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MUSIC

MATHS The hottest CSI agent around

September 2007/Issue 16 think. what you can be

PRESS PLAY We reveal the making of the new Parlotones video • How music adds life to games

THE

EVOLUTION

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nalog

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THE SECRETS OF THE TEENAGE BRAIN

DECONSTRUCTION Let’s take apart a speaker

CAN SCIENCE CONQUER FEAR?

covers1d.indd 1 8/7/07 11:18:49 AM

COVE

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REGULARS

Smart

Techn

ology:

musi

c und

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a sur

f guit

ar

Smart

Maths: s

imple and co

mpound intere

st

Think Tank: ge

t to grip

s with these brain

busters

Music: the technological evolution, and how maths helps

We reveal the secrets of the teenage brain

Fear: it’s all in the mind

Chat

Room

: ed’s

note

Deconst

ructio

n: what

’s insi

de a s

peaker

?

FEATURES

ENTERTAINMENT

Press Play: what not to miss

Music Videos: the making of The Parlotones’ latest video

Game Lab: the Fantastic Four as reviewed by you and music in gaming

Books: your views on Coconut

p2

p6

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p11

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Commun

ity of

Hip:

your

news,

your

views

p36

p8

p4

Body Smart: keep your pearly whites gleaming

Sport Science: swimming is the smartest workout

Music: Kahn of The Parlotones reviews indie CDs

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p44p4630

44

11

YO

UR CHALLE

NGE

Unscramble the yellow letters

hidden in the text to form the name of a well-known group. Clue: they won a Grammy Award for Best

Pop Performance by a Group.

CSI Agent: Math E. Matics p34

18

Giveawaysp43

The human body

CENTREFOLD

con10ts.indd 3 8/8/07 2:05:50 PM

CHAT ROOM

Which of these tracks best describes your life right now? Are you ‘Love Stoned’ like JT or ‘Striving to Survive’ like Kabelo, or is your life song Fergie’s ‘Big Girls don’t Cry’ … or perhaps Tupac’s ‘Me against the World‘?

I’m sure music is a language I don’t need to get you excited about: there’s music for every occasion and personality.

But did you know that there’s a lot of maths and science behind music? It’s no coincidence, then, that it’s our theme in this issue. We begin by taking you along the timeline of music technology – and show you how science is even involved in determining whether a song will be a hit or not.

If you’re in matric, you’re probably counting down to your fi nal day at school. Is it a happy thought, or a scary one? I remember my own anxiety over facing ‘the most important exams of

Editor Nevelia Heilbron

Art Director Anton Pietersen

Managing Editor Mandy J Watson

Editorial ConsultantStefania Johnson

Creative Director Crispian Brown

Publisher Helena Gavera

Production ManagerShirley Quinlan Reproduction

New Media ReproAdvertising Director

Aileen O’ Brien • Tel: 021 417 1228Circulation (subscriptions)

John Pienaar • Tel: 021 417 1218Editorial Contributors

Nikki Benatar, Kate Carmichael, Erin Classen, Ami Kapilevich, Michelle Minnaar, Anthony

Samboer, Johan van Lill, Michelle ViljoenEditorial Intern

Selena Abelse Picture Researcher

Glynis Fobb Subeditor

Barbara MowattProofreader

John LinnegarEducational Consultants

Wordwise

PUBLISHED ON BEHALF OFBSQUARE COMMUNICATIONS

Communications Manager Kate Evans

HIP2B2 PIONEERED BY MARK SHUTTLEWORTH<www.hip2b2.com>

Published by New Media Publishing (Pty) LtdTel: 021 417 1111 • Fax: 021 417 1112

<www.newmediapub.co.za>Managing Director

Bridget McCarneyExecutive Directors

Irna van Zyl, Naomi Herselman, John PsillosNew Business Enquiries

Martha Dimitriou • Tel: 021 417 1276

All rights reserved. While precautions have been taken to ensure the accuracy of information, the editor, publisher and New Media Publishing

can’t be held liable for any inaccuracies, injury or damages that may arise.

Printed by Paarl Print PHO

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HIP

2B2

your life’ (you’re probably sick of hearing that tired old refrain).

In these last few weeks, capture some great memories of your school days: they’ll be gone before you know it. Why not write and tell us about it, and about your plans for the future – or start a forum for matrics at <www.hip2b2.com>. Better still, send us a poem or the lyrics of a song describing your life. Smart contributions will be featured on the Community of Hip page (our postal details are featured there), and will win an MP3 player.

The beauty is that the song of your life can change. So if angry rebellion tracks or melancholic melodies are where you’re at right now, fast-forward to anthems of hope – and start dancing to it.The soundtrack to my life currently?

It would be a collaborative remix of ‘Grace’ (Simon Webbe), the chorus of

Timbaland’s ‘Give it to Me’ and Dido’s ‘Thank You’. Yes, I’m grateful for every bit of grace.

N"#"$IA

WIN

Ed#s page.indd 2 8/8/07 1:04:42 PM

36

Share

your

news

, view

s and

pictu

res –

and p

lease

inclu

de yo

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p2b2 , P

O Box

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1 • E

mail:

<talk

2us@

hip2b

2.com

> or

<wi

n@hip

2b2.c

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ANDISWA MLANJENI

Grade 12, Simon Estes Music High School‘I’d love to be a nurse as I enjoy taking care of people when they are sick.’Favourite subjects: biology and maths.Favourite gadget: a Samsung E370.

ZULPHA ABRAHAMS

Grade 11, Trafalgar High School‘I’d like to pursue a career in medicine, learn more about biology and chemistry, and help in needy communities.’Favourite subjects: biology, physical science and maths.Favourite gadget: the Sony Ericsson K800i.

ON HIP2B2.COM

VUYOKAZI MAJOLA

Grade 12, Simon Estes Music High School‘I’d like to do medical bioscience or clinical technology. I love the vibe of the laboratory, and I could advise people on health-related issues.’Favourite subjects: maths and biology.Favourite gadget: I’m not really a gadget person but I like the Nokia 6111.

INGE VAN DER LECQ

Minkema School, Germany‘I’d love to be a fashion designer so that I can make good quality clothes for the people.’Favourite subjects: physics and language. Favourite gadget: the Sony Ericsson 2530i.

RESPECT

Who do you nominate for the Hip2b2 badge of respect, and why?

We spoke to students at the recent SABC Education Careers Fair.

ZULPH

A

AN

DIS

WA

The ‘Energy’ issue has just arrived at my school and the cover looks much better than the last one, and catches your eye. It’s amazing how much this brand has grown over the years. My question is: do you think the whole repositioning of Hip2b2 has done the brand some good? Do you think the new publishing company is doing well in maintaining the standards previously set? The website is a job well done and I can’t wait to see the new set of the TV show!

09MASNDA

I really like the new Hip2b2 mag and think it’s totally awesome. It’s a total upgrade and I enjoy reading it even more than before. Our copies were handed out late but luckily I was able to receive it from someone else.

ASH

ING

E

NADINE STRYDOM

Nadine, a marine biologist specialising in larval fi shes at the South African

Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity, is a young leader in the world of

science. She has recently been named Best Emerging Young Woman

Scientist at the Women in Science awards, for her Ph.D. research.

Keep it up!

VUY

OKAZI

YOU SAID IT

community.indd 2 8/8/07 1:04:57 PM

FORUM

HI

P

BY

N

UM

BE

RSEBRAHIM HOOSEN, Grade 11 at Pinelands

High School, recently attended a DST/Thuthuka Maths and Science Development Camp.‘I attended this camp to gain information on different careers. One of the most interesting aspects was dissecting a baby shark. I also enjoyed

the scientifi c experiments showing how pressure systems work. It was cool because we were able to understand how aeroplanes lift off.

The highlights were the new friendships and the prizes, such as cash, microscopes and money. Kate Evans (everyone should know her) honoured us with her presence.

Overall, the camp was so good that everyone was sad to leave.’

EYEWITNESS

ROWAN SIMONS

Grade 11, Beauvallon High School‘I’d like to do mechanical engineering in order to learn to make safer cars.’Favourite subjects: maths and physics.Favourite gadget: my desktop computer.

ASHWIN BESTER

Grade 11, Trafalgar High School‘I’d like to be a chartered accountant because there is a need for honest accountants in this country.’Favourite subjects: maths, business economy and accounting.Favourite gadget: the Motorola L7.

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6 9 % of <www.hip2b2.com> website visitors believe in saving money, according to our recent online poll. Forty-two per cent are on Facebook and 23% are on MySpace. Visit the site now for more cool stats.

1 9 6 4 was the year in which American Robert Moog produced the fi rst Moog synthesizer. Read about the evolution of music technology on page 11.

7 2 0 schools throughout South Africa receive the Hip2b2 magazine. If you’d like to subscribe, refer to page 38 for details.

2 September 1882 was the day that Kimberley became the fi rst place in the southern hemisphere to install electric streetlights.

1 3 countries competed in the fi rst World Cup Soccer tournament, which was held in Uruguay in 1930.

7 , 5 1 metres is the longest set of fi ngernails recorded, which belong to a woman. At least we know she doesn’t pick her nose all day.

BY S

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TELL US ABOUT IT

Have you attended any fascinating or life-changing event, camp, conference or Olympiad? Tell us about it. Write to Hip2b2

Eyewitness, PO Box 440, Green Point 8051 (remember to include a photograph), or send an email to <talk2us@hip2b2.com>.

SAVE THESE DATES

• September is African Origins Month. In our next issue we salute the pioneers, groundbreakers and innovators of our continent.

• National Maths Week: 3 to 7 September.

ASHW

IN

For more comments, visit the events section in Chill at <www.hip2b2.com>.

community.indd 3 8/8/07 1:05:40 PM

Be on the lookout for the new PSP (PlayStation Portable), which should arrive

in stores from October. From the front it looks the same as the original but the

developers have fi gured out a way to make it thinner and lighter without removing any features

or changing the size of the screen. There is also a new video-out port, which means you’ll be able to hook

up your PSP to a TV or VCR to play your games on a bigger screen, or record your action. Finally, you can now charge

the PSP by plugging it into the USB port of your PS3 or PC.

Magically make it go awayIf you accidentally write on a whiteboard with a permanent marker instead of a whiteboard marker, it’s a bit of a disaster, right? Not necessarily. Here’s a trick to fi x the problem: write over the permanent mark with a proper whiteboard marker, then clean the board with a damp cloth or whiteboard eraser as you normally would. Problem solved! Why is this?

