1. The major questions that were unanswered before Aristotle were related to
(a) the nature of time
(b) the expansion of the universe
(c) the origin of universe and the expansion of the universe
(d) the nature of time and origin of the universe
2. The moon moves in an elliptical orbit around the earth on account of
(a) universal gravitation
(b) rotation of the orbits
(c) attraction between the earth and the sun
(d) magnetic forces
3. If everything in the universe depends on everything else in a fundamental way it might be impossible to get a solution by
(a) Investigating parts of the problem in isolation
(b) Investigating the problem as a whole
(c) Breaking the problem into bits
(d) Considering all the aspects associated with each problem
4. What are the things that Kalam‘s father used to explain to him in simple Tamil to make him understand?
(a) The meaning of real prayers.
(b) Complex spiritual concepts
(c) Complex spiritual situations
(d) Differences in the modes of worship
5. In moulding an individual, important roles are played by
(a) heredity and environment
(b) family and environment
(c) family and background
(d) parents and siblings
6. Who designed the German Focke Wulf FW 190, fighter plane?
(a) Prof. Walter Repenthin
(b) KAV Pandalai
(c) Prof. Sponder
(d) Dr. Kurt Tank
7. The universe is not arbitrary - choose the synonym for the underlined word
(a) accountable
(b) dependable
(c) unreasonable
(d) reasonable
8. Kalam was also benefited from his interaction with Jallaluddin and Samsuddin, whose wisdom was based on rather than instruction
(a) invasion
(b) intuition
c) innovation
(d) intention
9. Jainulabdeen was highly educated very rich
(a) either, or
(b) neither, nor
(c) neither, or
(d) not only, but also
10. This idea was elaborated by Ptolemy in second century A.D. into complete cosmological model
(a) the, the
(b) the, a
(c) a, the
(d) a, a
11. The pioneer of computer ethics as a field of study is
(a) Walter Maner
(b) James Moor
(c) Norbert Wiener
(d) Joseph Wiezenbaum
12. Weizenbaum‘s book ‘Computer Power and Human Reason‘ was published in
(a) 1976
(b) 1982
(c) 1981
(d) 1992
13. Whose views on computer ethics are contrary to the views held by Gornaik?
(a) Wiener
(b) Kant
(c) Bynum
(d) Johnson
14. In ADE, Bangalore, the first assignment given to Kalam was to design
(a) sounding rocket
(b) supersonic target aircraft
(c) ground equipment machine
(d) RATO project
15. The real journey of the Indian Space Programme began with
(a) The Agni
(b) The GEM
(c) The Menaka
(d) The Rohini
16. The initial funding amount given for RATO motor was
(a) 65 lakhs
(b) 75 lakhs
(c) 1.25 lakhs
(d) 70 lakhs
17. The word which is nearest in meaning to ‘Hypothesis‘
(a) illusion
(b) myth
(c) theory
(d) belief
18. The antonym for the word ‘Moral‘
(a) principled
(b) scrupulous
(c) amoral
(d) ethical
19. The development Indian rockets in the twentieth century can be seen as a revival the eighteenth century vision Tipu Sultan.
(a) of, of, of
(b) of, of, on
(c) on, of, of,
(d) on, on, on
20. Choose the word with correct spelling
(a) Aggravate
(b) Aggrawate
(c) Aggravete
(d) Aggrevate
ANSWERS :D A A B A D C B B B C A D C D B C C A A
Friday, October 30, 2009
Wings of Fire 4-8
UNIT 2 CHAPTERS 5-8
Abdul Kalam started his career at technical center, civil aviation of DTD&P in 1958. He carried out a design assignment with the help of his officer-in-charge. Later he was sent to Aircraft and armament testing unit (A&ATU) Kanpur, to gain actual experience and practice in aircraft maintenance. On his return to Delhi, he was informed about their new project in which he was also a member in the design team. He carried out the design and development of a vertical take-off and landing platform.
After three years, he was posted at Aeronautical Development establishment (ADE), which was established in Bangalore. There a project team was formed with four persons to design and develop an indigenous hovercraft prototype called ground equipment machine (GEM). Slowly they started designing part-by-part, subsystem-by-subsystem and stage-by-stage to develop a wingless, light, swift machine. The hovercraft was christened 'NANDI', after the white bull, which acts as Lord Shiva's vehicle.
