Saturday, December 3, 2022

Reality vs Fiction

Fiction comes with infinite possibilities. It is not difficult to be lost in these imaginary worlds. Some corner of the mind secretly wants to live such fairy tales. Be the detectives solving cases. Be overpowered demon-lord crushing every enemy coming their way or a mad scientist traveling through time. Fiction can be anything you want. It is different from the trivial way of life. There is excitement and adventure at each step. Medieval era of swords and weapons, horses, magic spells, kingdoms, mythical creatures, or cyberpunk atmosphere of flying cars, mecha suits, and space travel. All seems to incite every cell in the body with a sense of new.




In the movie Matrix, Morpheus presents Neo with two choices. If he takes the blue pill, he stays in the simulated world of the Matrix but if he takes the red pill, he awakes in the real world to find the harsh truth about machines. There are multiple reasons why reality sucks. 
  • Everything is bound by physical laws. You cannot create anything out of nothing or use magic. 
  • Reality is unpredictable. It does not have specific goals or an inbuilt story. You don’t always get to be the main character or be the center of attention. 
  • Life is a slow process. Consistent efforts for years or even a lifetime are required to make a significant difference. Day-to-day life isn’t mysterious and most often is repetitive and boring. 
  • Life is harsh. Failures are an essential part of life. You have to fight for survival and at times endure pain and misery. Some things cannot be fixed no matter what you do.

Sometimes truth is more fascinating than fiction. Despite so many cons, the reality is especially different. It is just like how truth should be. Balance of good and bad. Look at the stars in the night sky. Being alive in this world itself is no less than any fiction. Humanity has come so far. Inventions like vehicles, airplanes, the telephone, the computer, satellites, and spaceships, etc. are on equal terms with sorcery. Although expecting exact fiction from life would not be practical, many possibilities cannot be ignored. 

It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live. If you are a fan of fantasy then you may like to split time between work or job and then as a reward reading a novel or watching a movie or playing video games but running away from real-world problems is only going to make them worse. Just keep doing as much as possible. I think what world we live in is not going to change me because - It is our choices that show who we are, far more than our abilities. 

Friday, November 25, 2022

Illusion of Force and Mass

Let us start with the famous Newton’s second law of motion.

F = ma
   where
   F- net force acting on the body
   m- mass of the body
   a- acceleration of the body

What is the mass of a body? Generally, mass is attributed to the amount of matter in a body. How do we measure the mass of any body? Due to the unique property of gravitational force, on Earth’s surface weight (mg) of any body is proportional to mass. Dividing weight by constant g, the mass of a body can be obtained. While from the second law of Newton, we calculate force given the mass and acceleration, for measuring mass itself it is required to use some kind of force. This makes equation F=ma look like a cyclic illusion.

Even though we cannot measure mass directly without using some force, there is a way to verify the above equation. Let's say first we take a solid iron block and assume its mass to be m. We apply force F on it which results in the acceleration of the block. Now we brake the block into two halves. Assuming the mass of each resulting sub-block is m/2. We apply the same F force on the resulting block of mass m/2. Then we break this block into another two. Applied force F on the block of mass m/4. The acceleration for m/2 and m/4 should be 2a and 4a for the same force. Thus we can verify Newton's second equation by the method of cutting a standard block into pieces. Here it was assumed that mass is proportional to the volume of the body, as the block that is broken into two halves must have twice the matter than every two broken parts.

The important thing to note about equation F=ma is that force as such does not need to be defined by mass. There are four fundamental forces in nature 1. strong nuclear 2. weak nuclear 3. Electromagnetic 4. Gravitational. Force acting can be any one of them or derived from them. The consequence of this force on the body is acceleration which is related by the above equation. Where mass m is the intrinsic property of the body which decides how much acceleration will be generated for the given force. As seen in the previous example of a block, it is related to the amount of matter in a body but as such without force, there is no way to define mass.

Tuesday, June 7, 2022

The Truth: part 1

Since the day, people are born, they have kept living each day after day, but what is life about? Of course money, relations, status, etc. are an essential part of life but is something beyond that to life. 




