Is there an Absolute Truth?

In our daily life we meet many new people, some of them turn out as our friends & some of them as our enemies & some of them remain as unknown persons. Unfortunately many times our friends whom we know from age’s turns out as enemies within a fraction of time. So how it is even possible people whom we know from years suddenly become our enemies. If you give a little thought on to this you will know that it all happens based on how you interpret between truths & false.

Few months back I was travelling to Delhi in Rajdhani Express from Mumbai. I had a reservation in 2A class upper birth. In lower birth there was a guy in his mid-40s named Ashwin he was working in some government organization as it was 18 hours journey we started to have conversation we discussed many topics in our journey stated with our personal life then went to profession even discussed on some big stuff like intolerance. Then we had dinner together & I went to my berth watched one or two episodes of Dexter & slept. When I woke up train was about to reach Faridabad which is before New Delhi station by half an hour. He was preparing to get down in Faridabad & told me to call him whenever I visit Faridabad. Even though we had long conversation we haven’t exchanged any number. So I asked him the number & at that moment I realized my phone is missing. i didn’t panic because i already had a past history of losing mobiles. So calmly I started searching here & there but unable to find. Then I asked him to give his mobile & he told his mobile was also off. So I asked from another passenger & gave a ring, to my surprise it was in Ashwin bag. He told he was not aware how my mobile ended up in his in his bag but as per my eyes he intentionally took my mobile & getting down in Faridabad. So I accused of robbing my mobile & complained to TC about him. Sad part was they didn’t even let him to get down in Faridabad. They took him aside & started enquiring but what happened to him in the end I am not aware as I had many other stuff to worry about.

I reached Delhi & was busy with my regular work then after 5 days I returned to Mumbai & started living my regular life. Then one fine weekend my friend took me to “Talvar” movie, if you have not watched please do watch, the film is based on the 2008 Noida double murder case, in which a teenage girl & her family servant were found murdered & her parents were convicted for the murders. In the movie every 15-20 minutes your suspicion who actually murdered shift from one person to another. In the initial police investigation based on the data collected & perception of them we believe that parents are actual murderers. Then after CDI comes into picture based on their analysis & data we believe ‘Kanhaiya’ is the murderer. Then after the dismiss of Ashwin & investigation from new CDI officer ‘Paul’ our suspicion again shift back to parents. Though in the end parents were convicted as murders but still what is actually truth we don’t know. So how this is happening? how come what we believed was true later becomes false with new data or new perception.

Later during the night I was thinking of the train scene & wondering does he really taken the mobile or is there any other possibility of it got into his bag by accident. Then below possibilities flashed to me

• I had kept my mobile at the edge of the seat & during that time his bag was lying exactly below my seat so what if the mobile fell by accident in his bag & he might be hurry to get down in Faridabad & he has not looked at it while getting down.
• While sleeping I always keep my mobile such that back cover faces above, my Moto X mobile weight is 130gm & Amaze back cover adds another 30 gm So in total weight is 160gm, if my maths was right for object of 160gm & volume of 129.3 x 65.3 x 10.4 mm to flip over it requires more than 10mts height. But distance from upper berth & to bag is less than 3-4 mt it will be not be stuffiest for the device to flip over but when I looked inside the bag the display side was facing above as if someone placed it.
• If someone steals the mobile phone his immediate action is to remove the sim or switch off the mobile but in my case neither has happened.
• Recently I had read the article by Daniel Kahneman on psychology based on my understanding of the human behaviour & the conversation I had with Ashwin I know he was very cautious person & plans each & every moment perfectly. Keeping this in mind even though there is a charging point in the train why his mobile is off.

The deeper I think about it more possibilities come into existence. So what should I conclude what was the absolute truth? If it was an accident then I would have hurt a good person. Every day I used to get dreams about the same situation with different possibilities. To put an end to this I thought I should know the absolute truth. So I started researching on it, but from where to start I was confused I started through philosophy, religion, and then ended up with science.

So let’s see what science has to say about ‘Absolute truth’ & to understand it let’s go back in time not just years or decades but to pre scientific era when we thought Earth was nothing but a flat surface supported by giant Tortoise from there we accepted earth is sphere, then we started looking into sky & all the stars changing their position including the Sun. But in the sky there were few bright objects we called them planets. Based their movement in sky we argued that Earth is very big in mass compared to all the objects out there. All the other planets & Sun rotates around the Earth. We believed this as Absolute truth for many centuries then in 14^th century Nicolaus Copernicus saw something strange about the planets movement, he noticed that planets move back & forth which seems very complicated motion. So he argued that the motion can be explained better if we place Sun & not the earth at the centre of the Universe. This he published during his last years when he was on bed as it was against many people belief. Even though it took many years but we accepted it as absolute truth.  But still we had a belief that our Sun is unique in the universe & it is very big compared to rest of the stars. But few years later with advance in Telescope technology astronomers concluded that our sun is just ordinary star & there are many starts which are bigger & more powerful than our Sun. They appear small because they are very far from our earth. Even they argued that all the stars out there are part of a single galaxy & we named it “Milkyway”. But we were again proved wrong by Edwin Hubble in 1922 with his observations that our Milkyway is one of the thousands of galaxies out there. He even discovered that all the galaxies are moving away from each other & concluded that our universe is expanding which is called Hubble’s law. This turns out to be one of the greatest discoveries in astronomy. Now you might think this is absolute truth, but there are many theories claiming that we have many parallel universe in Multidimensional. Thought no one proved it right but also no one proved it wrong. So every time we believed something as a true based on certain observational data available or based on our perception during the activities in space, later on people who perceived it differently has proved our earlier observations or theories as false & comes up with new theories & before we even accept it as truth others are ready to prove it wrong again.  Our quest for absolute truth is fulfilled or yet to be discovered is a debate which is going on for centuries.

Let’s take one more examples before coming to any conclusion. So will start with “Gravity” we all know what gravity is in Newton terms it’s a force of attraction between two masses which is  proportional to their mass & inversely proportional to their distance. This is called Universal law of gravity; he published this in Principia Mathematica in 1687. It explained the motion of moon around the Earth & all the planets around the Sun. It not only described the motion of all celestial bodies but also accurately predicted the orbits of all the planets & distance between each of them. Greatness of law of gravity is not only to predict the motion of our known planets but also predicted new planets. After he published his gravitational law all astronomers started to put his theory into test by predicting the orbit of the planets through the gravitational law & matching it with observational data. It proved right for all the planets ( During that time we knew only 7 planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter & Uranus) but only in Uranus case there was a slight mismatch in the observation data & prediction. Initially they thought it as a calculation error or observation error. But even after repeating it several times the result was same. So the question now is Newton’s gravitational law holds good even in far of places of our solar system like Uranus or it has a limitation. Our belief of absolute truth about gravity was hanging in air. But in 19^th century Urbain Le Verrier argued that mismatch in Uranus orbit is not because of the limitation of Newton law of gravity but because of the existence of one more planet after Uranus which is causing the shift in orbit which is called “Perturbation”. He mathematically discovered the existence of planet Neptune & also its position using law of gravity. Based on these astronomers later on confirmed the existence of planet called Neptune & it was in exact place where Urbain had predicted with only one degree difference. That’s the greatness of the Newton law of gravity apart from predicting the existing planet orbits it helped in discovering entirely new planets Neptune & Pluto which was discovered mathematically before even any one observed it. So finally we found an absolute law which defines the entire universe. But unfortunately this happiness also doesn’t last much longer. With careful observation of Mercury we noticed something off about it.

As Mercury orbits around the sun the two points of each orbit; closest to the sun & farthest away from it (In astronomical terms Perihelion & Aphelion) slightly shifted from one orbit to the next. The following figure shows an exaggerated version of this movement.

What is causing this peculiar behaviour of the Mercury remained mystery for more than century & many astronomers tried to come with some logical explanation for this behaviour of Mercury. So during this period Urbain who discovered planet Neptune comes with a explanation stating that similar to behaviour of Uranus there might be some extra mass in between Mercury & Sun. He guessed it to be one more Asteroid belt & its total mass causing the mercury orbit to shift. Few astronomers even argued about the presence of one more planets in between Mercury & Sun & they named it ‘Valcun’. But there was no observations confirmed the existence of either planet or asteroid belt. So all these theories were rejected & the mystery remains unsolved.

So our belief of absolute truth about gravity shattered all together. The most powerful equation which we believed to predict the motion of all the celestial bodies in the entire universe has failed to describe the planetary motion of our own solar system. In 1905 & 1915 Einstein published his research ‘Special relativity’ & ‘General relativity’ & in this paper he ruled out Newton explanation of gravity & according to him there is no attractive force between any masses, instead he argued that gravity is nothing but massive objects cause a distortion in space-time.

Einstein’s theory of general relativity predicted that the space-time around Earth would be not only warped but also twisted by the planet’s rotation. Gravity Probe B showed this to be correct.

 

 

General relativity is the geometric theory of gravitation  and the current description of gravitation in modern physics. Einstein’s theory of General Relativity is our most detailed mathematical theory for how gravity works, with it, astronomers and physicists have explored the origin and evolution of the universe, its future destiny, and the mysterious landscape of black holes and neutron stars. General Relativity has survived many different tests, and it has made many predictions which have been confirmed. So far, after 90 years of detailed study, no error has yet been discovered in Einstein’s original, simple theory.

Finally a sign of relief to entire human race we got an absolute theory which has been passed in all our tests so far. It doesn’t mean that it will work in all the scenarios; it has survived so far only because we have not explored the entire universe. To accept what I am saying you have to read about ‘Pioneer anomaly’ Pioneer 10 and 11 were sent on missions to Jupiter and Saturn respectively. Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to pass through the asteroid belt and the first to make direct observations and obtain close-up images of Jupiter. Both Pioneer spacecraft are escaping the Solar System, but are slowing under the influence of the Sun’s gravity. Upon very close examination of navigational data, the spacecraft were found to be slowing slightly more than expected. The two spacecraft were launched in 1972 and 1973 and the anomalous acceleration was first noticed as early as 1980, but not seriously investigated until 1994. The last communication with either spacecraft was in 2003, but analysis of recorded data continues. First logical explanation was either error in the design or in the observation. So they made similar models on earth & tested. No matter what ever the design errors or observation errors even after taking all the details into consideration we were not able to justify this mismatch. So is it a proof that Einstein law of gravity is not absolute or is there any other explanation?  Though recently astronomers confirmed that the cause of the so-called “Pioneer Anomaly” is heat coming from the electrical current flowing through the probes’ instrument and power systems. This heat pushed back on the spacecraft, causing them to decelerate slightly. Though this explanation was not accepted by many scientists, so the point here is if different tests with different scenarios are done then you will get more anomalies like this. To make the things more worse there are theories about Dark matter & dark energy.