The then Defence minister, V K Krishna Menon on his visit to ADE took a ride in Nandi along with Kalam overruling all statements of concern for his safety. He praised Kalam for his efforts in the design and development of Nandi. He advised them to develop more powerful hovercraft. Later the project was mired in controversies and the new government did not extend its cooperation to continue the project.
One day, Dr. Mediratta called Kalam and asked him to organise a demonstration of Nandi for an important visitor. The next day, a tall, handsome, bearded man visited their workshop and asked him several questions about the machine. He was Prof. MGK Menon, director of the TIFR. After a week, Kalam received a call from the Indian Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR), to attend an interview for the post of rocket engineer.
A panel of three members, Prof. Sarabhai, Prof. Menon and Mr. Saraf, interviewed him. During interview he sensed their warmth and friendliness. There was none of the arrogance or the patronizing attitude; the interviewers usually exhibit while talking to a young candidate. The questions did not probe his knowledge or skills but explored the possibilities he saw in himself. Then he was absorbed as a rocket engineer at INCOSPAR.
In 1962, INCOSPAR set up its Equatorial Rocket launching station at Thumba in Kerala and there he was placed. After that he got an opportunity to attend a six-month training programme on sounding rocket launching techniques at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) work centres in USA. He joined work at NASA's RESEARCH centre in Virginia and later visited Goddard Space Flight Centre. He was impressed by the organisational structure of these institutions in the US. They were made up of people with out false pride, which is a big barrier to effective growth in Indian Organisations.
At the end of his visit, he went to the east coast of Virginia, where NASA undertook sounding rocket programme. In the reception lobby, he saw a painting, which depicted a battle scene, with a few rockets flying in the background. It was the army of Tipu Sultan fighting the British East India Company towards the end of the 18th century. From that Kalam realised that long ago, the Indian rulers in warfare used same technology.
Soon after he returned from NASA, India's first rocket 'Nike Apache' was launched on 21 Nov. 1963. The real journey of the Indian Space programme began with the Rohini sounding rocket programme. The development of Indian rockets in the twentieth century can be seen as a revival of the eighteenth century vision of Tipu Sultan.
Rocketry was reborn in India, as a result of the technological vision of the Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Prof. Vikram Sarabhai. It was decided to make our own SLV's and our own satellites simultaneously. Kalam quotes Khalil Gibran's words "Bread baked with out love is a bitter bread that feeds but half a man's hunger". One should work wholeheartedly if not the result will be hollow, half-hearted success that breeds bitterness within. Later two Indian rockets named Rohini and Menaka were made at Thumba .
Prof. Sarabhai, in an informal meeting with Kalam and IAF Group Captain V S Narayanan, unfolded his plan of developing a rocket assisted take-off system RATO) for military aircraft. The Indian Air Force was in dire need of a large number of RATO motors for their S-22 and HF-24 aircraft. RATO motors were mounted on aircraft to provide the additional thrust required during take-off for aircraft flying under adverse operating conditions - like partially bombed runways, high altitude airfields, a heavier than prescribed load, or very high temperatures. Two significant developments occurred during that period. The first was the release of a ten-year profile for space research in the country and the formation of a Missile Panel in the Ministry of Defence in which Narayanan and Kalam were inducted as members. In those days our Defence R&D was dependent on imported equipment. The suggestions made by Jay Chandra Babu, an employee of the organisation, enabled them to develop the technology indigenously.
Abdul Kalam started his career at technical center, civil aviation of DTD&P in 1958. He carried out a design assignment with the help of his officer-in-charge. Later he was sent to Aircraft and armament testing unit (A&ATU) Kanpur, to gain actual experience and practice in aircraft maintenance. On his return to Delhi, he was informed about their new project in which he was also a member in the design team. He carried out the design and development of a vertical take-off and landing platform.
After three years, he was posted at Aeronautical Development establishment (ADE), which was established in Bangalore. There a project team was formed with four persons to design and develop an indigenous hovercraft prototype called ground equipment machine (GEM). Slowly they started designing part-by-part, subsystem-by-subsystem and stage-by-stage to develop a wingless, light, swift machine. The hovercraft was christened 'NANDI', after the white bull, which acts as Lord Shiva's vehicle.
The then Defence minister, V K Krishna Menon on his visit to ADE took a ride in Nandi along with Kalam overruling all statements of concern for his safety. He praised Kalam for his efforts in the design and development of Nandi. He advised them to develop more powerful hovercraft. Later the project was mired in controversies and the new government did not extend its cooperation to continue the project.
