Things That Make You Go "Hmmm..."

I was just throwing tea leaves outside the window when an idea struck me.

If I want to measure the height of my building, I would have to only measure the time it takes for the leaves to hit the ground, and I'd know my value. But to get an accurate value for scientific accuracy, we'd have to take in many things... For human mind's sake, let me take the values upto four decimal places alone.

For example, firstly, I'd have to take into account the exact radius of the planet at the point I'm standing to derive the precise value of g. For that I'd have to take into account plate techtonics, and stuff. Going to a simpler level, I'd have to measure the time it takes for the sound to reach me as well, taking into account the speed of sound. But for that, I'd need the value of the ambient air temperature. Now, because I need this temperature, I'd have to measure the air pressure at that point as well. For the air pressure at the point, I will need the exact height of our plot from sea level.

Not only that, if I take into consideration, the air resistance, then I'll have to calculate that as well. For the air resistance, I would need to take into account several factors such as the wind direction, the humidity in the air (that would affect it's viscosity), and the surface area of the leaves themselves. Now, upon calculating that, for accuracy, I'd have to account for air pressure again. And so on.

But the value of 1 atm at sea level was derived several decades ago, since when the water levels have risen. So I'd have to measure the volume of water increased. Thus, I would need to know precisely how much ice has melted over the polar caps to get that much volume. For knowing how much ice has melted, I would need to take into account the convectional currents in our atmosphere (which, by the way is part of turbulent fluid mechanics, an impossibility at current levels of physics). For knowing the convectional currents in the atmosphere, I would have to calculate very precisely the speed of the earth's rotation about it's axis. And for calculating that, I would need to know how fast it goes about the sun (since energy has to be conserved). Then, by that logic, I would also need to know how fast the sun is revolving about it's axis.

For that, I would need to know, or calculate, how fast the stellar cloud rotated 4.5 billion years ago, for which I'd need the velocity with which the gas cloud contracted. For that velocity, I would need to know the gravitational potential of each and every particle, not to mention the electromagnetic effects in there at the time. Fast forwarding, all in all, I would need to know the exact value of the exponential constant at which the universe inflated. Which takes me right to the moment of the big bang.

And the WHOLE thing is thrown out if we take into account relativistic motion, however small, as it would, inevitably, affect the final result.

Assuming we found out ALL of these values, adding all the errors in the system would lead to a figure SO FRICKIN LARGE, that it would be mind boggling...

All in all, it's a hell lot of work to do to derive the height of my house to a hundredth of a centimeter only... It might be an interesting holiday project...

When Life Sucks...

When one is lost
In the tangles of life
Inextricably messed up
In problems and strife...

One thinks, enough,
Running out of luck
This is the time when
Life starts to suck.

Far from optimism
When all seems wrong
No pleasure in romance
No wonder in song.

No beauty in nature,
No grace in the sky
No coolness in the ocean...
And then one begins to cry.

There's no peace inside
No love in the world,
One is lost, and all alone
In the darkness unfurled.

Distrust from one's own
Stabs wounds deep in one's heart
From whence flow tears of blood,
All hope ripped apart.

When life sucks so bad
One wishes for the end
Of luck, or life, it matters not,
Because neither seems to mend.

Yet one continues to fight
Against one's inner despair.
For what, we know not
When no one seems to care.

Death would be welcome
Than living with such pain.
For what does one keep fighting,
When there's nothing left to gain...?

But when one has ambition,
Those fiery flames within,
When one is driven by passion
Burning beneath the skin...

The thoughts of others matter not,
When one's goal is their desire.
When something is worth fighting for,
What's living a while in fire...?

One does then cherish the pain,
The reminder of one's passion
When one has nothing left to lose
Where's the need for motivation?

One thinks of nothing but the goal
Giving strength to carry on,
And stop at nothing to get at it
Despair long since gone...

When one has a purpose, a goal, an aim,
Something in life to achieve,
Life then begins to seem to glow
And joy it seems to give.

