Crickets, Chemistry, and Physics

Following on from the birdsong post yesterday, I thought I'd pass on this excellent article I found* about crickets, and how you can derive the equation for how to tell the temperature from their rate of chirping. It's actually fascinating stuff, and you learn a bit of chemistry and physics (and history) along the way. Go learn it now, since you never know when you might need this equation (all the thermometers might go back to their home planet any day now), and, personally, I hate using an equation when I don't know how to derive it! -cvj (*on the Diary of a Black Mathematician)