According to Dr Martin Bredenkamp of the department of chemistry and polymer science at Stellenbosch University, permanent marker ink’s adhesion (its attraction to other substances) is stronger than its cohesion (the forces that keep it together). The ink clings so strongly to the whiteboard that you can’t wipe it off. In contrast, whiteboard marker ink’s cohesion overpowers its adhesion ability. Its molecules don’t have a strong affi nity for the whiteboard and it is easy to clean off. Permanent marker ink dissolves temporarily when you write over it with whiteboard marker ink. When the solvent evaporates, the molecules of the permanent ink adhere to those of the whiteboard ink, and the ink can be wiped off.

the science of everyday things

SMAR

T TEC

HNOL

OGY LIGHT GAMING

LOW-TECH MOMENT

6

Here’s what you need to know:

according to Dr Anwar Jardine of the department of chemistry and polymer science at Stellenbosch University whiteboard markers use methyl n-butyl ketone (MIBK) and n-butyl acetate (NBA), among others, as solvents (substances that dissolve other substances). These solvents remove the pigments (substances that colour the ink) in permanent markers.

WANT TO IMPRESS YOUR TEACHER?

smart technology.indd 2 8/7/07 9:21:07 AM

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WATER MUSIC

Waterwise technology means you can now listen to your favourite tracks while surfi ng or swimming.

The H2O Audio Waterproof Housing for iPod nano (2nd Gen) has a rubber seal that prevents water from getting into the case. Plug the special H2O Audio Series Waterproof Headphones into the SealTight Connector and you’re good to go to a depth of three metres. The casing has a built-in scroll-wheel control called the ‘commander’ so you can operate your iPod normally while swimming, bodyboarding, or even snowboarding. The products are all tested in a pressure

chamber before they are shipped to make sure that they will work and your iPod won’t be fl ooded. The

American company that manufactures these casings, H2O Audio <h2oaudio.com>, also

makes housings for other kinds of iPods.

The Freestyle Waterproof MP3 Player weighs less than 35 g and is waterproof for up to three metres. It is shockproof and is designed to be tough so that you can use it while doing most water sports or even while practising your dance moves.

The player comes with waterproof in-ear buds and you can control it with four

buttons on the housing. The website <www.freestyleaudio.com> has a

Flash demo of the player so you can try out some tunes and play with the volume controls to see how it works.

SMART TECHNOLOGY

7

FAST FACT

A hyperbaric pressure chamber is a device that can be used to re-create the higher-pressure conditions that occur under the sea, since water is heavier than air. The higher pressure can cause objects to break, crack or leak if they aren’t made of pressure-resistant materials.

Imagine playing some interesting licks and cyber-surfi ng at the same time. This Fender Telecaster concept guitar has a built-in Hewlett-Packard tablet PC, which is a type of notebook computer with a touch screen. You can use it to listen to

music through headphones, surf the Web, download tracks, and record, play back and email tracks. Unfortunately, because it is only a concept prototype designed to demonstrate music technology, you can’t

buy one for yourself. It was a project between Intel, a company that manufactures computer

processors, and Fender, the guitar manufacturer favoured by some of the world’s most famous musicians, including the members of Radiohead.

SURF GUITAR

DID YOU KNOW?

The Fender Telecaster is an electric guitar with a solid body (most guitars are hollow inside). It has been in production since 1950. The solid body results in a clearer sound than electric guitars that have hollow bodies.

smart technology.indd 2 8/7/07 9:21:20 AM

DID YOU KNOW

It’s not a new thing to fi nd rare materials in the construction of speakers but Markus Egger of Germany built his speakers with concrete. Why? Because the heavier they are, the better the sound – just feel the weight difference between a good speaker and a cheap one. Light and plastic: bad sound; heavy and ‘dead’: good sound.

we take it apart DECONSTRUCTION

magnet

Electrical signals from the amplifi er fl ow into

the wire terminals.

8

The diaphragm creates sound waves when moving back and forth.

The spider supports the bottom end of the paper diaphragm.

The magnetic fi eld of the voice coil interacts with the magnetic fi eld of the magnet to create a force that moves the coil diaphragm back and forth.

The suspension supports the diaphragm above.

dust cap

The frame or basket is either cast steel

or pressed steel.

decon.indd 2 8/8/07 9:34:25 AM

9

THE SPEAKER

THE INNER WORKINGS

Loudspeakers are really very simple devices in terms of how they work. They essentially turn electrical energy into sound so that you can hear it. An amplifi er generates electrical energy that alternates constantly between positive and negative in a pattern of waves that vary in size and frequency. The output from the amplifi er is connected to the speaker at the wire terminals. There is a fi ne braided wire that carries the signal from the terminals on the frame to the conductors leading to the voice coil, which is mounted on a rigid cylinder in the centre of the cone. These wires are extremely fl exible to enable the cone (diaphragm) to move back and forth without restriction or stress, and without breaking. All the moving parts operate as a single unit, moving back and forth in the magnetic fi eld, and are suspended by the surround, or outer edge of the cone at the front, and by the ‘spider’ support at the rear. Since the voice coil is rigidly mounted to the cone, the resulting energy is transmitted to the cone, which produces a piston-like motion to move the air and therefore produce the sound.

BEST BITWhen the music is really loud you can physically see the vibrations

generated as the cone or diaphragm moves back and forth. The cone is sometimes constructed of

carbon fi bre or titanium but paper is still commonly used in cheaper speakers.

WHO WOULD HAVE GUESSED? Sound frequencies have healing properties. Specially designed stereo speakers known as sound columns can re-establish the sounds of nature. As in nature, you are surrounded by sound because there is no obvious point where the music, or sound,

comes from. Modern digital music and hi-fi systems don’t, however, have these benefi cial properties. The healing properties of the sound columns, which developed by

German sound engineer Rudolf Mechow, were discovered by him after he suffered

a stroke.

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Would you believe that about 120 years ago it would have been impossible to listen to your favourite track on the radio? We take you on a journey from the phonoautograph to the

iPod nano. And we also show you how science helps to determine a hit song.

T H E E V O L U T I O N O F

T E C H N O L O G Y

musicupdate.indd 1 8/7/07 9:40:18 AM

It all begins when French inventor Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville creates the phonoautograph. It records sound waves by means of a membrane attached to a pen that traces the waves onto a roll of paper.

Thomas Edison invents the phonograph, the fi rst device to record and play back

sound. It consists of a cylinder covered in tin foil or wax and a stylus that leaves grooves on the surface as the sound is

recorded. When the needle retracks these grooves and the vibrations are amplifi ed,

the recording is played back.

Alexander Graham Bell asks his cousin Chichester Bell and engineer Charles Sumner Tainter to improve Edison’s phonograph. They use cylinders made entirely of wax and their stylus is loosely mounted. These changes improve sound clarity and steady the pitch.

Emile Berliner makes the gramophone the dominant force

in audio playing devices for decades. His invention records

and plays by means of grooves on the side of a fl at disc rather than

a cylinder. These discs become gramophone records and music

becomes commercially available.

Guglielmo Marconi makes history when he invents the radio. He makes the fi rst transatlantic radio transmission in 1901 and in 1909 he wins the Nobel Prize for Physics.

The ‘war of speeds’ between Columbia Records and RCA Victor leads to developments in vinyl records. Shellac (a secretion from an Asian insect) had previously been used, but both companies manufacture sturdier vinyl records with better sound quality. In the end, Columbia’s 33 rpm long-play microgroove record becomes the standard for half a century. Home record players come with various speed settings, a number of stylus sizes and an adapter so that RCA’s 45 rpm records can be played on the same machine.

1857

1877

1886

1887

1895

1948(1950

musicupdate.indd 2 8/7/07 9:41:30 AM

Stereo recordings, which lead to better balanced sound and higher fi delity (the degree of exactness with which something is copied), become the norm. Audio engineer John Mullin and singer Bing Crosby make magnetic tape recording commercially viable. It involves a magnetisable tape moving over a recording head at constant speed while an electrical signal sent through the head causes a magnetisation pattern on the tape. The pattern re-creates the signal when played back. Next comes the 8-track magnetic cartridge format. In 1963 Philips introduces the compact cassette.

Sony revolutionises personal and portable audio devices with the launch of the fi rst Walkman. Pedestrians take their personal soundtracks to the streets.

Cassette and vinyl sales drop and CD becomes popular. This creates a demand for portable CD players. The introduction of anti-skip or anti-shock technology in 1997 allows CD players to be used during activities such as jogging.

European engineers combine their own ideas with previous proposals for audio compression, and the MP3 is born. The MP3 encoding format shrinks the amount of data needed for a sound signal. This is done with a lossy compression algorithm, which means some sound data is lost when the audio is converted from another source to MP3, but the sound remains true to the original recording. The fi rst MP3 player comes on to the market in 1998.

TECHNOLOGY TIMELINE

1979

1982 1998

1990

2001 Apple launches the iPod MP3 player, which becomes the biggest-selling digital audio player in history.

2004 Oakley launches THUMP, the fi rst sunglasses with a built-in MP3 player.

2007 and beyond Wi-Fi network music servers, high-resolution audio players, digital sound projectors and high-defi nition radios will all be on our gift wish lists as we make our way into a future that sure sounds schweet.

13

During the 1970s, digital audio gains momentum with pulse-code modulation. The immensity of the sound waves of an analogue signal is sampled at constant intervals and then converted to symbols in binary code*. This results in a digital form of analogue signal (or sound, in computer language). A joint effort by Philips and Sony results in the launch of the compact disc. Sony releases the fi rst CD player, and a new audio revolution begins.

1963

FAST FACT

*Binary code is the representation of data as unique sequences or strings of eight binary digits.

musicupdate.indd 3 8/7/07 9:42:17 AM

Imagine being able to tune your brain the same way you tune a radio. Whenever you feel angry, you could listen to a song and be instantly calmed. What if you could press play to get your brain into study mode? Fantastic. This idea may seem far-fetched, but a lot of scientists are trying to make it happen.

MIND UNDER MUSIC

When music is played, the brain literally becomes a symphony of electrical impulses, triggering anything from the urge to play air guitar to a feeling of serenity. Both hemispheres of the brain are needed to interpret the various parts of the auditory signal, which further proves that music is good stimulation for the brain.

Playing an instrument also improves coordination, reading skills, mathematical ability and memory. For years there’s been a lot of speculation about the Mozart effect. The theory states that listening to music by Mozart improves memory function. A study was published in the 10 July 1999 issue of

MUSIC AND MOOD

Going on music

Psychological Studies in which a team at Appalachian State University, USA, failed to fi nd evidence to prove the existence of the Mozart effect. The fact remains that when Gordon Shaw and Francis Rauscher conducted their original research in 1993, they did fi nd a temporary improvement in spatial-temporal reasoning (the ability to think in pictures and manipulate those pictures in your mind). This led to the coining of the term ‘Mozart effect’.

DOES MUSIC BOOST

BRAIN POWER?