Life no longer seems to suck,
As it just did before,
And when one thinks back upon those times,
They seem so long ago...

When life no longer sucks again,
The beauty of life appears.
The reason to live, to love again
Blooms beyond all the fears.

Romance seems pleasurable again,
The wonder back in song,
Optimism seems back at hand...
Now nothing seems to go wrong.

Nature's beauty, the graceful sky,
The cool ocean beckons.
One has all but forgotten away
The mind's inner demons.

Now life just looks so wonderful,
It's all in one's perception...
Did life really begin to suck,
Or was it all just a deception...? 

I Still Remember the Day I Died

I still remember the day I died
Over my corpse no body cried.
Not a whisper, not a tear shed,
Nobody ever came when I was dead.

A lone some soul, I led my life.
Everyone left me; my baby, my wife.
No one cared how I was, how I lived.
And when I died, no one grieved.

My story is sorry, my life is pain.
What would I not give to live once again?
Not much to say, as I’m already dead.
So let me narrate how my life was once led.

I grew up in the wake of an orthodox dad
Seven brothers, one sister I had.
For my mother and sister, their life was hell
No one to turn to, no one to tell.

For years this life went on and on
A females were harassed at the time I was born.
Abortion was impossible in the country back then
And my sister was born to see nothing but pain.

My mother was tortured for bringing into this world
A daughter; And for heaven’s sake, it was a girl!
She was cursed at, abused, ridiculed
The poor creature was thrown out of our world.

Then one day, our world abruptly turned.
In the usual bouts of violence, my mother was burned.
After beating her up, my father took a snatch
Doused her in petrol, and lit up the match…

Drunk as he was, he barely could think
His wife up in flames, and he sat with his drink.
We watched in horror as he gulped down the liquor
Our mother was burning, being watched by the sucker.

My sister cried for help just then
And the devil in him rose up once again.
He grabbed her by the hair, and smashed the bottle in two
I…I can’t describe what he proceeded to do…

My mother was in ashes, my sister lay bleeding
We stood by the window, hearing the faint pleading
Then slowly, her voice faded away…

I lost my mother and sister, that day.

*********************

The violence I saw took root deep within me
And defined my future, the man I would be.
Adding to my father’s legacy, a long list of crime
Killing and worse, took up a large part of my time.

Every time I took a life, there burned within me
A savage pleasure, a cruel glee.
The look in the eyes of the “Victim of The Day”
Would fill me up better than any liquor could lay.

My hunger was great, yet it grew with time
And there increased my list of crime.
The monster within me craved for ever more
I lived in the gory, my life was gore.

Yet the world chose ignorance, blind to me.
People went missing, yet it refused to see.
On the outside, I led a normal life,
And just like others, I too got a wife.

But even then, my habits lived on.
Hidden from my wife, till my baby was born
Then came the lightning, the bolt from the blue
And stirred me to my senses, which even time couldn’t do.

I came home in a stupor, a few bottles downed in me.
My wife was home, and hell- she was angry.
I lost my temper then, I forgot who she was
I snatched away the baby. Then it went for a toss.

I grabbed her by her hair, the monster within free
And as habit was always, the killer took over me…
An hour later I woke up, vague memories in my head.
Something warm and sticky touched me. I looked. My wife was dead!

I crawled over to her side, the only woman I’d ever loved.
I turned her over, through her heart the knife shoved.
That instant it hit me, the monster in me fled.
My wife, my life, my love, lay before me- dead.

For the first time I cried, I cried my eyes out.
I cried my voice hoarse, yet continued to shout.

When, I do not know, I stemmed my weeping
Got up and stumbled past the blood that was seeping.
Hazy, and shaken, I tottered to the door.
And then my heart sank right through the floor…

My baby was dead, cold and pale
My life, that instant, had turned to hell.
I killed my family… slowly it came…
The pain, the sorrow, the despair, the shame…

My mind numbed, my body paralysed
I dropped to the floor, tears streaming from my eyes
And crying, sobbing, there I lay
Next to the corpse of my daughter that day.

