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Lifestyle

What Is The Rarest MM Color

Perhaps at some point, you may have wondered about the proportion of colors found in a pack of M&M’s. Maybe you’ve wanted to find out what is the rarest M&M color. The answer to this question and more will be explained in this article, and the answers may surprise you!

Rick Wilkin’s Quest to Find the Rarest M&M’s Color

Statistician Rick Wilkin, who worked for the SAS Institute (a big M&M’s client), decided to do his statistical study after noticing that the Mars’s website, which previously listed various proportions, no longer did so. He also wanted to test if the proportions that used to be listed on the website were accurate or not. He noted that Mars produces M&M’s at two factories in the United States: one in Cleveland and one in New Jersey.

After inquiring with the company, he was able to get two separate proportions of data from both factories. He learned that the two factories did not have the same proportions. Following this, he decided to do his experiment.

The Rarest M&M’s Color? It’s Brown

In the end, he discovered that these findings did not match what was originally listed on Mars’s website. In his samples, he found out that only around 13.48% of all M&M’s are brown. The next rarest color was yellow, with a proportion of only 14.47%. By contrast, green was the most common color, with a proportion of 19.52%.

While Mars’s website listed blue as the most common color (24%), Wilkin instead found that green was more common. However, the website did mention that the three rarest colors were yellow, red, and brown respectively, and this matched Wilkin’s findings. He also noted that his findings that brown being the rarest color also matched the data he received regarding the two factories. However, the factories’ data claimed that orange was the most common color, which did not match his findings.

Incidentally, Wilkin noted that the proportion may have changed over the years. For example, around 1997, Mars’s website listed brown as the most common color and blue as the least common. He also notes that his findings only refer to plain M&M; he admits that proportions for other varieties such as peanuts may be different, although he did not include other variants in his study.

M&M’s Colors Have Changed Over The Years

As mentioned earlier, while Wilkin found that brown was the least common M&M’s color, this may have not always been the case. Indeed, M&M’s didn’t always have the current combination of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and brown.

When M&M’s was first launched in 1941, the original colors were red, brown, yellow, green, and purple. Purple M&M’s proved to be short-lived as they were replaced with tan by the end of the decade.

During the 1970’s, a food scare occurred due to fears that red dyes were carcinogenic. Specifically, studies on rats showed that a dye called “Red Dye #2” could cause cancer. Mars did not use this specific dye to color their M&M’s red. In addition, the FDA raised concerns about the reliability of the study. However, the scare was strong enough that the company decided to replace red with orange.

The decision proved to be unpopular among M&M’s fans. In the 1980s, Paul Hetmon, a University of Tennessee student, launched a joke group called the Society for the Restoration and Preservation of Red M&Ms, complete with paid membership dues and letters. The group gained so much traction that Mars eventually decided to bring back red M&M’s. To this day, red continues to co-exist with its original replacement orange.

While red M&M’s had a cult following, the same could not be said for tan M&M’s. In fact, tan M&M’s were so unpopular that in 1995, Mars held a public vote on a color to choose one that would replace tan. Ultimately, blue won out over purple and pink.

Other Colors of M&M’s Also Exist

While red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and brown are the current standard colors of M&M’s packages, other colors also exist. Some of these colors were limited-edition items used in promotions.

Image from Adobe Stock

For example, in the 1990s, M&M’s held a contest where the winning prize was a pack of gray M&M’s. Due to the gray M&M’s rareness, they have become a bit of a legend among M&M’s fans. Another limited-time promotion in 2012 led to purple, aqua, and pink M&M’s being offered in packages called “You Picked The New Color Mix!” The special colors, along with red, blue, and green, were picked by fans through a Facebook poll.

Some candy stores, such as M&M’s World, also feature non-standard colors such as black, white, pink, and purple.

Science

40 Interesting Physics Facts for Curious Minds Factsnet

We only see it that way because the sun’s wavelengths react with the difference in the atmosphere.

Gelatin doesn’t break if you tap it because of surface tension.

The outer gelatin layer serves as an elastic membrane, which is why it only bounces and jiggles.

Water slows down light.

Each water molecule has individual surface tension, which distorts the image you see. This is why your face would look cartoonish behind a glass of water.

Sound creates heat.

Sound waves generate heat when they travel and are absorbed by materials.

You can yell at your soup to warm it.

However, sound waves carry minimal energy, so the effect would not be noticeable. You’re better off with a stove or a microwave.

Time goes faster at the top of the building than at the bottom.

According to Einstein’s theory of Relativity, the farther an object is from the Earth’s surface, the faster time passes.

Transparent objects are visible because they reflect light.

This is why we can still see glasses and ice.

