Science
science
“Richard Feynman once suggested that nature is like an infinite onion. With each new experiment, we peel another layer of reality; because the onion is infinite, new layers will continue to be discovered forever. Another possibility is that we’ll get to the core. Perhaps physics will end someday, with the discovery of a “theory of everything” that describes nature on all scales, no matter how large or small. We don’t know which future we will live in. But the observation of neutrino masses tells us that the adventure of discovery in which we are currently involved will not end here. There are still fundamental mysteries to be resolved. And it is the mysteries in life that make living so exciting.”
Source: http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/what-neutrinos-reveal
More Posts from Svishnuu and Others
C O N S T A N T L Y
Totally relatable!
mind blow (just a bit)
Behavioral mathematics is just magical!
transition from pencils to pens
^ my physics notes
This semester, I switched from pencils to pens. I have been using pencils for the past two semesters. At that time, I could never understand people (fellow classmates) who use pens. You can’t erase with pens – it’s like using a bad old typewriter, if you make a mistake it stays forever.
However, now I understand the profoundness of using a pen!. Pens are almost frictionless. They glide effortlessly over the pages like a zero-volume mass sliding down a frictionless decline. Using a pen feels like you’re saving nano-joules of energy due to fewer friction. The experience of using a pen is unparalleled to that provided by any pencil I’ve ever used. Pencils are TI-10s. Pens are TI-89s. So, wonder why I stopped using pens two semesters ago?
A little history, I sometimes try to be perfectionist. I always try to perfect my MATLAB codes; it gives a pleasure while I attempt to make it concise as possible. However, over the course of my education, I’ve gotten a lot better of turning off my perfectionist tendencies — like when the professor alters the notes after I copy it down. Before, I would have erased it — with the eraser-end of my pencil, of course. Now, I don’t have to. I feel like it’s less efficient; it takes around 5 seconds to erase few words, while it only takes a second to draw a line across the same few words. So what if I wrote “Kircoff’s rule” instead of “Kirchhoff’s rule”? Well, when I go back to my notes, I would still understand it, and if I don’t know to how to spell it, Google’s “Did you mean….” will save me.
Just the other day, I submitted my Physics (Electricity and Magnetism) problem set. I had few scratchings across some calculations, but I became more conscience later on. You might wonder this would have created a bad impression. Guess what happened after I got it back? Absolutely nothing. I’m pretty sure my professor didn’t care at all and has completely forgotten it, unless he reads this post.
This shows that I’m really putting my education to great efficiency and doing some Calculus constraining (and also some probability). After putting time fixing my slight errors, I’ve already reached the point of diminishing returns. The slightly decreased probability of something going wrong just isn’t worth the additional time I’d spend to attain it.
I am not on a discriminative drive towards perfectionism (although it wasted too much time), but I think perfectionism shouldn’t be applied to less important things. I think pencils are great (wait, don’t think I’m contradicting) but only for sketching! Pencils, used wrongly, will more likely to obfuscate people than enlighten them. Finally, to me it is a rapture to be a pen person now.
“Physics isn’t the most important thing. Love is.” Richard Feynman
SpaceX's Grasshopper Rocket
SpaceX's Grasshopper Rocket beautifully perfectly Hovers!
In this recent test, the Grasshopper vertically took-off, ascended to about 12 stories, hovered for few seconds and then deliberately landed back down.
And of course, it's indeed meant to go much, much higher (to space) but progress is progress.
In a nutshell or two: I love aerospace. I'm an engineer, writer, a photographer, and a reader. And, of course, a blogger. I spent my high school years in New York City, managing to defy every urban bum new yorker stereotype (except for the "bum" part). My school life basically revolved around Aviation and Science Bowl. If you continue to read this, I can assure you three (3) things: (1) impeccable grammar (yea, ok) and spelling (thanks to auto spell check), (2) a total lack of entertainment (literally, everyone’s view of entertainment is different), (3) an alliteration of photos, and (4) so many listings. (and of course parentheses)
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