Finally I managed to write and occupy some space again. Also I tweaked up the blog a bit and finally found a suitable background for my blog. For all of you who still haven't figured it out the title "Black n White" stands for the blackboards and the white chalk which makes up nearly 80% of my life (Although now its more like white boards and black markers, but what the hell Black n White is still quite apt.). I know its quite lame but when I started writing I couldn't find anything better so it kinda stuck. Anyways since this article is not about my blog or its title here we go.
Lately life has been nothing as I had imagined 2 yrs back when I had just finished my masters (apparently it was the same time I started writing this blog.). It has been full of ups and downs and worst of all out of my control. It is only in adversity that one digs deep within himself to find the answers for all the unfortunate events. In all this digging from the past 6 months this is what I realized. Although these thoughts pertain to me I'm sure they are quite general and a large sector of human species would agree with me.
In this world there are 2 kinds of people one who will take each day as it comes, for these guys life being out of control is a "normal" thing, but "un"fortunately I don't belong to this category. I need to foresee where I'm heading or else I feel lost and miserable. Apparently from my past two years I have learnt that a Ph.D is no place to look for this foresight and hence I walk on this road completely blindfolded hoping for the best. Its generally unfamiliarity that leads to "different " behavior (note the quotes on different). For me my different behavior is spending long hours in the lab, not socializing and just trying to do my work nearly 90% of the day.
Although this is completely normal to me, many around me consider this as highly unsocial and behavior that could lead to depression. Is this truly a sign of depression or there is more to the story than one can see?. For years introverts (like myself) are misunderstood as highly depressed and unsocial people. They are generally considered as mentally ill who need immediate medical attention. Let me write a few words from the point of view of an introvert.
Introverts and not unsocial. They do have friends but not as many as extroverts. For them their few friends and close family are their world and their attitude when they are around them and when they around strangers is immensely different. They do not like to jabber mindlessly for hours, rather their talks are intellectual and thought provoking. Huge crowds and strangers generally drain their inner energy and hence many times they get projected as shy and timid people with poor people skills. A lot of introverts do like to socialize, but their definition of socializing is not going to a place with a huge crowds, rather they would prefer a quite evening with close friends probably watching a match or something.
Unlike extroverts they never let their feelings known. They don't find it comfortable sharing their problems with others because they feel that sharing is simply not going to solve the problem and since it is their problem, they should be the ones finding the solution. It is generally in times like these you'll find an introvert aloof from everyone. At this point he needs his peace and solitude to dig deep within himself to find his solution, 99.99% of the times this solution works and the reason it works is not because the person is a great thinker or a genius, it is because in that time of solitude (even though he is in a crowded Mumbai local train) he has gone over all the possible outcomes of the solution and more importantly in the end he believes it works. Its generally this belief that solves half of their problems and the other trivial half is easily tackled.
Although introverts have formed a small part of this society they have contributed immensely to many fields of arts, science, politics to name a few. Some of the notable introverts in the 18th and 19th century were Einstein, Abraham Lincon, Da Vinci, Queen Elizabeth..Many more notable thinkers, philosophers, writers, scientists, people who change the way we think in our day to day life have been introverts. Do introverts still need help???? . We have our own whimsical way of life which we enjoy to the fullest.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Saturday, June 12, 2010
∑ Giggling = Constant
Explaining physics to a child is not only challenging, but one needs to be highly imaginative. Physics I feel is more about imagination rather than cumbersome mathematics and equations. Hence it is quite often seen that the best of physicists are not the best of teachers.
Imagine explaining concepts of energy conservation, heat transfer and friction and losses to a small child. These theories have been built over the past century and till date some of the concepts are not very clear. The theories can be taught in the most cumbersome way with a lot of mathematics and quantum mechanics involved or they can be taught in a simplistic way giving a flavor of whats going on to a person who has just started learning the basics of science. I call this the "jiggling theory" of teaching kids.
Imagine we had a bunch of small ping pong balls in a tub and all these balls are constantly jiggling around. Even if two balls bounce against each other they may transfer their jiggling from one ball to the other but the total amount of jiggling remains constant. Now if we have another tub in which there is water and we transfer the ping pong balls to this new tub then although the balls will appear to be jiggling less, the water in the tub will be jiggling more than before thus conserving the jiggling. This is the basic principle behind conservation of energy, the ping pong balls are the particles (could be atoms or molecules) and the jiggling correlates to the kinetic energy of the particles whereas the different tubs (one filled with water and one empty) i.e different environments correspond to the different potentials a particle experiences.
Now imagine two sets of ping pong balls one jiggling more and the other less. Now if we mix these in an empty tub the fast jiggling balls will collide with the slow jiggling ones and will make the slow ones jiggle fast. Now since the total jiggling is constant the fast jiggling ones will slow down. This is the second law of thermodynamics or the basic principle behind heat flow, which says that heat always flows from a hotter object (more jiggling balls) to a colder one (less jiggling balls). Now if we wait long enough all the balls will be jiggling at the same rate, thus giving an equilibrium. In thermodynamics the magnitude of the jiggling of these balls is also known as temperature.
Now if these same balls were placed in a tub filled with water then the water would also start jiggling and the balls would loose some of their jiggleness to the water, thus resulting in losses and giving rise to the concept of friction.
The jiggling theory can be applied to many other fields and can be used to explain many other difficult concepts. All one needs is a little bit of jiggling and whole lot of imagination.
