CNR Rao, former IITK professor to be awarded Bharat Ratna

Professor C N R Rao, nominated for Bharat Ratna

Prof. C N R Rao named to receive the Bharat Ratna Award, was a faculty member at IIT Kanpur and served as the chairman of the board of governors of IITK from 2002 to 2005.

Future as a function of the past

Himanshu Kateja uploaded a status today, 

"the future is independent of the past, given the present" - Andrey Markov, 1856-1922

Food for thought - aisa sirf theory mein hota hai

This has prompted me to think about it & I have come to the realisation that the past affects are future to a varying degree depending on the time difference between the past & the future.

P. S. : present is a past for the future. So present by itself is already affecting the future as a past.

f(t) = f(t-$t)•e^(-$t) + c(t-$t)f(t-$t)

Where $ = delta (a variable time difference measured backwards from now) 

c(t-$t) is special relation function. For eg. If this the college entrance time, then the c function of t-$t = entrance exam time becomes significantly important for your present.

What I am basically trying to say is, that the dependence of any time on the past reduces with the time difference between the past & the said time, but for special events dependent entirely (or majorly) on a specific point in the past, the relation with the particular time in past may have a peak.

& $t is a variable time difference, so all previous value of function f at past times are considered.

Also the present is being determined by the past, to a certain degree, & the future is being determined by the present which is in turn affected by the past.

(considering a general event, for which c = 0) However due to the repetition of the exponential reduction, the dependence of the future on the past is much lower than either of the following two :

1. Dependence of the present now on the said past.

2. Dependence of the future on the present now.

So, my dear friend, start working in the present instead of futilely musing on the past because the effect, on future, of what you are doing right now is much higher than what you did in the past.

Philosophy & Innovation : Cognitive Thinking, the common link?

Is there a relation? I think so. In my opinion it is quite similar to evolution. Both have their roots in the same ground, just the context or the environment in different. Sometimes  even the environment is similar.

IMO, both innovation & philosophy involve thinking. Thinking at a deeper level than usual. (technically you are 'thinking' when your brain 'commands' your hand to pick up the spoon & feed you, but I am referring to thinking in its more complex usage). 
When I 'innovate', the process involved thinking, I need to find a scope, a need, a method to fulfill that need & then think how to implement it & implement it.
Philosophy is not much different. When I am musing about life, the purpose of life and such other rudimentary concepts, I am often trying to find a need, for life, a way to explain what is happening & why is it happening & apply it to life.

So is it just that they are 2 different types of thinkings? Maybe. Yet to figure it out.

This was my answer to a question about the relation between innovation & philosophy.

6174, 495 : beautiful Numbers & Mathematics

6174 is known as Kaprekar's constantafter the Indian mathematician D. R. Kaprekar. This number is notable for the following property:

1. Take any four-digit number, using at least two different digits. (Leading zeros are allowed.)
2. Arrange the digits in ascending and then in descending order to get two four-digit numbers, adding leading zeros if necessary.
3. Subtract the smaller number from the bigger number.
4. Go back to step 2.

The above process, known as Kaprekar's routine, will always reach its fixed point, 6174, in at most 7 iterations. Once 6174 is reached, the process will continue yielding7641 – 1467 = 6174. For example, choose 3524: 

5432 – 2345 = 3087
8730 – 0378 = 8352
8532 – 2358 = 6174

or 

2111 – 1112 = 0999
9990 – 0999 = 8991 (rather than 999 – 999 = 0)
9981 – 1899 = 8082
8820 – 0288 = 8532
8532 – 2358 = 6174.

495 is the three digit equivalent. 

Pythagorean Cup or the Greedy Cup : Science

Pythagorean Cup or the GreedyCup, credited to Pythagorus of Samos, ancient Greece.

This is a unique which looks mostly like a normal cup, with a raised tube in the middle. It works on the simple principle of air pressure & hydrostatic pressure. 

Above is a cross section view I the cup & it's functioning.

Between step C & D, the pouring out of water creates a hydrostatic pressure which leads from C to D, instead of B.

Photo courtesy : Wikipedia

If you have any query, please post as a comment.

Wisdom from a teenager : Perspectives & Anekantvada

This is a (long awaited) guest post written by Kruti (www.KrutiMunot.com)

She presents a different perspective or rather, maybe an analogy between science & religion wrt my last post, What if our understanding of the universe is like the three blind men & an elephant.

Kruti writes

I came across a slightly different version of The Blind Men and the Elephant while reading something about Jainism. Anekantavada, or multiplicity of perspectives. 

Each of the blind men was right and wrong at the same time. He was right from his point of view- well, the leg of the elephant was like a pillar, wasn't it? But the elephant, in all, was not, so he was wrong from the perspective of somebody who had seen the elephant in its entirety. The same applies to people, to peoples' decisions...

Similarly, one of Jainism's key principles is the multiplicity of viewpoints. No human can independently proclaim that s/he knows the absolute truth; everything is relative. Be it good or bad, ugly or beautiful, it is the perspective that matters. Today, something that seems correct to me might seem terribly wrong to you tomorrow. Who judges what the truth is? We don't know, we perhaps never will. Maybe the next time we think someone is doing something unlikable, we could put ourselves in their shoes and try to reason it out.