In the past few decades, cosmologists have discovered that ‘regular’ matter – the stuff we can see and that makes up stars, planets, rocks, gas clouds and dust – only accounts for a small fraction of the total mass in our Universe. 85% of all the gravity we measure in the universe comes from the source about which we know nothing. We call it dark matter. Dark matter was discovered in 1933 by Fritz Zwicky when he was observing Coma cluster; it has thousand galaxy in it all gravitationally bound to one another by their mutual gravity. Zwicky looked at how many galaxies were visible in the Coma cluster and made an estimate of the total amount of matter in the cluster based on the mass of an average galaxy. He also measured the velocities of some of the galaxies in the cluster, and deduced that many of them were moving very fast – so fast, in fact, that they should have been able to escape the gravitational pull of the other galaxies in the cluster and escape into deep space, but they didn’t fly apart they are bound together. This implied that the cluster was much more massive than Zwicky had calculated; the most natural way to account for this was to assume that much of the cluster’s mass was invisible. This result turns out to be true for every cluster ever measured ever since. Also in 1976 astrophysicist Vera Rubin was studying rotation of spiral galaxy, what she found is that they are rotating faster than the known mass within the galaxy should allow. It turned out that Dark matter not unique to galaxy cluster but his presence was confirmed even within the galaxy. It has been estimated that universe is made up of 26% of the Dark Matter.

If dark matter has a substance then it cannot be made of anything familiar. Familiar materials absorb, reflect, refract otherwise interact with light & other materials but dark matter doesn’t interact with anything at all not even to itself, it only reveals to us through its gravity. So could it be undiscovered particles which barely interact with our kind of particles or could it be failure of our concept of gravity in other words do we need new theory of gravity to account for it? Dark matter is the longest standing problem in modern astrophysics that persists to this day. If  you think this as strange then to make it more worst recently dark matter is accompanied by dark energy.

In 1920 Edwin Hubble discovered that the universe is expanding as the galaxies are moving apart from one another. Universe might have enough energy density to stop its expansion and collapse or it might have so little energy density that it would never stop expanding, but gravity was certain to slow the expansion as time went on. Granted, the slowing had not been observed, but, theoretically, the Universe had to slow. The Universe is full of matter and the attractive force of gravity pulls all matter together.

But surprisingly in late 1990s team of researchers led by Saul Perlmutter, Brain Schmidt & Adam Riess discovered that the expanding universe was accelerating that turned out to be Nobel Prize winning measurement. The force which makes it accelerating we call it dark energy. If the collective gravity of all the galaxy in the universe should make it slow down not speeding up because gravity is an attractive force resisting the expansion. What they found is that there is a mysterious pressure operating in the vacuum of space & it combating the gravity & winning. We don’t know its origin, we don’t know what it is, we are not even sure of its long term effects.

The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) spacecraft seven-    year analysis estimated a universe made up of 72.8% dark energy, 22.7% dark matter and 4.5% ordinary matter. This concludes that 96% of the all that in the universe is not anything we even remotely understand. All our laws of physics everything we know, love interact with & understand or even can predict anything about the future that falls in only 4%.

 

So whenever you judge someone based on your observation or heard from anyone or analyzing any past data just remember that all it contributes is just 4% of the truth. Without realizing this fact we start hating people, community, race, religion, country, and continent.  People who are friends for years turn out as enemies with this limited knowledge. If you look back our history more than 50% of the people spent their most of the time in fighting Wars. All the world wars, cold wars, Civil War, Islamic war, ongoing War between India-Pakistan, North & South Korea, America-Russia and many more has brought us nothing but the pain & suffering. Whatever the possibilities I can think that had happened in train nothing contributes to absolute truth, so why should I hate that person & I don’t have any right to accuse him till I find out absolute truth. So my dear homosapiens instead of wasting your time in judging someone invest it in solving the dark matter & dark energy problems.

So until you find an absolute truth, all our belief or facts are applicable for limited time only till someone proves it wrong.

 

If you judge people you have no time to Love them

• Mother Teresa

 

Is homosexuality a Sin?

Edward Warren and Lorraine were American paranormal investigators, demonologists and authors associated with prominent cases of haunting. Ed and Lorraine Warren had been investigating paranormal activity since the early 1950’s. During their decades-long careers, they investigated over 4,000 hauntings & published all their cases in series of books, most prominent among them are

• Amityville
• Demon murder
• Werewolf
• Annabelle
• Smurl family
• Perron family

In 1971 Perron Family moved into their dream home but they didn’t know it was place of brutal murder in 1963 & countless horrors in the century that followed, what happened to the Perron family in that house was so disturbing they refused to speak up for 30 years, they thought world was not yet prepared for this. Now many novels & documentaries released based on it even the plot of recent Hollywood blockbuster “Conjuring” is inspired from it.

Similarly I spend most of time in journey & it has been my regular practice share my experience of few journeys

• Mumbai
• Delhi
• Chandigarh
• Bhubaneswar
• Vadodara

Out of which Vadodara journey was so disturbing that I have not yet shared with anyone, not because world was not ready to know but I was not ready to share. Even now I am not sure whether I am completely ready.  I don’t remember the exact date when it has happened but I do remember it was during last IPL season & there was a match going on between Royal Challengers Bangalore & Mumbai Indians. I was so involved in the match I lost track of time I forgot that I had booked a Neeta Multi axial Volvo B9R bus to Vadodara at 11.30 PM, boarding point is walkable distance from my room. & by the time I realized it was already 11:20PM so I ran to the place & unfortunately bus was not there, when I enquired in the counter they told bus will be late by half an hour. There was no place to sit & my backpack was heavy & my shoulders started painting like hell. So to distract myself from the pain I opened my IPAD & started watching Grey’s Anatomy season 2 in which 4 episodes were pending to be completed. Half an hour passed there was no sign of bus, I finished one more episode & time has crossed 12:30 & it is then I started worrying. I called the number provided in my ticket but no response I tried twice thrice until I myself got tired of trying. Then I called Redbus & complained about the travel, they said they can cancel my journey & process for full refund. But no alternate bus was available at that time & next day meeting was very important for me & I had to reach Vadodara at any cost. So I waited, finally the bus came around 12:55 that too it was a seater but I had booked a sleeper bus. When people started fighting then driver told sleeper is waiting outside Mumbai. I went into the bus & just closed my eyes for few minutes when I was about to go into deep sleep bus stopped & I had to change the bus. I got into sleeper because of non-availability of many seats I end up in booking twin sharing seat. I was so tired I even didn’t bother to look who is sleeping beside me. After few minutes bus started & person sleeping beside me introduced himself & I was in half sleep so don’t even remember his name & as courtesy I told my name & where I work with a tone he could have make out that I am not very keen in continuing the conversation with him. But he didn’t stopped he asked where I am from & from how many years I am staying in Mumbai so on one after the other  with a gap of two minutes in each question. Then I thought he will not stop so decided to spare few minutes for him so I sat,

He asked How’s life in Mumbai? I said fine. Then he asked how’s enjoyment in Mumbai? I said Good, Mumbai is very happening place so I am enjoying a lot. Then he asked have you tried Men to Men?  I was not sure what he meant so I asked him again what you mean.  He replied You don’t know? Its men to men sex. I was speechless for few seconds, I thought he was joking but he didn’t sound like he was. My instincts told me to run away & inform driver to change the seat. But I didn’t do that way. I didn’t want to create a scene & make him embarrass. So instead I tried to convince him, I told I have not tried & I am not even interested.

He: you don’t want ? Or not interested to try with me?

Me: I had kept myself cool & answered him I don’t like & not interested to discuss further on it. You just move to corner & sleep

He: If you have not tried then how can you say whether u like it or not? If you wish we can try now.

I had lost patience hearing it I just went straight to driver & asked him to change the seat. He asked me why? I told I cannot explain I have personal reasons. He insisted me to tell the reason & I told him that my fellow passenger is talking about Man to Man sex & I am feeling very uncomfortable. Driver told me no seats are available so I sat beside him just watching the road half sleep till 4AM. Then driver told me till how long you sit here he might be sleeping now so go to your place. I went slowly & saw him sleeping I sat beside him I was afraid to sleep so I just opened my IPAD & started reading novel till morning.

Morning around 7:00 AM bus stopped somewhere for getting everyone refreshed, mine was upper birth as soon as I got down everyone’s eyes was on me. Someone asked me how was my night experience & everyone was laughing. I haven’t replied anything just gave annoyed smile, I knew that driver had told everyone whatever I said to him in the night. He didn’t said a word & his head was down might have been embarrassed. Finally bus reached Vadodara around 10:30 AM, I went to hotel Ambassador directly & slept till 1PM got fresh up & went to meeting. I returned to hotel around 8PM after completing the meeting. The whole night I was not able to sleep. I was thinking on the same incident, till that day I thought Gay people will look little different their body langue & way they speak will be different. But what I experienced that day was totally different to what I had believed. So instead of going to movie that night I opened Wikipedia & started researching on it. From morning many questions were running in my head, biologically is there any difference between normal people & homosexual? Is homosexual genetic? Is it a mental disorder? Is it a sin? Do we born homosexual or develop this urge over a period of time? If we are homosexual can we become normal & control that urge? Finally should we encourage or discourage homosexuality? All these questions drive me crazy & whole night I spent watching documentaries going through many articles & scientist & doctor surveys. To my surprise I came to know that it was most debatable topic & there was lot of research went on above questions by many doctors & scientists for more than a century.

Most of us fail to understand why anyone would want to engage in homosexual activity. To the average person, the very idea is either puzzling or repugnant. In his 1948 book, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, Alfred Kinsey shocked the world by announcing that 10% of the male population is gay. A 1993 Janus Report estimated that nine percent of men and five percent of women had more than “occasional” homosexual relationships.

But no researcher has found a single heredible genetic, hormonal or physical difference between heterosexuals and homosexuals. If it is not biological then we are not born homosexual. But how we develop this urge? Scientists were puzzled over this question for many years.