One day, Dr. Mediratta called Kalam and asked him to organise a demonstration of Nandi for an important visitor. The next day, a tall, handsome, bearded man visited their workshop and asked him several questions about the machine. He was Prof. MGK Menon, director of the TIFR. After a week, Kalam received a call from the Indian Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR), to attend an interview for the post of rocket engineer.
A panel of three members, Prof. Sarabhai, Prof. Menon and Mr. Saraf, interviewed him. During interview he sensed their warmth and friendliness. There was none of the arrogance or the patronizing attitude; the interviewers usually exhibit while talking to a young candidate. The questions did not probe his knowledge or skills but explored the possibilities he saw in himself. Then he was absorbed as a rocket engineer at INCOSPAR.
In 1962, INCOSPAR set up its Equatorial Rocket launching station at Thumba in Kerala and there he was placed. After that he got an opportunity to attend a six-month training programme on sounding rocket launching techniques at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) work centres in USA. He joined work at NASA's RESEARCH centre in Virginia and later visited Goddard Space Flight Centre. He was impressed by the organisational structure of these institutions in the US. They were made up of people with out false pride, which is a big barrier to effective growth in Indian Organisations.
At the end of his visit, he went to the east coast of Virginia, where NASA undertook sounding rocket programme. In the reception lobby, he saw a painting, which depicted a battle scene, with a few rockets flying in the background. It was the army of Tipu Sultan fighting the British East India Company towards the end of the 18th century. From that Kalam realised that long ago, the Indian rulers in warfare used same technology.
Soon after he returned from NASA, India's first rocket 'Nike Apache' was launched on 21 Nov. 1963. The real journey of the Indian Space programme began with the Rohini sounding rocket programme. The development of Indian rockets in the twentieth century can be seen as a revival of the eighteenth century vision of Tipu Sultan.
Rocketry was reborn in India, as a result of the technological vision of the Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Prof. Vikram Sarabhai. It was decided to make our own SLV's and our own satellites simultaneously. Kalam quotes Khalil Gibran's words "Bread baked with out love is a bitter bread that feeds but half a man's hunger". One should work wholeheartedly if not the result will be hollow, half-hearted success that breeds bitterness within. Later two Indian rockets named Rohini and Menaka were made at Thumba .
Prof. Sarabhai, in an informal meeting with Kalam and IAF Group Captain V S Narayanan, unfolded his plan of developing a rocket assisted take-off system RATO) for military aircraft. The Indian Air Force was in dire need of a large number of RATO motors for their S-22 and HF-24 aircraft. RATO motors were mounted on aircraft to provide the additional thrust required during take-off for aircraft flying under adverse operating conditions - like partially bombed runways, high altitude airfields, a heavier than prescribed load, or very high temperatures. Two significant developments occurred during that period. The first was the release of a ten-year profile for space research in the country and the formation of a Missile Panel in the Ministry of Defence in which Narayanan and Kalam were inducted as members. In those days our Defence R&D was dependent on imported equipment. The suggestions made by Jay Chandra Babu, an employee of the organisation, enabled them to develop the technology indigenously.
Wings of Fire 1-4
UNIT 1 Chapters 1-4 WINGS OF FIRE
Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam was born in a middle class Tamil family to Jainulabdeen and Ashiamma, an ideal couple, in the island town of Rameswaram in the year 1931. Kalam’s parents were neither highly educated nor very rich. His father lived frugally according to his austere principles. His started with morning namaaz just before dawn. He avoided comforts and luxuries. His parents were very generous to feed more outsiders everyday. They lived in their ancestral house built of limestone and brick in the middle of the 19th century. It was fairly large house situated in Rameswaram’s Mosque Street, which was named after a very old mosque in that area. The famous Shiva temple was about ten –minute walk from their house. People of both religions Hinduism and Islam lived there amicably as neighbours.
The high priest of the temple, Pakshi Lakshmana Sastry, was his father’s very close friend. The two men, each in his traditional attire used to discuss spiritual matters, which made a lasting impression on him. He was convinced with his father’s opinion that prayers reach God. During prayer one moves beyond one’s body and the worldly possessions/things thereby becoming a part of the cosmos, where wealth, age, caste and creed are not standards for dividing people.
