when every 17 years, a population of cicadas ranging from Connecticut to the Appalachian highlands of North Carolina emerges to annoy everybody within earshot. The last time east coasters saw this brood was in 1996, making 2013 yet one more year of frustrating insect pests. The only concern is, when will we begin to see this year’s cicada brood?
Radiolab, the remarkable podcast as well as public radio show, has put together an remarkable job that asks listeners to track when the cicadas in their area will emerge. Cicadas generally go into their loud as well as obnoxious adult stage when the ground temperature 8 inches below the surface reaches 64º F. Armed with an Arduino, thermistor, as well as a few wires as well as resistors, any type of Radiolab listener can upload soil temperature data to Radiolab servers where all the data will be correlated with documented cicada sightings.
After complying with the page’s directions for wiring up a lot of LEDs as well as a thermistor to an Arduino, just upload the most well-commented code we’ve ever seen and go outside to take soil temperature measurements. The temperature is displayed in a pseudo-binary style on nine LEDs. To decode the temperature without counting by powers of two, Radiolab has an on the internet decoder that likewise enables you to upload your data as well as location.