The next day it was out, in papers everywhere
The killer in white, now entirely laid bare.
The police arrived and dragged me away.
Forever and ever, I remember that day.

I sat there in jail, lonely for once
But money has its uses, its own allowance.
I bought my way out, with bribes very many.
But then I was free, though free without money.

But money can’t buy love, how true that saying
You just can’t get respect by buying or paying.
I went back to my home, lonely again
The monster long gone, replaced by pain.

Twelve months I lived, without meaning or reason
I cared about nothing, not time, nor season
Then at last, I couldn’t take it any more
I went to my room, and bolted the door.

An old necktie, my father’s from school
Came handy today as a useful tool
Standing on the wardrobe, I tightened the noose
I checked it again. No, it wasn’t loose.

Taking a deep breath, my last ever
I thought about my own death, something I never.
My victims’ faces swam before my eyes
I faced the fact, conscience never lies.

Gritting my teeth, I stepped to the edge
And worded my last breath into a pledge-
“This killer of many dies right here right now.
Death, I welcome you. To you I bow.”

And then I jumped off a wardrobe two metres tall
Yet death was instant, a second from my fall.
The tie snapped my neck, and I hung there.
Limp as a rag, with no one to care.

An instant of pain, and darkness thereafter
I awoke to the sound of cruel laughter...
I was dead, but then, why was I there…?
The ghost of evil, dead, yet aware.

My body was discovered only for the stench of decay
No one would cry, no one would stay.
My corpse was moved out and buried away.
And my house was closed for ever that day.

I’m cursed to remain this way forever
Remembering my sorrow, my pain, my crimes,
My wife, my daughter, my mother, my sister
My dear family was gone with the times…

So thus am I a mere memory in minds
And I’m cursed to remain forever behind blinds
How I wept and how I cried…

I still remember the day I died…

Mangesh S.

Quantum Quiz 2... for die hard physicists...

This is a VERY hard quiz for die hard quizzers set on my favourite subject, Quantum Mechanics and Relativity. This was co designed by me and Atharv Joshi




Rules


1) Googling is allowed, but the level is so tough that I doubt you'll even find the answers.


2) 10 questions


3) Answers in comments.


4) No discussing, please.




Okay?


3
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2
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1
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GO!




1) _____ is by far the most common form of cluster decay where the atom undergoing the decay emits a certain number of nucleons (in pairs of protons and neutrons), leaving behind fixed number of nucleons.


2) It is a sealed system consisting of densely saturated vapours of water or alcohol. This is used to detect subatomic ionic particle, which, when moving through the vapours, condense them, leaving behind distinct trails. Name it, and it's inventor.


3) Which theory, often called the most successful theory of quantum mechanics, incorporates the elements of BOTH relativity and quantum field theory. It describes how light and matter interact, and is the only theory in which relativity and quantum mechanics are complementing each other. Also, name at least one of it's founding fathers.
Note: It is NOT the string theory, because the string theory isn't really a physical theory, rather a mathematical one.


4) Which physicist proposed the idea that, as on earth, Universes too have 'offspring', which have variations of constants from their parent Universes. Name the physicist.


5) You can cohere two particles such that they are in phase with each other. If you separate these by a large distance, even more than a light year, if you spin one particle in one direction, the other will IMMEDIATELY spin in the opposite direction, thus transfering random information instantaneously, irrespective of the distance, breaking the light barrier also. Name the process of cohering the particles.


6) According to the C symmetry of the universe, if the charge and spin of a particle is reversed, you get a form of matter which is known as antimatter. The principle of antimatter as we know it was put forth by whom?


7) This book, mainly addresses the story of quantum mechanics, as it unfolded from the discoveries of Planck, Einstein, Bohr, Schrodinger, Heinsenberg, Pauli, Dirac and about later additions by John Bell & David bohm. It also addresses the question of the nature of reality, and also about the Einstein Bohr debates. Name the book, and it's author (who's Indian born, living in Great Britain).