The gyroscopic effect keeps a bike balanced.

The principle is that a spinning wheel tends to stay aligned in its original direction.

You can’t sink in the Dead Sea.

The Dead Sea has a very high density because of its salt content, which would make it impossible for you to sink.

Dead people float because of gasses.

When a person drowns, their lungs fill with water, which makes them sink. They float back up because the human body releases gas when it dies – making them lighter than the water.

A typical smartphone would not detect touches from fingernails, rubber, or certain fabrics because they lack the ions needed for the interaction.

Water tension holds sandcastles together.

Sandcastles can stand on their own because of the water tension between sand and water molecules. This is why, if you add too little or too much water, it won’t hold.

Inertia keeps you from falling out of a rollercoaster.

Your mass resists the acceleration of a particularly gnarly loop and keeps you on your seat.

Pi is an irrational number.

Irrational numbers are numbers that cannot be expressed as fractions. Pi is an infinitely long and non-repeating number. The closest fractional estimate of pi is 22/7.

Space is restless.

I think we’ve all established space is pretty weird, but this is one of the weirder physics facts: particles are constantly popping in and out of existence in space. Picture a glass of soda with the carbon bubbles rising up. Scientists call this phenomenon “quantum foam.”

Science

40 Overfishing Facts That You Need to Know About Today

Overfishing simply means catching so much fish in a given body of water that those left behind can’t reproduce enough to replace those who have been caught. This can take place in both freshwater and marine environments, with underpopulation as its first effect. Other effects of overfishing include resource depletion, reduced growth, and low biomass. While fish can recover from overfishing, it would also depend on whether the ecosystem can support their recovery or not.

Overfishing can result in what scientists call an ecosystem shift.

Ecosystem shifts involve abrupt, large-scale, and long-lasting changes in an ecosystem. Scientists also call it a regime shift, with a regime referring to the way an ecosystem’s built, as well as how it works. Usually, the loss of one or more parts of an ecosystem will cause changes in the rest. It may also cause it to collapse, but it’s also possible for another species or factor to simply replace the lost part of the ecosystem. This replacement could then completely change how the ecosystem works, resulting in a regime shift.

An example of this involves the overfishing of trout, which may allow carp to replace them as the dominant fish species in a given environment. More than that, the carp become so dominant that trout simply can’t recover from overfishing, or even maintain a breeding population at all.

Bycatch also contributes to overfishing.

Bycatch refers to unintentionally catching other fish and aquatic species with commercial species when fishing. As bycatch typically has no commercial value, fishermen usually just dump it back into the sea. In theory, doing so lets them live back in the sea, but in practice, bycatch usually die from injury or shock from getting caught in the first place. On average, bycatch makes up to 25% of all fish caught, and in some cases, can go even higher. For example, bycatch in shrimp fishing actually accounts for up to five times the commercial catch. This means many fish and other species die for no reason, further adding to the effect overfishing has on the environment.

People have tried to find ways to reduce bycatch.

One way of doing so involves banning fishing in areas where bycatch tends to become high from how so many species live there. Another way involves the use of Bycatch Reduction Devices (BRDs), though, this can become expensive. That said, they do work, with BRDs noted as having reduced bycatch by 30% to 40%.

Governments have also banned longline fishing, as this method can cause very high bycatch rates. Other governments have also banned the practice of throwing away bycatch at all. By forcing fishermen to keep everything they catch, this also forces them to care about bycatch. This, in turn, gives incentive to avoid or reduce bycatch from how they can’t profit off of it.

Bycatch doesn’t always get thrown away, though.

In some countries, usually in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, bycatch may get sold at the market. They usually sell for lower prices, marketed as assorted seafood or even as a seafood medley. In other cases, bycatch gets ground up, usually for making organic fertilizer, but also as fish meal or even as food for fish farms. Asian countries, in particular, use bycatch as an ingredient in producing fish sauce. Bycatch also gets used as an ingredient in making fish paste or fish cakes, either for domestic use or export.

Science

Invention of WiFi Origin of Probably the Best Invention Ever

WiFi is probably something the world can never live without. Some technology facts have shown that there are 3.8 billion Internet users and approximately 8 billion gadgets are being connected to the Internet each day. It is undeniable that WiFi is and will continue to be ubiquitous in our lives. We can even personalize our own WiFi nowadays. But, the invention of WiFi and how it works are equally important to know as well.

One can say that the invention of WiFi was a team effort by different people and with a stroke of luck.

