All is Here

I've been working on a solid modeling software for some time. The software does not care about on which scale you are working. I can model a nanometer-scale cantilever and a kilometer-scale bridge with the same package. But problems arise when I give more detail to any model I create. As amount of detail builds up, it takes more computational effort to handle the model. I know it is too much of detail when the machine takes too long to respond to my commands. With my limited computational ability, I guess I have an upper limit to the amount of detail I can give.

There is a limit also to the amount of information a biological system can receive at a time. The amount of detail one can receive is the same when she looks at a single cell of E. coli or vastness of the Crab nebula. It is a fallacy then, that we need to look too close or too far to see exciting things.

But if you get bored here, you are free to go to these places. After all, we are all born to go places and see things, aren't we?

No. I have to complete my mini-project on refurbishment of compressors by this week. Bye.

On e

The base of natural logarithm, e, continues to interest people with some knowledge in maths. This is an irrational number, which means we can never pin-point its location on the line of real numbers with no error. (Pi, the ratio of circumference to diameter of any circle, is another such elusive number.) Logarithm with base e is called natural logarithm because of a reason. It is, to me, like this:

Remember compound interest schemes banks speak about? You deposit some money at first and after say, quarter of an year, an interest on your deposit is calculated for this period with some rate of interest. This amount of interest is compounded to your initial deposit and for the next quarter, you derive interest for this compounded amount. This addition continues till the deposit is with the bank.

If we reduce this period of calculation of interest to smaller intervals, to months, to days, to seconds, we approach an exponential rate of growth. From nowhere, irrespective of rate of interest, the factor e comes into picture, when the period is infinitesimally small. The ratio of amounts in your account at times 2t and t is equal to e raised to the rate of interest.

When the rate of growth of something is equal, not just proportional, to the amount of the thing, e appears. That is how a colony of bacteria grows, with very small periods and with characteristics very close to e. That is how temperature of a hot small metallic ball drops. That is how a radioactive element decays. A lot of naturally occurring growths and decays closely follow the e- based exponential curve. The title of 'natural' came this way, probably.

It is still a mystery how this number walks into these situations with complete authority and exuding confidence.

The Complete Model

It all started with an attempt to predict the outcome of coin-tossing. A complex model was developed. Give air conditions, mood and geometry of hand of tosser, the model could predict whether it would be a head or a tail. Accuracy was improved as years passed.
Now someone came up with this: why don't we enlarge this model to cover all of the world? A model was developed. A big computer contained algorithms of the model. It was a preliminary model. It needed a large amount of data to begin the process and accuracy was not very impressive. But both of the problems were getting solved as more resource flew into the project. The computer was getting bigger. Initial data requirement was coming down. Accuracy was improving. Computer getting bigger was a problem. So compact machines were developed, with greater complexity.
As time passed, beauty of the model set fire to men's hearts. At one point of time the model became indistinguishable from the world it was created to predict. And people never bothered to go back.

A River and Its Two Shores

Sunrise. The river is flowing to the left, which is rare on this subcontinent.

A boat is being built.

Varanasi is one of the oldest cities of the world.

Well, who else owns this place!

On the right is a two- story bridge, trains run below, other vehicles up.

The other bank is less crowded with almost no structures. We will cross the river in the evening.

My first paid model!

They are born into, live inside, and probably die in these waters. Oblivious to the fact that their photograph is published in one of the greatest blogs of all time! What a pity!

Domestic visitors come to leave their sins and ashes of the dead, foreign to take pictures.

Three or four pyres were burning at this time, which I assume is quite less. Die rich if you intend to have a funeral as flamboyant as these.

This is from the other bank. Sunset.

The animal's ancestors could claim their roles in rise and fall of many kingdoms around here. 

Despite flowing under a summer sun, the water looks clear. But since I do not want to leave my sins to a river, I did not take a dip.

Back to the more crowded side. Booming business.

The ritual is quite famous, at least locally.

A floating flame, probably from a basket like the one two photos up. That is the end of one day. Thank you for being with me.