Two large studies asked homosexual respondents to explain the origins of their desires and behaviors – how they “got that way.” The first of these studies was conducted by Kinsey in the 1940s and involved 1700 homosexuals. The second, in 1970, involved 979 homosexuals.  Below were the responses from the two surveys

Homosexuality (1940s and 1970)

• early homosexual experience(s) with adults and/or peers – 22%
• homosexual friends/ around homosexuals a lot – 16%
• poor relationship with mother – 15%
• unusual development (was a sissy, artistic, couldn’t get along with own sex, tom-boy, et cetera) – 15%
• poor relationship with father – 14%
• heterosexual partners unavailable – 12%
• social ineptitude – 9%
• born that way – 9%

While these results aren’t conclusive, they tell something about the Homosexuals feelings and behavior were the result of social or environmental influences.  So homosexuality can be caused by homosexual experience in childhood, family abnormal conditions, and hatred feelings towards women. Cultural influences such as

• a visible and socially approved homosexual sub-culture that invites curiosity and encourages exploration
• pro-homosexual sex education
• openly homosexual authority figures, such as teachers
• societal and legal toleration of homosexual acts
• depictions of homosexuality as normal and/or desirable behavior

Now the next logical question is if it is influenced by environment & through others, should we encourage homosexuality or consider it as punishable offence? This question is open for debate; you can leave your responses on comments section below.

 

 

 

 

Unsung Hero of Mars Exploration

“The Martian” movie based on the novel by Andy Weir it is the finest novel I have ever read with perfect mixture of all the elements for a master piece like Human emotions, suspense, thrill, adventure most important element explaining all the scientific principles & terminologies in simplest way so that it can create curiosity in general public.

Hopefully it creates interest among many in space exploration & soon will see first steps on Mars land. I have read the novel & have seen the movie couple of hours ago. But today I am neither here to discuss about the movie nor Novel. Instead I am here to discuss about a person called Robert Zubrin. Who is Robert Zubrin? I was also unaware of this great personality until I read the Novel “The Martian”. When I finished reading the novel I was wondering whether the author was a scientist, because the way he explained about the mars atmosphere traveling there, living there & returning back in so much details & accuracy that it cannot be done by a common man, but when I was reading biography of Andy Weir I came to know that he is not a scientist & was very common man. This created more curiosity in me to read more about Mars exploration. So I started my hunt, I read many articles, watched many documentaries on space exploration specifically on Mars. Then I came know about one unsung hero Robert Zubrin, if we can able to leave our foot prints on Mars in near future it will all be because of this man. Before I reveal his picture or go into details of what he has contributed for space exploration lets go back few years sorry few decades to understand about the space exploration.

October 4^th 1957 anyone aware of the significance of this date if not don’t proceed further stop for a moment open the Google & type this date I am sure before even you finish typing you will get many articles on this. Yes you are right history changed on this date, when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I. The world’s first artificial satellite was about the size of a beach ball (58 cm or 22.8 inches in diameter), weighed only 83.6 kg. Or 183.9 pounds, and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path. That launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments. While the Sputnik launch was a single event, it marked the start of the space age and the U.S.-U.S.S.R space race. We all know the purpose of any satellite now, but what was the objective of Sputnik I, is it sent to analyze the weather? Does it predict any hurricane or tsunami? Or it was sent take a photograph of the earth from space? Or any other planets or is it for mobile communication? If you have thought of any of the above applications then you are wrong. It saw nothing & heard nothing all it did was constant beep so that its presence can be read from anywhere on earth. The day was not only important to Russians but to entire human race, this is the day we proved ourselves that sky is not the limit & what human beings capable of doing.

“Landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth within a decade” was a national goal set by President John F. Kennedy in 1961.

Apollo 1 (initially designated AS-204) was the first manned mission of the U.S. Apollo manned lunar landing program. The planned low Earth orbital test of the Apollo Command/Service Module never made its target launch date of February 21, 1967, because a cabin fire during a launch rehearsal test on January 27 killed all three crew members. Although the ignition source could not be conclusively identified, the astronauts’ deaths were attributed to a wide range of lethal design and construction flaws in the early Apollo Command Module. Manned Apollo flights were suspended for 20 months while these problems were corrected. Though after that many unmanned Apollo missions carried out even few manned missions just to orbit around the moon. It was on July 20, 1969, Astronaut Neil Armstrong took “a giant step for mankind” as he stepped onto the moon during Apollo 11.

After Apollo 11 five more missions were carried out & Apollo-17 on December 1972 was the last mission & all further lunar missions were cancelled because of the Budget constraints. After moon next logical step for space exploration was Mars, why because to find answer to a question which is bothering human race from antiquity. Is there a life on other planets?

So we started our hunt to search for a life in our solar system (why to start with our solar system? If you had this doubt, then I strongly recommend you to do your IQ test). But initial studies on our solar system made us disappoint because results showed that the planets nearer to sun than our earth like Mercury & Venus are too hot for life to exists & planets like Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune & Pluto ( Still I consider Pluto as a planet) which are very far to Sun are too cold for life to exists.

In solar system, there exists a special zone where water remains not in boiling or frozen state but in liquid state. This zone is called a Habitable Zone. If we calculate range of the Habitable Zone in solar system, it becomes 0.95 – 1.15 AU (Astronomical Unit: 1 AU = distance from Earth to Sun). Thus, if the location of the Earth was 5% closer to the Sun, all of the water on Earth would have boiled and if 15% further away from the Sun, all water would have frozen. This is called goldilocks of solar system, a region around a star where orbiting planets similar to the Earth can support liquid water. It is neither too hot, nor too cold. So scientists at that time believed that life cannot evolve in any of other planets apart from Earth. Even the landers we had sent to other planets like two landers to Mars called Viking Landers carried four types of biological experiments to the surface of Mars in the late 1970s. These were the first Mars landers to carry out experiments to look for bio signatures of microbial life on Mars. The landers used a robotic arm to put soil samples into sealed test containers on the craft. The results of two Vikings couldn’t find any organic matter. So everyone had a general belief that earth is gifted place & life exits only on earth until 1977.

In 1977, scientists made a stunning discovery on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean that forever changed our understanding of planet Earth and life on it. They found seafloor vents gushing shimmering, warm, mineral-rich fluids into the cold, dark depths. And, to their complete surprise, they found that the vents were brimming with extraordinary, unexpected life.

The above picture shows hydrothermal vent belching sulfide-rich hot water. All around the towers stand dozens of red-and-white, tube-like organisms. This bizarre, 3-foot-long, warmish creatures have no mouth, no intestines, and no eyes. Stranger still, they derive their energy from the planet itself, not from the light of the nearby star — a feat most biologists didn’t believe possible until these creatures were found. The thriving communities of life that surround these hydrothermal vents shocked the scientific world & they also believe that It is possible that the Earth’s earliest life forms evolved in an environment like this. This discovery revolutionized our understanding of life. What makes life tic and how life on Earth works and where on earth life can survive? Then everyone began to think if life exists on these extreme places then why can’t in other planets? This discovery again created hope to find extraterrestrial life.

Billions of years ago life as we know it needed three things to begin one an energy source like heat from the volcanic fury of the below and the sun’s rays from above, two Organics, carbon-based molecules, not living things but the building blocks of life third & most vital is Liquid water, this is scarce in our solar system the medium that helps the chemicals intermingle and most important requirement for life.

So with these new discoveries we had started the hunt for aliens all over again & this time we are sure of what to look for. We have to search for energy source like any active volcanoes, carbon molecules & liquid water.

Mars has many things in common to Earth compared to any planet known to us in the universe. But it’s still a world away & getting an astronaut there to search for life is beyond us. So for now we must depend on the next best option available “Robots”. Mars now is very busy place 3 satellite orbit it & 3 landers ponder its surface.

NASA has sent two Rovers “Spirit” & “Opportunity” to explore mars surface & geology (Don’t ask how much NASA has spent on this mission). First break through of the mission came immediately after “Opportunity” landed it sent pictures of bed rock & later it drilled hole on the rock & found that it is made of 40% sulfate salt. For an electrical engineer like me it would have made no sense but if you are chemical engineers or had good basics on chemistry you would have realized sulfate salt can only be formed with soil interacting with water. So water was once there on Mars might be few billion years back, one more great discovery came when rover back wheel was stuck & while dragging it created a trench, surprisingly they found a white patches on the trench which is nothing but Silica stuff of sand & glass it would have required lot of heat to create such concentration perhaps hot springs like one on earth one more vital role for creation of life. So we now know that Mars had all the resources for life to exist few billion years ago. Now the billion dollar question, Was there a life? Or Is there life on Mars?

We might imagine few billion years back there was a tough competition between Mars & Earth for creation of Life. We know the story of Earth but what happened to Mars is still a mystery to be explored.

Now for a moment just close your eyes & recap whatever we have discussed, we started with Sputnik then discussed about Apollo Missions & what was elements required for the formation of life & why life exists on earth & we even discovered places on earth where it was impossible for life to evolve. Finally we came to the hot topic of the world today: Mars & discoveries made by “Opportunity” & “Spirit”. Now one question arise in your mind ( If not then you have not read the article well) what was the topic of the discussion, where was Robert Zubrin in my discussion till now, what I had told you that I will discuss & what I have discussed, so far nothing would have made any sense to you. But before appreciating the work of Robert Zubrin I thought you should first understand space exploration, to make you do that I had discussed all the above topics which may sound crap to few people but at least if I had created 1% interest among you on space exploration all my efforts would be justified. Even if not I am sure after knowing about Robert Zubrin your interest towards space exploration will increase.

 

“Sputnik’ world seen this remarkable event not as a success of Russia but failure of America, offended by this USA established NASA in 1958 with an aim to become world leaders in space exploration & they proved that with Apollo missions though for many people success of Apollo 11 is still a conspiracy. Total 17 Apollo mission were carried out & after that it was cancelled because of the budget issues. After that not much progress happened in human space exploration, on July 20, 1989, the 20th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, George H. W. Bush — then President of the United States — announced plans for what came to be known as the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI). In a speech on the steps of the National Air and Space Museum he described plans for sending astronauts to explore Mars.

