The Power Of Talking
The ability to talk has become such an integral part of our life that we take it for granted. It is very difficult to imagine a world where people couldn’t talk. It would have taken a million more years for us to reach where are today than it has if we couldn’t talk. As the lyrics in a song titled Keep Talking by the band Pink Floyd,”Something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination. We learnt to talk.” So is being able to talk really all that important? Take a moment to consider a world where people couldn’t talk. The only methods of communication then would be through paper and pen. Supposing your friend had your notebook and you forgot to take it from him and you have a test the next day you would be in a fix. On a larger scale people would find it very difficult to communicate to a large gathering. We would have only silent movies and TV Shows as nobody in the world knew how to talk. Songs wouldn’t have lyrics. If you were in a emergency you wouldn’t be able to call for help. So we see that if we couldn’t talk there would be so many things that we would be incapable of doing. The human species being a very intelligent would have found a way to live without talking but then that would have taken a long time or we might have just decided to stick to the sign language used by early cavemen. And also as the saying goes, ‘You never miss that which you never had, so we wouldn’t really have “missed” not being able to talk. We can find a silver lining in not being able to talk though as if Hitler, one of the greatest orator the world has ever seen, couldn’t talk he might not have been able to amass such a following and thereby we might not have had a world war. So there might have been some positives if we weren’t able to talk but overall it would have been a very tough situation. But the next time you open your mouth and say something, just be glad that you can talk and your life is so much easier for that.
Sunset Home
As we entered The Little Sisters of the Poor’s Home for the aged the first thing that came to my mind was,” This place is so beautiful”. It truly was beautiful, from the old stone buildings to the greenery. The old age home’s silent understated beauty hid the pain and sadness it witnessed almost on a regular basis, much like the residents of the old age home itself. Our trip to this home opened my eyes to the kind of pain people suffer, to how cruel people can be, and most importantly to how with a little effort and help we can make the world better for so many people.
On entering the home we were welcomed by one of the benefactors of the home, an old man himself who told us about the home. With 140 residents this home is run purely on charity and with the monthly costs for medicines and staff running into a few lakhs themselves it is truly remarkable as to how the little sisters of the poor have maintained this home for so long. We were first taken to the area near the women’s infirmary and we met about 5 or 6 old women. All of them were very welcoming and talking to them was easy. We were then given the freedom to move around the building and talk to the residents. We even met a woman who had a passion for dancing and showed us photos of herself. The men’s section of the home wasn’t very different, except that it housed what Mr. Krishnamurthy, a resident for about 13 years, called the Activity Therapy Center
What struck us is the simple fact that the old people just needed someone to talk to – simple everyday talks of what they like, what they had for breakfast, what their favorite dish is. Just chatting with them brought such pleasure and joy to them and the value of this is something that even money cannot buy. Two of the people I most fondly remember are Anthonyamma who was excited by the fact that the next day was her birthday and Mr. Punose a man who loved football. The reasons I remember the two of them isn’t because that they were anticipating their birthday or because of their likes but because of what it meant in the broader sense. Anthonyamma was excited because there would be a joint party as a treat for her birthday and that of three other residents. This portrayed beautifully the efforts of the Little Sisters Of The Poor in taking care of the residents. The reason I remember Mr. Punose is because of his answer to one of my questions. On asking him for how long he had been in the home he replied,” I used to live with my son in Delhi
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Vinay
Redefining Infinity '∞'
Infinity(∞) a term used almost by everyday is one of the few terms that limit mans understanding. The word comes from the Latin infinitas or "unboundedness".Any quantity too large to be perceived is termed as infinite.However an idea struck me to partially cover this unboundedness.
If you go ask a person the day after numbers were invented values as large as millions , he would reply that it is undefined , that is infinite .As technology grows , the ability to conceive larger numbers increases.Going back to the previous example , if we give him two numbers , say 2 million and 4 million or 5 billion,all are undefined in his system and hence are equal to infinity.But we know that these values are very different.However , he would have been much more accurate if using 2 million as a comparison he says that 4 million is 2 times larger.
