Monday, February 17, 2014

Innovation: Single Board Computers

Innovation: Single Board Computers:      Ever since Raspberry Pi was made the board computers have become a rage with many such board computers coming into the market the late...

Sunday, February 16, 2014

The OPPORTUNITY India should never miss

This is the best opportunity God has given us to drive corruption away from India , if we lose this opportunity we don't know when we will get the next opportunity , whether the opportunity will come in our lifetime or not is also not known. So it is time for the nation to rise and declare in one voice that enough is enough , we had enough of corruption for the last 67 years and we will not tolerate this any more. A single vote caste for Congress or BJP is like waging war against the nation it is the worst kind of sin that one can commit to mother India. The country is being looted of its natural resources that belongs to the people of the nation by corrupt politicians , corrupt corporates and corrupt officials , natural resources like iron, coal , forest resources , radio waves, oil and natural gas are given in the hands of corporates for a paltry amount . Land that is the property of the nation is given away at measly sums to the corporates who in turns spend crores to promote this corrupt leaders through media campaigns.


Thousands of crores are spent in promoting Congress and BJP in the media , but these leaders have made laws that makes them immune from declaring source of these funds.

Take a recent example , The gas in the Krishna Godavari Basin is a property of the nation now RIL is the contracted company that would pump this gas out. The cost of pumping out gas is much below $ 1 , however Mukesh Ambani the chairman of RIL with his dirty nexus netas have managed to get his own men in the minstry of oil and gas and has been able to get a price of oil at a rate he wants. The nation has to pay over $ 4 for gas that is pumped out at below $ 1. The same gas is sold by NIKO RIL's partner in the the KG basin at $ 2.34 to Bangladesh that's the gas from a well that belongs to India.

If we put this in lay terms imagine that you have employed few labourer to plough your field and the agricultural produce that's coming out is being sold by the labourers to you at market price, which is total non sense. Since the agricultural produce belongs to the owners of the field and the labourers will get the cost of their effort plus 10 to 20 % profit. So this definately is a case of cheating the nation and one more thing is that RIL has till now pumped out gas that's much less than the contracted amount and it should be fined for that because we have to import the gas for the shortfall.

This is just one example this happens in every field in case of land, water, minerals like iron , coal , petroleum and add to that a common man can hardly get his work done in govt offices without paying up.

AAP has created an island of example in Delhi , in 49 days the corruption levels in Delhi have come down significantly however AAP did not have the numbers to pass the Janlokpal and hence the AAP members resigned to go back to the people and ask for absolute majority so that when they come back in power AAP is in a position to pass the JANLOKPAL and the SWARAJ bills and this would change the state of Delhi , and this example has to be replicated across the nation at the state levels and national level.

A corruption free India will be a prosperous India. We are not a poor nation but India has been made poor by black money and corruption the only entity that has the power to change this is people of the nation the AAM AADMI , the future is in your hands don't let the opportunity go.


JAI HIND.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Cricket Bowling (and science)

If your favourite sport is cricket then one must know the how nature or you can call it science influences the game, all of us know that bowling is a major part of the game and the tricks that the bowler can play with the ball that can be secret of his success. As we all know in cricket there are two types of bowling seam bowling and spin bowling . Seam bowling  can be medium fast(bowling speed less than or equal to 120 kmph) , fast medium(between 121 to 139kmph) and fast (speed above 140 kmph).  While spin bowling is slow.

          When it comes to seam bowling the bowler is dependent on three  weapons 1) Speed 2) Swing 3) Bounce . For bowlers who are fast really fast capable of delivering over 140 kmph speed makes a big difference since the faster the bowler the less reaction time he has, also bounce makes a big difference the harder the surface and a tall bowler with high arm action can get lots of bounce that can rattle the batsman. But speed is not everything there is one weapon every seam bowler should have and that's swing now as shown in the figure below the a cricket ball comprises of two halves and right at the centre there is seam made from thread. 
Cricket Ball

Now if a bowler is able to make the ball land on the seam depending on the direction of the seam the ball will deviate in that direction so the ball will arrive to the batsman at the position that is different from expected. And now comes the science part there are two types of swing 1) Orthodox swing and 2) Natural swing .