Well, apparently it does … but that’s if you play an instrument. Hundreds of studies have proven that students who play an instrument show an improvement in their academic skills and their ability to concentrate, and they are more disciplined. The other advantage is that it’s good for stress relief and relaxation.

If playing an instrument is out of the question, there’s nothing wrong with just kicking back and listening to good music. Laid-back music with a tempo between 55 and 85 beats per minute helps stimulate brain waves, which leads to a state of being chilled out. So, next time exam stress levels skyrocket, the day seems a little dull or perhaps the mood just isn’t right, hit the play button and let the music move you.

Music is used in intensive-care unit (ICU) wards in hospitals to help

patients maintain a positive mood. It is also used in the treatment

of a variety of ailments, from pain relief to promoting a

calm feeling in people with psychological disorders.

Fitness experts encourage working out to a beat because it encourages people to exercise harder. Music is also recommended to students by every guide on dealing with exam stress.

14

MUSIC HEALS AND ENERGISES

Does music have the power to manipulate your mind, change your mood and help you to concentrate?

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musicupdate.indd 4 8/7/07 9:42:45 AM

Frequency amplified?When you hear Beyoncé singing: ‘To the left, to the left …’, you’re hearing sound waves. A wave is created when something disturbs particles of air, liquids or solids. The particles clump together or move away from each other to form waves. This disturbance also causes a transfer of energy between particles, which enables the sound waves to travel. The frequency of sound is the number of waves that pass a certain point in a set time. To make sounds audible or cause changes in volume, the amplifi cation is varied. Amplifi cation is an increase of energy fl ow in the sound wave so that you can hear it. When you turn the volume down, you restrict the energy fl ow of the sound waves from your radio so you perceive the sound to be softer on the ears.

WHAT’S IN A CD?

A CD consists of a label, a protective acrylic layer, a refl ective layer (usually made of aluminium) and a plastic layer. Data is written on the refl ective layer in a series of microscopic bumps and indentations, called lands and pits, in a spiral from the centre of the disc to the rim. To retrieve data, the laser bounces off the lands and pits and the computer translates these into 1s and 0s, or digital data.

CD-Rs and CD-RWs (writable and rewritable CDs) each have an extra layer on which data is written. The extra layer on a CD-R contains dye that darkens to make the 0s when the laser light switches on and when the laser is off it makes a 1. The extra layer of a CD-RW has a chemical that the laser can repeatedly change to either clear or opaque, which is why you can can write to a CD-RW over and over.

15

Digital vs analogueBefore the great MySpace versus Facebook debate, the big competition was between digital and analogue audio systems. Both produce high-quality audio, but digital audio is cheaper and recordings are perfect copies of the original sound. Digital recording translates the original sound into data known as binary code. Each piece of data is a ‘bit’ and is represented as 1 or 0. Bits eventually amount to bytes of data we commonly know as our iPod playlists. A song is typically three megabytes, or just over 25 000 000 bits of data.

SOUND SEMANTICS

The natural human voice can shatter glass, scientists have discovered, but it’s very diffi cult, even for a trained opera singer. All objects vibrate at a resonate frequency. To shatter a glass, the voice must match the frequency of the glass, that is, be at the same pitch that the glass vibrates. Other factors infl uence it too, such as the shape of the glass, type of glass (crystal is best because it resonates a clear tone) and for how long the note is held.

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SHATTER GLASS WITH YOUR VOICE

Visit <www.google.com> and search for ‘MythBusters – Breaking Glass With Human Voice’ for videos and more information.

,

musicupdate.indd . 8/7/07 9:56:0. AM

MUSIC AND MATHS

Essentially, modern Western music is based on eight notes that vary in pitch. The numerical distance between notes makes up chords and harmonies. In order to create rhythm in music, the notes must also differ in length.

Rhythm is a numerical pattern of beats in time. This is indicated by the time signature – for example, 3/4, 4/4, 6/8. 6/8 time is faster than 3/4 because the beats are shorter. It is interesting to note that the time signature almost always consists of numbers divisible by two or three.

Can you use mathematics to make music? Greek philosopher Pythagoras believed it could be done. Pythagorean tuning is based on sets of fi ve notes and these notes are tuned so that their frequencies are in the ratio 3:2. This system of tuning is suited to some

genres of music, particularly classical music written in the early Renaissance period.

Another way of using mathematics to calculate great music is by analysing the

frequency of notes. Jeffrey Rosenthal, a professor at the University of

Toronto, Canada, explained this system in an article he wrote.

He says that one can look at the pattern of the sound waves in the frequency of a particular note. The same note one octave higher has a frequency twice as high so the

patterns of the sound waves will fi t together.

Chords are made when notes of different frequencies fi t

together symmetrically.

An interesting use for maths and music is found in the commercial music industry. Spanish company Polyphonic HMI developed

MAKE MONEY WITH MUSIC

You don’t only need the Pop Idol look to pursue a musical career. Science and maths open doors to great careers, such as music therapy, electronic design engineering and ethnomusicology, to name but a few. For more on these and other careers, visit <www.hip2b2.com>.

Music is about notes but, more importantly, it’s about numbers. Music by numbers

a computer program, called Hit Song Science, that calculates whether or not a song will make it to the top of the charts. It starts by studying 20 assigned variables of a song, from the pitch to the tempo, matches it against a database of 3,5 million previous hits, and then gives the song a score that indicates whether it will be a hit or a fl op.

Hit Song Science not only accurately predicted the success of Norah Jones’s fi rst album, Come Away With Me, but, more recently, predicted the success of Mika’s debut single ‘Grace Kelly’.

Will the next Idols winner be predicted by a computer program? Will Rihanna resort to Pythagorean tuning? Who knows. The fact remains that maths and music are forever entwined. If music makes the world go round, go forth and calculate. BY

ERI

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THE SCIENCE OF A HIT SONG

THE SUM OF GREAT MUSIC

musicupdate.indd . 8/7/07 9:56:69 AM

Here’s an easy-to-follow plan to build an African ! nger piano. This well-known instrument is used in various forms of traditional African music and has a unique sound – the one on the right was bought from a street vendor. The DIY design comes from an organisation called Bash the Trash. It is an American educational organisation that educates children in music, recycling, maths, literacy

and different cultures by showing them how to make instruments from recyclable materials.

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CUT YOUR OWN MUSIC DEMO Who needs Idols to be a star? Load up on freeware such as Ardour and Audacity and turn your home into a studio.Ardour <ardour.org> is an open-source digital-audio program. You can use it to record, edit and mix multi-track audio. You can produce your own CDs, mix video soundtracks, or just experiment with new ideas about music and sound. Audacity is free, open-source software for recording and editing sounds and samples. It’s available for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. Visit <audacity.sourceforge.net> to download it.

WHAT YOU NEEDlarge hairpins (the bigger, the better) • pliers • hammer • heavy-duty staple gun

• heavy-duty staples • plywood (15 x 15 cm and 1 cm thick)

Make your own

HOW TO MAKE IT1 Break the hairpins in half. Start by crushing

the bent part in the pliers or hammer the bent section until it’s fl at, but be careful not to hurt your fi ngers. When you open the hairpin it will snap in half at the bent section. Each half of the hairpin will form a key of your piano and you’ll pluck on the rounded tip. Be very careful because you can hurt yourself on the sharp end of the hairpin.

2 Staple the halves of the hairpins onto the plywood. Use two or more staples for each key and start by placing the staples at the sharp end of the fi rst key. You may need to hammer the staples into the wood to secure the hairpin. As you create each key from left to right, place the staples a little further away from the sharp end. On the last key the set of staples should be exactly halfway between the sharp end and the rounded tip. Each key will now produce a higher-pitched sound than the one to the left of it, creating a scale of notes.

3 After you’ve secured your piano keys, gently bend each key upwards so it will vibrate when you pluck it. Pluck the rounded tip of the keys and enjoy playing on your African fi nger piano.

musicupdate.indd 7 8/7/07 9:49:57 AM

teenage brain

The CEREBELLUM

controls involuntary (automatic) aspects of movement such as posture, balance and

coordination. It takes over many physical skills once we’ve learnt them. That’s why riding a bicycle takes effort at fi rst but becomes

automatic with practice.

Feeling hot or cold all the time? The PARIETAL LOBE

receives information from the skin. Neurons (nerve cells) there process

touch and sensation information, including information about heat,

cold, pressure, pain and the position of the body in space.

Can’t hear your mom calling you to do the dishes? The TEMPORAL LOBE helps with hearing, speech and some kinds of memory.

The CEREBRUM (the Latin word for brain) is the largest part of the brain. It is where perception, imagination and thought occur, and where judgements and decisions are made.

Beauty is not just in the eye of the beholder but in your

OCCIPITAL LOBE (often called the visual cortex).

It processes and interprets sensory information from the eyes.

The BRAIN STEM (sometimes called the reptilian brain) controls essential survival functions such as breathing and heartbeat, as well as sleeping and waking, digestion, body temperature and the elimination of waste products.

What helps you plan your day, fall in love, and walk upright? The answer is inside your head.

Until recently, scientists could study the structure of the brain only after someone had died, which wasn’t much use in fi nding out how the brain functions while we’re alive. But now they have developed non-invasive brain-imaging techniques, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)*, which can produce clear images of the living human brain and help us understand how it works. The teenage brain is still growing and it is teeming with hormones. The changes happen mainly in the frontal cortex,

which controls executive (organising) functions such as concentrating, planning tasks and controlling our emotions. This explains the mood swings and feeling of being out of control that are so prevalent during adolescence: while the frontal lobe is growing, it is diffi cult for your brain to become organised (it is like trying to live in a house while builders are still doing alterations). The good news is that once this stage is over, you will be able to do all these things even better than before.

THE SECRETS OF THE

To improve your time-management skills you need to work your FRONTAL

LOBE. It controls planning, reasoning, movement, and some aspects of speech.

brain.indd 2 8/8/07 1:54:18 PM

Fuse your logic with your creativity in the CORPUS CALLOSUM, a bundle of fi bres that connects the left and right hemispheres of the brain. Like a telephone line, it carries the messages needed to coordinate left- and right-brain functions. The LIMBIC SYSTEM, not the heart, is

the centre of human emotions. It also helps to control temperature, blood pressure and heart rate.

So it plays a big role in falling in love.

The THALAMUS channels impulses from all the senses except smell to the cerebral cortex. It plays a role in memory, because it sorts the important information from the insignifi cant.

The PINEAL GLAND is thought to play an important role

in regulating the body’s internal clock and daily rhythms. It produces a hormone called melatonin, which

helps us go to sleep and wake up. This gland is clearly very erratic in

the teenage brain.

