Learn about how quickly different languages can transmit information. Then, learn how you can predict the weather by analyzing the pixels of your Facebook photos, with some help from Randall Munroe, creator of the popular geek webcomic xkcd. In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following story from Curiosity.com about how languages all transmit information at the same rate, no matter how fast they’re spoken: https://curiosity.im/2OgvR0j Additional resources from Randall Munroe: “How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems” on Amazon — https://amazon.com xkcd, “A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language" — xkcd.com “What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions” — https://amazon.com Randall Munroe: Is It Possible To Change The Moon's Colour? [Video] — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avYPeoU0nI8 Download the FREE 5-star Curiosity app for Android and iOS at https://curiosity.im/podcast-app. And Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing — just click “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
Learn about how quickly different languages can transmit information. Then, learn how you can predict the weather by analyzing the pixels of your Facebook photos, with some help from Randall Munroe, creator of the popular geek webcomic xkcd.
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following story from Curiosity.com about how languages all transmit information at the same rate, no matter how fast they’re spoken: https://curiosity.im/2OgvR0j
Additional resources from Randall Munroe:
Download the FREE 5-star Curiosity app for Android and iOS at https://curiosity.im/podcast-app. And Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing — just click “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/predict-the-weather-using-facebook-photos-w-randall-munroe-and-spoken-data-speeds
CODY: Hi! We’re here from curiosity-dot-com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn about how quickly different languages can transmit information. You’ll also learn how you can predict the weather by analyzing the pixels of your Facebook photos, with some help from Randall Munroe, creator of the popular geek webcomic xkcd.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
No Matter How Fast Languages Are Spoken, They All Transmit Information at the Same Rate — https://curiosity.im/2OgvR0j (Cody)
You know how some languages sound like they’re spoken at very different speeds? Compared to English, sometimes it feels like Spanish or Italian speed along like a drumroll, while others like French or Vietnamese seem to roll off the tongue at a more liesurely pace. Well here’s something SUPER interesting: new research published in the journal Science Advances found that one key element is the same across the board when it comes to language. The rate of information transmitted through speech is the same regardless of how fast the language tends to be spoken. And you can probably blame the limitations of our brains! For this study, an international team of scientists measured verbal information in “bits” — yes, like a computer bit; the same unit used for information transmitted by a cell phone or CPU. The team looked at written texts that had been translated into 17 different languages, including all the languages I mentioned earlier. And they found that languages that had more syllables also generally conveyed more bits per syllable. For example, Japanese only has 643 syllables and transmits about five bits of information per syllable, whereas English, with more than 10 times as many syllables, transmits closer to seven bits of information per syllable. Vietnamese was the most densely packed language, with 8 bits of information per syllable. With all this information, scientists recruited and recorded 10 speakers, 5 men and 5 women, to read 15 written passages in their native tongue, and used some pre-existing recordings for a few of the languages. Then, the team did the math, by multiplying the language’s average speed by the number of bits in each syllable. Their findings are remarkably consistent: No matter how quickly words rolled off the speakers' tongues, and despite complicating linguistic systems like the tonal traits of Vietnamese, speakers in all 17 languages transmitted information at the same rate: about 39 bits of information per second. For comparison, back in 1959, the world's first computer modem transferred 110 bits of information per second; and, of course, modern computers send about 100 megabits — or 100 million bits — per second. Okay, but what about speed variations? In English, at least, teenage girls tend to speak faster than average, right? Well, the scientists say their findings held true even when accounting for these linguistic differences. And the reason why this rate is so consistent is because of our brains; they can only absorb or produce a certain amount of information at any given time. A pair of neuroscientists recently determined that our brains could only process up to nine syllables of English per second. And their findings are consistent with the principle known as Miller's law, which says that our short-term memory can only hold seven items at a time (plus or minus two, which is how you get nine). So there you go! Despite our cultural and linguistic differences, at the end of the day, we're all humans whose brains work the same way.
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xkcd 1 - Red sky at night, sailor’s delight; red sky at morning, sailors take warning [3:41] (Ashley)
ASHLEY: Have you ever tried to come up with a way to solve a problem that ended up creating a lot more problems? And you ended up with a monumentally complicated, excessive, and even inadvisable way to do something? Well that’s the entire premise behind a brand-new book from Randall Munroe, who’s the creator of the geeky webcomic xkcd! And you’re going to hear the first half of our interview with him today! Okay so full disclosure, Cody and I have been big fans of xkcd since college. If you’ve never read xkcd, then you are MISSING OUT. It’s basically the quintessential geek web comic. You know how we talk about science, but we joke around a lot and get pretty silly sometimes? Picture that, but with stick figures, and that’s pretty much xkcd.
It’s actually kind of hard to describe how brilliant it is, so just go to xkcd-dot-com and browse around, and you’ll know what we mean. But anyway! Randall started xkcd in 2007 after graduating with a physics degree and working on robots at NASA’s Langley Research Center. So he’s definitely no stranger to science. And he’s making learning about science even more fun with a new book called “How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems.” In it, he tells you how to take a selfie with a telescope, how to cross a river by boiling it, and some of the other most complicated ways possible to do simple tasks. Why look at science through this lens? Here’s Randall on his unique approach.
[CLIP 3:40]
Again, Randall Munroe’s new book is “How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems.” You can find links to that and xkcd in today’s show notes, and tomorrow, you’ll learn about how to power your house by destroying the fabric of space-time.
CODY: And now, let’s recap what we learned today.
ASHLEY: Today we learned that languages around the world transmit information at the same rate, because our brains can only handle so much!
CODY: We also learned that in certain parts of the world at certain times of year, a red sky at night means there’s a lot of clear air to the west, which means there’s a good chance there’s not a major storm system on the way.
[ad lib optional]
CODY: Join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Stay curious!