1) Orthodox swing:- Orthodox swing is done with a new cricket ball the newer the ball the more it swings, swing also depends on the weather conditions and moisture content in the air and the pitch in correct conditions and depending upon the skill of the bowler the cricket ball can swing in air and the later it swings the more problems it creates for the batsmen. With a new ball the cricket ball can move in the direction in which the seam is pointed.

2) Reverse Swing:- Reverse Swing happens with an old cricket ball but is also depends on the roughness of the ground and the wicket since the precondition for Reverse swing is that one side of the cricket ball should be rough which the other side should be less rough.  What players do is they keep one side of the cricket ball shiny by rubbing it with sweat on one side and let the other side get rough and its is seen that after 30 overs the ball starts moving in the direction of the shiny side it is observed that the faster the bowler the more reverse swing he gets and one particular characteristic of reverse swing is it is late so except for skilled batsmen its hard for others to negotiate that kind of bowling. There are bowlers who can finish the tail end batsmen by fast reverse swinging yorkers .

       It is observed that in reverse swing when the ball dips the ball changes the direction of motion towards the shining side that can explained by the fact that the airflow across the shiny smooth side is streamline while the rough side that experiences more friction with the air , the airflow at the time of dip is turbulent which causes a slight pressure in the direction of the shiny side causing the ball to move towards it. But for reverse swing speed is a must.

         Next comes spin bowling in spin bowling the bowler imparts rotational motion to the ball at the point of delivery  depending on the rotational speed of the ball and how well it grips the surface when the ball pitches the ball deviates , the deviation of the ball is always in the direction of the rotational motion. The ball must pitch on the seam so as to get the turn.

        In both forms of bowling the focus on bowling the ball in the correct direction is a must or else the effort will go waste 


Sunday, February 9, 2014

True Education

Friends one of the most important thing that I noticed while creating scientific blogs is that when you work out an equation there the mere look of it turns people away , that's what probably explains the fear of math and physics in school. We need present mathematics in a different way we need to present physics in a different way so as  to make it interesting an cool. 

         When I was in collage , the Special Theory of Relativity was thought in such a boring fashion that one felt like running away from the class , this is a fact with the present day educational system teachers or professors are not their to impart knowledge but to somehow finish the allotted course material , conduct  exams and that's it game set and match. 

           The beauty and essence of science and maths is lost when teachers teach just to make money and work is far more than just mere making money. Education must fire up imagination and curiosity in kids willingness to know more , willingness to innovate and find new solutions to problems.


            So when one is teaching The Special Theory of Relativity one must give the young minds ideas about the Universe about space and time and how different it is from what we see , and what we see in the universe is but just a special case of what is really around for what one observer sees is not exactly the same seen by another observer

         While teaching science giving practical examples is a must students learn faster from practical examples than just theorising and imagining. 

       Today's educational system is based on fear, fear of clearing exams especially in the Indian context  where you would find that chapters may not be taught in school but directly questions are given even one would find that the teachers would give the answers from the textbook which the students are supposed to mug up and put down on exam paper thus making a mockery of education and knowledge.  

         The fear of exams must be removed and students must be made to embrace knowledge , the aim of education must be to build character in students and make  them great citizens of the future.

Rakesh

          

Thursday, February 6, 2014

The Twin Paradox

     In the previous blog I have mentioned about the Special Theory of Relativity given by Albert Einstein and the various outcomes of the derived equations that gives results that can be astonish everyone.

          Remember the time equation 

Where T= time passed an inertial reference frame moving at velocity v
            Tr=time passed in an inertial reference frame which is at rest with the observer.
            c=velocity of light in vacuum
Now consider a situation where in a given moment two twins are born immediately after they are born one of them is taken to a space ship and the space ship is sent rocketing and it accelerates to it reaches speeds of 0.99c ie 99% of the velocity of  light in vacuum. 