A very active part of the teen brain is the HYPOTHALAMUS. It regulates body temperature, hunger, thirst, blood pressure, blood volume, sleeping, waking and urination.

Sometimes referred to as ‘fear central’, the AMYGDALA plays a part in integrating the senses, for example, hearing with sight. An example of it working is when you see something scary, such as a snake, and instinctively jump backwards or scream.

The HIPPOCAMPUS

helps put your fears in context and integrates sensory

information, such as linking two objects in different places.

It is essential to memory formation. This explains why

visual aids such as mind-maps help us remember things.

BRAIN SCIENCE

FAST FACT

*The invention of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in 1977 was a major breakthrough in imaging technology. The person is placed on a moveable bed that is inserted into a giant circular magnet, and radio frequency signals are used to get cross-sectional images of any part of the body.

19

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brain.indd 3 8/8/07 1:54:46 PM

I T ’ S A L L I N T H E B R A I NResearchers are asking what impact our brain has on our fears … and whether science can conquer it.

Fear is a funny thing. It can show up unexpectedly and save your neck, and it can make you worry at 3 am about things that could go wrong or things you need to do. The nature of fear has always been a mystery. Now, using PET (positron emission tomography) and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scans to look

inside the living brain, scientists have begun to map the geography of this intimate companion. They can point to a region of the brain where courage seems to be, and to another that is home to panic. They can also measure biological differences that appear to make one person brave and another timid.

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fear.indd 2 8/8/07 1:55:27 PM

21

PSYCHOLOGY

Fear, it turns out, can be reduced to its neurobiological

parts. Contrary to its reputation, fear, in moderation, is a good thing.

Veterans of extreme sports all tend to put it the same way: ‘The people

who worry me are the ones who have no fear, because they’re going to get

killed,’ says Will Gadd, a paraglider, climber and kayaker.

Fear was built into us as a survival mechanism, to keep us alert in a world full of danger. The basic machinery is the same in all mammals.

As scientists now understand it, fear and courage alike are the products of a continual conversation, sometimes fast and heated, involving three parts of the brain: the amygdala, the hippocampus, and the prefrontal cortex. (See the brain feature on page 18.)

The amygdala is fear central. It has a type of inbox that comes programmed with innate fears (of snakes, for instance) and also forms vivid memories of new things that scare us (such as a close call with an avalanche). The amygdala’s inbox is constantly scanning for these threats, and any hint of them triggers the amygdala’s outbox to fi re off the signals that produce a fear response: fi ght, fl ight or freeze mode.

By the time the conscious brain catches on and says, ‘Snake!’ three-tenths of a

second later, this subconscious early warning system has already stopped you dead in your tracks.

The hippocampus helps put your fears in context. It’s what tells you to be less afraid when the snake is in a zoo and more afraid when it is in a forest. Some people have a bigger, more active hippocampus, and it seems to make them more resilient. They

may be tumbling down the second-highest mountain in the world, deafened and blinded by an avalanche, but they still somehow manage to know up from down and focus on doing the right thing. Other people, with a less robust hippocampus, become disoriented by stress.

What really excites fear researchers is the third party to this conversation, an area of the brain just behind the eyes, on the

underside of the prefrontal cortex. Courage, it turns out, is largely a product of the pea-size region known as the ventral-medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). This obscure patch of brain is what moderates the fear response in the amygdala. It’s where we learn when not to be afraid, and how to move forward despite our fears – a process scientists refer to as ‘extinction training’.

Human beings are built to recall things that scare us badly. Having our emotions

dictate memory helps keep us alive. The hormones that cause you to feel fear – raising your heart rate and your blood pressure – also cause you to remember. Noradrenaline in the brain grabs the amygdala by the inbox and yells, ‘Hey! This is important!’ It can keep on yelling for hours after the incident, until the scary details are consolidated, with the help of the hippocampus,

and become a long-term memory. Therefore natural selection favours

vivid fear memory. But fear memory alone isn’t enough. So we have also

evolved extinction training, a process by which we extinguish the fear.

We don’t forget the event that scared us. Instead, we gradually form a new memory in the vmPFC. By going back to the glacier and crossing it again and again, properly prepared now, we defi ne the threat more precisely and learn when not to be scared. For instance, crevasses tend to occur on convex slopes. So climbers learn to be less worried on fl at or concave surfaces. Learning essential skills also helps us to control fear. When a beginner feels one foot go into a crevasse, his panicky amygdala

fear.indd 3 8/8/07 1:55:50 PM

22

PSYCHOLOGY

response can make him freeze and crash on through. But an experienced climber learns to suppress the response and jump forward.

The ability to get past the fear is a common theme among extreme athletes. Partly, they get there through training, experience, and breaking a problem down into steps; and partly, research now suggests, they get there through being biologically suited. The architecture of the brain itself may also enable some people to be better at handling fear without getting rattled.

However, the most intriguing and counter-intuitive tool for handling fear does not require putting anything in the body, yet it produces signifi cant structural and functional changes in the brain.

In one meditation study, University of Wisconsin psychologist Richard Davidson used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to look at the brains of ordinary workers at a local company. Some people had more activity in the right side of the prefrontal cortex, an area associated with fear and withdrawal; others had a higher level of activity on the left side, an area associated with being positive and moving forward. Then test subjects began an organised programme of daily meditation. After just eight weeks, Davidson found that the balance of activity in the prefrontal cortex in these test subjects had shifted by as much as 15% to the less fearful left side.

Despite the old belief that our brain cells dwindle away and won’t be replaced as we age, Davidson’s evidence suggests that we can in fact make long-term improvements in the brain, particularly in structures associated with fear. Scientists have also recently demonstrated new cell growth in the hippocampus of adult human beings, and they theorise that physical exercise is a key contributing factor.

Fear researchers have simply opened up the traditional toolbox of courage, expanded it a little, and added an instruction manual on the oldest challenge in the struggle for survival: how to do what needs to be done even in the face of death.

It isn’t really about the fear, says climber Jack Tackle. ‘It’s not about

being afraid, or being an adrenaline junkie. It’s about the ability to stay focused and keep solving the problem.’

Scientists have made real progress

in teasing out the fear machinery of one

man’s mind. But what about the peculiar process that takes shape

when a group of minds comes together? Why does courage occur more readily in a tightly bonded band of brothers? Why is it so often contagious? What is the chemistry of pride that makes a person stand even when the fear centres of his brain say he should run? What makes an ordinary man risk his life to save a stranger? Neuroscientists are just beginning to answer these questions.

Meanwhile, they have at least given us a few good tools to help when our own moment of fear comes knocking at the door.

WEIRD FEARS

Phobias are irrational fears – the fear of something that is unlikely to happen or not really dangerous. You’ve probably outgrown lachanophobia (the fear of vegetables) and achluophobia (the fear of the dark) but are there still days when you’d rather not go to school? Try telling the principal you suffer from didaskaleinophobia (the fear of going to school). Better still, get a medical certifi cate to prove it – unless you suffer from latrophobia, the fear of doctors, or katagelophobia, fear of ridicule. Everyone is scared of something; check out some of these unusual phobias.

Alektorophobia – fear of chickens Alliumphobia – fear of garlic

Arachibutyrophobia – fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouthBarophobia – fear of gravityCnidophobia – fear of stringConsecotaleophobia – fear

of chopsticksHelmintophobia – fear of being

infested with wormsHippopotomonstrosequippedaliophobia – fear of long wordsMelophobia – fear of musicVenustraphobia – fear of beautiful womenPapyrophobia – fear of paperPhilophobia – fear of falling in loveThaasophobia – fear of sittingFind more at <www.phobialist.com>.

WHAT’S YOUR PHOBIA?

Scared of spiders, slime or sausage rolls? Tell us what frightens you in the Chat forum at <www.hip2b2.com>.

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SCI DIY

26

INSPECT THE

EARTHAre you cut out for a career examining rocks, mountains and the earth’s natural resources? Do this experiment as your ! rst test.

WHAT YOU NEEDgravel • sand • silt • two glass or plastic 500 ml measuring jugs • water

HOW TO DO IT1 Fill one measuring jug with 350 ml gravel, sand or silt, whichever one you

choose to test fi rst.2 Fill the other jug to the 500 ml mark with water.3 Carefully pour the water into the fi rst jug until it covers all the gravel.

Record exactly how much water you use, which is the difference between 500 ml and what remains in the jug.

4 Go ahead and follow the same steps for the sand and the silt.

HOW TO DO THE SUMDivide the quantity of water you used by the total volume of the material, then express this result as a percentage. For example if you were able to add 120 ml water to 350 ml gravel, the result would be:

120 ml = 0,3428 = 34,28% 350 ml

Therefore, the porosity of the gravel is 34,28%. Got it! Now try this experiment with the rest of the materials.

EXPERIMENT WITH POROSITYGeologists lead exciting lives: they study the link between the atmosphere, the earth, the ocean … and life.

They study the earth’s surface in order to predict the possibility of disasters such as earthquakes. So they need to know how porous substances or formations are.

How porous are the different types of sandstone such as gravel, sand and silt? Do the following experiment to fi nd out.

sasol.indd 2 8/8/07 2:00:41 PM

GEOLOGYHow did Mount Everest get so enormous … and how did it get there? These are the types of questions geologists can answer. They are the scientists who study the link between the atmosphere, the earth, the ocean and life. In this fi eld you learn how gems, gold, rocks (including mountains) and all kinds of industrial minerals such as coal, oil, gas, water and uranium are formed. The study of geology is not just to uncover the earth’s resources but to examine the causes of natural disasters such as earthquakes, landslides and volcanos.

This career will suit you if you’re patient by nature, since research takes time. You’d have lots of opportunities to visit interesting places to study rocks, mountains, water, minerals and even volcanoes erupting in Iceland. Do you want to be a geologist? You need at least a C symbol in mathematics and physical science on higher grade to register at a tertiary institution. UCT and Wits University offer a three-year Bachelor of Science degree (BSc) in geology. You can study for a fourth year for a BSc Honours degree, which is needed if you want to register as a natural scientist.

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REACHING NEW FRONTIERS

Sasol is not just another fuel company. It is innovative beyond belief, going right back to the company’s origins, which grew out of the wacky idea of turning coal into petrol. Sasol uses science to create magic and improve lives, and it is an established market leader in the energy industry.

Renowned as an excellent employer, it also offers exceptional opportunities for talented individuals. The Sasol bursary scheme is highly sought-after and aims to attract outstanding individuals to the organisation, specifi cally students who are genuinely interested in mathematics and science. The goal, therefore, is to provide students with the curiosity, enthusiasm and zest necessary to appreciate science and mathematics as subjects of learning for everyone, not just scientists.

