreamscape or whatever. The limit is your imagination. There are actual techniques to improve the frequency of these lucid dreams and once an expert, you can have as many as 4 lucid dreams a night! Full scientific research has been carried out on the subject and is continuing to expand. There's lots more to say about Lucidity, so if you're interested in reading further, visit the offiste link at: http://www.lucidity.com/LucidDreamingFAQ2.html Distance super-quiz! Right, grab for the nearest piece of scrap paper and pen; here's a unique quiz for you to try out. Each mini-test (there are eight in all) comprise of a route you have to choose to find the quickest way to the finish point. Some require logical/lateral thinking, where others require pure guesswork (remember those jars filled with hundreds of marbles and you had to guess how many there were?). Anyway, good luck and no cheating by calculating the distances and adding them up methodically. Only guesswork and lateral thinking are allowed. The Impossible Math test quiz Mr Know-it-all has has carefully planned for us this section dedicated to bringing you the world's hardest math/logic questions. The questions are such that even a ten year old could understand them, but it would take more than a nuclear scientist to solve them! The idea is not to solve them, but to be confident in the knowledge that no-one else could solve them (unless given masses of time and a super computer - and probably not even then either) - thus being blissfully ignorant that anyone has even bothered to try and work them out at all. Also, this gives Mr Know-it-all a huge ego boost as Mr Know-it-all and only Mr Know-it-all has the answers. >>> Return Home <<< All text and graphics on this page are copyright D. White 2002 onwards.