Imagine explaining concepts of energy conservation, heat transfer and friction and losses to a small child. These theories have been built over the past century and till date some of the concepts are not very clear. The theories can be taught in the most cumbersome way with a lot of mathematics and quantum mechanics involved or they can be taught in a simplistic way giving a flavor of whats going on to a person who has just started learning the basics of science. I call this the "jiggling theory" of teaching kids.
Imagine we had a bunch of small ping pong balls in a tub and all these balls are constantly jiggling around. Even if two balls bounce against each other they may transfer their jiggling from one ball to the other but the total amount of jiggling remains constant. Now if we have another tub in which there is water and we transfer the ping pong balls to this new tub then although the balls will appear to be jiggling less, the water in the tub will be jiggling more than before thus conserving the jiggling. This is the basic principle behind conservation of energy, the ping pong balls are the particles (could be atoms or molecules) and the jiggling correlates to the kinetic energy of the particles whereas the different tubs (one filled with water and one empty) i.e different environments correspond to the different potentials a particle experiences.
Now imagine two sets of ping pong balls one jiggling more and the other less. Now if we mix these in an empty tub the fast jiggling balls will collide with the slow jiggling ones and will make the slow ones jiggle fast. Now since the total jiggling is constant the fast jiggling ones will slow down. This is the second law of thermodynamics or the basic principle behind heat flow, which says that heat always flows from a hotter object (more jiggling balls) to a colder one (less jiggling balls). Now if we wait long enough all the balls will be jiggling at the same rate, thus giving an equilibrium. In thermodynamics the magnitude of the jiggling of these balls is also known as temperature.
Now if these same balls were placed in a tub filled with water then the water would also start jiggling and the balls would loose some of their jiggleness to the water, thus resulting in losses and giving rise to the concept of friction.
The jiggling theory can be applied to many other fields and can be used to explain many other difficult concepts. All one needs is a little bit of jiggling and whole lot of imagination.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Leaving on a Jet Plane...
"Willkommen" were the first words I heard as I boarded the AirBus A-380. I felt the journey would be a regular one with me sleeping about 90% of it. But this time my insomnia did not allow me to sleep for quite some time. I initially started taking to my co-passenger who was a Croatian working for a oil tanker company. He was returning home after a 3 month long trip and it was fun hearing his stories most of which sounded like an impromptu. After he slept off I started watching some movies and soon got bugged of them too and then suddenly I remembered my friends words "Can we see a full lit sky when we are on a plane?" Whenever I had flown before I had never seen the stars or maybe never paid much attention outside the window. But as I peeped outside, searching for the stars I initially could see hardly a few scattered here and there. But then I stuck my face to the window trying to cover all the possible light from within the aircraft and there behold the whole sky lit up. There were nearly a billion start that I could see and it was as bright as the full moon night. From the city it is impossible to see such a magnificent site but even from a secluded area the feeling is different because now I just didn't have stars over my head but I was surrounded by them through at least 270 degrees. I was just sitting there struck in awe and the child inside me never wanted this moment to pass.
I woke up with my face still stuck to the window but it wasn't the stars that were greeting me this time around. The sun was about to rise and the entire horizon was slowly changing its color from black to blue. As I scanned the horizon I could see the gradient of blue merging into the black at the extreme edges and there in the middle I saw Venus shining with all her glory. I simply can not describe the scene but it was one of the most peaceful scenes I have ever seen. I looked below to see ground, but all I saw a white fluffy blanket stretching out to infinity. I was amazed to see such a huge cloud cover and out far in the distance one could see towers of black clouds with lightning lighting them up in a magnificent display of lights. As we descended through the blanket I realized that it was not simply one layer but multiple layers of clouds and it felt like a blissful eternity descending through them. I would have surely experienced what Moksh is if the plane was silent and there was no constant German murmuring from all over the plane. The vastness and the plain simplicity yet elegance of this scene made me realize how small I really was and how small my troubles really are as compared to this gigantic place we call Earth, who like a magic factory churns our marvelous wonders every single day.
As we came past the clouds the pictures seen in kids books were right in front of my eyes with small little toy houses and miles and miles of multicolored pastures with small narrow roads and rivers. But then I started seeing buildings and factories and big complexes and then the feeling sank in that I was about to land in the business capital of Europe... "Munich."
I woke up with my face still stuck to the window but it wasn't the stars that were greeting me this time around. The sun was about to rise and the entire horizon was slowly changing its color from black to blue. As I scanned the horizon I could see the gradient of blue merging into the black at the extreme edges and there in the middle I saw Venus shining with all her glory. I simply can not describe the scene but it was one of the most peaceful scenes I have ever seen. I looked below to see ground, but all I saw a white fluffy blanket stretching out to infinity. I was amazed to see such a huge cloud cover and out far in the distance one could see towers of black clouds with lightning lighting them up in a magnificent display of lights. As we descended through the blanket I realized that it was not simply one layer but multiple layers of clouds and it felt like a blissful eternity descending through them. I would have surely experienced what Moksh is if the plane was silent and there was no constant German murmuring from all over the plane. The vastness and the plain simplicity yet elegance of this scene made me realize how small I really was and how small my troubles really are as compared to this gigantic place we call Earth, who like a magic factory churns our marvelous wonders every single day.
As we came past the clouds the pictures seen in kids books were right in front of my eyes with small little toy houses and miles and miles of multicolored pastures with small narrow roads and rivers. But then I started seeing buildings and factories and big complexes and then the feeling sank in that I was about to land in the business capital of Europe... "Munich."
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