Question:What special efficiencies (or lack thereof) went into the 19th-century inventions of the Morse Code, Braille and semaphore flag-signalling?
Answer: Samuel Morse's signaling code, devised by the U.S. artist and inventor during the 1830s, was guided by a letter frequency count of type found in a printer's office, says David Crystal in "The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language."
Thus the more commonly occurring letters were assigned shorter dot/dash combinations (dot for E, dash for T, dot-dash for A, etc.). But in Braille, raised dot combinations generally increase in complexity through the alphabet: The letter A equals a single dot but U, V, X, Y and Z use 4 or more; T, the second most frequent letter in much text, uses 4 Braille dots. With semaphores, the simpler arm positions are simply assigned to the opening letters, with "T turning out to have one of the most awkward flag combinations — a fact discovered with arm-aching empiricism by generations of scouts and guides."
Question: The besiegement can be direct or indirect, causing burns, heart attack, brain damage, loss of consciousness, paralysis.
Loss of memory and concentration can follow, even personality changes. Aggression and outbursts can ensue, as well as depressed sex drive.
Most of the victims' pains are evident within hours or days, though there may be delayed effects. Some 1,000 people per year are affected in the United States alone. Bizarrely and seemingly defying all odds, it happened to one hapless guy seven times over a 35-year span, a world record. Can you identify the shocking cause here?
Answer: Lightning strikes, as detailed in "New Scientist" magazine. Very rare indeed are those people who gain from a "hit," like the woman who said she acquired an acute sense of smell, or the guy who claimed he became impervious to feeling winter cold ("Weird Harold" to the neighbors).
Question: Imagine (from "Encounter with Tiber," by Buzz Aldrin and John Barnes): Astronomers detect a signal from Alpha Centauri, 4.3 light-years away, coming in a pattern of high tones (beeps), low tones (honks), and silences (probably spacings), in tone-groups of threes: BBB, BBH, BHB, BHH, HBB, HBH, HHB, HHH.
Only these groupings occur, arranged in curious long sequences that will require deciphering. Are there any plausible guesses to be made about the aliens' mathematical system and anatomy?
Answer: Likely the message is in base 8 math, with 3 beep- or-honk choices yielding 8 different arrangements, probably standing for digits 0-7, says Clifford A. Pickover in "Wonders of Numbers." "The string of digits in the message could represent pictures or text."
The most common numbering system on Planet Earth is base 10, digits 0-9. But there's no reason to assume aliens would use this. We use 10 because we have 10 fingers, as suggested by "digit" designating both a number and a finger. So might these aliens have a thumb and 3 fingers on each hand, or a thumb and finger on each of 4 arms, or maybe 8 tentacles?
"Of course, it's possible their number system has nothing to do with their anatomy, just as the Babylonian base 60 system said nothing about their anatomy."
As for the novel, says Pickover, it turns out the 8 groups of honks and beeps represent black-to-white image shadings of 8 creatures waving as they board a spacecraft.
Send STRANGE questions to brothers Bill and Rich at strangetrue@compuserve.com.