Happy Yb, Dad!

February 24, 2009 11:19 AM

My dad is turning 70 and is a retired professor/scientist. What can I put on his birthday cake to represent 70 in some scientific way?

I thought about the Periodic Table of Elements (Yb for Ytterbium) but he may be too removed from that at this point to get it. He was a soil scientist, so anything having to do with agronomy would be great.

posted by Nathanial Hörnblowér to science & nature (22 comments total)

Well, 70 in scientific notation is 7.0 x 10^1... Could be cute.
posted by mismatched at 11:21 AM on February 24 [1 favorite has favorites]

Ytterbium, atomic weight 70.
posted by fearnothing at 11:27 AM on February 24 [1 favorite has favorites]

In binary:

1000110
posted by damn dirty ape at 11:29 AM on February 24

I am so asleep today, my bad. I'd be surprised if he didn't get Ytterbium, especially if you laid out the full little card it gets in the table with the weight, proton number and symbol... I don't know about the states but in the UK learning about the periodic table was done in far more detail 50 years ago than it is today, you actually had to memorize sections of it.
posted by fearnothing at 11:30 AM on February 24

You'd write 70 in scientific notation as 7e1 normally, as opposed to spelling out the whole thing. Or at least, calculators do it that way. Maybe a photo cake with a picture of a calculator, but maybe soil scientists don't spend all day punching their HPs.
posted by GuyZero at 11:31 AM on February 24

You could say he's turning 294.26, in Kelvin (343.15 if you're in a celsius-using country).
posted by FatherDagon at 11:31 AM on February 24 [1 favorite has favorites]

I'm not positive you could use this for the 70 bit, but maybe you could use a Munsell soil chart somehow. Depending on how good the cake-maker is, maybe you could give them specific colors on it to use for the frosting/lettering. Or just replicate some of the chart?

Of course, you'd probably have to get a second cake that explains the first one, like written out in icing lettering, because it's probably going to be complicated.
posted by world b free at 11:35 AM on February 24 [2 favorites has favorites]

Exponential growth, e^^{0.3 *14.159} pretty much equal 70 and kind of has pi in it.
posted by 517 at 11:39 AM on February 24 [1 favorite has favorites]

You could do the little square as it appears on the periodic table for Ytterbium, in black icing.

Outside the square, you could write HAPP irthday. So the "Yb" in the periodic table square would complete the sentiment.
posted by padraigin at 11:42 AM on February 24 [22 favorites has favorites]

There's a page of stuff on wiki for the number 70, something might take your fancy.
posted by Iteki at 11:45 AM on February 24 [1 favorite has favorites]

I'm not saying anything that results from this will be either edible or comprehensible, but for sheer geekdom you could prepare a tableau of one part luvisol and two parts xerosol. If he gets it, L+X+X = 70.
posted by kittyprecious at 11:48 AM on February 24 [1 favorite has favorites]

If it wasn't on top of the cake, I'd suggest making the cake with various strata colors, ala the Rainbow Cakes that made the rounds a while back. (Admittedly, more browns and tans, though.) Then frost with grass, maybe the sides with stones.
posted by cobaltnine at 11:49 AM on February 24 [2 favorites has favorites]

70 dec = 46 hex

Happy birthday! :)
posted by aeighty at 12:04 PM on February 24

2⁶+6 (or 4³+6)

These numbers are small enough that you could conceivably use a number of individual candles for each digit (maybe really small ones for the exponent).
posted by exogenous at 12:23 PM on February 24

70 is the smallest weird number.
posted by Electric Dragon at 12:50 PM on February 24

This is a bit of a stretch, but how a cake in the shape of a tree stump (trees need soil to grow, amirite?) with 70 frosting rings? You could get detailed with the rings if you wanted to somehow mark the banner years.
posted by mandymanwasregistered at 1:10 PM on February 24

why not make him feel younger and get two cakes with 35 each?
posted by gully at 1:13 PM on February 24

Definitely a strata cake. If he was a soil scientist, Ytterbium doesn't have much to do with his job.
posted by electroboy at 1:36 PM on February 24 [1 favorite has favorites]

You'd write 70 in scientific notation as 7e1 normally, as opposed to spelling out the whole thing. Or at least, calculators do it that way.

This is "computer notation," an ugly kludge for systems where × and superscripts aren't available for technical reasons. Not converting to 7×10¹ smells like amateur hour (which might be okay for birthday cake).

I like HAPP|⁷⁰Yb|IRTHDAY, as others have suggested.
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 2:51 PM on February 24

Make a round cake, and then cut out a 70 degree "slice" or wedge... a hair more than 1/5 of the circle. Or make a big rectangular layer, and cut away cake to leave a big 70 degree wedge.

If you're ordering from a bakery, you could give them a template so they can make the cut before decorating.
posted by wryly at 5:37 PM on February 24

Cross the seven
posted by a robot made out of meat at 5:45 AM on February 25

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. I like the HAPP|Yb|irthday idea and may go with that, if the consensus with the family is that Dad would get it. I marked the other answer as best simply because it made me laugh.
posted by Nathanial Hörnblowér at 8:55 AM on February 25