            What are the outcomes ,after working out the equations the results are 
  T=0.0199Tr

We can round it up as 

T=0.012Tr so 1000T=12Tr

Which in other words mean that 1000 months on earth is equivalent to 12 months in the spaceship that is moving in a straight line at 99% of the speed of light so by the time the the baby on earth is 83 years and 4 months old the baby on the space ship is just 1 year old , now during this while if the spaceship stops and moves back in the opposite direction towards the earth accelerating quickly to a velocity of 0.99c . So making an assumption that the one the 1st birthday of the baby on spaceship it stops and moves back towards the earth , it would reach the earth on 2 nd birthday of the baby in spaceship, now by then the baby who was on earth is now an old man approximately 166 years old and most probably dead.

This is the twin paradox. This shows what we would observe when we are able to achieve relativistic speeds, at present with the technologies available it is not possible to accelerate a massive body like a spaceship to such high velocities but in the future this may be possible and when its possible happenings like the above example would be very normal.

We can actually send astronauts to planets that are many light years away. They won't get to old during the entire mission however when they come back the people with whom they would have to deal would be different since most of the people who were present at the time when the left earth would have died by then.  


Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Special Theory of Relativity

The Special  Theory of Relativity was given by Albert Einstein in which he showed how our ideas of space and time are but special cases and that with increase in velocity of an object up to a level when it approaches the speed of light the closer it gets to the velocity of light its mass increases , how a rod would contract in the direction of motion as its velocity approaches the speed of light and how time passes differently in two different reference frame depending on their relative speeds.

             First of all the Special Theory of Relativity is based on Two postulates 1) Physical processes are same in all inertial reference frames and 2) The velocity of light in vacuum is same in all inertial reference frames. The second postulate that there is limit to the velocity levels that anything in the universe can attain is a crucial factor, the speed of light is supposed to be the maximum velocity that can be attained in the universe.

           Now in this blog I am not going in to the mathematical details of deducing the equations but will give the equations directly and show you the essence and effect of it . Now the equations deduced from this two postulates making various assumptions are as follows.

       if Mo=the mass of an object at rest, M=mass of the object, c=velocity of light in vacuum, v=velocity of the body.

 

Which implies that as the velocity of a body increases the mass of the body also increases in normal cases as we see on earth as the velocity of a body goes up the mass of the body seems to be constant , because normally we don't see bodies attaining so much velocity to cause any significant difference , a body moving a even 1000 km per hour speed would hardly make any difference to the mass of the body since c the velocity of light is a very big number.

         Now if the velocity of a body is increased to a level so that it is 80% of the velocity of light in that situation the mass of the body would be 1.67times more than the velocity of of the body at rest , if the velocity of the body is increased to 99% of the velocity of light in vacuum the mass of the body goes up by 7.08 times and as the value of c increases it gets heavier and heavier if you are somehow able to equal the velocity of light , LOOK at the equation , what will happen? the mass of the body is infinite.

          Now consider a rod  moving in a horizontal direction,now from the Theory of Relativity we deduce an equation for length of a rod as follows.

Here l= length of the rod, lo=length of the rod at rest, v= velocity of the rod, c=velocity of light in vacuum




This implies as the velocity of the rod increases the rod contracts of course it is not visible in normal circumstances since the velocities achieved are too low for any visible changes to happen but at velocities close to the speed of light the change is apparent if the velocity of the body is 80% of the velocity of light in vacuum the length of the rod contract to 60% of the original length. 

Now the most exiting part ,Consider the equation of time where T=time in a reference frame whose velocity is v, Tr=time with respect to an inertial  reference frame at rest ,v= velocity of the reference frame and c=velocity of light in vacuum.


     Now again the same thing applies here for small values of v the change in time in two reference frames is is very very small however as the the speed approaches the velocity of light the changes become more apparent one can consider one observer in space and another observer in a spaceship. The spaceship is moving at 90% of the speed of light with respect to the first observer from this equation we deduce that the time passes much more slowly in the spaceship. In fact 100 days for the first observer is less than 44 days for the observer in space.

               (To be continued............................)