In response NASA assembled a large team to take on space initiative, in 90 days the team developed a 30-year plan that required an enormous buildup space infrastructure, What NASA bureaucracy decides to do was basically design the most complex mission they possibly could in order to make sure that everyone’s pet technology would remain mission-critical. First NASA will triple the size of the planned space station and add enormous hangouts as well as free-floating fuel depots check out docks and crew stations. Then on the moon they would construct more ship-building facilities bases & Depot, next the moon crude construct the Mars ship a huge craft dumped by his detractors Battlestar Galactica this ship would carry everything to mars over a 18-month flight, once in Mars orbit a small group descent to the surface spend a few days and plant a flag in the ground & come home. Plan became known as the 90-day report; the plan was submitted to congress with the estimated cost $450 billion. The legislators went into shock this would have been the single most expensive program of the United States since World War 2, by the end of nineteenth century congress refused all requests SCI funded & proposal was eventually cancelled.

Our Hero Robert Zubrin now comes into picture, Zubrin who was working in Martin Marietta Astronautics Company working as one of its leaders in development of advanced concepts for interplanetary missions was completely against the NASA idea, instead he proposed a direct mission to Mars from earth using exiting rocket technology this avoided huge infrastructure requirement in space, he also objected the NASA plan of short surface time. He said our objective is to explore Mars & develop new world not just for hoisting a flag. To maximize surface time Zubrin proposed using a faster flight plan known as conjunction-class mission as per above image this would mean a crew could arrive on Mars after only six-month journey, they would then remain on the Martian surface for a year and a half this would give the team time to explore a wide area & conduct detailed research about the planet, then as the earth return window opens crew would launch from mars six-month trip home.

Zubrin was convinced the simplified more robust and cost-effective mission could be designed using these principles. But there were many challenges in that, first major challenge was launch mass (Weight of the Space ship during launch) for better understanding let me give you an example Apollo 11 was launched on July 16^th 1969 & it landed on moon on 20^th July 1969 & returned to earth on 24^th July so total mission duration was 8 days, 3 hours, 18 minutes, 35 seconds, for this total launch mass was 100,756 pounds (45,702 kg) & distance from earth to moon is 384,400 km. Remember these values for the time being, now will see what would be the launch mass required for our Mars journey. Total time will be 6 months to reach Mars one & half year stay & 6 months return trip so total travel is 915 days with crew of 4 & total distance of 225,300,000 km from earth, now imagine what would be the launch mass for the Mars ship. You have to consider the fuel for round trip; food, water & oxygen supply for the crew for 915 days. It will be roughly 100 times the Mass considered for Apollo 11. Can any rocket booster capable enough to launch this mass out of earth orbit? No it’s highly impossible but this is where Zubrin intelligence comes into picture he provides an ingenious solution to this problem.

The key idea was to use the Martian atmosphere to produce oxygen, water, and rocket propellant for the surface stay and return journey. How are we going to do this? To know that you have to be thorough with your chemistry basics, let me help you on that with some of the chemical formula.

Rocket Propellant: Methane CH₄

Water: H₂O

Breathable Air: Oxygen O

Anything clicked on your mind? No, then let me give you one more clue, Mars atmosphere has 95% carbon dioxide i.e 95% CO₂ (Hope you got the idea by now).

Zubrin along with his colleague David Baker was exploring a radical idea that had been kicked around the aerospace industry since the 1970, the idea was to produce a methane oxygen rocket fuel directly from the Martian atmosphere it was a relatively simple and robust chemical engineering procedure that was done commonly in the eighteen hundreds; the era of Gaslight. If the idea worked astronauts could land a relatively light ship with empty tanks they wouldn’t have to ship all the fuel with them for their return Trail this would radically lower their size & weight, the only problem was methane oxygen fuel requires a hydrogen component. Hydrogen exists on mars in the form of H₂O but water may be difficult or impossible to extract from the Martian environment. But the hydrogen was only five percent of the total weight of the methane oxygen propellant being manufactured, so we get 95 percent the propellant from mars the other five percent the hydrogen was just to carry from Earth.

4H₂ + CO₂ –> CH₄ + 2H₂O

The water (H₂O) produced by the reaction is then electrolyzed to produce oxygen and hydrogen; the hydrogen is re-used to produce more methane.

Another fundamental resource could be extracted from the Martian environment is oxygen a processing unit could separate oxygen molecules from the thin carbon dioxide atmosphere providing breathable air for the Mars crew if used intelligently the same resource that make mars interesting are precisely what could make it a noble.   With these two techniques Zubrin greatly reduced their mission Mass but they still found their ship was too heavy and would require two launches & assembly in space.

Then Zubrin came with one more solution that is, splitting up the mission in two parts, first will send the earth return vehicle (ERV) along with its own return propellant plant, next after few month will send the space ship with crew. With two separate direct Mars launches human crew would have a fully fueled ship waiting for them on the surface of mars before they ever left earth.

So Zubrin & Baker come with the plan that seems to accomplish all their goals, it was relatively inexpensive, development time was short & it could use only the existing technology & also it allowed long stay on the Martian surface & they named their idea “MARS DIRECT” with the estimated cost $54 billion which is quarter of NASA estimation. In 1990 Zubrin & Baker presented their idea to their bosses at Martian & management were excited about it they like the fact that everything needed was relatively simple. They went to several NASA centers to present their idea, Everywhere they went the response was electric, the plan was standing up to scrutiny, groups all over NASA converted to Mars direct, and week later story was in newspapers around the country. But counter attack was beginning to form within NASA space station teams & many in the advanced propulsion group against the idea, since Mars direct didn’t need their program they fell under threat, as quickly as doors opened for Zubrin they began to close. As Mars Direct will be directly launched from earth to Mars without the need of Space Station & assembly at space, people involved in these projects got offended & they thought they are dejustified. So NASA rejected the plan & Zubrin was outsider again, but he remained determined.

Zubrin battled on for the next year & half for grasping attention of NASA by giving speeches, writing papers , in 1992 new administration came into power in NASA & Zubrin saw a second chance so he briefed the idea to the administration team & they liked the idea. But before they look into the detailed mission report they wanted Zubrin to prove that producing rocket fuel on Mars could work, they gave him small budget so Zubrin & his team built a machine called it Institute propellant plant it could take carbon dioxide dominant gas in Martian atmosphere combine it with a little hydrogen & produce a methane oxygen fuel it was 94% efficient. With experiment success administration had told Zubrin give detailed briefings of the Mission plant to the engineers at the Johnson space center they liked it but suggested few modifications.

Zubrin along with NASA worked out a compromise mission architecture first they wanted three launches for every mission instead of two first-year three ships would launch a MAV (Mars Ascent Vehicle) & unoccupied HAB (Habitation Module) and an ERV (Earth Return Vehicle) the HAB & MAV would land on the Mars and begin producing fuel for the return flight and air for the crew these Croft would spend two solitary years on Mars allowing NASA to test all of the system’s before sending human crew. Then in the third year three more ships would launch this time with the HAB occupied by astronauts the other two ships are for future mission unless needed as a backup for this crew, once on mars the team could also utilize the first HAB, then after a year and a half stay the crew would climb aboard the small capsule rendezvous with the return ship, this ship would carry them back home in a room environment in ERV. Zubrin called the plan Mars Semi Direct & NASA called it design reference mission.

1. Mars Ascent Vehicle: The MAV will be a VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) vehicle capable of pinpoint landing on Mars, refueling from local Martian resources, and carrying up six astronauts to Mars orbit.

 

2. Habitation Module: For living & conducting experiments for Astronauts

3. Earth Return Vehicle: For bringing Astronauts home from Mars orbit

 

Even after all the efforts, the program was not fully funded & many years passed, disappointed with the lack of interest from government in Mars exploration and after the success of his book The Case for Mars as well as leadership experience at the National Space Society, Zubrin established the Mars Society in 1998. The Mars society is the world’s largest & most influential space advocacy organization dedicated to the human exploration & settlement of the Mars planet as a goal, by private funding if possible.

What is most worrying to Zubrin is why NASA is stuck in low earth orbit? He says the problem with NASA’s lack of current mission is not money, its lack of focus & its lack of goal. It shouldn’t be humans to Mars in fifty years it should be humans to Mars in 10. Some have said that a human mission to Mars is a venture for the far future, a task for “the next generation.” Such a point of view has absolutely no basis in fact. We can do this; exploring Mars requires no miraculous new technologies, no orbiting spaceports, and no gigantic interplanetary space cruisers. We can establish our first small outpost on Mars within a decade. We and not some future generation can have the eternal honor of being the first pioneers of this new world for humanity. All that’s needed is present-day technology, some 19th century industrial chemistry, and a little bit of moxie. From last 25-30 years Zubrin working on his dream to send humans to Mars. Whether he will succeed? Only time can answer this.

Mars is endowed with all the resources needed to support not only life but the development of a technological civilization. In contrast to the comparative desert of the Earth’s Moon, Mars possesses oceans of water frozen into its soil as permafrost, as well as vast quantities of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen, all in forms readily accessible to those clever enough to use them.

Additionally, Mars has experienced the same sorts of volcanic and hydrologic processes that produced a multitude of mineral ores on Earth. Virtually every element of significant interest to industry is known to exist on the Red Planet. With its 24-hour day/night cycle and an atmosphere thick enough to shield its surface against solar flares, Mars is the only extraterrestrial planet that will readily allow large-scale greenhouses lit by natural sunlight. Even though Mars is hundreds of times farther away than the Moon, but it offers a much greater prize.

Hope we will colonize Mars in near future & wish I will also play a tiny role in achieving this dream of human race. I hope the above story created some interest in you towards space exploration. You also might be thinking like many, is space exploration really desirable at a time when so much needs be done on earth? It is an often asked & serious question that requires a serious answer. One could present many arguments from jobs & education to technology development & national security for undertaking robust space program. In an ideal world only one argument is necessary though in the real world some would argue it is not sufficient. That argument is exploration, and that we should undertake it for the most basic of reasons- our self-preservation as a creative as opposed to a stagnating society.

“We have come recently to boast of a global economy without thinking of its implications, of how unfortunate we are in finding it. It would be more cheering if news should come, that by some freak of the solar system, another world had swung gently into our orbit and moved so close that a bridge could be built over which people could pass to new continents untenanted and new seas uncharted. Would those eager immigrants repeat the process they followed when they had that opportunity, or would they redress the grievances of the old Earth by a new bill of rights…? The availability of such a new planet, at any rate, would prolong, if it did not save, a civilization based on dynamism, and in the prolongation the individual would again enjoy a spell of freedom…”

“The people are going to miss the frontier more than words can express. For four centuries they heard its call, listened to its promises, and bet their lives and fortunes on its outcome. It calls no more.”