Kalam was greatly influenced by his father’s philosophy. When he was six years old he saw his father put his philosophy into practice. His father built a sail boat to ferry pilgrims from Rameswaran to Dhanuskodi and back. Some time later, when a severe cyclone hit the Rameswaram coast, the boat was wrecked in the strong winds. His father bore the loss with great composure and moreover he was worried about a greater tragedy caused by the winds. The Pamban Bridge had collapsed when a train full of passengers was crossing over it.
Kalam grew up imbibing both cultures and religions. The Ramayana and the life of Prophet Mohammed formed the bedtime stories in his childhood. His relatives, Jallaluddin and Samsuddin, whose wisdom was based on intuition rather than instruction, also influenced him. All his friends were from orthodox Hindu Brahmin families. Kalam realized that once a person breaks the emotional shackles that hold back, the road to personal freedom is one step ahead. When the World War –1 came to an end, the country was filled with optimism that India would get freedom from British. Kalam was greatly affected by this air of optimism and asked his father to allow him to study in Schwartz High School in Ramanathapuram.
One of his teachers at Schwartz High School, Iyadurai Solomon taught him that in order to make anything happen, one must desire it intensely. Kalam realized that this kind of conviction is not only a motivating force but it also makes things happen. He instilled in students a sense of their own worth. He raised Kalam’s self esteem and convinced that with faith one can change one’s destiny.
After graduating from St. Josephs College, he joined at the Madras Institute of Technology to study Aeronautical Engineering to attain his goal. Prof. Sponder taught him technical aerodynamics. He opined that the trouble with many students was not lack of educational opportunities or industrial infrastructure but they fail to choose their field of study with sufficient care. He suggested that one should never worry about one’s foundationsbut should have a sufficient amount of aptitude and passion for one’s chosen field of study. Kalam’s most cherished memory from college is related to Prof. Sponder.when their classmates were posing for a class photograph at the end of the final year, Prof. Sponder got up and declared Kalam as his best student and asked him to sit with him.
Soon after completing his training at HAL, kalam attended two interviews one at DTD&P (air)and the other at Indian Air Force(IaF). He was quiet confident and didwell in the interview at DTD&P . But he failed to perform well at IAF where the thrust was on personality, Physical fitness and the ability to speak well. He felt disappointed when he came to know that he stood in the ninth position in the batch os 25 candidates. He was disappointed as felt that he lost an opportunity to join IAF which was his long cherishing dream.
Kalam visited Rishikesh to come out of that mood. There he met Swami Sivananda who seemed to him like Buddha. Swamiji advised him to accept his destiny and think of it as a step that will lead to predestined path. Kalam joined in DTD&P as senior Scientific Assistant on a Basic Salary of Rs. 250/- per month.
Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam was born in a middle class Tamil family to Jainulabdeen and Ashiamma, an ideal couple, in the island town of Rameswaram in the year 1931. Kalam’s parents were neither highly educated nor very rich. His father lived frugally according to his austere principles. His started with morning namaaz just before dawn. He avoided comforts and luxuries. His parents were very generous to feed more outsiders everyday. They lived in their ancestral house built of limestone and brick in the middle of the 19th century. It was fairly large house situated in Rameswaram’s Mosque Street, which was named after a very old mosque in that area. The famous Shiva temple was about ten –minute walk from their house. People of both religions Hinduism and Islam lived there amicably as neighbours.
The high priest of the temple, Pakshi Lakshmana Sastry, was his father’s very close friend. The two men, each in his traditional attire used to discuss spiritual matters, which made a lasting impression on him. He was convinced with his father’s opinion that prayers reach God. During prayer one moves beyond one’s body and the worldly possessions/things thereby becoming a part of the cosmos, where wealth, age, caste and creed are not standards for dividing people.
Kalam was greatly influenced by his father’s philosophy. When he was six years old he saw his father put his philosophy into practice. His father built a sail boat to ferry pilgrims from Rameswaran to Dhanuskodi and back. Some time later, when a severe cyclone hit the Rameswaram coast, the boat was wrecked in the strong winds. His father bore the loss with great composure and moreover he was worried about a greater tragedy caused by the winds. The Pamban Bridge had collapsed when a train full of passengers was crossing over it.
Kalam grew up imbibing both cultures and religions. The Ramayana and the life of Prophet Mohammed formed the bedtime stories in his childhood. His relatives, Jallaluddin and Samsuddin, whose wisdom was based on intuition rather than instruction, also influenced him. All his friends were from orthodox Hindu Brahmin families. Kalam realized that once a person breaks the emotional shackles that hold back, the road to personal freedom is one step ahead. When the World War –1 came to an end, the country was filled with optimism that India would get freedom from British. Kalam was greatly affected by this air of optimism and asked his father to allow him to study in Schwartz High School in Ramanathapuram.
