Electronics, Best Fits and Tutions

Second year has begun and the first few weeks have revolved around few very important things... 

1. Electronics. The society in college has a new president and with him, a renewed vigor. Things are looking up and a lot of people signed up for the orientation. I'd rather wait and watch (and of course, work) where the society is headed. The decay had been gradual but steady and the society is at the bottom of the well now, nowhere to go now but up. :) My personal goal is, and i'm serious, to make lots of toys, maybe sell a few on the way. So much for electronics. Hope it picks up in college. Fingers crossed.

2. Best Fits. I realized the importance of someone teaching you something when I sat down to write down a program to fit a given set of points to a line. If you read about the method of least squares, sat down with a book about it, thought you understood it nicely, and never bothered to check whether what you did works for real or not, I'd suggest you do it now. I've been at it for a week now. The report is due next Tuesday. More than the worry about the due date, what worries me is the fact that I USED to think I know the method of least squares. The that the question's settled and i know where I stand, I've been working on the lines. :o

3. Tutions. Destiny has started teaching kids now and gets a salary, which is pretty cool. For all I know, she's a brilliant teacher and has been coping better with her tendency to give up quickly. Only that she's stressed out but her schedule keeps her busy and away from depressing thoughts. And her art is definitely getting better, not that I know much about it, but because she's been working a lot lately and i get to see her latest work almost everyday now. Hope she gets an art student quickly as well. 

And so the weeks have gone by, and so have the months. This semester's really boring and the one subject that never got me excited - Thermodynamics - is back and its doing its job of keeping me bored very well. Namaste.

Disillusioned and Dazed...

Its been more than an year of Physics and I can say with all certainity that I'm totally dazed by all that I've come to know. To be honest, its been a repeat of most of what was done in school, but in the new perspective to it all has left me stumped. I went to Mumbai (HBSCE) for the summer as part of the NIUS program for undergraduate first years, and I got to learn a lot more than what I'd thought I'd gather. Unfortunately I didn't get selected for the two-year program and I'm very sad about it. I'm writing all of his down to make it clear to you that whatever is going to follow isn't because of the regret letter from HBSCE, but more because of what I've seen and come to know after an year.

Here's the deal - I don't think I'll be able to contribute to Physics as I would have loved to. My dream (dream... sigh) of being the Gauss of Physics is going to be just that...a dream. At my age, Gauss was busy writing a book, creating the foundations of new branches of mathematics. What am I doing? Hm...
Even if I say that I can contribute a lot, without actually  matching up to Gauss, that isn't much of a consolation because I don't want to be one among the many million (able) people working to advance science. I want to be the best. Again, there's a question of personal satisfaction - satisfaction that comes with knowing how the world works. But then for me, knowing it and probably teaching it to others wouldn't quite satisfy me unless I can contribute in meaningful way. Which brings me to my second paragraph.

I would rather be serving my country and creating a base for science so that the right talent for the development of Science comes up, and research as an option picks up to attract the best minds of the country. I'd devote my life to getting the brilliant people of the country into labs rather than selling soap, as my teachers would say. And so i'll drop it finally - I think I'll prepare for the Civil Services. I find myself better suited to a life that I can see a clear purpose of. Of course, I could complete my B.Sc, then M.Sc, then PhD and then teach. But I want to reach out to a much bigger audience. And there is this path that seems ideal for this. The thought has been nibbling my mind since the end of the summers. Since I saw how comfortable the life of scientists is (even mediocre ones') but how little they contribute on a larger scale. I'd like to define larger scale as I'd see it - either make a momentous discovery that changes the course of science, or make a momentous effort that changes the course of the people, city, state, country, or/and the world.

I have no qualms in saying that i've become disillusioned about what I can do with the Physics I'm learning. Can't work in a cubicle, ever. Can't sit and teach. What's left? Maybe work for the people. Starting preparations from the 20th. (I'm moving to a new place on the 20th, living alone). Wish me luck and do comment. Thanks. Namaste.

PS : Physics is a lot of fun in college. :) I love Physics.

To travel along and integrate...

I've been coaxing myself to sit down and write for a long time. It seems the habit that I once possessed... to read and to write stuff apart from what I was supposed to, has left me. This, here, is an attempt. An attempt to catch and integrate all that back into my life. :)
Now the important question... what do i write? ......O.K. Here goes...

Meissner  Effect

Ever since I learnt Physics, about the world in a more holistic and arrive-at-results kind of way rather than here-are-the-fact-and-here-is-the-reason way, its been a habit to look at things differently. Now I look at a car on the road, i don't just see a car. I see vectors- rotating vectors, linear vectors and accelerating vectors (rotating is accelerating, if you think of it). I see friction being overcome to move over an equi-potential surface. Some find it strange and rather sad. Not being able to appreciate the warmth of sunlight, the cool breeze, etc. as my darling puts it. But I do feel the warmth and the cold, only that i know its because of infrared rays or just pressure difference in the air. Science provides an outlook that only adds, never subtracts. And that is where actual knowledge comes in.

To know E=mc2 and to KNOW E=mc2 makes a lot of difference. To wade through a lot of the airways of mathematics (more on that later) and to arrive at this beautifully deceptive and elegant solution is something. While I knew what it meant, I never understood its implications. Thats where KNOWING comes in. To take a more simpler case.. I knew that a book moves when i apply force according to F=ma. But to know that i can find out displacement, velocity, et all just by measuring a few quantities was a huge step. In secondary school, I never bothered to know how much it moved. I just knew it moved because i made it move. Thats increase in the knowing is what I'm trying to impress on you.

To move from how to how much is dimension that was added to me only a few years back. I still do turn my head away when i know i can find out how much from how but its just the lazy me not wanting to work. I wonder how many more dimensions can be added. I do see one more growing, - what if.

The orbital of electrons around Hydrogen Nuclei calculated as probability distribution by a computer.

 Here's how I've progressed - how-how much- what if . The powers that computers provide allow me to create worlds where gravity points up and planets fly-off from orbits. I'm looking forward to the addition of more dimensions, travelling along integrating.... (just like the work integral.. hmmm... it seems this habit is creeping into my writing as well.. )
Till next time.. Namaste.