8) X, known for his eponymous law partly addressing the ultraviolet catastrophe had Y as his doctoral student. Y is best known for his discovery of a subatomic particle, upon which you depend to see this quiz. Y's doctoral student Z, made an important contribution to the structure of an atom, while his student A defined it using Planck's idea of the quantum, even introducing definite paths. Name X, Y, Z and A, some of the greatest minds known to both classical and quantum physics.


9) Which mathematician, in 1854, came up with a matrix defining the mathematics of what is today known as the string theory. Einstein, who came later, stumbled upon the same aspect of physics, but he worked out the physical portion of the problem, lacking in the mathematical bit. He was introduced to the work of this person, using whose theory, he built the four dimensional design of space time. This matrix was later used to unify the theory of relativity with Maxwell's equations in the Kaluza Klein theory. And then, expanding the matrix, the string theory was born. Name this person.


10) This Indian physicist has made important contributions to the string theory, and to thermodynamics, including the concept of entropy. Having done his PhD at Stony Brook University, he went on to work at Fermilabs and SLAC. AS of now, he works at the Harishchandra Research institute. Identify him.


Bonus Question for timepass:
"X, best known for his work, devising new theories on the cooking time of goose eggs, the braking speed of the Ford Cortina in an oil slick and the natural propensity for objects, when released in midair, to hit the ground, was also responsible for the propagation throughout the physics world of theories designed to anger fellow physicists. The 'Malicious Theories' are seen by some as aberrations, by some others as 'Easter Eggs' in his otherwise dull work."
The above is a description by the parody website Uncyclopedia of whom? PS, when you're done, you can have a laugh... XD


I don't really expect anyone to answer all the questions, but here's an idea of what to expect

8-10 > You really know your Physics, and are an upcoming scientist. Hats off.
5-7 > Excellent. You have a really vast knowledge of physics. Keep it up.
3-4 > Very good. You've got amazing knowledge.
1-2 > Good. You have read up on this. Keep working.
0 > Never mind. This quiz WAS very hard.

If you get all 10,  you're me!!! 

PS: All the above questions are based on what I have read, so I've not picked stuff out of the blue here. If you've read the books I've read, you'll hack this.

Cheers!!!


I'll put up the names of those who get it.

The World's Greatest Woman

There is one woman
Who's been there for me
Since before I came into
This world to see.

She held me within her
Nourishing, nurturing, growing
For forty weeks, I was protected
Within her womb, not knowing.

The pain she bore to see me through
And open my eyes to the world.
And visualise for the very first time
The colours of the world unfurled.

She saw me through my ages
She taught me with great skill
She held my hand while I walked
And fulfilled my every will.

She taught me my first words
And number, oh so many
She cultivated in me an intuition
So accurate, so uncanny.

She bore with my silly tantrums
Through my teenage years
She wiped away with a loving finger
All my disappointed tears.

She tutored me with patience
So great, as yet I still wonder.
She strove so hard, and washed away
Every naively committed blunder.

She raised me with such hardship
Yet she gave me so willingly away
To my husband with such a sacrifice
With tears on my wedding day.

She stood besides my bed
In the hospital in which I lay.
Screaming in excruciating agony
Gentle yet firm her hand would stay.

And then she took into her stride
My little one, my child
Whilst I was away at work all day
And raised it up so mild.

She was always there by my side
When I needed her, or not.
Yet I never really said thank you
Althought it was always in my thoughts.

And now it is far too late
I stood with tears down my cheeks.
While she lay in a hospital bed
For perhaps her final weeks.

Then she turned towards me and spoke
With an obvious great effort.
She said, 'Don't cry, my dear child,
I cannot bear to see you hurt.'

And then I took her into my arms
And whispered at last that day
'Thank you so much, I love you, ma.'
Then, smiling, my mother passed away.

Mangesh Sonawane

When the sun will finally die...

