3 ms·
Of those many possibilities, Carl Sagan chose the product of pi times the hydrogen spin-flip transition frequency, for use in his novel Contact. In fact, severa
by pohl 9y ago
Of those many possibilities, Carl Sagan chose the product of pi times the hydrogen spin-flip transition frequency, for use in his novel Contact. In fact, several SETI scientists in Australia had independently arrived at that same target frequency when Carl was writing his novel in 1985, and were already monitoring there. So, great minds think alike (let us hope on other planets, as well as our own!)
http://www.setileague.org/askdr/HtimesPi.htm http://www.setileague.org/askdr/HtimesPi.htm
- raverbashing 9y agoAs an arbitrary number it is fine, but to me it sounds like "Mysterium Cosmographicum" In essence, while it could be, I think it's a plausible explanation given our understanding at the time but it might 'get old' soon. For all we know maybe they might be trying to communicate in an ultra-wide BW that sounds like noise to us. Or using some other method we know nothing about or have just heard about it, like Higgs field perturbations, or ultra-high frequencies.
- pohl 9y agoWhich number is it that you’re taking to be arbitrary? I would expect that the product of two non-arbitrary numbers to be non-arbitrary. (Although I think tau might be a small improvement upon pi.)