5 ms·
I think that's why it works -- if you change that = to a %=, the effect no longer happens. It does make (intuitive) sense, though, because the only time that m
by KeyboardFire 9y ago
I think that's why it works -- if you change that = to a %=, the effect no longer happens.
It does make (intuitive) sense, though, because the only time that makes a significant difference is when a lot of fireflies flash around one firefly simultaneously, in which case the firefly wouldn't decide to flash twice in a row but instead interpret it as a singular flash. And if a firefly sees another one flash when it's about to, it would naturally want to synchronize its flashing with the other.
- dyarosla 9y agoRight- but the explanation in the 'explorable' is that the effect happens due to the simple pattern of Step 1: When you see a nearby firefly flash, nudge your clock a little bit forward, Step 2: That's it. Problem is, the description of what's happening and what is actually happening doesn't match.
- tgb 9y agoAnother poster here showed their own, similar demo of this. There they had each firefly charging like a capacitor. Triggering the light causes the capacitor to deplete. This seems like the better analogy, but more people know what clocks are.
- nialo 9y agoIn addition to being a better analogy, I am told it is possible to replicate the effect with a physical capacitor and a gas-discharge lamp: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4600996 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4600996