One of his teachers at Schwartz High School, Iyadurai Solomon taught him that in order to make anything happen, one must desire it intensely. Kalam realized that this kind of conviction is not only a motivating force but it also makes things happen. He instilled in students a sense of their own worth. He raised Kalam’s self esteem and convinced that with faith one can change one’s destiny.
After graduating from St. Josephs College, he joined at the Madras Institute of Technology to study Aeronautical Engineering to attain his goal. Prof. Sponder taught him technical aerodynamics. He opined that the trouble with many students was not lack of educational opportunities or industrial infrastructure but they fail to choose their field of study with sufficient care. He suggested that one should never worry about one’s foundationsbut should have a sufficient amount of aptitude and passion for one’s chosen field of study. Kalam’s most cherished memory from college is related to Prof. Sponder.when their classmates were posing for a class photograph at the end of the final year, Prof. Sponder got up and declared Kalam as his best student and asked him to sit with him.
Soon after completing his training at HAL, kalam attended two interviews one at DTD&P (air)and the other at Indian Air Force(IaF). He was quiet confident and didwell in the interview at DTD&P . But he failed to perform well at IAF where the thrust was on personality, Physical fitness and the ability to speak well. He felt disappointed when he came to know that he stood in the ninth position in the batch os 25 candidates. He was disappointed as felt that he lost an opportunity to join IAF which was his long cherishing dream.
Kalam visited Rishikesh to come out of that mood. There he met Swami Sivananda who seemed to him like Buddha. Swamiji advised him to accept his destiny and think of it as a step that will lead to predestined path. Kalam joined in DTD&P as senior Scientific Assistant on a Basic Salary of Rs. 250/- per month.
Atronomy
ASTRONOMY
Unit I our picture of the universe
The lesson ‘Our picture of the universe’ has been adapted from Stephen Hawking’s ‘A Brief history of time’. It is the most popular book about ‘Cosmology’. More than 10 million copies have been sold. Even a film has been made on that book. stephen Hawking is one of the well known living scientists. At the age of twenty, he was diagnosed with a terrible disease ‘ALS’ (Amyo trophic lateral sclerosis).He was expected to live two years but with his strong will he completed his research and still he is alive .This lesson makes us think about some long-standing questions like whether the universe had the beginning and if so when? What is the nature of the time? And many more which doesn’t have an exact answer.
Our ancestors believed that the earth was a flat plate supported on the back of a gaint tortoise standing on an infinite tower of tortoises. In 340bc the greek philosopher Aristotle, in his book ‘on the heavens’, put forward two arguments for believing that the earth was a round sphere rather than a flat plate. First, he realized that eclipses of the moon were caused by the earth coming between the sun and the moon. The earth’s shadow on the moon was always round which would be true only if the earth was spherical. Second, the Greeks knew from their travels that the North Star appeared lower in the sky when viewed in the south than it did in more northerly regions. Aristotle thought that the earth was stationary and the sun, the moon, the plants and the stars moved in circular orbits about the earth. This idea was elaborated by Ptolemy in the second century AD into a complete cosmological model. The earth stood at the centre, surrounded by eight spheres that carried the moon, the sun, the stars, and the five planets known at that time: mercury, venus, mars Jupiter and Saturn.
In 1514 Nicholas copernicus proposed that the sun was stationary at the centre and the planets moved in circular orbits around the sun. In 1609 galileo found that several small satellites rotate around the planet Jupiter. This implied that the planets need not orbit directly around the earth as Aristotle and Ptolemy had thought. At the same time Johannes kepler had modified Copernicus theory and suggested that the planets moved not in circles but in ellipses. But he could not prove that the planets were made to orbit the sun by magnetic forces. In 1687, sir Issac Newton in his book ‘philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica’, postulated a law of vniversal gravitation according to which each body in the universe is attracted towards every other body by a force depending on their mass and distance between them. Also it is due to this gravitational force the earth and the planets follow elliptical paths around the sun.
