What I Learnt For The Week 23: Bullet Time, Nyctophobia, Lemon Battery, Heterochromia Iridum, Basorexia (kiss me)

Hello Buddies, welcome again to another episode in the series of "what I learnt for the week".

Over the period of last week (18th - 22nd June), I made some amazing discoveries, of which I would select some random five to represent the lessons learnt for each day of the week. This episode promises to be exciting and educative.

Monday: Bullet Time [Time Manipulation] In Reality?

Have you ever seen the movie Matrix? There was a particular scene where Neo was faced with heavy rain of bullets, but it seemed like they were coming in slow motion, or rather, time slowed down, and he was dodging the bullets. How da heck is this possible? How can you see something as fast as bullet? Is this even possible? All these questions got me wondering, and I had to do a little survey.

_{[Image Source: Screenshot from YouTube video. 24 seconds from start. Author: Tom Antos]}

A particular study was done, and it was discovered that some policemen and people in the military have experienced something close to this. A particular one in the above survey was a case of a policeman who was engaged in a shootout, in the process, he was observing things that looked like small cans floating in the air, and on the base of the can was inscribed "federal". After sometimes, he discovered that those were live bullets being fired from his own rifle. Yes; he saw them, but were they moving in slow motion? The answer is an emphatic "No". So how did he see them?

Let me try to explain what happened in a layman's term. If you're in a fast-moving car, and suddenly a faster car overtakes you; for the people inside the faster car; it would appear like your own car just slowed down. In similar way, the human brain can experience the world either rationally or experientially. But when there is a distortion of perception (like in the event of a shootout), there would be a surge of Adrenaline - which is the hormone that triggers a response (either fight or flight) to a particular situation. And this causes that heart beat to increase, and the eye movement would also speed up, which would also cause the person to switch from the calm rational mode to the experiential mode.

And in that process; the speeding up of the eye movement; in relation to the speed of the bullet; would cause an apparent and perceptual reduction in the speed of the bullet. But in the real sense, the bullet didn't slow down; you just became unnaturally faster.
A friend of mine once told a story of how he flipped over a bicycle: he was riding on a high speed, and abruptly, he hit an obstacle that sent him flipping and flying off the bicycle. But according to his story, while he was flipping in the air, he could see clearly the sky, the street signs, and even the ground before landing (it was like he was flipping in slow motion) - this is "bullet time". Ever wondered why this is called "bullet time"?. Quick tip for you: The name was introduced by the Warner Bros for the movie; The Matrix, to depict how Neo was able to move faster than bullet. And ever since then, it has gained some recognition.

Wanna know more about bullet time, click here.

Tuesday: Nyctophobia [fear of darkness]

No one enjoys staying in the dark, but this is totally normal; maybe the reason is that we're not nocturnal and we don't also have some super echolocation abilities to navigate through darkness by using only acoustic waves; that is why we would need a light to see through. But do you know that there are some people that would freak out if they are kept alone in the dark? Or if there's a power outage in the middle of the night. This is called Nyctophobia.

_{[Image Source: Pixabay. CC0 Licensed]}

This is an irrational and unconditional fear of being in a dark place. The term is derived from "Nyctus" (Greek term relating to darkness), and of course "phobia", which means "fear of". You may not understand fully what this fear is all about if you've never experienced it. In this part of the word, you could wake up in the middle of the night to pee, and on your way to the toilet, the lights could go off, and you'll just be left with your instincts to locate your way.

This particular phobia has been reportedly predominant in the younger folks. I remember, when I was a kid, I used to fear that some haunting spirits live in the dark and they would attack me if I'm left alone in the dark. But as it were, even adults can experience this form of phobia. On a very serious case, you could find the person sleeping with lights on, and grossly avoiding anything to do with darkness.

Causes of Nyctophobia

Just like some other forms of fear; this can be related to an awfully bad experience someone had in the past. Here's the story of one of my friends: He woke up in the middle of the night to pee, and just on the foot of the bed, a scorpion was stationed there - he had seen it because the lights were on. But when he was trying to get something to smash the scorpion, there was a power outage (not unusual here); imagine how my friend felt. And to worsen the matters, the scorpion found its way to the foot of my friend while he was stumbling around looking for a torchlight. Believe me, the experience wasn't humorous at all. After the experience, he developed gross dislike for anything relating to darkness.

Some people have also created an imaginative picture (maybe through stories or movies) about some supernatural forces dwelling in the dark, and the memory of this could linger in the minds of the kids as they grow. This happened to me: As a little boy, I was told all whatnot about the supernatural. Then after the death of one of my cousins way back; in the middle of the night; the memory of the stories come so strong. And before I knew wassup, it was like an imaginary silhouette of my cousin entered the room where I was - I haven't been terrified like this in my life. And for some time, I feared darkness, and wouldn't stay alone at night.

Symptoms of fear of darkness

The symptoms manifest majorly when the sufferer is left in the dark, or at night; and they include:

• Lack of sleep. This is due to the fear of uncertainty when the person falls asleep
• Bed wetting. Even as adults, this fear can cause someone to pee on the bed, and also being awoken with some kind of unnatural fear and sometimes, it could appear as if a figure is trying to pin you to your bed.
• Fearful dreams and/or nightmares.

If you've not experienced this phobia, don't wish to ever experience it; because the fact remains that - you can't run away from darkness.

To know more about nyctophobia, click here.