PS: This is a little off-track from Sambhav bhaiyya's post, but the thought just came to my mind! Yet another example of varied perspectives, eh?

------------------##---------------

Thank you Kruti

What if our study of the universe is like the story of the blind man & the elephant

There is a classic story of three blind men & an elephant.

There were three blind men who encountered an elephant. They wanted to 'see' an elephant & decided to feel it up.

One grabbed its trunk, another it's leg & a third one its tail.

The first one exclaimed, an elephant is flexible, like a rope, thick on the top, thins down at the bottom.

The second said, the elephant is like a pillar, sturdy. No chance of flexibility. Maybe some joints but not even close to a rope.

The third one said, you are nth wrong, an elephant is like a snake, thin & flexible. & I cannot hold it still. It ends above the aur so maybe it is hanging from a tree! I hope it does not attack me.

I think human understanding of the Universe at this stage is similar to those three blind men. We see one part of the universe & we think we have fathomed it. We have discovered gravity, electromagnetism, quantum mechanics & how they work. We think we know how the atoms work, how chemistry works. We think we know how atoms are but we have never 'seen' one. We think we know how atoms are made & even how galaxies are made. Each of those maybe correct in their own rights, but I think we are still away from truly understanding the Universe.

We still do not know how to save the Earth, the only planet till date where we can survive & how to save ourselves from ourselves.

Peace is entropy = constant?

Following up On Atma is Energy (http://sambhav.jewelove.in/2013/07/atma-is-energy.html) guess what I came up with, is peace a form of constant (or zero) entropy?

Comes from Entropy is the degree of disorder aka anarchy. 

Entropy = 0 => perfect order => peace?

Why is laughter contagious?

No, this is not a scientific answer, this is a hypothesis based on experience.

I think our brain has a special cell (rather a unit of ) Nakalchi Bandar. These are mimicry cells. They may have evolved as a part of our learning process. How to learn, how to eat, how to hunt, how to light a fire etc. most learning is mimicry.

The same cells could be responsive for the yawn chain => you look at someone yawning & you start to yawn & the chain continues.

Similarly for laughing?

Book review : Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan

Pale Blue Dot, again a book recommended by Kruti Munot, my little sister.

It is a must read for religious fanatics, selfish people & excessively egoistic people.

The book, in a scientific manner, starts with a hypothesis, goes on to theoretical proofs & ends with a hence proved. (not literally though)

It tells you how minuscule you are, how this planet is a tiny speck of sand, how we, the mighty intelligent Human Civilization know next to nothing about this infinitely large mega Universe.

Reminds me of so many things that I thought of as a child, glad to know it is shared by accomplished scientists. (not that it matters in the context of the Universe though.)

Alien life : eluding us

It just occurred to while reading a pale blue dot, what if other organisms on other planets exist, but are outside our sensory perception.

Think of the invisible man & extend it to all senses.

Interesting, eh?

Alien life : eluding us

It just occurred to while reading a pale blue dot, what if other organisms on other planets exist, but are outside our sensory perception.

Think of the invisible man & extend it to all senses.

Interesting, eh?

Miracle of Nature : Water does not wet Pigeon feathers

Pigeon' feathers : Do not wet in water?

Future is a communist chocolate hellhole - Man from "Future" at Large Hadron Collider

A would-be saboteur arrested today at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland made the bizarre claim that he was from the future. Eloi Cole, a strangely dressed young man, said that he had travelled back in time to prevent the LHC from destroying the world.
The LHC successfully collided particles at record force earlier this week, a milestone Mr Cole was attempting to disrupt by stopping supplies of Mountain Dew to the experiment's vending machines. He also claimed responsibility for the infamous baguette sabotage in November last year.
Mr Cole was seized by Swiss police after CERN security guards spotted him rooting around in bins. He explained that he was looking for fuel for his 'time machine power unit', a device that resembled a kitchen blender.
Police said Mr Cole, who was wearing a bow tie and rather too much tweed for his age, would not reveal his country of origin. "Countries do not exist where I am from. The discovery of the Higgs boson led to limitless power, the elimination of poverty and Kit-Kats for everyone. It is a communist chocolate hellhole and I'm here to stop it ever happening."
This isn't the first time time-travel has been blamed for mishaps at the LHC. Last year, the Japanese physicist Masao Ninomiya and Danish string-theory pioneer Holger Bech Nielsen put forward the hypothesis that the Higgs boson was so "abhorrent" that it somehow caused a ripple in time that prevented its own discovery.
Professor Brian Cox, a CERN physicist and full-time rock'n'roll TV scientist, was sympathetic to Mr Cole. "Bless him, he sounds harmless enough. At least he didn't mention bloody black holes."
Mr Cole was taken to a secure mental health facility in Geneva but later disappeared from his cell. Police are baffled, but not that bothered.

Reblogged via CNet

Contact lenses Do Not Melt due to barbeque heat

Contact lenses do not melt due to barbeque heat. They would, if you put your face on the grill, but then I think contact lenses would be the least of your worries.