According to Newton’s law of gravity the stars should attract each other and they may fall in at some points. But in an infinite space, if infinite stars are distributed uniformly, this would not happen because there is no central point for them to fall. When we consider a finite situation the stars fall in on each other. If we add additional stars outside this region, the extra stars would make no difference at all and would fall in just as fast. Also it is realized that it is impossible to have an infinite static model of the universe in which gravity is always attractive. Newton‘s theory of gravity is modified by making the gravitational force repulsive at very large distances. It allows an infinite distribution of stars to remain in equilibrium as the attractive forces are balanced by the repulsive forces.
In 1929 Edwin Hubble observed that the distant galaxies were moving rapidly from us. This implied that the universe is expanding. This means that at earlier times objects would have been closer together. Hubble’s observations suggested that there was a time, called the big bang when the universe was infinitesimally small and infinitely dense. It may be supposed that time had a beginning at the big bang. In an unchanging universe a beginning in time is something that has to be imposed by some being outside the universe. One could imagine that god created the universe at the instant of the big Bang.
Any physical theory is always provisional in the sense that is only a hypothesis. The eventual goal of science is to provide a single theory that describes the whole universe. If everything in the universe depends on everything else in a fundamental way. It might be impossible to get close to a full solution by investigating parts of the problem in isolation even though these partial theories holds good in describing and predicting certain class of observations. Today scientists describe the universe in terms of two basic partial theories namely the general theory of relativity and Quantum mechanics. The general theory of relativity describes the force of gravity and the large- scale structure of the universe. Quantum mechanics deals with phenomena on extremely small scales such as a millionth of a millionth of an inch. Unfortunately, these two theories are known to be inconsistent with each other i.e. they both cannot be correct. One of the major endeavours in physics today is the search for a new theory that will incorporate both of them. It seems difficult to justify on practical grounds. But ever since the dawn of civilization, people’s desire for knowledge of the underlying order in the world is justified. We still yearn to know why we are here and where we came from. Our goal is to describe the universe we live in with the help of a complete unified theory.
Unit I our picture of the universe
The lesson ‘Our picture of the universe’ has been adapted from Stephen Hawking’s ‘A Brief history of time’. It is the most popular book about ‘Cosmology’. More than 10 million copies have been sold. Even a film has been made on that book. stephen Hawking is one of the well known living scientists. At the age of twenty, he was diagnosed with a terrible disease ‘ALS’ (Amyo trophic lateral sclerosis).He was expected to live two years but with his strong will he completed his research and still he is alive .This lesson makes us think about some long-standing questions like whether the universe had the beginning and if so when? What is the nature of the time? And many more which doesn’t have an exact answer.
Our ancestors believed that the earth was a flat plate supported on the back of a gaint tortoise standing on an infinite tower of tortoises. In 340bc the greek philosopher Aristotle, in his book ‘on the heavens’, put forward two arguments for believing that the earth was a round sphere rather than a flat plate. First, he realized that eclipses of the moon were caused by the earth coming between the sun and the moon. The earth’s shadow on the moon was always round which would be true only if the earth was spherical. Second, the Greeks knew from their travels that the North Star appeared lower in the sky when viewed in the south than it did in more northerly regions. Aristotle thought that the earth was stationary and the sun, the moon, the plants and the stars moved in circular orbits about the earth. This idea was elaborated by Ptolemy in the second century AD into a complete cosmological model. The earth stood at the centre, surrounded by eight spheres that carried the moon, the sun, the stars, and the five planets known at that time: mercury, venus, mars Jupiter and Saturn.
In 1514 Nicholas copernicus proposed that the sun was stationary at the centre and the planets moved in circular orbits around the sun. In 1609 galileo found that several small satellites rotate around the planet Jupiter. This implied that the planets need not orbit directly around the earth as Aristotle and Ptolemy had thought. At the same time Johannes kepler had modified Copernicus theory and suggested that the planets moved not in circles but in ellipses. But he could not prove that the planets were made to orbit the sun by magnetic forces. In 1687, sir Issac Newton in his book ‘philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica’, postulated a law of vniversal gravitation according to which each body in the universe is attracted towards every other body by a force depending on their mass and distance between them. Also it is due to this gravitational force the earth and the planets follow elliptical paths around the sun.
According to Newton’s law of gravity the stars should attract each other and they may fall in at some points. But in an infinite space, if infinite stars are distributed uniformly, this would not happen because there is no central point for them to fall. When we consider a finite situation the stars fall in on each other. If we add additional stars outside this region, the extra stars would make no difference at all and would fall in just as fast. Also it is realized that it is impossible to have an infinite static model of the universe in which gravity is always attractive. Newton‘s theory of gravity is modified by making the gravitational force repulsive at very large distances. It allows an infinite distribution of stars to remain in equilibrium as the attractive forces are balanced by the repulsive forces.