The first group of people involved was Australian radio astronomer John O’Sullivan and a group of scientists. Back in the 1900s, they wanted to prove that Stephen Hawking’s theory on evaporating black holes and their radio waves are true. Their research showed that these little waves and their subsequent signals could travel over large distances. But it was difficult to differentiate these little waves from stronger ones. Thus, Sullivan and the researchers worked on creating a tool that could help identify the black hole’s radio waves. Unfortunately, they failed.

The next notable person, also known as the “father of WiFi”, is Vic Hayes. He was one of the founders of the 802.11 standards, a set of standards that ensures wireless communication work in reality. Before the public even understand the concept of wireless communication, Hayes was already thinking of ways to make WiFi standards achievable. But, he needed a patent. And as you can guess, this key patent came from Sullivan and his failed tool. In 1992, John Sullivan, Terence Percival, Graham Daniels, Diethelem Ostry, John Deane who were working in the company, CSIRO, went back to Sullivan’s failed experiment and eventually created a chip that could pick up the weakest radio signals. Poof! WiFi was invented in 1997! Guess we can say the invention of WiFi is unexpected but greatly appreciated.

What is WiFi?

Did you know that WiFi is just a meaningless acronym? Some may say that WiFi stands for Wireless Fidelity. But Phil Belanger, one of the founding members of WiFi Alliance (which owns the WiFi logo), dismissed this. He stated that WiFi is simply an acronym with no meaning. Although WiFi began in 1997, it was not known as ‘WiFi’ until 1999.

How does WiFi work?

WiFi is essentially a superb networking technology. It uses a radio frequency signal (the WiFi logo on your gadgets) to send information. This information then helps to connect smart gadgets like smartphones, laptops and many others together that are within a local area, like your home. When a connection is made, communication between these gadgets can happen. Picture a radio tuning into a radio station by picking up signals. Similarly, your devices can pick up such high-frequency signals to connect to the Internet. And those high-frequency signals are WiFi! WiFi runs on two main frequencies: 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. 2.4GHz bands cover a wider distance and WiFi can be picked up through thicker walls. 5GHz bands have a faster connection speed over smaller distances. But it generally experiences more interference.

WiFi does not magically appear out of thin air. Which is why you need a wireless router for your gadgets to connect to the Internet. A wireless router is a piece of equipment that physically connects to the Internet via an ethernet cable or modem. The router broadcasts the WiFi signal that connects and carries information to and fro from the Internet. While carrying this information, your router is hard at work decoding this information. The adapter in whatever device you are using then picks up this broadcasted signal, receives the decoded information, and sends it back to your router so that it goes onto the Internet. Essentially, your router is like a middleman, or a dispatcher between your devices and the Internet.

Is WiFi The Same As The Internet?

This also means that WiFi is NOT the same as the Internet. We often conflate these two terms together but really, they are two very different and separate things. WiFi is the frequency signal that allows us to connect to the Internet. The Internet, also known as Wide Area Network (WAN), is a massive network of networks. It connects various local networks together via many routers and forms a global connection.

 A quick fun fact that not many know is that the Internet actually originated from California!

How has WiFi changed over the years?

WiFi became very popular in the early 2000s and ever since, many have worked on bringing more exciting enhancements to the original standards. One can say that the invention of WiFi is a miraculous event that has helped us push past unthinkable technological boundaries and frontiers.

Getting Faster

The original 802.11 started out with 2 Mbit/s (megabyte per second) link speed, and over the years it has grown faster to 11 Mbit/s (802.11b, 1999), 54 Mbit/s (802.11a, 2012), all the way to 568.9 Mbit/s in the 2014 version. As of 2020, WiFi 6 (802.11ax) runs on 9.6 Gbps. Currently, cities in these countries have the fastest Internet connection.

Growing Stronger

WiFi also became stronger throughout the years. Initially, WiFi routers used the 2.4GHz band in 1999, before the 5GHz band was introduced in 2012. In 2003, the 802.11g standards were developed to improve both connectivity speed and signal range. Router technologies also began to enhance to have higher power and coverage than its predecessors. One notable router technology is the introduction of dual-band routers to help solve the issue of slow connectivity speed, out-of-range and interference issues. Devices in range would automatically connect to the more efficient 5GHz frequency. Even if devices are further away or behind walls/doors, our WiFi routers can use the 2.4GHz band to actively maintain connectivity.

Becoming Smarter — 2012 and beyond

In 2012, we welcomed a new era of WiFi. In the past, the various 802.11 versions focused on signal coverage and large data transmission. However, in 2012, a new concept called the beamforming concept is developed. Instead of focusing on broadcasting WiFi signals in all directions hoping to reach the targeted devices, it focuses on concentrating the signal towards a specific device. This ensures a faster and more stable connection. Currently, many of us use WiFi routers that use this beamforming concept.