—Walter Prescott Webb, The Great Frontier, 1951.

Human civilization, as we know and value it today, was born in expansion, grew in expansion, and can only exist in a dynamic expanding state. While some form of human society might persist in a non-expanding world, that society will not feature freedom, creativity, individuality, or progress, and placing no value on those aspects of humanity that differentiate us from animals it will place no value on human rights or human life either.

Before ending this article I would like to say few words on MOM (Mars Orbit Mission) of India without it this article will not be complete. Marking India’s first venture into the interplanetary space, MOM will explore and observe Mars surface features, morphology, mineralogy and the Martian atmosphere. Further, a specific search for methane in the Martian atmosphere will provide information about the possibility or the past existence of life on the planet. What is more interesting about MOM which draw world attention was its cost.

The total project cost may be up to ₹454 crore (US$69 million) sounds like huge amount but a similar mission by NASA called “MAVEN” cost nearly $671 million. MOM is the least-expensive Mars mission to date. The low cost of the mission was ascribed to various factors, including a “modular approach”, few ground tests and long (18-20 hour) working days for scientists, lower worker costs, home-grown technologies, simpler design, and significantly less complicated payload than NASA’s MAVEN. Apart from all these one more important point is we used a concept called Gravitational Slingshot or Gravity Assist Maneuver.

Gravity assist maneuver, or swing-by is the use of the relative movement (e.g. orbit around the Sun) and gravity of a planet or other astronomical object to alter the path and speed of a spacecraft, typically in order to save propellant, time, and expense.

As you can see in the image above before satellite kept on the trajectory to Mars it revolved around the earth many times why would we do that? To take advantage of earth’s gravity. A gravity assist around a planet changes a spacecraft’s velocity (relative to the Sun) by entering and leaving the gravitational field of a planet. The spacecraft’s speed increases as it approaches the planet and decreases while escaping its gravitational pull (which is approximately the same). Because the planet orbits the sun, the spacecraft is affected by this motion during the maneuver. To increase speed, the spacecraft flies with the movement of the planet (taking a small amount of the planet’s orbital energy); to decrease speed, the spacecraft flies against the movement of the planet. The sum of the kinetic energies of both bodies remains constant (see elastic collision). A slingshot maneuver can therefore be used to change the spaceship’s trajectory and speed relative to the Sun.

To help make a complicated-sounding concept easily understandable, consider the illustration above, it involves a moving railroad train that represents Earth, moving along its track towards the Sun. The kid in the propeller beanie throws a tennis ball that represents a spacecraft. It encounters the train, which transfers its momentum into the ball.

It’s interesting to note the speeds in the cartoon. The propeller-beanie kid sees his tennis ball moving away from him at 30 miles per hour. So does the Sun, sitting on the stationary platform. The engineer driving the train sees the ball coming at about 80 MPH, since the train is moving 50 MPH with respect to the ground. The train and ball interact at 80 MPH. The ball rebounds from the front of the train at nearly the same 80 MPH, which can be added to the 50 MPH speed of the train, because it acquired it from the train. The result approaches a total of 130 MPH. This scenario is analogous the velocity of a spacecraft being added to the velocity of the massive speeding planet, and “rebounding” with a higher velocity (although the spacecraft’s “rebound” is a gravitational, rather than a mechanical interaction, like in the ball analogy).

Like Zubrin there were many great people contributed for the space exploration all around the world & this article is dedicated to them.

 

An Engineer Love Story!!!!

Friday May 15 6:15AM I woke with my alarm tune “Happy” from the movie “Despicable me” when I opened my eyes sun rays were about to enter through my room window then as routine practice I switched on the music player & scanned my MotoX AMOLED capacitive touchscreen 4.7 inches Dual-core 1.7 GHz Krait, 16 GB, 2 GB RAM with Primary 10MP Secondary 2 MP, 1080p camera & Li-Ion 2200 mAh battery mobile for new messages & Facebook updates none of them were interesting except one message from my love Hazel which was “QQJXOLcZM1Wxt8r5NB+SoqBPEdpwjeNqhakHplfLAfA=” though it made no sense initially but it didn’t took much time for me to realize that it was encrypted. Hazel a very unique personality whom I have ever met in my life, she always tries to convey messages in unique way & this one was no exception. I still remember the day we had met couple of years before in Delhi @ Crossword book store. I was searching from many days for the book “The Fabric of the Cosmos”-by Brian Greene & I got information from one of my friend that it is available in Crossword & I went there enquired about the book & got to know that it is in 19th rack 4th row 23rd book from the left. When I rushed to grab the book there was one more hand pulling the book in opposite direction when I looked up there was girl (Hazel) I don’t have any suitable word to describe her at that instance but none of the following words were sufficient to describe her admirable, alluring, angelic, appealing, beauteous, bewitching, charming, classy, comely, cute, dazzling, delicate, delightful, divine, elegant, enticing, excellent, exquisite, fair, fascinating, fine, foxy*, good-looking, gorgeous, graceful, grand, handsome, ideal, lovely, magnificent, marvelous, nice, pleasing, pretty, pulchritudinous, radiant, ravishing, refined, resplendent, shapely, splendid, statuesque, stunning, sublime, superb, symmetrical, wonderful but unlike the way shown in movies when I saw her first time there was no background music, no lightning strike, no special effects. My heartbeat was beating normal & I didn’t had any sense that she is the perfect partner for me.

As there was only one volume available in the store it was obvious for me to sacrifice, but before giving away the book she allowed me to read few chapters along with her. One highlight of the chapter was unlocking the secrets of space, what is space? Let’s hear from Brian Greene “We think of our world as filled with stuff, like buildings, cars, buses and people. Yet all around the stuff that makes up our everyday world is something just as important but far more mysterious; the space in which all this stuff exists. To get a feel for what I’m talking about, let’s stop for a moment and imagine. What if you took all this stuff away? I mean all of it: the people, the cars and buildings. And not just the stuff here on earth, but the earth itself. What if you took away all the planets, stars and galaxies? And not just the big stuff, but tiny things down to the very last atoms of gas and dust. What if you took it all away? What would be left? Most of us would say “nothing.” And we’d be right. But strangely, we’d also be wrong. What’s left is empty space. And as it turns out, empty space is not nothing. It’s something. Something with hidden characteristics as real as all the stuff in our everyday lives.”
Me had Hazel had long discussion on Newton’s & Einstein‘s description of space. Newton saw space as passive, Einstein saw it as dynamic. It’s interwoven with time and it dictates how things move. So after Einstein, space can no longer be thought of as a static stage. It’s an actor and it plays a leading role in the cosmic drama.
After spending some time together we dispersed, though my heart wanted to ask for her number but my mind said it will be foolishness though I regretted that decision for many days. I never knew when I will meet her again & I was thinking of her the whole day. But destiny made us to meet again this time at one of the lectures on Leonhard Euler by William Dunham.

Leonhard Euler Swiss mathematician and physicist, one of the founders of pure mathematics. He not only made decisive and formative contributions to the subjects of geometry, calculus, mechanics, and number theory but also developed methods for solving problems in observational astronomy and demonstrated useful applications of mathematics in technology and public affairs.

Lecture lasted for 55 minutes covering brief biography of Euler & his contributions to mathematics & why he is considered as father of Mathematics. After end of the session Dunham asked everyone to vote about their favorite work of Euler. Many chose Euler’s identity also known as God’s equation  

It is a brief, yet elegant, summary of some of our most powerful and beautiful math (algebra, complex numbers and calculus). All related to each other in such a remarkably compact equation, & few of them chose Graph Theory and the Bridges of Königsberg. But only two people chose Euler’s work on Number theory i.e. Amicable numbers (like 220 & 284) those two are Me & Hazel. I was always interested to know interwoven relation between numbers; it’s this interest that made me to follow Euler’s work.
Amicable numbers are two different numbers so related that the sum of the proper divisors of each is equal to the other number. For example, the smallest pair of amicable numbers is (220, 284); for the proper divisors of 220 are 1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 11, 20, 22, 44, 55 and 110, of which the sum is 284; and the proper divisors of 284 are 1, 2, 4, 71 and 142, of which the sum is 220.
Amicable numbers were known to the Pythagoreans but only pair they knew was 220,284. The Iranian mathematician Muhammad Baqir Yazdi (16th century) discovered the pair (9363584, 9437056) that too after 1600 year. Then Euler thought he has to contribute something to this & he added 58 pairs. How did he do that? He had seen some pattern which no else was able to see.
This is how we met second time knowing about & inspiring from the work of Euler & this time I wanted to seize the opportunity so I took the risk & asked for her the number & succeeded.
From then we were in regular touch through messages, whatsapp, hike, viber Skype & all sorts of communication available. But after November 18th she was available in neither phone nor any communication & suddenly I got this message which is after a year or so which is also encrypted. To break the code first I started with simple symmetric block encryption algorithm in which 64-bit blocks of plaintext are encrypted using a 128-bit key. Encryption is defined as:
C=(P⊕K0)⊞K1
But it was not successful as the decrypted message was not making any sense, then I tried with mathematical cryptography using prime numbers, integers with different bases, modular arithmetic, polynomial rings I even tried decoding through Enigma machine simulator but still the result was zero. In cryptography to decrypt the message you need the key, the key here is to find the patter or the method used for the encryption. Then suddenly something flashed in my mind AES technique, as she was working for some DRDO project when we had last conversation it was very obvious that she might had used encryption technique adopted by the security agency. The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), also referenced as Rijndael (its original name), is a specification for the encryption of electronic data established by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in 2001. As this technique uses 128 bits block & three different key lengths 128, 192 & 256 bits, then I had to write a 3 pages program in C to decode it & the message was “Meet me at 19.0361° N, 73.0617° E at 7.30 PM”. This is the coordinates for the location Kharghar in Mumbai.

As soon as I finished decoding the message I was infront of my office gate, I had breakfast then went to my desk. As a routine practice I opened the calendar & listed down activities for the day. But as per the list it seems very difficult to meet hazel as I had more than 10 meetings planned in different parts of Mumbai & on top of that I had one doctor appointment, visit to bank to collect cheque book & I need to go to room to change the dress & collect bike from my friend. I was in dilemma for few minutes thinking how to manage all the meetings in stipulated time. But whatever may be the nature of problem when all the doors are closed I look into math to get the solution. Because I believe it is the only medium/ language through which god communicates with us. As per my belief there was one solution in math for my problem called “Travelling salesman Problem” a technique used by most of the PCB designers/manufacturers.