Stars do not live forever. They live for billions of years, but not forever. The sun, too, is a star, and will eventually die.

Let us look at the Sun's resume. It is a middle aged star, at 4.5 billion years, and has 5 billion years more to live. It is a type G, yellow star, second or third generation, head of the Solar family. It is located in the Orion Arm of the Milky way galaxy.

How will the Sun die?

The sun is small, and will one day burn out all it's hydrogen supply. In the process of fusion, hydrogen is converted in to the heavier helium, and the extra proton mass is released as energy. Hydrogen, being lighter than helium, will rise to the outer layers, while helium will sink towards the centre. Eventually, the sun will run out of it's hydrogen, and start burning helium. When that ends as well, the outer layers will expand, and cool in the process. The star will become what is known as a Red Giant star. When the core collapses under it's own gravity, the outer layers and most of its mass will be shed in a beautiful display called a Planetary Nebula. The core will compress the helium at the center, and it will fuse to form carbon, which releases energy. At this stage, the star is a white dwarf. It is extremely dense, and slowly burns of its fuel, until it will slowly become a hunk of black nuclear matter floating in space.

This explanation can be better explained in a much more concise manner at

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/sun/sundeath.shtml

Death of a Black Hole

This is a very Frequently asked question...

How do black holes die?

Well, some people think they last forever, and they're very nearly right. Black holes do die, but it is on a timescale of billions of years. No one has ever seen a black hole actually die, but astrophysics Stephen Hawking has proposed a theory about black hole death.

Black holes aren't black at all. In fact, they constantly emit radiation in the form of small virtual particles that are born in pairs out of photons, i.e. particles and antiparticles. At the event horizon, there is a sort of gravity well, which seperates the innards of the black hole from the outside. At this point, the energy is sufficient enough for the photons, or energy packet (also called quanta) to 'condense' into matter. Since the law of conservation of mass and energy is maintained, the particles have to be each others' anti selves.

Mostly, these particles do not last more than a few millionths of a second, quickly annihilating each other to form photons again. This is the actual Hawking radiation, the emission of photons by such a physical reaction. Unfortunately, this radiation is much too faint to be detected by even the most powerful telescope on earth.

But sometimes, it doesn't work out so well for the particle. They do not get to meet with their other halves. The anti particle gets whisked away beyond the event horizon, falling down the intense gravity into the object's core. The other particle is left partner less, and wanders off alone. Since it has a positive mass, it has a positive momentum and it can escape the gravitational field of the black hole (mind you, the event horizon is the point of no return. Anything outside that can and will escape).

The antiparticle goes and annihilates with a positive particle at the black hole's core, thereby reducing the mass of the black hole by one particle.

So what happens then?

Billions of years later, the mass of the black hole drops sufficiently to fall beneath the Chandrasekhar limit of 1.44 Solar Masses. At this stage, Pauli's exclusion principle kicks in. The particles, that have been oppressed and crushed into this tiny little space for billions of years by their own gravity, explode outwards violently. The energy released in this explosion is phenomenal. It could blow away half of the galaxy in which the black hole resides. Let's just say that if the Black hole at the centre of a galaxy a few billion light years away exploded by this method, when the light eventually reached us, it would make our nights as bright as day. That is the awesome power of an exploding black hole.

Will we be able to see one any time soon?

No. Like I said, black holes don't live forever, but they come very very close. If the theory is correct (and so far, it has never been disproved, and all evidence seems to back it), it'll be a few billion years (few hundred billion years, actually) before one does die. And even then, depending on its distance from us, it'll take even longer for the light to reach us. But, as you know, Earth isn't gonna last more than 5 billion more years, thanks to our daddy, the Sun. It's gonna become an old star, expand its size till it engulfs all four terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars) before shrinking into a tiny white dwarf that will eventually cool off to become a hunk of helium floating in space.

More on this cheerful topic of the Earth getting fried next time... Tune in to Young-Geniuses.