If you feel you have what it takes to work for this dynamic, market-leading company, fi nd out if you qualify for its bursary scheme by visiting <www.sasolbursaries.com> or calling 0860 106 235. Bursaries are on offer for full-time university studies in the disciplines: BSc Engineering, BSc and BCom. An equal-opportunity employer, Sasol awards bursaries to deserving students of all population groups.

sasol.indd 3 8/8/07 2:01:30 PM

FAST FACTS• In your lifetime, you will spend a total

of 38,5 days brushing your teeth.• The average guy smiles almost eight

times less than the average girl – sounds like a case of tooth phobia.

• You should keep your toothbrush at least two metres away from the toilet so that bacteria don’t spread to it when you fl ush – gross!

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Two questions for the forum: how often do you fl oss? (Be honest.) What do you think about tooth jewellery? Share your views with us in the forum in the Chat section at <www.hip2b2.com>.

28

BODY SMART

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Most of us manage to avoid that pesky drill with skill and trickery: ‘Mom, I have a test today. I won’t be able to make my dentist appointment.’ Before going to sit in the dentist’s chair, it may help to know that he’ll check the health of your teeth and gums, then he’ll look for plaque and tooth decay.

WHAT IS PLAQUE?

It is a build-up of various types of bacteria, also called biofi lms, that cling to your teeth and consume sugars in the foods that pass through your mouth.What causes tooth decay? Bacteria thrive on anything that contains sugars or starch. The guys in the outer layer are exposed to oxygen and those beneath (the anaerobes) are not, and they therefore digest sugar differently and produce different waste products. The anaerobes produce acids that eat away at the enamel (the hard coating of your teeth) and tooth decay is the result.Why are some teeth whiter than others?First, our genes determine the natural colour of your teeth. Then, as you get older, the

There’s one thing that can make even the brave shiver in their boots: a trip to the dentist.

Ensure that you look after your teeth and gums by following these health tips:• Brush twice a day to remove plaque.• Floss once a day to clean between your

teeth where a toothbrush doesn’t reach.• Make sure your toothpaste has a very

important ingredient: fl uoride.• If you have sensitive teeth, use a special

toothpaste, but fi rst check with your dentist whether any underlying factors are causing the sensitivity.

• Visit the dentist every six months, not just when you have toothache. While you’re there, ask the dental hygienist to clean your teeth professionally when necessary.

enamel wears down and reveals the darker dentine below. Teeth also collect

stains, often caused by caffeinated drinks and smoking, so those should be avoided.

SWEET THINGS

Your diet plays a major role in the health of your teeth (and the girth of your belly). As you know, sugar is the main enemy and it also depends on how much you eat, what type it is and when you eat it. What type? Dentists agree that sucking sweets (including breath mints) can cause the most damage because your teeth are exposed to the sugar for longer periods of time. Fizzy drinks are also a no-no. The sweeter the snack, the happier the bacteria, and they especially love the little bits that get stuck between your teeth. The more sweets you guzzle, the worse off you will be. When? You should avoid eating sugary foods before you go to sleep because your mouth doesn’t make enough saliva to protect your pearlies during the night.

Keep your pearly whites

body smart 2 8/7/07 10:02:23 AM

Swimming exercises all your muscles and there is less risk of injury

HANDS

These are the paddles you use to move through the water. Keeping your fi ngers together increases the resistance your hand gives to the water – some swimming instructors say your fi ngers should be slightly apart, but the difference is negligible. What is most important is to keep your hands relaxed. Water is about 10 times more resistant than air.

ARMS

The fastest swimming strokes, in order of speed are:• Freestyle (also called crawl) • Butterfl y• Backstroke• Breaststroke

LUNGS

Even if you aren’t a great swimmer, staying afl oat is as easy as holding your breath. Your body is actually 70% water – you are almost the same density as water – so only 30% of you wants to sink. All you have to do, then, is hold your breath and you will fl oat. Most people’s lungs can hold from four to six litres of air.

BRAIN

This is the control room of your body. We all know that. But did you know that it’s the brain stem (not the large lump of grey stuff) that makes your heart beat faster? The brain stem (see page 20) controls your involuntary muscles (heart, breathing, digestion) and passes on all messages that tell your muscles what to do – like swim.

STROKE

HEART

Did you know that when you are in water, your heartbeat slows down (by up to 10 beats per minute)? Scientists say the reason is that your body orientation is horizontal (not vertical as it is in other sports) so your heart does not have to pump blood against gravity and therefore it can slow down.

SWIMMING GOGGLES

Goggles usually have a rubber seal (also called a gasket) around the edge, but competitive swimmers wear Swedish goggles that don’t have a seal – instead, the goggles fi t snugly

against the eye socket. You even get prescription lenses for goggles, but

those are very expensive. Goggles often fog up when they have been used a few times, but a bit

of spit usually prevents them from fogging.

swimmer.indd 2 8/7/07 4:04:55 PM

31

because water protects the body from jarring. The best part is it’s so much fun.

THE SCIENCE OF SWIMMING

FEET

Kicking helps to lift your body out of the water, therefore reducing your resistance and increasing your speed. And the bigger your feet are, the faster you will go.

HIPS

If you use the freestyle stroke, you don’t actually use your arm and shoulder muscles to move your hands through the water as much as your hip muscles. The hip muscles are much more powerful because they provide the power to pull your hands through the water.

BY STROKE

TORSO

In water, your body weighs only 10% of what it does on land; for example, if you weigh 70 kg, your weight in water is only 7 kg (which is why it’s so easy to pick up someone when you’re both in a pool). Most people fl oat on their backs when they hold their breath, but some do not. This is a condition called negative buoyancy (buoyancy means ‘fl oatability’). It means your body is denser (heavier) than water even when your lungs are full of air.

FAST FACTS

• The longest anyone has held their breath is 14 minutes and 12 seconds, a record set in 3 m of water by Tom Sietas of Germany.

• In 1987, six swimmers in the Czech Republic swam 151 km under water in relay in 24 hours.

• Bodybuilders are less buoyant than most people because they have more muscle (muscle is heavier than fat). Women are generally more buoyant than men, and we all get more buoyant as we get older.

SWIMMING GEAR

The bodyskin, worn by competitive swimmers, is made of a type of spandex (or Lycra, the trade name) similar to the fabric dancers’ leotards are made of. It fi ts snugly, has less drag in the water and therefore increases speed. Adidas was the fi rst to make a bodyskin because they wanted to increase muscle effi ciency by compressing it. Speedo produces a bodyskin for backstroke.

swimmer.indd 3 8/7/07 4:08:53 PM

NATALIE DU TOITIn 2001, Natalie du Toit was riding her scooter to school after swimming training when the unthinkable happened: a driver slammed into her and her left leg was very badly injured. Doctors were forced to amputate her leg below the knee. But Natalie clawed her way back and competed against able-bodied athletes in the 2002 Commonwealth Games. Because the use of one’s legs is more benefi cial in short sprints, Natalie has discovered that longer freestyle races level the playing fi eld, and she is aiming to participate in this format in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China.

ROLAND SCHOEMANSouth Africa’s Sports Star of the Year (2006) has been quietly going about the business of swimming faster than anybody else who dares to challenge him. Although he is based in America, Roland considers himself 100% proudly South African.• He has broken eight world records and currently holds three

world records.• He was the fi rst person to swim the 50 m freestyle in less than

21 seconds.• He’s the only South African to have won three medals at an Olympic Games.• Personal philosophy: ‘Believe in the impossible.’

Meet three athletes who’ve gone beyond the boundaries of human limitations. SENSATIONAL SWIMMERS

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A competitive swimmer doesn’t always train in a big pool, but can do resistance swimming in a small pool using a method to stay in the same place in the water.

COUNTERCURRENT

SWIMMING MACHINE

This is a small, deep pool with a machine that creates a current against which a person can swim for any period of time. The early swimming machines used jets of water like those of a Jacuzzi but this created too much turbulence (uneven currents) in the water. The modern machines use paddles.

TETHER SYSTEMS

The swimmer wears a belt or harness, ankles straps or special water shoes tethered (attached) with a cord (a bungee cord is often used) to an anchor on dry land. This keeps the swimmer in one place – kind of like a leash. It is much cheaper and easier to use, but the artifi cial ‘drag’ or pull of the tether tends either to create waves or to infl uence the swimmer’s technique.

DID YOU KNOW• Ever wonder why your fi ngers go all wrinkly in

the bath? It’s because the skin on your hands absorbs water like a sponge if left to soak for long enough.

• In 1938, disabled athlete Charles Zibbleman, who had no legs, swam 235 km along the Hudson River. Three years later, he swam nonstop for 168 hours in a pool in Hawaii.

33

SWIMMINGLEWIS GORDON PUGHThis endurance swimmer is best known for being the fi rst person to swim long-distance at the North Pole, and he also holds the record for the fastest swimming time around Robben Island.• Superhuman talent: he’s able to raise his core body

temperature by almost 2 °C when he’s about to enter very cold water. Professor Tim Noakes of the Sports Science Institute of South Africa has done research into this condition, called anticipatory thermogenesis.*

• World-class ability: he is the only person to have swum long distance in every ocean of the world.

• Swimming with a purpose: he completes all these feats to raise awareness of climate change and to encourage everyone to protect our environment.

FAST FACT

• Lewis Gordon Pugh completed a record-breaking swim at the North Pole, at –1,8 °C, the coldest water a human being has swum in.

*For more on anticipatory thermogenesis, visit <www.hip2b2.com>.

swimmer.indd 5 8/8/07 1:19:04 PM

E DO NOT CROSS POLICE LINE DO NOT CROSS POLICE LINE DO NOT CROSS D

WHAT IS A PIXEL?A pixel is the abbreviation for ‘picture element’, which is a single point in an image. Every image that is printed or viewed on your computer is made up of thousands of pixels. It is just like a puzzle: every pixel is a piece and when put together with other pixels it makes a complete image. A good photo usually has about 300 pixels per inch.

THE SPEEDING CARThe blurred image of the number plate can be put into focus again by using clever mathematics. Each pixel in an image has its own number or value and this determines its brightness and colour. This number changes when an image is blurred. For example, if a pixel had the value of x when it was in focus, after it was blurred it may have the value of z. What happens in between is the blurring itself (y), which also has a value. So basically, x + y = z (original pixel + blurring = new pixel).

Mathematicians can work out the exact value of each of these variables and put them into a specifi c formula to blur an image. They use this same formula backwards to do the opposite; in other words, to put a blurred image into focus again.

AGENT MATH E. MATICSImagine that your mom’s car was stolen and later found at an accident scene, with no sign of the perpetrator. How would the police ever fi nd him? The car was recorded speeding on the highway but the number plate was blurred on the photo

taken by the surveillance camera. At the accident scene there are only a few tread marks and a mangled car. But the detectives manage to fi nd a smudged fi ngerprint on the passenger door. Can maths come to the rescue? Let’s fi nd out.