The travelling salesman problem (TSP): Given a list of cities and the distances between each pair of cities, it will identify the shortest possible route that visits each city exactly once and returns to the origin city. The TSP has several applications even in its purest formulation, such as planning, logistics, and the manufacture of microchips. Slightly modified, it appears as a sub-problem in many areas, such as DNA sequencing. In these applications, the concept city represents, for example, customers, soldering points, or DNA fragments, and the concept distance represents travelling times or cost, or a similarity measure between DNA fragments. The TSP also appears in astronomy, as astronomers observing many sources will want to minimize the time spent slewing the telescope between the sources. In many applications, additional constraints such as limited resources or time windows may be imposed.
TSP can be formulated as an integer linear program Label the cities with the numbers 0, …, n and define:
For i = 0, …, n, let be an artificial variable, and finally take to be the distance from city i to city j. Then TSP can be written as the following integer linear programming problem:

Thanks to W. R. Hamilton and Thomas Kirkman for formulating the TSP in 1800s I was able to find the shortest route & reach room on time. But I was unaware that I didn’t have the key to room. So I had to wait 35 minutes for my roommate to come & open the door. I got fresh up & wore my Iron Man Arc reactor T-shirt ran to friend house to collect the bike as I had already wasted 35 minutes. I took the bike which was my dream bike Harley Davidson Night Rod 2440 X 675 X 115 mm with 1247cc Engine & Gear, 64/117 ratio, engine torque of 111Nm (7250rpm).

Now before starting the journey one thing I need to keep in mind what is the maximum speed I can travel? For that I need to know torque & gear ratio of the bike. With gear ratio of 64/117 & torque of 111Nm & with simple math I can make out that maximum speed I can achieve is 206km/hr but this is just theoretical value I also need to consider the dynamics of the road specially Mumbai roads & also aerodynamics of the vehicle. Now you might be wondering what aerodynamics is Aerodynamics is defined as the interaction between airflow and the movement of solid bodies through air. Everything that moves through air – as well as stationary objects which are subjected to moving air – is affected by the principles of aerodynamics.
One important element of aerodynamics is drag: A fast moving motorcycle pushing its way through an air mass will meet a level of resistance which increases as the motorcycle’s speed increases. This air resistance is more commonly known as drag.
D =V * (ρ * V² * Cd * S) / 2 [1]
which:
– V – vehicle speed [km / h];
– Ρ – fluid density [kg / m²];
– Cd – drag coefficient;
– S – frontal area [m²].
Apart from drag, front area of the vehicle also plays an important role in the velocity of vehicle as per above equation. Considering these practical difficulties my new speed limit now is 136.5 km/hr. As I am little new to Mumbai city I had to use navigation to reach my destination but not simple Google maps I merged Google maps with holographic lens which captures all the dynamics of the roads such is width of the road, number of speed breakers twists turns holes ups & downs all projected in a 3D format with an integrated voice feedback system which will guide where to slow down & about upcoming hurdles & turns. After wearing these special goggles I started my journey & the distance b/w Mulund from where I started journey & Kharghar where I have to reach was 29.3 km. estimated time was 41min but I had only 27 minutes to reach as promised. As per plan I reached eastern express highway in 5min & reached my max speed limit of 136km/hr with wind speed of 68km/hr from north east direction it was very difficult for me to maintain the speed & balance.
After passing around 10km in eastern express highway I got a warning message from my goggles that there is steep turning ahead, in the regular case when you look at an object (steep turn), the light from it enters your eye through the pupil. The iris changes the size of the pupil, depending on how bright the light is. The lens focuses the light onto the back of the eye: the retina. The retina is a mass of light-sensitive neurons, called photoreceptors, which change light signals into electrical ones. The signals are then sent via the optic nerve to other parts of brain, which ultimately processes the image and allows us to see & analyses the present data along with the past history stored & it will send a command signal to hands to decelerate & to legs to apply breaks gently. This is a continuous process which works as a closed loop control system till you cross the turning as per image below.

Problem with this traditional method is your brain needs lot history data to analyse & it will not be accurate. If I slow down too much I will lose the momentum & I will be late & may miss the opportunity to meet hazel but if I am too fast I may end up in accident. At that juncture I remembered a concept called “Banking of the roads” which one of my friends had explained me couple of days back.

When a vehicle goes round a curved road, it requires some centripetal force. While rounding the curve, the wheels of the vehicle have a tendency to leave the curved path and regain the straight line path. Force of friction between wheels and the roads opposes this tendency of the wheels. This force of friction therefore, acts towards the center of circular track and provides the necessary centripetal force.
The phenomenon of raising outer edge of the curved road above the inner edge is to provide necessary centripetal force to the vehicles to take a safer turn and the curved road is called Banking of Roads.
With my holographic lens I was able to make out that banking angle is 11.8 deg & radius is 60m with a formula on left hand side I was able to determine the speed at which I can make a turn i.e 40km/hr which increased my estimation time to reach by 3min & decreased probability of meeting Hazel by 9%. But I never lost hope with full thrust I accelerated the bike to its limits overcoming the aerodynamics & reached the desired coordinates on time.
I parked the bike & I glanced in the crowd, even from the distance I could make out where she is & went near to her… We exchanged looks I didn’t find any word to say & neither she. So there was silence between us for some time then a hug broke the silence though we could able resist dropping puddle of tears. She explained me why she was not been able to be in touch & hard phase she is going through. I didn’t knew what to say, but I just thought as long as she is with me I wanted to see her happy. So after an emotional conversation we headed to KFC in Glomax mall to have snacks after that went to movie. Even though there were 10 movies I haven’t thought of any other movie apart from “Davinci Code” because we had read the novel many times. Me & Hazel had fight many times on whether pagans commence war against Christians or Christians against pagan’s, centuries after his crusification. Though I had read the novel many times the movie plot created same kind of anxiety as of novel specially a conversation between Teabing, Robert & Sophie in teabing’s Mansion was highlight of the movie. Though we had differences of opinion in many scenes but climax before scene i.e a conversation between Sophie & Robert was the one which we had a common opinion, conversation goes like this
“But, Sophie, the only thing that matters is what you believe. History shows us Jesus was an extraordinary man…a human inspiration. That’s it. That’s all the evidence has ever proved. But… when I was a boy, When I was down in that well Teabing told you about…I thought I was going to die, Sophie. What I did…I prayed. I prayed to Jesus to keep me alive… so I could see my parents again… so I could go to school again… so I could play with my dog. Sometimes I wonder if I wasn’t alone down there. Why does it have to be human or divine? Maybe human is divine.

Why couldn’t Jesus have been a father and still been capable of all those miracles?”

After the splendid movie we went on ride to Bandra-Worli sea link in my Night Rod, it was already 12;45am when we reached the sea link the bike speed was around 45km/hr & there was a cool breeze from north-west direction at an angle of 27.8deg to direction of bike with humidity of 45% which is most comfortable for the human body & temperature of 19deg. Moon was in waning crescent phase with a lux level of 0.01 & to this artificial light contributed another 0.02 lux both put together created a perfect romantic condition & I stopped the bike in the middle of the sea link & we went close to the supporting cables (The ₹16 billion bridge was commissioned by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation and built by the Hindustan Construction Company. The superstructure of the viaducts were the heaviest precast segments to be built in India. They were built using a span-by-span method using overhead gantry through a series of vertical and horizontal curves. The 20,000 tons Bandra-end span of the bridge deck is supported by stay cables. A total of 264 cable stays are used at Bandra channel with cable lengths varying from approximately 85 meters to nearly 250 meters) she was standing facing to moon then I leaned 15deg to kiss her, that day I understood why all men lean right side while kissing, my upper part of the lip touched her lower lip with a contact area of 9sq.cm it might be even less than that because lips are never perfectly flat due to asperities, the actual contact area on a microscopic scale is usually much less than the contact area apparent on a macroscopic scale, with this contact area there was a saliva exchange of 9ml & microorganisms in millions & total calories burnt was 3.5 for a period of only 1.35 min. After 1.35min I saw some bright light infront of me as if I am standing infront of Sun, I was not able to open my eyes properly & there was a voice from background “Wake up man, it’s already 11:45AM we need to go for Movie. Suddenly I opened my eyes it was my roommate standing infront of me shouting for few minutes. Then I woke up from bed for few minutes I was not sure which one was dream & which one was reality then I took a totem from the cupboard & started spinning it. It continued spinning…. Round……… & round & round & finally………………………!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A lucky day in an unlucky Night!!!!

Before I start my story with a phrase “once upon a time” lets discuss first about definition of luck, according to Oxford dictionary “Success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one’s own actions”. I am still clueless to judge whatever happened that day whether it was success or failure whether it was chance or choice, not even sure whether to call myself lucky or unlucky.

I know what you people are thinking so without dragging it further let me come to point of discussion. It was Friday (not Friday the 13th)  6.30 AM started very normal I took bus to office reached on time had breakfast  & kept myself busy by the pile of pending works & was returning home in auto around 7.15PM completely exhausted didn’t had energy even to turn my head to see the hot chick passing by. I knew that already party might have been started in my room & all over the world as it was Friday eve, but I was stuck in this three wheel black colour partially enclosed vehicle by looking at my own passport size photograph which was taken some couple of years back & thinking of drastic changes happened over the years both physically & intellectually, then put the photo back in my wallet & kept it aside. Then opened FB in my IPAD there were four new friend requests all are men whom I barely recognise & all the updates were regarding someone getting engaged, marriage invitation or their honeymoon photos. After liking few posts kept my IPAD aside leaned back & closed my eyes for few minutes then I realised that I was about reach my room & told the auto guy to stop near the groceries shop. I gave the auto guy Rs.50 which was there in my shirt pocket & he returned me back Rs.5 & then I went inside the shop, the shop keeper who is my friend greeted me in English & I wished him back in Hindi as we had an agreement earlier that he will teach me Hindi & I will teach him English. I took one packet milk, one chicken Maggie & few cookies which cost around Rs.75 I was searching my wallet to pay him but to my surprise wallet was missing. I opened my bag & checked all over twice thrice but still no luck. It didn’t took much time for me to realise that I forgot the wallet in Auto. But if you had followed the story properly you might have realised that apart from wallet I had lost even my IPAD in the Auto. My mind was blank for some time & my heart was broken I was about to cry, wallet is not big deal for me but losing IPAD that was the worst thing that can ever happen to me. It was more than a gadget for me it is my best friend with whom I have shared all my happiness sorrows & even my frustration. After few minutes I took Rs.50 from the shopkeeper & went back to place where I took the auto which was approx. 1.75km from the shop & waited for nearly 145 minutes looking at all the auto which are moving in & out of that place but result was zero. After losing all the patience & hopes I returned back to the same shop. When I was about to enter, the shop shopkeeper came outside with big smile on his face & told that auto guy has returned both my IPAD & wallet. I was so happy that even if I get lottery of one million it will not be equal to that.