This is precisely the motivation , I had to define this vague quantity.Defining infinity within limits enables us to equate various quantities earlier considered in-equatable , due to factors like division by zero etc.Therefore I started comparing infinity to the first things that came to my mind.I do not argue that infinity can surely be defined in other ways.However it makes no difference as it is similar to the concept of setting different units.
Starting my explanation-
A square was taken of dimension 2*2 units .The area of the square is 4 sq units.Now I stretched this square so that its length was now 4 units and breadth 1 units(now a rectangle).The area is still 4 sq units.Similarly I continued increasing the length and decreasing the breadth proportionally so that the area is a constant .
As lim(b tends to zero) l*b=4, l tends to infinity.(4/0).
Now a square of dimensions 3*3 units.The area of the square is 9 sq units.Similarly the square was stretched such that it's area is a constant.Similarly as b tends to zero, length corresponds to infinity(9/0).But we can observe that if the breadth value was made same for both the squares the length is different.Hence it can be understood that the two values of infinity are different.This shows us that we are the same situation as the person in the beginning of the text and our hypothesis was true.Now we need to make an attempt to solve this problem.
Notation for writing-
8∞2- This can be realised as a square of dimensions 4*4 can be achieved by changing the dimensions of a rectangle of dimensions 8*2.
Value of ∞ of a number -
Now the question arises- What is the use of this notation and concept . Does it solve some of the mathematical paradoxes.Does it give us the value of infinity.Well we cannot get an exact value of infinity but from the square experiment we can decipher that the area remains constant no matter how small breadth becomes.hence since for a given number of decimal points 1 is the smallest value, We can assign the value of breadth when the length tends to infinity as 1*10^-n ,where n is a very large quantity and can be arbitrarily chosen.Hence the length value becomes area/breadth.For the 2*2 square it is 4*10^n which is the value of infinity of 2.General value of ∞ of t is t*10^n.
This enables us to use the laws of exponents for performing mathematical operations on infinity.
For eg: If we have to evaluate 9/0+16/0,conventionally the answer would have been ∞ +∞ =∞.However with our new knowledge we can say 9/0 is ∞ of 3(sorry the editor doesn't provide me a easy way to use subscripts) and 16/0 as ∞ of 4. Also we know ∞ of 3 is 9*10^n and ∞ of 4 is 16*10^n.Therefore we can add them up to get 25*10^n which is nothing but ∞ of 5.This leaves us in a much better situation.This value of n can be used till the real value is discovered(possible through experiments).
Significance-Well now you might ask me ,how will this change anything in mathematics.Well we often come across situations which force us to give up a question.A classic example would be -
We can also extend this idea to all geometric figures.If we try to extend this to a circle, we say that every circle has infinite number of sides.but we know geometrically that from different dimensions of circles the number of sides are different.Therefore we can predict that the number of sides of a circle are ∞ of its radius.
Final Arguement-
Now you may ask me about 3D figures . Indeed a cube of side 1*1*1 does not have same infinity as a square of side 1*1. Infinity is a quantity that depends on the dimensions.Hence we can proceed in the same way to get ∞ of 1 for a cube and hence apply that to all the 3D figures.
Finally we know 1/0 is ∞ of 1.Therefore ∞ of 1 multiplied by 0 is 1.This shows that 0 multiplied by a number is not 0 but a practically insignificant quantity with the value of 1/∞of the number.
Finally I would like to sum up the whole explanation by a simple theorem(copyrighted © Sabyasachi)
" Infinity has different values in different cases and dimensions and these values can be related to different numbers in the numeric system with the appropriate dimension consideration"
Sabyasachi
If you go ask a person the day after numbers were invented values as large as millions , he would reply that it is undefined , that is infinite .As technology grows , the ability to conceive larger numbers increases.Going back to the previous example , if we give him two numbers , say 2 million and 4 million or 5 billion,all are undefined in his system and hence are equal to infinity.But we know that these values are very different.However , he would have been much more accurate if using 2 million as a comparison he says that 4 million is 2 times larger.
This is precisely the motivation , I had to define this vague quantity.Defining infinity within limits enables us to equate various quantities earlier considered in-equatable , due to factors like division by zero etc.Therefore I started comparing infinity to the first things that came to my mind.I do not argue that infinity can surely be defined in other ways.However it makes no difference as it is similar to the concept of setting different units.