In 1929 Edwin Hubble observed that the distant galaxies were moving rapidly from us. This implied that the universe is expanding. This means that at earlier times objects would have been closer together. Hubble’s observations suggested that there was a time, called the big bang when the universe was infinitesimally small and infinitely dense. It may be supposed that time had a beginning at the big bang. In an unchanging universe a beginning in time is something that has to be imposed by some being outside the universe. One could imagine that god created the universe at the instant of the big Bang.
Any physical theory is always provisional in the sense that is only a hypothesis. The eventual goal of science is to provide a single theory that describes the whole universe. If everything in the universe depends on everything else in a fundamental way. It might be impossible to get close to a full solution by investigating parts of the problem in isolation even though these partial theories holds good in describing and predicting certain class of observations. Today scientists describe the universe in terms of two basic partial theories namely the general theory of relativity and Quantum mechanics. The general theory of relativity describes the force of gravity and the large- scale structure of the universe. Quantum mechanics deals with phenomena on extremely small scales such as a millionth of a millionth of an inch. Unfortunately, these two theories are known to be inconsistent with each other i.e. they both cannot be correct. One of the major endeavours in physics today is the search for a new theory that will incorporate both of them. It seems difficult to justify on practical grounds. But ever since the dawn of civilization, people’s desire for knowledge of the underlying order in the world is justified. We still yearn to know why we are here and where we came from. Our goal is to describe the universe we live in with the help of a complete unified theory.
Friday, May 22, 2009
English for Btech students
http://btechenglish.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2009-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&updated-max=2010-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=16
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Tips For Good Night
10 tips for good night's sleep
Stick to a schedule. Erratic bedtimes do not allow for your body to align to the proper circadian rhythms. Mum was right when she set a time we always had to go to sleep as kids. Also, make sure you try to keep the same schedule on weekends too, otherwise the next morning, you’d wake later and feel overly tired.
Sleep only at night. Avoid daytime sleep if possible. Daytime naps steal hours from nighttime slumber. Limit daytime sleep to 20-minute, power naps.
Exercise. It’s actually known to help you sleep better. Your body uses the sleep period to recover its muscles and joints that have been exercised. Twenty to thirty minutes of exercise every day can help you sleep, but be sure to exercise in the morning or afternoon. Exercise stimulates the body and aerobic activity before bedtime may make falling asleep more difficult.
Taking a hot shower or bath before bed helps bring on sleep because they can relax tense muscles.
Avoid eating just before bed. Avoid eat large meals or spicy foods before bedtime. Give yourself at least 2 hours from when you eat to when you sleep. This allows for digestion to happen (or at least start) well before you go to sleep so your body can rest well during the night, rather than churning away your food.
Avoid caffeine. It keeps you awake and that’s now what you want for a good nights sleep. We all know that.
Read a fiction book. It takes you to a whole new world if you really get into it. And then take some time to ponder over the book as you fall asleep. I find as I read more and more, regardless of the book, I get more tired at night and so find it easier to fall asleep. Different for others?
Have the room slightly cooler. I prefer this to a hot room. I prefer to turn off the heat and allow the coolness to circulate in and out of the windows. If I get cold, I wear warmer clothes. It also saves on the bills as you’re not going to require the heat all night long.
Sleep in silence. I find sleeping with no music or TV on more easy and restful. I guess others are different, but sleep with no distractions is best for a clearer mind.
Avoid alcohol before bedtime. It’s a depressant; although it may make it easier to fall asleep, it causes you to wake up during the night. As alcohol is digested your body goes into withdrawal from the alcohol, causing nighttime awakenings and often nightmares for some people.
Stick to a schedule. Erratic bedtimes do not allow for your body to align to the proper circadian rhythms. Mum was right when she set a time we always had to go to sleep as kids. Also, make sure you try to keep the same schedule on weekends too, otherwise the next morning, you’d wake later and feel overly tired.
Sleep only at night. Avoid daytime sleep if possible. Daytime naps steal hours from nighttime slumber. Limit daytime sleep to 20-minute, power naps.