I took another Rs.30 from the shopkeeper & gave it the second auto guy, then we started discussing the scene & he was explaining me how lucky I am today. But story didn’t end there while discussing I suddenly realised something else is missing, this time it was my office laptop with all the data in it.. Where did I lost it? exactly you are right I forgot it in the second auto. So the happiness of getting back my IPAD & wallet lost for only seconds. What to do now? Only option I had was to go back to same place again where I took the auto, so I waited outside the shop for an auto after some time one auto came & I stopped it & he looked at me as if he knows me I just asked “Bhaiyya Mulund checknaka jana hai” he replied “Kuch bhul gaya kya?” With a sense of astonishment I said “Yes I have forgot my laptop bag in auto”. You know what he did, he removed one bag from behind & handed over to me. It was my laptop bag & the guy was same person who was driving the second auto. Do you remember the reaction of Will smith in the movie pursuit of happiness when he gets the job… Mine was exactly same reaction at that time. 

I came back to room & with excitement explained whole story to my roommates, there reaction proved Men will be always Men… They said it’s time for celebration & went out & came back with 3 bottles of Vodka, that was the first time in my life I drank a glass of Vodka though it was diluted more than 55% with sprite even then it took me 155 minutes to complete that.

This is my story I will leave it to you whether to call me lucky or unlucky.  Even though the story portrays my foolishness & lack of responsibility or whatever, the purpose of sharing this is whether good or bad it is a memory to me.. Which brings smile on my face whenever I remember it…..

Finally I salute those two auto guys, I don’t think it is easy to give it back when you aware the value of it & I can proudly say that it can only happen in Mumbai!!!!!!!    

Some infinities are bigger than other infinities

Some infinities are bigger than other infinities

Hi!!!!! Today after a long gap I had a conversation with myself. I asked what is that bothering me, I am not able to sleep properly from many days, after a long lasting discussion finally I found an answer. One thing that is making me sick & hates myself is “Time”. It has been a long time I haven’t talked with many of my friends, many times I have not even received many of their calls bcz I don’t have “Time”. I am not able to spend valuable time with my family to be part of their happiness sorrows & share some responsibilities bcz I don’t have “Time”. I dropped the wish of continuing my education bcz I don’t have “Time”. When my mother recently asked me to prepare for IAS, at least an attempt to make my mother happy, I laughed at the thought itself bcz I don’t have “Time”. Long back I had created a blog www.journeytomysterioulife.wordpress.com with an intension to post something at least once in a month that is also I have stopped bcz I don’t have “Time”. I had started writing a book ” Mathematics from Grandma; there is an untold story behind every equation” with a hope that it will be an inspiration to students to study mathematics. That is also stopped in the initial stage itself bcz I don’t have “Time”. I had the habit of reading some great books & I was reading one of the greatest books on history “Glimpses of world history by Jawaharlal Nehru” that is also I have stopped in the middle bcz I don’t have “Time”. The Habit of playing with election circuits in the process of making some useful things has been killed long time ago bcz I don’t have “Time”. I am not able to fulfill many of the commitments in office bcz I don’t have “Time”.

I have many things to do but I don’t have time time time!!!!!!!!!!!

In the process of confessing myself I remembered one paradox of Zeno.

Zeno of Elea (c. 450 BCE) is credited with creating several famous paradoxes, and perhaps the best known is the paradox of the Tortoise and Achilles. (Achilles was the great Greek hero of Homer’s The Iliad.)

 

The story goes something like this:

The Tortoise challenged Achilles to a race, claiming that he would win as long as Achilles gave him a small head start. Achilles laughed at this, for of course he was a mighty warrior and swift of foot, whereas the Tortoise was heavy and slow.

“How big a head start do you need?” he asked the Tortoise with a smile.

“Ten meters,” the latter replied.

Achilles laughed louder than ever. “You will surely lose, my friend, in that case,” he told the Tortoise, “but let us race, if you wish it.”

“On the contrary,” said the Tortoise, “I will win, and I can prove it to you by a simple argument.”

“Go on then,” Achilles replied, “Suppose,” began the Tortoise, “that you give me a 10-meter head start. Would you say that you could cover those 10 meters between us very quickly?”

“Very quickly,” Achilles affirmed.

“And in that time, how far should I have gone, do you think?”

“Perhaps a meter—no more,” said Achilles after a moment’s thought.

“Very well,” replied the Tortoise, “so now there is a meter between us. And you would catch up that distance very quickly?”

“Very quickly indeed!”

“And yet, in that time I shall have gone a little way farther, so that now you must catch that distance up, yes?”

“Ye-es,” said Achilles slowly.

“And while you are doing so, I shall have gone a little way farther, so that you must then catch up the new distance,” the Tortoise continued smoothly.

Achilles said nothing.

“And so you see, in each moment you must be catching up the distance between us, and yet I—at the same time—will be adding a new distance, however small, for you to catch up again.”

“Indeed, it must be so,” said Achilles wearily.

“And so you can never catch up,” the Tortoise concluded sympathetically.

“You are right, as always,” said Achilles sadly—and conceded the race.

Achilles runs faster than the tortoise, but he can never catch tortoise, you see? he can only decrease his lead. Now, certainly, Achilles can run past the tortoise… as long as he don’t contemplate the mechanics involved. But the question of “how?” turns out to be so complicated that no one really solved it for centuries… until a German mathematician Georg Cantor.

We all know that there are infinite numbers between 0 & 1, 0.1, 0.11, 0.111…so on & there are infinite numbers between 0 & 2 & similarly 0 & 10 & so on. But there are more infinite numbers between 0 & 10 than between 0 & 1. With this Cantor proofs that some infinities are bigger than other infinities.

Similarly there are infinite time intervals between 0 & 1^th second, 0 & 100^th so on. With this I realized that I have spent infinite time intervals till now & infinite time way ahead & only finite things to do which I am confident of achieving. Thanks to Zeno & Cantor now all the things in life looks very simple compared to my infinite lifetime.

I thank all my friends my family my colleagues & the entire Human race which made small infinity of my life more colorful ……!!!!!!!!

Story of Mathematics Part:1

Mathematics!!!!!!!!! what is ur first expression after hearing this word. uffff!!!!!!!! boring, irritating, brain storming. But if I ask the same question to you when you r in a primary school u would have said “”Maths is Fun”. Why is that?, how can ur opinion be changed as you grow up. It’s all because how maths is thought & studied in ur higher studies. Can u remember few of the examples of maths in your childhood. here is one ” One day Ram goes to fruit market to buy a mangoes, He had Rs 50 & shopkeeper tells that each mango costs Rs 5. How many Mangoes can Ram will be able to Buy?”

With simple Arithmetic it is 50/5= 10 Mangoes.

All the examples in our childhood was live, something we could relate to, like we can imagine ourselves in the shoes of Ram”. But as the days progress we somehow lost interest in Maths only because we are not been able to relate the problem to some practical scenario. So the only intention of this article is to address the above problem.  I am even  planning to write a book on the above the cover page below will be the self explanatory of the content & purpose of the book.

Now we will try to solve one puzzle by using some basic mathematics principle.

“Robert Langdon was travelling from Chennai to Delhi in Indigo 6E 284 on Friday morning, but unfortunately flight was crash landed in the middle of Rajasthan Desert. everyone in the flight was dead apart from him & there is no communication available.  Langdon somehow came to know that there is a village nearby, but distance & direction is unknown. There is a limited water & food is available in flight now the puzzle is how would you Reach the village by using this limited resources. Only tool you have is “compass”.”

 

 

 

Don’t scroll down think for a while…………………..

 

 

To start with Langdon walks in North direction for a long as it was desert he becomes tired very soon & returns to flight in same direction by tracing his foot steps. Then he thinks this won’t work & comes with the cunning solution.

• Fill up a water bottle from the plane, and take a compass,
• Then walk 1 km north, change direction and walk 2 km east, then 3 km south, 4 km west, 5 km north, 6 km east, and so on, like this:

This way he will find the village no matter what direction it is in, and can (hopefully) find his way back to the plane for fresh water and shade when he needs it.

But there is one problem here suppose Langdon walks in above fashion & after reaching a point B he was tired & thirsty & want to return to plane, should he has to use same path? or is there any alternative solution to this? He uses mathematics to solve this.

After two stages, he has reached point B:

• Langdon has walked 3 km altogether.
• To find a return distance , we make a right-angled triangle OAB:

 

We can calculate the length of OB using Pythagoras’ Theorem, as follows:

OB² = OA² + AB² = 1² + 2² = 1 + 4 = 5

OB = √5

So the answer in this case is:

At Point B, the distance back to the plane (in a straight line) is √5 km

After three stages, he has reached point C:

By using the same principle he can find a travel & return distance.

Point	Distance walked altogether	Distance (in a straight line) from O
O	0	0
A	1	1
B	3	√5
C	6
D
E
F
G
H
I
J

Direction?????

There is one more thing Langdon must know: to get back to the plane. As he was not using the same path he needs direction also to get back to the flight? but how to find it?

To find the direction we need to calculate an angle, like angle ABO, which is marked θ in the following diagram:

To find the size of angle θ we need to use Trigonometry

We know all three sides,  so we will use the Opposite AO = 1 and the Adjacent AB = 2. 

tan(θ) = opposite/adjacent = 1/2 = 0.5

Now use the tan^-1

θ = 26.6°

So, the angle is 26.6°

But what direction is that?

Well, it’s somewhere between south and west, but nearer to west than south. So maybe we could say west south-west. So by using a compass he has he can always return back to plane by knowing the angle.