Starting my explanation-
A square was taken of dimension 2*2 units .The area of the square is 4 sq units.Now I stretched this square so that its length was now 4 units and breadth 1 units(now a rectangle).The area is still 4 sq units.Similarly I continued increasing the length and decreasing the breadth proportionally so that the area is a constant .
As lim(b tends to zero) l*b=4, l tends to infinity.(4/0).
Now a square of dimensions 3*3 units.The area of the square is 9 sq units.Similarly the square was stretched such that it's area is a constant.Similarly as b tends to zero, length corresponds to infinity(9/0).But we can observe that if the breadth value was made same for both the squares the length is different.Hence it can be understood that the two values of infinity are different.This shows us that we are the same situation as the person in the beginning of the text and our hypothesis was true.Now we need to make an attempt to solve this problem.
Notation for writing-
Let us set a standard for writing various value like 4/0,9/0 etc.We shall use a subscript with the lemniscate( ∞).For eg:In the above cases the infinity for the square of length 2 is ∞2
We shall also use the superscript notation to simplify calculations .For eg infinity of 4 i.e 16/0 can be written as- 8∞2- This can be realised as a square of dimensions 4*4 can be achieved by changing the dimensions of a rectangle of dimensions 8*2.
Value of ∞ of a number -
Now the question arises- What is the use of this notation and concept . Does it solve some of the mathematical paradoxes.Does it give us the value of infinity.Well we cannot get an exact value of infinity but from the square experiment we can decipher that the area remains constant no matter how small breadth becomes.hence since for a given number of decimal points 1 is the smallest value, We can assign the value of breadth when the length tends to infinity as 1*10^-n ,where n is a very large quantity and can be arbitrarily chosen.Hence the length value becomes area/breadth.For the 2*2 square it is 4*10^n which is the value of infinity of 2.General value of ∞ of t is t*10^n.
This enables us to use the laws of exponents for performing mathematical operations on infinity.
For eg: If we have to evaluate 9/0+16/0,conventionally the answer would have been ∞ +∞ =∞.However with our new knowledge we can say 9/0 is ∞ of 3(sorry the editor doesn't provide me a easy way to use subscripts) and 16/0 as ∞ of 4. Also we know ∞ of 3 is 9*10^n and ∞ of 4 is 16*10^n.Therefore we can add them up to get 25*10^n which is nothing but ∞ of 5.This leaves us in a much better situation.This value of n can be used till the real value is discovered(possible through experiments).
Significance-Well now you might ask me ,how will this change anything in mathematics.Well we often come across situations which force us to give up a question.A classic example would be -
- 1/0 is ∞
- 2/0 is ∞
- 1/0 is ∞ of 1
- 2/0 is ∞ of √2
We can also extend this idea to all geometric figures.If we try to extend this to a circle, we say that every circle has infinite number of sides.but we know geometrically that from different dimensions of circles the number of sides are different.Therefore we can predict that the number of sides of a circle are ∞ of its radius.
Final Arguement-
Now you may ask me about 3D figures . Indeed a cube of side 1*1*1 does not have same infinity as a square of side 1*1. Infinity is a quantity that depends on the dimensions.Hence we can proceed in the same way to get ∞ of 1 for a cube and hence apply that to all the 3D figures.
Finally we know 1/0 is ∞ of 1.Therefore ∞ of 1 multiplied by 0 is 1.This shows that 0 multiplied by a number is not 0 but a practically insignificant quantity with the value of 1/∞of the number.
Finally I would like to sum up the whole explanation by a simple theorem(copyrighted © Sabyasachi)
" Infinity has different values in different cases and dimensions and these values can be related to different numbers in the numeric system with the appropriate dimension consideration"
Sabyasachi
The three kinds of love
Love-
The word that runs the universe and one of the main characters that makes living things different from their non-living counterpart.Love has been a major source of inspiration for poets,authors,movie directors and people of all professions.But most people do not understand the full power of love.Hence I would like to introduce the topic of the three kinds of love- Eros, Philos and Agape.