Criminals don’t leave contact numbers at the crime scene but our crime-busting agent helps track them down.

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POLICE LINE DO NOT CROSS POLICE LINE DO NOT CROSS POLI

Take your fi ngerprint (your thumb is best) by pressing it on an ink pad and placing it on a clean sheet of paper. Use a photocopier to enlarge your print to about the size of your hand. Do the same with your friend’s print on another sheet of paper. Now comes the maths: using a ruler, draw a grid on a transparent sheet of paper, with the lines 5 mm apart horizontally and vertically. Mark each line, for example, 5 mm, 10 mm, and so on.

Place this grid over your fi ngerprint and mark about 10 points of your print on the grid. Now place the marked grid on your friend’s fi ngerprint and see if any of the marks match the same places on that print.

You will fi nd that very few places match, if any at all. This is how fi ngerprints are analysed by forensic scientists, except they use computers that can analyse hundreds more points for each fi ngerprint much faster and much more accurately.

!R# I! &OR #OURS*+&

DECODING THE FINGERPRINTA blurred fi ngerprint, like the one found on the car, is useless because its unique swirls and lines have been smudged. However, by using maths to run the blurring process backwards, forensic scientists are able to clean up the fi ngerprint and create a clear image. (This is done in the same way as the blurred number plate was put into focus.)

The ‘deblurred’ fi ngerprint can be checked against millions of existing prints in the fi ngerprint database. Using a technique called multiscale analysis, the fi ngerprint is analysed and compared on many different scales or positions. Each pixel of the print is compared with the exact same position on each and every other print on the database to fi nd the perfect match. Hundreds of comparisons can be made each second by computers.

&OR*NSIC MA!0S

CAS* SO+1*D Maths has put a blurred image into focus, determined the speed of a car involved in an accident, corrected the image of a smudged fi ngerprint, and searched for matching prints in an existing database. So not only can police fi nd the man who stole the car but they can also charge him for speeding and causing an accident. Brilliant, isn’t it?

THE ACCIDENTHow do we know whether the car was speeding when it was involved in the accident? Forensic analysts are able to reconstruct the accident by examining the damage to the car and the skid marks.

The marks on the road are caused by the speed of the car, braking force, and friction between the tyres and the road. By measuring the length of the skid marks left by the car, analysts can determine how fast the car was moving before it crashed.

This is the formula analysts use:

s = u2 2μg

s = length of the skidu = speed of the carg = acceleration due to gravity μ = coeffi cient of friction times braking effi ciency (the effect that the road has on the speed of the car)

As you can see, it all comes down to simple maths: the faster the car was moving, the longer the skid marks will be.

!"#$%&'()!*+.)-.. 0 123243 +4546577 89

Compound interest is paid on the principal (the original amount) and on the accumulated interest.

P = C 1 + r nt

n

where:P = future valueC = initial depositr = interest rate per year (expressed as a fraction: for

example, 6% = 0,06)n = number of times interest is compounded per yeart = number of years

And when interest is compounded only once a year (n = 1), the equation is simplifi ed to: P = C (1 + r) t

SIMPLE AND COMPOUND

Not everyone will win a million but, with the principles of simple and compound interest, you could save your way there … over a few years, of course.

When you deposit money into your bank account, you will earn interest on this money, which is calculated daily. The more money you deposit, the more interest you will earn.

IN#$R$S#

Simple interest is determined by multiplying the principal (the original amount) by the interest rate (per period) by the number of time periods (time frame). Simple interest is generally charged for short periods of time.C x r x t = interest earnedFinal value = C + interest earned

where: C = initial depositr = interest rate (expressed as a fraction: for example,

6% = 0,06)t = time (in years) invested.

You might not win big on Deal or No Deal, but there are ways to save yourself to success.

Per centPer means ‘in every’.Cent is Latin for 100.So, 5% means 5 in every 100 or 5 or 1 100 20

To calculate %, you turn the per cent into a fraction and multiply it by the main amount.For example, 12% of R50 = 12 x R50 100 1= R6

DEFINITIONS

QUESTION 1 How much is 10% of R200?

QUESTION 2 If you invest R10 000 for seven years at a simple interest rate of 6%, how much interest will you earn?

QUESTION 3 If you deposited R20 000 in a special savings account and didn’t touch the money for seven years, how much would your investment be worth based on a 6% annual compound interest rate?

WORK IT OUT FOR YOURSELF

HOW TO CALCULATE COMPOUND INTEREST

HOW TO CALCULATE SIMPLE INTEREST

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If you want to become a millionaire, here’s the way to do it via the principles of interest.

First you need R10 000, which you deposit into your bank account and leave it to earn a compound interest rate of 9% for about 53,5 years. Without touching your money, you will end up earning more than R1 million. Reduce the amount of time to reach R1 million by making more deposits (money from birthdays, and so on). If you can add a few more thousand rand you will reach the R1-million mark in less than 30 years.

As soon as you earn a salary, you can save money every month and could reach R1 million in less than 15 years. So start saving now!

SAVING TIPS• Draw up a budget – when you commit to a

written budget, you tend to stick to it.• Keep a diary of what you spend in a week

to work out where you can save.• Find creative ways to earn money, such as

part-time work or helping around the house.• Negotiate more pocket money by proving you

deserve the increase.

TRY THIS AT SCHOOLImagine replacing your favourite cola with plain tap water every day. The fi rst week will be tough but afterwards your wallet will see the benefi ts.Let’s investigate: one can of cola = R4,50.So you spend R4,50 each day for seven days = R31,50 per week. Assuming there are four weeks in a month, you end up spending R126 per month.

(1 can of cola x 7 days) x 4 weeks = R126 saved a month!R126 x 5 years = R7 560 (at no interest)

Can you imagine what would happen if you invested this money using compound interest?

MAKE YOUR OWN MILLION

TOTAL INVESTMENT

Year Investment

SIMPLE INTEREST

Interest Accumulated interest

COMPOUND INTEREST

Investment Accumulated interest

1 R600,00 R36,00 R36,00 R600,00 R36,00

2 R1 200,00 R72,00 R108,00 R1 236,00 R146,16

3 R1 800,00 R108,00 R216,00 R1 910,16 R370,93

4 R2 400,00 R144,00 R360,00 R2 624,77 R753,19

5 R3 000,00 R180,00 R540,00 R3 382,26 R1 338,38

Visit <wwww.livingmaths.com>.

COMPARE YOUR INTEREST

Look at the difference it makes when you invest R600 at the beginning of each year for fi ve years at 6% using simple interest and compound interest. What you do with the interest makes the difference between simple and compound interest. If you withdraw the interest each year and spend it, you basically earn simple interest. If you leave the interest in the account and it accumulates with the principal amount, you earn compound interest.

SOLUTIONS

QUESTION 1 10 x R200100 1= R20

QUESTION 2C x r x t = future value R10 000 x 6 x 7 = R4 200 in interest. 100 Your initial investment of R10 000 will be worth R14 200 after seven years. This may sound like a lot of money, but it’s better to invest using compound interest.

QUESTION 3P = C 1 + r

nt

n= R20 000 (1 + 0,06)7

= R30 072,61You earn more than R10 000 over and above your initial investment – this is what people mean when they say ‘let your money work for you!’

!"#$% "#%'!()*+,, - ./0/10 (1213245 67

Get a smart subscriptionWhy wait? Have your copy delivered to you hot off the press!

For details on how to subscribe for yourself or your school phone us on 021 417 1218 or visit the Contact Us section at <www.hip2b2.com>.

think. what you can be

Subscribe to Hip2b2 magazine and get ready for a journey on the smart side of life.

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YOU WILL RECEIVE EIGHT ISSUES

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PRESS PLAY

INTELLIGENT ENTERTAINMENT

THE CONCERTS She’s coming out! Catch Pink live: 8 September at the Sun City Superbowl, 9 September at the Coca-Cola Dome in Johannesburg and 11 September at Cape Town’s Bellville Velodrome. Book your tickets through <www.computicket.com> or call 083 915 8000 for details. • Join local rockers Wonderboom on tour. The band plays on 12 September at the 88 Lounge in Norwood, on 15 September at JHB Day in Randburg, and on 28 September at Café Barcelona, Pretoria. THE EVENTS Not up for the 75 km FNB Swartland MTB Funrace on 1 September? Why not try the 25 km or 50 km mountain-bike race instead? Call 083 611 8515 or visit <www.live2ride.co.za/swartlandmtb/> for details. • Are you keen to live a drug-free life, making smart, positive choices about your future? Rock on at the ARA Be Your Best Rock Challenge, Standard Bank Arena, Gauteng, on 5 and 6 September. Call 011 906 6559 to fi nd out when they’ll be in your area. • Budding palaeontologists can make a dinosaur with clay and paint daily from 22 to 29 September in Randburg. Call Melody on 011 791 4781/2 for workshop info. • Learn all about computers, gaming and technology at the biggest rAge expo yet; Coca-Cola Dome, Northgate from 28 to 30 September. Details at <www.rageexpo.co.za>. THE FESTIVALS Enjoy the annual Aardklop Nasionale Kunstefees in Potchefstroom from 24 to 29 September. • View the world’s biggest mammals and enjoy the festivities at the Hermanus Whale Festival from 21 to 29 September. Visit <www.whalefestival.co.za> for details.

THE MONTH September is African Origins Month, time to celebrate our continent’s special contribution to the evolution of the human race. It’s also ‘offi cially’ spring, so smile. THE PUBLIC HOLIDAY We’re the only country on earth with 11 official languages; embrace South Africa’s cultural diversity on Heritage Day on 24 September. THE MOVIES Can you build a rocket ship in a barn? Find out in The Astronaut Farmer, the story of a NASA astronaut, forced to retire early to save the family farm, who has never given up his dream of space travel. It opens 7 September – the same day as No Reservations, which stars Catherine Zeta-Jones as a successful chef whose life turns upside down when her young niece and romance enter the picture. To prepare for the role, Catherine did a stint as a server in a New York restaurant; when patrons remarked on her similarity to the Hollywood star she’d reply, ‘I hear that all the time.’ • Opening 14 September: Stardust, a fairy tale in which a young man from England ventures into a magical land to prove his love to a beautiful lady, and Nancy Drew, in which the charming young detective of the same name travels to LA with her father on a business trip and ends up trying to solve a murder mystery. • Pixar’s latest animated movie, Ratatouille, opening on 21 September, is about the adventures of Remy, a rat who dreams of becoming a chef in Paris. If you love the movie, play ... THE GAME The Ratatouille multiplatform action game has a wide variety of missions, as well as mini-games and a multiplayer option.

press play opener.indd 3 8/8/07 11:13:39 AM

OPINION: MUSIC +ID-OS Director Marco Raposo de Barbosa takes us behind the scenes of The Parlotones’ What tools and techniques were used?We’re using some of the latest animation techniques and some great equipment (not usually available on a tight budget), such as a Steadicam and a specialised lens, the T-Rex Lens System, for shots in which we track just above the ground, framing the animated characters. It’s about a metre long and the lens can get right on the ground. We put it on the Steadicam to get sweeping organic angles for the animation shots.