Cause and Effect

"Newton found that gravity is the cause of falling of an apple."
Is it true?
Saying gravity is the cause of falling of an apple is not true. Gravity alone cannot make any apple to fall. Presence of a gravitational field does not guarantee that an apple would fall.
If a cause cannot  individually and consistently produce an effect, then the cause is not a cause of the effect at all.
Can we say gravity is a cause among many other causes? No. If occurrence of many number of causes guarantees an effect, then the world is a completely predictable place. If we assume that the world is not predictable, then an effect cannot have a single cause or many causes.
For example,

1. There is an apple tree.
2. There is at least one ripe apple on it.
3. A wind is rocking the branches.
4. The tree is in a gravitational field.
5. There is a ground beneath.
6. There is enough light to see.
7. There is a man to report the fall.
8. The man is honest.
9. He knows English.
10. All the above are true.

Even with all these apparent causes if you are not confident enough that an apple would fall, then you have some idea about the working of the world. None of these individually or collectively guarantee anything. In other words, they do not cause anything, including the fall of an apple. So the word 'cause' does not mean what we mean by that word.

A Silent Happy Tree

Two eagles nested on a thorny tree with no green. I live on the seventh floor and have a top view on the whole tree. It had grown up to that height and suddenly branched into various directions. It is on that junction of four branches that the nest was built. It is not a lovely nest but it is an eagles' nest.
The tree showed no compassion. It was dry as if standing in the middle of a desert.
Yesterday I saw a baby. Light grey, in contrast to darker parents. There could be more babies.
But it is the tree which surprised me.
The thorny branches are now abundant with large red, very red flowers.
The tree must be happy now!

This could be some kind of Indian Coral tree.

There are snakes in the compound. Snakes like to drink eggs and eat newly hatched babies. But it is suicidal for any snake to raid an eagles' nest, that too upon a thorny tree. I don't know of crows, who are archenemies of eagles. Only a group attack can do any harm as a crow is smaller in size and weaker in confidence.

There are advanced ideas which would make General Theory of Relativity look like an SMS joke.

The Common Place

.
One walnut and one supernova are hardly the same.
But, see the magic, zero walnut and zero supernova are exactly the same.

..

None has seen or achieved:

1. a state of zero pressure. Absolute vacuum.
2. absolute zero temperature. 0 kelvin.

It does not seem that these are two different states at all. There is only one zero.
...
It does not exist outside human mind.
If zero exists then it is a fallacy to refer it as zero!
Isn't it?

The End of Numbers: Three

.

Attack

..

Counter-attack

...

Peace.

Three Trees

The three trees of Ambi's life, among other trees, are:

1. A healthy മഞ്ചാടി tree at home which he raised. Its first blooms, first fruits, and the most red first seeds were celebrated insanely by him.
2. Another മഞ്ചാടി tree which is near the gate. It gave seeds recently.
3. A third മഞ്ചാടി tree which is yet to flower, at the western end. This was the weakest of the three.

All of them counts only if they have not yet been cut down by evil forces.

They were brought from a riverside estate as tiny, weak saplings. Their parent tree is no more. Ambi saw it cut down, after the first one blossomed.

The first one is considered to be a threat to his house. During rainy seasons it gets trimmed of its many branches. Once or twice branches did fall on the house. No damages though. The evil forces are active in developing a theory that if it continues to grow at current rate then its roots may dig into the foundation and tilt or crack the building.

Collected seeds of the first tree.

The second one has not yet been called an enemy of the state. But its location close to a jack fruit tree could annoy capitalist visitors. For the latter gives relatively more valuable timber, apart from edible fruits and seeds.

The Third one is in the most vulnerable situation. It is standing close to the fence with the new western neighbors, who has been less friendly, sometimes to the tree as well. The biggest jack fruit tree of the compound is also standing nearby, which eats up most of the sunlight. No doubt why it is the thinnest and the shortest.

He may love them, but all of them will die one day. Cut down or withered, death is certain.
Is it really certain?
Ambi has no answer.

Old Wrench, New Nuts

Note the points:

1. A language has its origin in a less-intellectually-developed group of people.
2. Over time, the vocabulary may increase and evolve. But the syntax of a language does not change as much.

Therefore it becomes increasingly difficult to express new ideas in a language as time passes. It is like painting Bliss on a rock with plant-color. Not impossible, but handicapped.

A language was developed by people of very old and different age to meet their needs. Those needs seem elementary in our times.

But it is impractical to alter the syntax of a language every now and then. One may end up with a language that few understands.

So bear with it. Or keep silence.