Eros, or erotic love , is the first kind of love.Basically it refers to body love or superficial love.Crushes,dating relationships etc. is this form.Even most marriages in their initial stages involve Eros.This should not be confused as a less powerful form of love as this itself has a deep root.
It basically refers to the love where the person likes another's looks or characters.In this form , one only notices the good in the another and the bad is totally ignored.Eros doesnt survive for long.It is usually destroyed or in rare cases , gets converted to Philos-the higher stage of love.
Philos, Or love based on friendships-
Friendship is the foundation of a successful relationship.This is in contrast to a man-woman romantic relationship which starts out by "eros love", meaning you get attracted by physical/mental traits alone. Strong emotions start almost immediately (some would even say "love at first sight"), though you do not even know each other that much.
Philos love is a love based on "give-and-take", where two people benefit each other in a mutual way. One partner is still concerned with what she/he can take, but at the same time is also concerned with her/his partner's benefit and therefore gives back in return.
Therefore, philos is a higher type of love than eros. Philos love is a mutual, "give-and take" relationship, while eros love is a self-based, form of love that is more concerned with the "self" or self-benefit.
Like eros love, philos love must develop into a higher form of love, the highest love of all - "agape" or unconditional love.
Agape-Unconditional love
Agape love is above philos love and eros love. It is a love that is totally selfless, where a person gives out love to another person even if this act does not benefit her/him in any way. Whether the love given is returned or not, the person continues to love (even without any self-benefit).
Say, you help out a person, even though that person hates you and curses you. Or you take insults from your partner without hitting back, all the while forgiving and praying for your partner to amend her/his ways. Or the famed "unconditional love" that a mother has for her child (her child will always be the most beautiful child in the world to her, even with a face only a mother could love!).
Or the love we show our parents, taking care of them and helping them in their old age. Just like they took care of us when we were young, it is done with or without benefit in return.
However, the highest type of agape love is not human at all, but divine - God's unconditional love for us, His children.
God's love was shown to us the most when God the Father sent His one and only Son, Jesus Christ to his suffering and death on the cross for our salvation. There is no greater love than this. Jesus had no obligation to die for us, but He chose to. It is His gift, His ultimate gift.
The similar concept can be seen in the Hindu mythology where the three types of love are-
Sabyasachi
The word that runs the universe and one of the main characters that makes living things different from their non-living counterpart.Love has been a major source of inspiration for poets,authors,movie directors and people of all professions.But most people do not understand the full power of love.Hence I would like to introduce the topic of the three kinds of love- Eros, Philos and Agape.
Eros, or erotic love , is the first kind of love.Basically it refers to body love or superficial love.Crushes,dating relationships etc. is this form.Even most marriages in their initial stages involve Eros.This should not be confused as a less powerful form of love as this itself has a deep root.
It basically refers to the love where the person likes another's looks or characters.In this form , one only notices the good in the another and the bad is totally ignored.Eros doesnt survive for long.It is usually destroyed or in rare cases , gets converted to Philos-the higher stage of love.
Philos, Or love based on friendships-
Friendship is the foundation of a successful relationship.This is in contrast to a man-woman romantic relationship which starts out by "eros love", meaning you get attracted by physical/mental traits alone. Strong emotions start almost immediately (some would even say "love at first sight"), though you do not even know each other that much.
Philos love is a love based on "give-and-take", where two people benefit each other in a mutual way. One partner is still concerned with what she/he can take, but at the same time is also concerned with her/his partner's benefit and therefore gives back in return.
Therefore, philos is a higher type of love than eros. Philos love is a mutual, "give-and take" relationship, while eros love is a self-based, form of love that is more concerned with the "self" or self-benefit.
Like eros love, philos love must develop into a higher form of love, the highest love of all - "agape" or unconditional love.
Agape-Unconditional love
Agape love is above philos love and eros love. It is a love that is totally selfless, where a person gives out love to another person even if this act does not benefit her/him in any way. Whether the love given is returned or not, the person continues to love (even without any self-benefit).
Say, you help out a person, even though that person hates you and curses you. Or you take insults from your partner without hitting back, all the while forgiving and praying for your partner to amend her/his ways. Or the famed "unconditional love" that a mother has for her child (her child will always be the most beautiful child in the world to her, even with a face only a mother could love!).