Exercise. It’s actually known to help you sleep better. Your body uses the sleep period to recover its muscles and joints that have been exercised. Twenty to thirty minutes of exercise every day can help you sleep, but be sure to exercise in the morning or afternoon. Exercise stimulates the body and aerobic activity before bedtime may make falling asleep more difficult.
Taking a hot shower or bath before bed helps bring on sleep because they can relax tense muscles.
Avoid eating just before bed. Avoid eat large meals or spicy foods before bedtime. Give yourself at least 2 hours from when you eat to when you sleep. This allows for digestion to happen (or at least start) well before you go to sleep so your body can rest well during the night, rather than churning away your food.
Avoid caffeine. It keeps you awake and that’s now what you want for a good nights sleep. We all know that.
Read a fiction book. It takes you to a whole new world if you really get into it. And then take some time to ponder over the book as you fall asleep. I find as I read more and more, regardless of the book, I get more tired at night and so find it easier to fall asleep. Different for others?
Have the room slightly cooler. I prefer this to a hot room. I prefer to turn off the heat and allow the coolness to circulate in and out of the windows. If I get cold, I wear warmer clothes. It also saves on the bills as you’re not going to require the heat all night long.
Sleep in silence. I find sleeping with no music or TV on more easy and restful. I guess others are different, but sleep with no distractions is best for a clearer mind.
Avoid alcohol before bedtime. It’s a depressant; although it may make it easier to fall asleep, it causes you to wake up during the night. As alcohol is digested your body goes into withdrawal from the alcohol, causing nighttime awakenings and often nightmares for some people.
Monday, March 2, 2009
The Six Keys to Success
The 6 Keys to Success
1. Attitude
Bloom where you are planted. You have a choice to get back up after temporary set backs. Attitude is a small thing that makes a big difference!
2. Direction
If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there. Write your short term goals down on paper. I have discovered and continue to discover that putting your dreams and goals down on paper lock in or focus your belief that they can be achieved--even if you have to take a course correction in achieving your goals. Success comes in cans, failure comes in can'ts.
3. Values
Explore what is important to you. Maybe it is family, friends, your spirituality or working hard at any given task. I can assure you that your priorities will change as you grow older. Very important that you value yourself and treat yourself like the valuable gift from God that you are.
4. Interests
Birds of a feather flock together. This is to say that if you are hanging around winners or others with a "can do" mind-set, you'll likely adapt to this same kind of thinking. Remember--"SUCCESS LEAVES CLUES!
5. Commitment
Feelings may change, commitments do not. "Success is getting up one more time than you fall." I have often wanted to give up, and then I must think to myself about what the consequences of giving up will be. Generally, this is more than enough of a motivation to make us stick to the task at hand even if we don't feel like it. When the task is achieved, Whow!--IT FEELS GREAT!
6. Encouragement
Be an encourager and comforter to friends that are feeling discouraged. I promise that you will not regret this as you will be encouraged by one, if not many, when you are feeling down. Encouragement and love are contagious qualities that can change the minds of the most stubborn and "hard-to-get- along-with" people you know. I have seen it happen over and over again.
1. Attitude
Bloom where you are planted. You have a choice to get back up after temporary set backs. Attitude is a small thing that makes a big difference!
2. Direction
If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there. Write your short term goals down on paper. I have discovered and continue to discover that putting your dreams and goals down on paper lock in or focus your belief that they can be achieved--even if you have to take a course correction in achieving your goals. Success comes in cans, failure comes in can'ts.
3. Values
Explore what is important to you. Maybe it is family, friends, your spirituality or working hard at any given task. I can assure you that your priorities will change as you grow older. Very important that you value yourself and treat yourself like the valuable gift from God that you are.
4. Interests
Birds of a feather flock together. This is to say that if you are hanging around winners or others with a "can do" mind-set, you'll likely adapt to this same kind of thinking. Remember--"SUCCESS LEAVES CLUES!
5. Commitment
Feelings may change, commitments do not. "Success is getting up one more time than you fall." I have often wanted to give up, and then I must think to myself about what the consequences of giving up will be. Generally, this is more than enough of a motivation to make us stick to the task at hand even if we don't feel like it. When the task is achieved, Whow!--IT FEELS GREAT!
6. Encouragement
Be an encourager and comforter to friends that are feeling discouraged. I promise that you will not regret this as you will be encouraged by one, if not many, when you are feeling down. Encouragement and love are contagious qualities that can change the minds of the most stubborn and "hard-to-get- along-with" people you know. I have seen it happen over and over again.
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