SOUND PROPAGATION

This was the first one. It had to be the first one at inDClazz!

I have been teaching Bioacoustics for more than 20 years. And in the first class of that course, when it comes to explaining sound waves, I found an excellent demo for my students in 1999.

Here it is:

It was perfect to help my students understand several key concepts that we would be using in much more complex bioacoustic analysis later on.

It only lacked one thing, though. I couldn't modify it at my will.

I wanted to generate dozens of variations for different purposes. But I wasn't able.

Year after year I looked at my "perfect" animation from Dan Russel, feeling happy for having it and feeling miserable for not having any control over it.

By now you know the solution to such a dilemma. You better do it yourself, for your own good and for the sake of your students.

And that became my first animation inDClazz project.

We are very happy with the result. Of course, it can be better. It can always be better.

But as is, it can help both students and teachers have a demo at hand to show a few concepts related to longitudinal sound waves.

Without any further ado, here is inDClazz "first decent animation". 🔔

One more thing before we show you a second animation:

UNIT CIRCLE

Here is animation No. 2 at inDCLazz.

Its creation was also logic for us.

One thing that is clear to those of us teaching students in the biological sciences, is that a big chunk of our students don't like math.

What a challenge it is therefore to teach those students about so many biological processes that rely on mathematical expressions and reasoning.

Take for example Fourier Analysis, ubiquitous in modern biology.

You need math to grasp it. You need math to apply it.

No math calculus and geometry would mean no proper use of Fourier Analysis, at least in a creative way.

We find this simple animation, the Unit Circle, essential in the toolbox of the professor of biosciences; especially professors teaching stimulus generation, signal transduction, detection, and processing, and other topics in the area of signals and systems, biological or not.

And essential for the teaching of Fourier Analysis, at the core of Bioacoustics research.

In order to have the Unit Circle animation in the toolbox of inDClazz, it was the second one I coded.

In case you need it in your toolbox too, here it is.

And if you are a subscriber already, you can go and download a much higher resolution animation; perfect for you powerpoint presentation. ⭕

And by now you know the drill:

Feel free to share these animations on social media.

It would means a lot for us at inDClazz and it could be useful for some out there looking for high-quality demos and animations.

If you do, point to: "indclazz.com/why-coding#animations-section".

THE SLIDING PUZZLE

This one is a very well-known puzzle around the world.

Simple and elegant, the sliding puzzle was an immediate success in 1880, when it was invented by Noyes Chapman, a postmaster of New York.

From the time, dozens of variations of the sliding puzzle have been created, but the "15-Puzzle", which we share with you here, is still the most popular of them all.

The object of the puzzle is to place the tiles or blocks in order by making sliding moves that use the empty space. Because the puzzle has 4x4 = 16 spaces, but only 15 tiles, it is called the 15-Puzzle.

Once all 15 tiles have been lined up, the missing tile is displayed to reveal the complete image. We know you will make it there.

It is not that hard.

If you would have to choose two, and only two, puzzles to master in your lifetime, one should be the 2D 15-Puzzle below, and the second one should be the 3D Rubik's Cube.

In the future, we will pay attention to both here inDClazz. 🧩

FLAPPY BAT

Who doesn't know or haven't heard of the original Flappy Bird?

Such a simple game and so addictive!

You attempt to fly Faby, probably the best known 2D retro-style bird in the world, between side-scrolling columns of green pipes.

If you hit them, the game is over.

The game was the most downloaded free game in the App Store for iOS in January of 2014, and it was generating earning of about $50,000 a day.

After becaming highly addictive, Dong Nguyen, the Vietnamese developer behind Flappy Bird, removed it from the App Store and Google Play in February of 2014. Dong Nguyen claimed that he felt guilt over what he considered to be its addictive nature and overuse.

Because of its beauty and simplicity, Flappy Bird-like games are often used to teach game development across the world.

Here we wanted to try a similar game mechanics but knowing that it won't be as beautiful as the original game.

Still, and after 25 years of research on bats, we decided to change Faby for Batty... and make our game about a bat..

We hope you'll have some fun playing our Flappy Bat.

Please, take good care of Batty.

REACTION TIME

The time interval between stimulation and response, that is reaction time.

Within biosciences, it would be the time between the beginning of the application of a sensory stimulus and the subsequent behavioral response of an organism.

When we refer to mental chronometry, we mean the study of reaction time in perceptual-motor tasks. Such studies allow us to infer the content, duration, and temporal sequencing of mental operations.

Noticeably, the human stimulus-response delay will be affected by a myriad of factors, from the physical characteristics of the stimulus and the sensory system involved in its detection to the motor capabilities and attention span of the individual.

Mental chronometry is one of the core methodological paradigms of behavioral neuroscience.

( If you are interested in behavioral neuroscience, check my Summer Course at Cornell University here )

There are tons of variations in methodology, stimuli, and response measurement in mental chronometry.

And we will bring several of those to inDClazz.

But for now, let us use one of the simplest and most effective ways of measuring reaction time: responding to a visual stimulus.

In the app below, once you click on the Start button, a blue screen will appear with the message "Click on red ...".

Your task is to click on the screen as soon as it turns red.

That will tell you how quick are you, or your reaction time!

Around 250ms is to be expected.

180ms? You are very fast.

1000ms? Maybe you are not paying attention.

There are so many interesting studies that we can do with slight variations of the app below.

Is your ear faster than your eye?

How much slower would you be if you have to respond only to certain colors?

Is it true that video-game players are faster than non-players?

We will come back to these questions at a later point.

For now, go find your reaction time.

We wish you a low 200ms. ⏱

COLOR DISTANCE

Women should be better on the following app. At least on certain color ranges.

But first, a short intro to the topic of the app: color vision.

Human vision depends on two types of receptor cells that exist in the retina of our eyes: rods and cones.

Rods are extremely sensitive to light and allow us to see in the dark.

Cones are the ones responsible for our color vision!

And we see colors by combining the responses of three different types of cones, in what is known as a trichromatic visual system.

The three types of human cones allow us to see various wavelength ranges in the color spectrum:

In much simpler terms, these cones are referred to as cones red (R), green (G), and blue (B). This trichromacy is the physiological basis of the RGB color model.

With different amounts of red, green, and blue lights added together, we can reproduce a gamut of color. In the RGB color model, red, green, and blue are the primary colors.

About every color you know can be reproduced in the app below!

But that is not your task.

Your object here is to match the two colors by "adding" more or less red, green, and blue.

You will see how challenging it is. And not, without "cheating" it is almost impossible.

Why women have the advantage then?

Because about 12 percent of women may have a fourth color perception channel in their retinas, and therefore may be better at distinguishing colors, especially in the shades of red.

Also, men are more likely to be color blind or unable to perceive as many colors as women due to inherited abnormalities in their cones.

If you add the two together, women should be better than men on the Color Distance app.

So, go on and challenge your husband or boyfriend in an app where women should prevail.

Happy coloring. 🎨

OUR INVITATION

Let's practice science together

Here at inDClazz, we expect to grow faster in apps than in courses or other digital products.

As new apps are coming, we would love to keep you in the loop so that we can practice science together.

Our apps' topics will orbit around biosciences such as bioacoustics, biopsychology, neuroethology, physiology, and neuroscience.

If you have interests in any of these areas, consider subscribing below and joining the inDClazz family.

We wish we'll stay in touch.