What is a Steadicam? It’s a device that’s strapped onto a person and has a spring-loaded arm the camera is attached to. The arm absorbs vibrations and bounce so that the operator can run while fi lming and the picture stays smooth and bump-free.

The Parlotones are ...from left: Niel Pauw, Glen Hodgson and Paul Hodgson, and Kahn Morbee (in front)The sound Indie rockAwards 2006 Best Rock Album SAMA for Radiocontrolledrobot.New album ‘A World Next Door To Yours is a blend of edgy and easy – the edgy songs rock hard and the commercial songs are upbeat and poppy. We’ve matured in terms of song-writing and ability. Lyrically, I’m inspired by [R.E.M.’s] Michael Stipe and The Smiths; more recent infl uences include The Killers and Interpol,’ says Kahn. Release date 27 September 2007More info <www.parlotones.co.za>

way off. The shoot was frantic, good fun. Everyone really pulled together to produce the video, with very little or no fi nancial reward, so that’s been amazing.

How long does the process take?Claudio Pavan, one of our animators, came up with the idea in November 2006. We are busy with the animation, grading and compositing, and should fi nish in October. The animation is the most time-consuming.

Did you write any new software?We wrote various pieces of simple software to allow us to streamline our production pipeline, but we didn’t write anything very complex. We have also made tools to help with fi le management and conversions.

The Parlotones’ latest music video, for the song ‘I’ll Be There’, combines the animated realm that includes a knight, a dragon and, of course, a damsel in distress with the real world of live actors and events.

Marco Raposo de Barbosa, director and lead fl ame artist at post-production studio Black Ginger, explains how the team worked with both techniques.

What’s your favourite scene in the video? At the moment, the scene where the knight gets up and the camera tracks around him to reveal the dragon behind him.

What is the best aspect of the production process? I love the part near the end where it all starts coming together – that’s a long

40The CDs reviewed on page 42 can be ordered online in the Chill Guide at <www.hip2b2.com>.

press video.indd 2 8/7/07 11:24:41 AM

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T! latest music video, which is in production right now.

Was it diffi cult to combine live action (real world) with animated characters?It is always a challenge to create computer-generated images that look real. Our characters in the video are clearly animated but we want them to look as if they are really in the scene. To do this, we have to pay particular attention to lighting and shadowing and the subtle interactions with the environment, such as dust.

The animated characters are modelled out of tin foil. How did you deal with the lighting challenges this created?Tin foil is actually quite forgiving from a lighting point of view. Because it is almost completely refl ective, the light has very little effect on the look, while refl ections play a much bigger part. We developed a 3D shader that cheated the look slightly to give the characters more shape by adding shadowing to unlit areas.

Marco Raposo de Barbosa of Black Ginger tells us more about the animation business.

What are the jobs available in animation? It’s a fi eld with many disciplines. There is character animation, such

as Shrek, and effects animation, which involves dynamic simulations of natural forces and properties, such as smoke,

liquid and fi re. There is the lighting, texturing and rendering side of things and also the in-depth technical side, which involves scripting

and programming of new tools. To put it all together, the compositing side is fairly diverse and involved.

What’s the best way to get into the business? There are colleges that specialise in character animation. You can also study computer science at university, which is far more technical and programming-based, but it can lead to a career in computer graphics. Once you’ve studied, getting into a company that does good work will enable you to learn very quickly. No course teaches you to be ready for productions, so on-the-job training will probably be the most intense part of your development.

DO YOU DREAM OF CREATING YOUR OWN VIRTUAL WORLD?

The animation process takes place in stages. First, wire-frame models of the characters are created using Softimage|XSI, a 3D-animation software package. Then shaders are applied to the models to create the surface attributes – in this case the texture, specularity and re! ectivity of tin foil. Next, the camera angle and lighting are matched to the live-action plates and the renderer calculates all these attributes to create a " nal CG (computer generated) image. HDRI (high dynamic range radiance imaging) techniques are used to simulate the lighting of the environment more accurately. The " nal step is to combine the CG and live action using Autodesk Flame compositing software.

press video.indd 3 8/7/07 11:25:01 AM

!!

OPINION: MUSIC The Parlotones’ !ahn &orbee reviews the latest grunge and indie CDs.

LANGUAGE LAB

Indie (adj) Short for independent (that is, not signed to a major label). It originated in the UK in the ’80s and describes a less commercial style characterised by jangly guitars, overt English accents and, often, ironic lyrics. The Smiths, The Cure and The Stone Roses, pioneers of the genre, inspired a crop of ’90s bands such as Blur, Pulp and Oasis. New-millennium indie bands: Franz Ferdinand, Kasabian, Kaiser Chiefs.

Grunge (n) Alternative-rock style that originated in Seattle, Washington, in the late ’80s. Aka the Seattle Sound, it is characterised by hard drumming, distorted guitars and elements of ’70s punk and heavy metal. Lyrics explore darker themes like apathy, anger and alienation. Era-defi ning moment: Nirvana’s 1991 ‘Smells like Teen Spirit’ on the album Nevermind. Want more? Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, L7, Stone Temple Pilots.

Zeitgeist (n) Spirit or general outlook of a specifi c time period. Example: ‘Green living, iPods and Facebook refl ect the current Zeitgeist.’

Melancholy (n) (pronounced mellon collie) Sad, thoughtful state of mind. CO

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ZeitgeistI’ve been a fan since Siamese Dream (1993) and Mellon Collie And The Infi nite Sadness, the double-album follow-up (2005). SP stood out on the Chicago grunge scene because the music, although edgy, had a pop sensibility – it’s what made SP a mega-band. On Zeitgeist, the band’s fi rst album in seven years, it has deviated from the pop element; although the songs are interesting, they are not immediately memorable. When I was at school, one of the best

things about a new album was singing along – SP always includes the lyrics (few alternative bands do). Front man-singer-songwriter Billy Corgan still produces good lyrics – I sometimes have no clue what he’s singing about, but I still appreciate the metaphorical descriptions.

INTERPOL

Our Love To AdmireI’m such a big fan of this New York indie rock outfi t that ‘Evil’ (off

Antics, their second album) is on my top-50 list. The group’s catchy yet edgy songs made it pioneers of the post-punk generation, but

it’s been almost leapfrogged by bands more in touch with what the record-buying public wants. I like the group’s non-conformist approach but don’t think it has mass appeal. The guitar sound

on Interpol is organic and not overly produced. ‘Pioneer to the Falls’ brilliantly blends fullness and sparseness (the percussion is removed at

intervals) – the dynamics lift you up and bring you down. ‘Rest My Chemistry’ and ‘Heinrich Maneuver’ have the most commercial appeal.

THE CINEMATICS

A Strange EducationThese brilliant Scottish rockers are relatively new to the indie scene (2003). Stylistically, vocally and lyrically the band reminds me of ’80s bands The Cure, The Mission and The Smiths. Indie recently had

a huge revival and, being an indie kid, I’m in my element. Stand-out tracks: ‘A Strange Education’, ‘Human’ and ‘Sunday Sun’.

Like this? Try The Killers, Kaiser Chiefs, Muse and, locally, ahem … The Parlotones, The Black Hotels and Taxi Violence.

Like this? Try Velvet Revolver and, locally, Sick Leaves and Driverlane. (Driverlane wrote the theme for the Crazy Monkey movie Footskating 101.)

Like this? Try The Editors, Joy Division, The Strokes and, locally, The Black Hotels.

WHAT KAHN IS LISTENING TO

The Shins Wincing the Night AwayThe Smiths Louder Than Bombs

The Parlotones A World Next Door to YoursElton John Rocket Man: Number Ones

R.E.M. In Time: The Best of

press video.indd , 8/7/07 11:24:2, AM

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We have three great CDs to give away to lucky readers this month: Ne-Yo’s Because of You, the Shrek the Third soundtrack album and Bobby Valentino’s Special Occasion. !"#$%&%' *%+$, Ne-Yo!"#$%&%' *%+$, Shrek the Third!"#$%&%' *%+$, Bobby Valentino

Write to: Hip2b2 Giveaway, PO Box 440, Green Point 8051 or email <win@hip2b2.com>. Please include the name of the giveaway, your name, contact details, school and grade. The closing date is 30 September 2007. Winners will be notifi ed and their names will be published on the website.

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Fancy yourself a great writer? We are giving away fi ve Hip2b2 MP3 players to the winning poems or lyrics, to be published on the Community of Hip page. See the ed’s letter on page 2 for details. !"#$%&%' *%+$, MP3 player

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!"#$#!$% 'A)*+ PlayStation 2 game !antastic !our: Rise of the Silver Surfer reviewed by you.

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Play alone or with a friend as all four heroes in the second Fantastic Four movie: Mr Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch and The Thing. Switch between the characters whenever you want and use their special abilities to beat the onslaught of bad guys as well as a number of boss characters, including the Silver Surfer and Dr Doom. Throughout the game you can search for special tokens and earn new abilities as you gain experience and level up. The game is a third-person action adventure with an angled top-down perspective.

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Grade 9, Hoërskool UitsigThe graphics are pretty good during the actual gameplay, but when the subtitles come on the men look a little blocky. The controls took some getting used to, but after that it’s pretty easy.

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Grade 9, Hoërskool UitsigThe sound is good but you can’t hear what the characters are saying. The responsiveness of the controls is good, but swapping players is a bit hard because it sometimes switches to a person that you don’t want.

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Grade 9, Sutherland High SchoolThe text for the objectives and the help is too small and it’s diffi cult to read. It’s a nice game, but I don’t like the fact that the only mission is fi ghting: you open doors and then they all fi ght …

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Grade 9, Hoërskool UitsigThere’s no real storyline, just kill, kill, kill. The text was big enough but not very clear. The characters’ attacks were brilliant. After a while it charges up so you can execute a big move, which is quite exciting.

)*26. 4*$T7*.

Grade 9, Sutherland High SchoolThe graphics are very clear, but not the writing. It was easy to control the characters but there wasn’t much of a storyline – just kill the bad guys. I would have made the characters’ speech clearer.

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Grade 10, Hoërskool ZwartkopI would have preferred a fi rst-person camera angle, a better intro, more music in the background and that the voices were a little louder. I found it easy to control and switching between characters was easy.