Wednesday: Generating Current With Lemon (lemon battery)

Maybe after reading this, you would start to look at lemons differently. Have you ever had your phone caught in low battery without hopes to charge it, and maybe, you're in the middle of an important call? You my probably not understand how it feels if you've never experienced it. In the place where I grew up, you are almost not sure of having power, so I know what I'm talking about. Or maybe if you're on a jungle expedition and you run out of power, what would you do? All you need to do is to grab some lemons and make yourself a battery.

I found this YouTube video particularly interesting; and I thought you might need to watch it, then I would explain the principles behind the workings.

If you have ever seen a car battery before, or you have knowledge of it, then you would agree with me that the liquid in it; which is the electrolyte; is a dilute Tetraoxosulphate iv acid (H₂SO₄). Now, looking at the lemon; it contains Citric acid (C₆H₈O₇) which can also serve as an electrolyte. As a matter of fact; lemons and limes are recognized as the fruits with the highest percentage of this acid [ref], and yes, a lime can also suffice for this experiment.

For an effective setup, you would need an array of lemons. Then some copper nails (these nails will act as the negative electrode - any copper material could also suffice. Like copper coin). Also, you would need the positive electrode, and that would be something made of zinc (zinc nail or galvanized rod - that is; zinc-coated rod). How do I connect these? Very simple; you would need to puncture holes in the lemons, and insert these electrodes into them; the electrodes would be arranged side-by-side, and a connecting wire would be used to connect the electrodes in series (head to tail). If you've ever designed a simple circuit before, you would understand how this works.

Once you've properly done this, you can test the connection by slightly touching the ends of the wires connecting the positive electrode and negative electrode respectively on the tip of your tongue. If you feel a tingling sensation in the wires, then you've succeeded in creating a fruity battery. But note this; the power generated in this may not be sufficient to power up bigger devices, but you can also connect a transistor in series with the cells (lemon cells) to amplify it. And of course, you would need a multimeter to measure the amount of voltage and current generated - because; passing a high voltage through your phone could be a farewell to the phone.

Disclaimer: If you wanna experiment this at home, don't use the phone you're so much attached to :D

Wanna know more about lemon battery, click here.

Thursday: Heterochromia Iridum

The colour of the eye is meant to be the same for both eyes right? Maybe this is not completely so for everyone. Have you heard of a condition in which both eyes have different colours? - Maybe a black iris in one eye and a blue iris in the other. This could sound like a frigging absurdity, but it is real, and it's called "Heterochromia Iridum".

_{[Image of Heterochromia iridis. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Author: Shuzhi Yang. CC BY 4.0 Licensed]}

How did this word came to be? Let's break it down for easier understanding: "Hetero" - means something different, or not homogenous. "Chromia" - relating to a colour's hue, then "iridum" - relating to the iris.

For the purpose of this survey; it should be noted that this is quite different from "Heterochromia Iridis" (in which one eye can have two colour shades), in the case of Heterochromia Iridum, one eye would have one distinct colour, and the other would have another distinct colour. If you've seen the movie; star trek you would've noticed that one of the lead actresses; Alice Sophia Eve has two different colour of eyes - one is blue and the other is green.

Apart from humans; this condition has been recorded in animals too - cats for example [ref]. Some may have been wondering what the cause of this is. It is worthy to note that this condition is majorly congenital and it also presents without any known threat to the health of the person. But it shouldn't rule off the fact that this condition can be acquired - through trauma to the eyes, use of some certain medications, and even some diseases. Also, an unevenness in the concentration of the pigments inside the iris can cause this too. Also, some rare genetic conditions like waardenburg syndrome can present in form of Heterochromia iridum.

Wanna know more about Heterochromia iridum, click here.

Friday: Basorexia (kiss me)

Ain't no feeling as romantic as kissing the lips of someone you love. You probably may not understand this if you're a hermit monk cut off from the rest of the world. But like you know, too much of everything is not particularly good for you. Have you ever imagined someone getting addicted to kissing that he/she cannot go a day without finding something to kiss? This is called Basorexia.

_{[Image Source: Pixabay. CC0 Licensed]}

This could sound so funny; owing to the fact that there is nothing much wrong with kissing; but a case where you're drawn to even kiss some sorry-arse-looking lips, then, my friend, this is way beyond normal. A quick tip for you before I continue: Basorexia is almost a direct opposite of Philemaphobia - a condition characterized by someone having irrational fear of kissing.

Someone could ask; what causes this basorexia? Okay let's look at it this way; can you remember the time you got your first kiss? (probably if you stole it during a funny chit-play with a crush). The feeling must have been heavenly, but the memory of this can be created in your subconscious mind, and you could continue to fantasize over the kiss. And this can probably draw you to embark on a "re-kiss" mission. I stumbled on one very humorous Chinese proverb in the course of my research:

Kissing is like drinking a salty water, the more you drink it, the more your thirst increases. - Chinese proverb. Source

I've heard of many things people are addicted to; but I mean, why would someone be addicted to kissing? In a very extreme case of Basorexia; it can degenerate to even kissing pet animals, which can ultimately degenerate to bestiality (sex with animals; ewww).

How does this manifest? Very simple; when you find yourself being unable to resist an urge to kiss someone, then you might be in for the manifestation of this. But like I said before; kissing is very good; only when you don't let it control you.

Wanna know more about Basorexia, click here.

Okay buddies, this is the summary of the lessons I learnt for the week, and until I come your way again, keep learning. @samminator says so. Special thanks to @mobbs.

Thanks for reading

References for further reading:

• Bullet time
• What is bullet bullet time?
• Fearof.net/nyctophobia
• Lemon battery
• Amplifying DC current
• Owlcation/Heterochromia iridum
• Medicinenet/Heterochromia iridum
• Streesstonic/Basorexia

gif by @foundation