Point	Distance walked altogether	Distance (in a straight line) from O	Three-figure bearing to head back to O
O	0	0	Not applicable
A	1	1	180°
B	3	√5	243.4°
C	6
D
E

The above puzzle can be even solved by following method.

Using Polar Coordinates

In A Walk in the Desert, Cartesian Coordinates are used to calculate the distance (in a straight line) from O:

Using Cartesian Coordinates you mark a point by how far along and how far up it is:

But there’s another kind of coordinates you can use, called Polar Coordinates.

Using Polar Coordinates you mark a point by how far away and what angle it is:

So the point (12, 5) in Cartesian coordinates is the same as the point (13, 22.6°) in Polar coordinates.

That is what we want! A distance and direction for Jade to walk.

To convert from Cartesian Coordinates (x,y) to Polar Coordinates (r,θ):

r = √( x² + y² )

θ = tan^-1 ( y / x )

Let’s do the calculations again for point B. x = 2 and y = 1, so:

r = √( x² + y² )= √( 2² + 1² )= √( 4 + 1 )= √5

θ = tan^-1 ( y / x ) = tan^-1 ( 1/2 ) = 26.6°

So the polar coordinates of the point B are (√5, 26.6°)

By solving this puzzle Langdon finally reaches the village & Mathematics saved his life!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Flash of Genius….

How it feels when u have invented something valuable after many breath taking years of hard work, then suddenly someone comes in the middle & grabs credit for your invention. Are u willing to fight for ur recognition; even after knowing that the opposition is most powerful in the world? If your answer is yes then next question is at what cost? R u willing to scarifies ur happiness, ur family, ur wealth & even ur life.  Now you have the option to change ur mind, yes like u many people will be step back. But not all, not “Robert Kearns” (March 10, 1927 – February 9, 2005) an ordinary middle class man fought with one of the richest manufacturing company of the time “Ford”. The fight continued for 15 long years costing his happiness, family & even his life.

Corporations have time, money & power on their side, all Robert Kearns had was the ‘Truth’. Before knowing what happened to the case, let’s see what Robert actually invented.

Imagine you r going in ur four wheeler for a long drive(u can even imagine ur girl friend beside) in misting rain & constant wiping dries the glass, causing the blades to stick & squeak as rubber drags across the glass. So solution for that in those days was to turn the wipers on, let them wipe the windshield once or twice then turn them off, repeat this process several times a minute. How irritating it would be, same for Robert Kerns so he invented “intermittent wiper”.

It is reported that the inspiration for his invention stems from an incident on Kearns’ wedding night in 1953, when an errant champagne cork shot into his left eye, leaving him legally blind in that eye. Nearly a decade later in 1963, Kearns was driving his Ford Galaxie through a light rain, and the constant movement of the wiper blades irritated his already troubled vision. He modelled his mechanism on the human eye, which blinks every few seconds, rather than continuously.

He applied for patents, mounted his wipers on his 1962 Ford Galaxie and drove to Ford’s headquarters. Engineers swarmed over his car, at one point sending him out of the workroom, convinced he was activating the wipers with a button in his pocket.

Ford’s engineers had been experimenting with vacuum-operated wipers, but Kearns was the first to invent an intermittent wiper with an electric motor. After a while, however, Ford stopped answering his calls, and Kearns was left on his own.

In 1969, Ford came out with the first intermittent wiper system in the United States, followed within a few years by the other major manufacturers. Mr. Kearns sued the Ford Motor Company in 1978 and Chrysler in 1982, accusing them of patent infringement.

The case went on for many years, the legal argument that the auto industry posed in defence was that an invention is supposed to meet certain standards of originality and novelty. One of these is that it be “non-obvious“. Ford claimed that the patent was invalid because Kearns’ intermittent windshield wiper system had no new components.  After 12 years of litigation, Ford finally offered to pay Kearns millions of dollars to settle the case.
“I need the money, but that’s not what this is about,” he told Regardie’s magazine in 1990. “I’ve spent a lifetime on this. This case isn’t just a trial. It’s about the meaning of Bob Kearns’s life.”

All he wanted, he often said, was the chance to run a factory with his six children and build his wiper motors, along with a later invention for a windshield wiper that was activated automatically by rainfall. In the end, his courtroom battles cost him his job, his marriage and, at times, his mental health.

To end with here is the famous conversation in a movie “Flash of Genius” based on the true story of Robert Kearns which inspired me. The conversation was between Ford manager, opposition lawyer & Robert Kearns.

Lawyer: when you said earlier that Mr. Kearns didn’t create anything new, could you explain what you meant by that?

Ford Manager: Yes. As you can see, Dr. Kearns’s basic unit consists of a capacitor a variable resistor and a transistor. Now, these are basic building blocks in electronics. You can find them in any catalogue. All Mr. Kearns did was to arrange them in a new pattern, you might say. And that, that’s not the same thing as inventing something new, however.

Lawyer: Did Mr. Kearns invent the transistor?

Manager: No, sir, he did not.

Lawyer: Did Mr. Kearns invent the capacitor?

Manager: Again, no, he did not.

Did Mr. Kearns invent the variable resistor?

– No, he did not.

– Thank you, Professor.

Dr. Kearns, your cross-examination, please.

Robert: I have here a book. It’s by Charles Dickens. It’s called A Tale of Two Cities.

Have you, ever read this book?

Lawyer: Objection, Your Honour. It’s not relevant.

Robert: Your Honour, please, if I could just continue?

How long will it take to get to the point, Doctor?

Not very long at all.

Okay. Let’s see what happens.

Robert: Have you ever read this?

Manager: Yes. Read it in high school. Very good book.

Robert: Yes, it is. I’d like to read you the first, few words, if I may.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, “it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.”

Let’s start with the first word, “It.” Did Charles Dickens create that word?

Manager: No.

What about “was”?

No.

“The”?

– No.

– “Best”?

– No.

Robert: – “Times”? Look. I got a dictionary here. I haven’t checked, but I would guess that every word that’s in this book can be found in this dictionary.

Manager: Well, I suspect that’s probably true.

Okay, so then you agree that there’s not, probably a single new word in this book.

Well, I don’t know, but that’s probably true.

All Charles Dickens did was arranging them into a new pattern, isn’t that right?

Manager: Well, I admit I haven’t, thought about it in that way.

Robert: But Dickens did create something new, didn’t he? By using words. The only tools that were available to him. Just as almost all inventors in history have had to use the tools that were available to them. Telephones, space satellites all of these were made from parts that already existed, correct, Professor?

Parts that you might buy out of a catalogue……

A Journey from Electron to Electricity

Hi! few days back I have published a book titled “A Journey from Electron to Electricity” but I am not Author as such but all I did was collected information in bits & pieces from different sources & arranged them in a suitable format to create interest among the readers.

Through this post I just wanted to share the information which I have not done in the book. The journey of the book started some 4 to 5 years back. It was a Friday I don’t remember the exact date but it was some 5 years back around 7.30 PM as it was weekend I was just flipping through the channels for some better entertainment. Then one program on Archimedes catches my attention  the program was about   Palimpsest of Archimedes.  Till then I haven’t knew anything about him but the video inspired me very much, it made me to realize the importance of history.  If you read my previous article “It’s not just Pi” in that i have explained how Archimedes found the value of pi.  In my entire life I will never forget the value & meaning of Pi only because I know how many sleepless nights Archimedes has spent to to derive at that value, which makes our life so simple.  That was the Inception of this book, that moment made me to realize studying is not just memorizing a formula or a theory there is much more than. By this book I just want to prove every teacher, lecturer & parent that to create interest among the students to study electrical  just explain them history like how electricity became an essential part of our life, who are the great personalities contributed for the development of this field, what are the struggles they have overcome in their journey, many more facts which have been revealed & the facts which are buried beneath the earth, the secrets in the history of electricity.  The same can be true for other fields of study.

There are many great names, great souls who contributed for the development of this field. The pain, tears, stress they have experienced physically, mentally, emotionally in the development of this field is something which is immortalized in the annals of Electrical history.  So in this book I never stressed much on explaining complex theories or working principles I just written a chain of events & how idea or invention of one triggered the other & series of difficulties they have experienced & overcome in their journey which you will never get in any textbook.

Hope you like the book, you can download the same from following link.

http://pothi.com/pothi/book/ebook-giribabu-k-e-electron-eletricity

Need your valuable suggestions for any improvements.

 

 

It’s not just ‘π’

In our life span how many formulas we had come across, just close ur eyes & try to remember few? yes there are unlimited but do you  know the value of each? if not u will never appreciate it. we come across many formulas in our daily life but none of us know the meaning & value of those. Let me give you an example, suppose if I tell you to calculate area of a circle with radius 5 cm. you just take calculator press ‘π’ multiply by 5^2 & press ‘=’ the result is 78.53 sq.cm. How much time you needed to solve this? Assuming you had calculator in ur hand it will not take more than 5 seconds.  What if i tell you that it actually takes 5 days, you will laugh at me.  but it actually does if you had not appreciated the value of ‘π’.  Like everyone else I was also not knowing the meaning of it until I read about Archimedes.

In 2000 years ago they didn’t had any instrument/ technique to find the area of a circle. They could be able to find area of geometry with only straight lines. This was the puzzle for many in those days. Then Archimedes venture to find a solution for the same with the help of polygons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What he did was, He began with a circle & then inscribed a triangle in it like a shell he could find the perimeter of triangle since it has straight sides & now the perimeter of triangle is less than the perimeter of the circle. This represented first approximation a lower bound to the circumference of a circle. continuing further he inscribed the pentagon then hexagon & determining its circumference he had better approximation. He continued this way going from 6,12,24,48 & finally ended with 96 &  he didn’t stopped their he repeated the for  the outside the perimeter of a circle. The circumference lies between the perimeter of outer & inner polygons which can be measured because they have straight sides. Like this he took the circles with different sizes & repeated the same procedure. By examining the results closely he could sense something common among them. Then he tried to fit the diameter around the circumference of a circle, to his surprise he found that how big/small the size of circle the diameter will fit around the circle 3.14 time a very good approximation for what we now call ‘π’.  with this he can find the area of any circular object by a simple formula A=πr^2.

This is just one example like this there are tremendous struggles of many for each formula that makes our  life simple. So hope after reading this you will appreciate each formula you come across & struggle behind it.

So finally the meaning of ‘π’ is nothing but  the ratio of a circle‘s circumference to its diameter.