This game can be ordered online at <www.hip2b2.com>.

Would you or your class like to be part of our Game Lab? Send your contact details to: Hip2b2 Game Lab, PO Box 440, Green Point 8051 or email <talk2us@hip2b2.com>.

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Why music is important in games.

Visit OverClocked ReMix <www.ocremix.org> for MP3s of remixed game soundtrack themes and favourite tunes. All the music is free because it’s composed and uploaded by the gaming community.

Although music is in the background of a game

and you don’t always notice it, or the sound design, music is one of the important

components of gameplay. It is used to indicate when an ability-boost pickup is wearing off or if your

shield is about to die. It can tell you that a dangerous enemy is approaching, or that you’ve found an important

treasure. It also adds to your emotions when a character dies. Important characters and situations are often given their own

themes, which can be woven into the soundtrack and then heard when the character appears on screen. This is called a ‘leitmotif’. Composers can use leitmotifs to tell more of a story without using dialogue. Meanwhile intense, fast-paced music gets your adrenaline going so that you’re amped for the

next boss battle. It puts your brain into the right mode for an important high-speed

race on a diffi cult track. Most games without music would just be,

well, boring.

Retro gaming and trackingIn the late ’80s game music was revolutionised with the MOD fi le format and a program called Ultimate SoundTracker, which was written for the Amiga computer. The MOD fi le format

allowed four sounds to be played

back simultaneously. In the early ’90s this technology made its way to the PC and tracking, as the composing was called, became a popular pastime for computer enthusiasts. Game soundtracks went from bad speaker beeps to full-on sampled heaven.

One of the most famous games to use MOD fi les was Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters, which was released in 1992. You can fi nd out more about the game at MobyGames <www.mobygames.com/game/dos/star-control-ii> or download it at SourceForge <sc2.sourceforge.net>. The music for the game inspired a whole new generation of composers.

Modern games such as the Unreal series still use tracking music, although the four-sound limitation no longer exists.

The Japanese infl uenceJapanese game developers and musicians are pioneers when it comes to game soundtracks.Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto <www.miyamotoshrine.com> is one of the world’s most famous game designers. He has created and worked on hundreds of game characters and games, including the Mario Brothers games, Donkey Kong and The Legend of Zelda, which is considered by many to be the best game ever made. His compositions and sound effects for the 1985 game Super Mario Bros, as well as how they were incorporated in the game, set a new standard for sound design in games.

The Final Fantasy series of games, which debuted in 1987, is famous for its amazing music, which is

as good as the kind of music you would hear in a fi lm. Nobuo

Uematsu <en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobuo_Uematsu> composed

the score for the fi rst game, as well as for many of the sequels. His styles vary from classical to electronica and rock. His music for Final Fantasy VI is one of the most loved video-game soundtracks.

A symphony from a speaker?How did programmers get a dinky speaker to produce music before there were digital samples, sound cards, and surround sound? Using a programming language the programmer would tell the computer to tell the speaker what kind of sound to make by programming the duration of the sound and its tone in code. The computer would then convert from the code into an analogue sound wave (basically, a beep) that the speaker could play. Expert programmers could code amazing sounds that sounded like music and not just bad beeping by using lots of different tones quickly.

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Grade 11, Westville Girls’ High School, Durban

I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It revolves around how people of colour have changed and what inner battles they face as a result of the new South Africa.For me, the main message of the book is to appreciate your culture and way of life, and always to see the positive aspects of what you have. There is always someone who really wants what you have but doesn’t always get it.The title is appropriate because Ofi lwe lives in an upmarket part of Johannesburg, always speaks English and does not take part in her customs, while Fikile (Fiks) hates black people (even though she is one) and wants to live her life Westernised.Another title for this book could be Rainbowless Nation because the two main characters don’t embrace who they really are.My favourite part is when Fikile is on the bus going back home and one of the commuters tells her how he feels about apartheid-free South Africa: that black people have evolved, for the better, although he feels that there is still so much richness in their culture and that black people should cherish that.Many people feel that teenagers today are too Westernised and don’t appreciate their culture, so Coconut may help us understand that sometimes our lives are superfi cial and we need to look at our morals.

ELZETTE WANNENBURG

Grade 11, Sutherland High School, Centurion

This book was enjoyable. The writer used local language to bring you into the characters’ world. It is a story about the ordinary lives of ordinary people, yet it shows that there is no such thing as an ‘ordinary’ life – everyone has a completely different experience of a situation.The title is appropriate because it is a symbol of how we all try to mould ourselves to fi t into the accepted standards of our society.I found it amusing when Fiks is asked what she wants to be when she grows up. She answers, ‘I want to be white.’ It is sad that she feels her success will be determined by the colour of her skin instead of by hard work and determination.Any boring bits? I think that the story took a while to get to a point. It focused a little too much on conversations with irrelevant people.If I had written it I would have focused a

bit more on the points of view of the other characters, such as Ofi lwe’s brother.It is a beautiful illustration of the identity struggle many young people have every day. It shows that things are not always how we assume them to be and that we should focus on changing our circumstances and outlook on life instead of trying to change ourselves and things that are impossible to change.

Would you like to write a book review for us? Send your contact details to: Hip2b2

Book Review, PO Box 440, Green Point 8051 or email: <talk2us@hip2b2.com>.

WIN THE BOOKWe have three signed copies to give away. Write to: Hip2b2 Coconut Giveaway, PO Box 440, Green Point 8051 or email: <win@hip2b2.com> by 30 September 2007. Include your name, contact details, school and grade. The winners’ names will be published on the website.

OPINION: BOOKS Coconut, written by South African medical student Kopano Matlwa, reviewed by you.

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press books.indd 2 8/7/07 11:31:02 AM

47

What does the title Coconut refer to? In South Africa it’s a derogatory term used to refer to someone considered to be black on the outside and white on the inside.

Is this something you’ve experienced?No.

At what age did you become interested in writing? It followed on from reading a lot. I don’t remember when exactly I started writing.

How long did it take to write Coconut?About three-and-a-half years, from 2002 to mid-2006.

How did you fi nd a publisher? My younger sister told me about the TV competition ‘I’m a writer’ for writers who wanted to publish their work. I sent in

MEET THE AUTHOR my manuscript but was unsuccessful. After numerous unsuccessful applications, Jacana Media published my book, and I won the European Union Literary Award.

What motivates you to write? The topic was important because South Africa has changed, but there are a lot of things that haven’t. I’ve experienced trouble, such as once when my friends and I wanted to enter a restaurant; the waiter told us that it was full and we could see that it wasn’t, but white people could enter.

What were the challenges of writing the book? I had to face the questions that I’m asking in the book and sometimes it made me uncomfortable. So I guess it was a diffi cult book to write.

What did you enjoy most about the writing process? Being able to speak through characters. It allows me to say things I would never say.

And the least? I worried about whether it was okay to read, and if people were going to like it, because I didn’t study writing.

What is the message of the book? I want people to think about issues such as home language, racial differences, why black people and other cultures slaughter animals, and to start talking about them so that we can open our minds in order to understand what’s happening.

Where did you grow up? All over. I was born in Mamelodi, Pretoria, then we moved to Soshanguve, also in Pretoria. I lived in Alabama, USA, for a year, and I’m now living in Midrand, Johannesburg.

Who is your favourite author? I don’t really have a favourite author but Toni Morrison I’ve loved more than I’ve hated, and the author Chimamande Ngozi Adichie who wrote Purple Hibiscus.

Why is reading important? One of the best things my parents gave me was books. They open your mind to different perspectives. If you live in a home that is homophobic or church orthodox, you won’t think of your surroundings as having rigid rules; instead you will learn how to accept other people. Every child should have books to read.

Any advice for aspiring authors? Write what you like to read. There are people out there who will want to read it. Don’t be discouraged.

Kopano Matlwa gives us her hot list … 1 Oh, the Places You’ll Go, Dr Seuss – It’s my

absolute favourite book.2 Roots, Alex Haley3 The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison4 Nervous Conditions, Tsitsi Dangarembga

– A must-read for every young girl.5 I Write What I Like, Steve Biko 6 The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde7 Animal Farm, George Orwell – So relevant for

every South African, especially at this time.8 The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho – Now available

in Xhosa.9 Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë – Don’t ask

me why, it’s just one of those things. 10 Life of Pi, Yann Martel – This book really

opened up my mind and made me laugh out loud, hysterically.

10 BOOKS (OU MUS+ R-AD

B-0OR- (OU +URN 18

Kopano Matlwa is a 22-year-old medical student whose debut novel Coconut recently won a European Union Literary Award. Her book is about growing up black in the white suburbs, where the cost of ! tting in can be your very identity.

press books.indd 3 8/7/07 11:31:23 AM

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FILTER An electronic device that permits certain frequencies to pass while stopping others.

SYNTHESIZER

An electronic device that can be confi gured to make sounds electronically that imitate other instruments.

SEQUENCER A piece of hardware or software that can modify and arrange digital musical sounds that have been stored to be used for playback.

FREQUENCY The number of vibrations or oscillations per second, measured in cycles or hertz.

TIMBRE

The characteristics of a sound that distinguish it from other sounds that have the same pitch and volume.

EQUALISATION The volume selected at a certain frequency.

MIXER A device that combines and adjusts audio signals.

MAGIC SQUARE

OH CRUMBS A 3D cube or round (it’s actually a cylinder) cake can be divided into eight by two vertical cuts at right angles through the centre of one side (top) and one horizontal cut (through the centre of another side that is at right angles to the fi rst side).MAGIC SQUARE There are various answers, all of which have the even numbers in the corner blocks and 5 in the centre block.WHICH WORDS Uncopyrightable WINNER TAKES ALL The result is another draw because the combined ages in each team is 91 years. With the fl ip of a coin each team has a 50% chance of winning.

A cake must be cut into eight equal pieces, and you must do it with only three straight cuts of the knife. How do you do it?

What is the longest English word without any repeated letters? (CLUE: You can fi nd the answer if you can unscramble the following letters: hpyritaleungcob.)

WHICH WORDS

Teams A and B have drawn their match, but don’t have enough time to play a shootout. So they agree that each team should add together the ages of their players to determine the winning team. Five players in team A are 13 years old, one player is 12 and the captain is 14. Team B has two 14-year-olds, three 13-year-olds and two 12-year-olds. Which team wins? If they had instead used the fl ip of a coin to decide the winner, what chance (as a percentage) would each team have had to win?

WINNER TAKES ALL

OH CRUMBS

Arrange the numbers 1 to 9 on a grid [3 x 3 blocks] so that the numbers in each row, column and diagonal add up to 15. Use each number once only.

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