Or the love we show our parents, taking care of them and helping them in their old age. Just like they took care of us when we were young, it is done with or without benefit in return.
However, the highest type of agape love is not human at all, but divine - God's unconditional love for us, His children.
God's love was shown to us the most when God the Father sent His one and only Son, Jesus Christ to his suffering and death on the cross for our salvation. There is no greater love than this. Jesus had no obligation to die for us, but He chose to. It is His gift, His ultimate gift.
The similar concept can be seen in the Hindu mythology where the three types of love are-
- Kama- Eros
- Prema-Philos
- Bhakti-Agape
Sabyasachi
Climate Change vs Poverty Alleviation
Today we're seeing that climate change is about more than a few unseasonably mild winters or hot summers. It's about the chain of natural catastrophes and devastating weather patterns that global warming is beginning to set off around the world. The frequency and intensity of which are breaking records thousands of years old. –Barack Obama
I, a concerned resident of our mother earth am here to show how you the Urgency to tackle the grave issue of climate change.
I totally agree with my worthy critics that the rapid industrialization has divided the society, and the problem of poverty has to be eradicated but this my dear friends is not possible when we face rapid climate change, an issue that threatens the whole of mankind and not only the poor.
One may ask that how the two issues are related and why can’t we tackle them on separate grounds. But personally I feel that both poverty alleviation and tackling climate change and deeply related and we cannot eradicate poverty till we tackle one of the root causes of worsening of poverty condition-climate change.
Climate change is predicted to deepen poverty both directly and indirectly. These include the loss of life, livelihoods, assets, infrastructure, etc. increasing the economic divide.
Reductions in crop yields in most tropical and sub-tropical regions due to decreased water availability are projected to lead to a fall of agricultural productivity by 30% by the end of 21st century. Marine life and fishing industry will also be affected in some places . How do we remove poverty when climate change worsens their pathetic conditions of having less than two square meals a day. Hence giving priority to poverty alleviation over tackling climate change is like jumping from the frying pan to the fire.
Such changes would have a major impact on food security, employment, incomes, and
economic growth; for example, one study has predicted a 9–25% fall in net farm revenue in India from a temperature rise of 2–3.5° C.
Money is not everything. The problem of global warming also threatens the scenic beauties of the Earth. Our beautiful islands like Andaman and nicobar islands, Maldives and the Caribbean islands will be lost under the massive seas, also threatening the lives and livelihood of their inhabitants.
Also the poor will b exposed to many more diseases especially vector borne like malaria and water borne like cholera. Hence if we tackle climate change we can also reduce poverty as people will have healthier lives and spending less money on medical expenses also allowing them to work longer.
Hence we should be in no doubt that tackling climate change should be prioritized when compared to poverty alleviation as the process solves 60% of the problem of removing poverty.
Every second, 1 hectare of forest, which is equivalent to 2 US football fields, is cut down. There are many ways to tackle climate change such as saving resources by installing alternative energy like solar panels and windmills, changing to compact florescent bulbs and taking a shower instead of a bath. Other ways include travelling efficiently by using public transportation instead of a car and also, planting trees. The 3Rs, reduce, reuse and recycle are the most common terms used when someone starts the topic on "Tackling Climate Change." Despite these terms, there is actually another step we can do which can tackle climate change so much more effectively then using the 3Rs alone. This magic step, which most people ignored was actually "going vegetarian."
Yes, indeed this step sounds weird, but it is actually a simple but powerful step to tackle climate change. Going vegetarian would reduce livestock raising which drives 1/3 of the world's deforestation. It uses up 3.4billion hectares of land for animal grazing and for growing crops to feed the animals. Not only that, 1kg of meat actually caused emissions equivalent of 36.4kg of carbon dioxide! Livestock industry had indeed produced more carbon dioxide than all the world's cars, trains and planes combined.
Yes, indeed this step sounds weird, but it is actually a simple but powerful step to tackle climate change. Going vegetarian would reduce livestock raising which drives 1/3 of the world's deforestation. It uses up 3.4billion hectares of land for animal grazing and for growing crops to feed the animals. Not only that, 1kg of meat actually caused emissions equivalent of 36.4kg of carbon dioxide! Livestock industry had indeed produced more carbon dioxide than all the world's cars, trains and planes combined.