Every human by its very nature has got around 100 years of lifespan. Eventually, they die once their lifespan is reached and no one knows what happens after death. Scientifically there is no proof of the afterlife. Any scientific theory is accepted if its predictions match with observations, but there are no observations available about after-life. There is a possibility that observations about after-life cannot be made by simple physical means. So with probability, it is an equal chance of the afterlife being there or not being there.

If first is the case, then there is no a reason to be worried much, as it suggests the presence of supernatural powers or entities controlling the world and not only the laws of science, but it is still a question that what form of existence would it be in the afterlife? will the person be even conscious enough?

While people had the concepts of heaven and rebirth for a long time, the second possibility cannot be ignored. If the second case is true, that is world works all by-laws of science as it appears to be then sadly everyone is destined to be nothing but soil and ashes. It is not as bad to lose memories and rebirth as say ant than to never exist again.

So everyone has got about 100 years before going completely non-existent, nowhere to be found. This means everyone should live their life in the most meaningful way possible. To think, it seems so injustice that people work hard in life just to not exist forever. So why shouldn't some years of life be spent on researching on increasing human lifespan and knowing more about the universe? For people who might find this idea to be quite selfish, from an individual's perspective, even if failure comes it would be a pleasure to see the next generations of humanity solve this puzzle and die peacefully. But there is no wrong for one in trying to save his existence.

The goal here is not to live forever, but to understand intrinsically the world. And dying before that happens cannot be allowed. Until it is known what happens after death, where does our position stand in the universe, Is the world controlled by higher entities or world has no meaning as such, an intelligent decision about life cannot be made.




Wednesday, May 18, 2022

Faraday's law of Electromagnetic Induction

Michael Faraday, who became one of the greatest scientists of the 19th century, began his career as a chemist. He worked as an assistant to famous chemist Humphry Davy. Faraday had no formal education beyond basic reading, writing and math, and he never went to college. 

At the age of 14, he became an apprentice to a local bookbinder and bookseller. During his seven-year apprenticeship, Faraday read many books and developed interest in science. His main discoveries include the principles underlying electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism and electrolysis and the invention of electric motor and dynamo.




Faraday's Law states that the magnitude of emf induced in the coil is equal to the rate of change of flux that linkages with the coil. The flux linkage of the coil is the product of the number of turns in the coil and flux associated with the coil.

Faraday's law can be understood in-depth from Maxwell's equation

        

The above equation means If there is time-varying magnetic flux passing through any arbitrary loop drawn in space, then there is an electric field established such that the line integral of electric field E on a closed loop is equal to the rate of change of flux.

Note here that it is not required for the conductor or coil to be present to establish the electric field and hence emf. But generally, no current flows due to the high resistance of air.

Let's say we place a circular copper coil in a time-varying magnetic field, then free electrons in the copper will start moving in the direction of the electric field created as stated above. The current flowing, in turn, produces its own magnetic field and tries to effectively cancel out variations in original magnetic field. This is in accordance with Lenz's Law.

If     

            ...............................................(1)

            .......................................................(2)

Equating 1 and 2, we get

          
      

Suppose one turn coil replaced with N turn coil, then induced emf is simply N times that of single turn emf. This is because for each turn    and so for N turns in series ,the emf will add up.

        



Here N being multiplied with the rate of change of flux is a very critical concept in Faraday's law. It is essential that to apply Maxwell's equation loop must be closed since phi is flux passing through a closed loop. A turn is almost circle, but it is not a closed-loop, though, as said before, it is not required the conductor to be present; hence we take an arbitrary circle in space that has the same radius as the turn and then electric field E obtained is same as single turn coil. It is as if the circles of the electric field are already present in space, and we are just placing a coil there.

        

        

         


Since N is a constant  

        

        

Psi is called flux linkage, and instead of adding emf of all turns in series, it is dealt with by taking emf induced equal to rate change of flux linkage.

Faraday's law explains the working of electrical elements like Inductor and Transformer and is the basis for converting mechanical motion into electrical energy in all electric generators.