On learning Physics

"Physics is becoming so unbelievably complex that it is taking longer and longer to train a physicist. It is taking so long, in fact, to train a physicist to the place where he understands the nature of physical problems that he is already too old to solve them.”
— Eugene Paul Wigner

You want to understand the workings of the world, but you lack the skill-set as well as the mental maturity to ask and pursue questions. Maths was always hard for you and you hated yourself for that. Increasingly, physics also turned mathematical where you couldn't even hope to use your intuition. You realise that there’s no other way other than to use up decades of your life. There will be even more physics as you grow older but you have to do your best now. All you can hope is that the future will reward you with some glimpses of truth.

For instance, take the way Feynman concluded his lecture on resonance(Feynman lectures - Vol. I). He wanted to share the examples of oscillations in nature. But instead of giving usual (random) examples from a textbook, he talked about going to his study and pulling out books from the shelves. He tried to find if there are graphs depicting resonance. Lo, behold! There are. How our atmosphere oscillates due to Moon’s gravitational pull. How sound from Krakatoa volcanic eruption oscillated the entire atmosphere. How common salt crystals vibrate due to infrared radiation. How protons of different energies yield different amounts of gamma radiation on hitting an atomic nucleus. There were also examples regarding paramagnetic materials and subatomic particle reactions(which I didn’t understand). Feynman also mentioned that it is not hard to find an example of resonance in every single version of Physical Review Letters.

Let’s revisit the context. All those examples were from arbitrary books, concerning a wide range of matters. Going a bit further, it is quite easy to deduce that some people actually thought about those things. They then proceeded to examine those processes as well.

Well, the next question simply is  - how to reach that level of thinking? There’s no way other than to study hard and read widely. Understanding experiments and the motivation behind them. And, following how those questions came to be asked in the first place(aka history).

Schools and colleges fail to address the above by focussing on results and deadlines. It becomes necessary then to unlearn the way you were moulded by years of academia. You have to become original and follow learning in the way it should be done - follow questions as they come to you. Those questions will lead to even more questions, and you will learn in the way. More importantly, you will begin to have fun.

That’s my two cents for now. As I am young and fairly ignorant, please feel free to add comments/suggestions. If you want to talk to me about what I wrote, please do connect on private channels.

On bullshit(with the naive life-sketch of a reformer)

Bullshit and its disgusting effects on the society can be easily understood, if one refers to the story of Rammohan Banerjee(I will drop the “Raja” and “Roy” titles). I want to emphasise on his stance against Sati-Pratha and how he pressurised the colonial government to abolish it.

Imagine that era of Bengal. Orthodox Hindus who venerated Brahmins and whatever they told. Evils of casteism, which penetrated every aspect of society. Yet one act - the burning of widows, shows the nadir of everything that was wrong with society. I will get back to it.

As per Pauranic stories - Shiva’s wife, Sati self-immolated herself. She couldn’t take repeated insults of her husband from her father. Shiva was extremely enraged at the act and killed his father-in-law. That’s the essence of the story. If you’re a normal person, you will think of it as just another story and forget about it.

But religion is altogether a different game. It is so creepy and insidious that if you’re not vigilant, it can do things to you. I don’t know at what point of time, the above story took the form of a tradition. A woman becomes a widow. Most probably a young widow, because of child-marriage. Then, she is tied to the funeral pyre of her husband. The pyre is ignited. And people watch her die in agony and screams.

Now, this tradition might be going for a thousand years when Rammohan came about. And, no one even did a thing about it! They just considered it as a law of society and moved on with their lives.

Rammohan had an eye for bullshit. He recognised that this is evil and shouldn’t continue. So, he used the Britishers to enact a law banning the tradition. Did he face any problem? Of course. Opposition from his parents(who were Brahmins) and even attacks on his life. But, Rammohan was not a coward. He pressed on and finally got the law passed.

Rammohan was against idol-worship(probably due to influences of Abrahamic religions like Islam and Christianity). So, he started Brahmo Samaj. I think, he must have thought about atheism but couldn’t reject all the religious influences on him. Therefore, he opened the society anyway.

                                                                     (Portrait Credit: Wikipedia)

So even Rammohan was not untouched by bullshit. He still chose a God, though he had no evidences for one. I guess, we shouldn’t blame him that much. He is still a hero. He did a lot of good by his acts of defiance. How many of us have done a good thing in our lives?

So, what do we learn from this story? We learn that bullshit should be crushed whenever detected. Bullshit is against progress and has lots of horrifying consequences. Even worse, you may not even realise that you’re in deep shit. To put it politely.

For a more descriptive and well-written take on bullshit, one should check out Carl Sagan’s The Fine Art of Baloney Detection. One can even register for an awesome course here(by University of Washington).

As a final note, try to become another Rammohan. Piss off people who spread and indulge in bullshit. Demand evidence for everything you hear and think. Even if you lead a hard life, know that your contributions will make the world a better place.

All hail Objectivity!

Got a portable grand piano!

Brace electronics. Technology lets you have a grand piano on your lap.

Few days ago, I bought a Yamaha PSR-E353 keyboard.

With a half decade of ups and downs with Indian classical music, followed by another gap of around seven years - I have returned back to this instrument. And this time, I am going to start with western styles.

I am currently trying to learn music theory from this course. Everyday, I try to play the keyboard as well. Hopefully, I will get a decent stand in a few years.