I hope I have made you aware of the urgent need to tackle climate change.I would like to conclude by a poem-
To show our children the beauty of life;
To help polar bears and pandas survive;
To claim to the world that this talk should gain weight
Let`s firstly take part in the global debate!!
Sabyasachi
Sabyasachi
A Second Goalkeeper?
Well taken free kicks have the power to charm and mystify supporters as well as bamboozle defenders and goalkeepers (Think Roberto Carlos, Beckham, Zidane, Ronaldo) .From the goalkeepers perspective one way to stop the free kick would be to get into the right position. But unless you’re a psychic and can predict exactly where the person is going to place the ball you can’t get into the right position and even if you do get into a very good position there is always a possibility of the taker of the kick to position it so precisely that you wouldn’t even bother diving for it, the ones that spring up to mind are Hargreaves vs. Arsenal in 07 and Carlos vs. France to name a few. But why don’t teams consider putting a man at the post like in a corner. Not during a free kick where the taker crosses it in but when the free kick serves the purpose of a shot aimed right at the goal. Of course it would take a huge amount of charm from the game but it would no doubt get the really smart players to think of something to beat the goalkeeper and the defender. In the point of view of the team defending the free kick this would make it a lot easier to ensure that the free kick does not result in a goal. This though is not a very exciting prospect for the attacking team or the viewers. The viewers want to see “action” and this will definitely reduce the amount of “action” they get to see. In all fairness to the team the free kick this would make it a little bit unjust. Imagine you have a Fernando Torres bearing down on goal with only the goalie to beat and just outside the box a defender trips him. The defender gets a yellow card or maybe a red and Torres wins a free kick. Now if you prop a defender at one post it is almost impossible to score. Okay the opposition is a man down but your team loses a goal. And in last minute situations this can be very very unfair and at times a bit depressing .This will no doubt give rise to more and more fouls in the game which will obviously lead to more stoppages. But the main issue is that no team will be willing to do this as it will obviously lead to them getting a lot of flak. But once more than just a few teams start using this method then it will soon become commonplace to see a defender standing at the post defending a free kick. So for the time being let’s enjoy the grace and mystifying charm of the free kicks before the Second Goalies Arrive.
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Vinay
The Legal Cheat?
My uncle once said, “Having a runner is as close as you can get to cheating legally in cricket”. Do I agree with him? Let’s see. One. The runner comes in for an injured batsman who cannot run. Now how do we know he truly is injured? That brings up another question why would anyone fake an injury? Let’s take the example of former Pakistan Captain Inzamam-Ul-Haq who looked more like a potato than a batsman (though he was a good opener). He obviously isn’t the fastest man around and it is comparatively easier to get him run out than to run out, say, Shahid Afridi. Now if Inzy calls for a runner and Afridi comes out then the opponent’s chance of getting a good but, slow, batsman out are decreased by quite a bit.
Two. Having a runner reduces the batsman’s fatigue. Why? Simple he doesn’t have to run carrying all that weight in the form of a bat, pads, etc. If rewind your mind back to 1997 you will remember Saeed Anwar’s wonderful century against India where he ran until the score of 40 and then called on a runner and went on to score a record 194. Now if the runner wasn’t there, there is no doubt by the time he reached the score of 100 he would have been tired and might not have played such a wonderful innings.
So how can we solve this problem? Simple. Substitutions Football (Soccer) style. Have an injured player well then substitute him with another player who can do anything from bat to keep to bowl unlike the current Twelfth Man who isn’t allowed to do any of the above. Have 13 or 14 players in the lineup so that you can substitute at least 3 players. Another good advantage of this new rule would be that in match when the coach realizes that say, you shouldn’t have picked 4 fast bowlers and 1 spinner, he can substitute any one of the fast bowlers for a spinner. This will ensure that the opponent needs to change his tactics according to your substitutions and also inject that extra bit of excitement and fun into the game.
So do I agree with my uncle? My answer is a big YES.