Mohan Noone's Blog

Defining time is tough.

The Wikipedia article on ‘Time‘ states: “defining it in a manner applicable to all fields without circularity has consistently eluded scholars.”  In other words, most definitions of time in some way end up including it. Examples, from the same article, are: “Time is a dimension in which events can be ordered from the past through the present into the future, and also the measure of durations of events and the intervals between them.”  What is the past? (Earlier time?) What are durations and intervals? (other than time itself?).

Is it impossible to define time without circularity?  Interestingly,  ancient cultures often referred to time itself as a circle – “the circle of time”, the “kalachakra” in Sanskrit, in which time through vast eons repeats itself, each cycle lasting for what would amount to millions of years.

Another aspect of time which is equally difficult to objectify and define is its direction.  Unlike the dimensions of space in which we, and other objects we see, are free to move back and forth, time resolutely follows the arrow from ‘past’ to ‘future’.  What defines this direction?  Is is subjective or objective? Cosmic, thermodynamic or subatomic?

A strange twist to our understanding of time came with Einstein’s theories of relativity which showed that in different inertial -  as well as accelerating or gravitational – frames of reference, the rate and concurrence of events vary – shattering the concept of ‘absolute’ time.  This leads to the conclusion  that Time, like Space is a dimension of reality which is closely inter-wined with matter and energy and cannot be studied or defined in isolation.

Defining time in relation to matter and energy brings us to the issue of change.  Unless there is a change in the observable properties of a system, there is no way to measure or detect the passage of time.  The property could be location in space, physical composition, or any other parameter like charge or temperature -  a discharging battery is a good example.  Right to the subatomic level, ‘Time‘ is that which separates ‘events’ – which are nothing but changes in the physical properties of matter and energy.  In an empty universe without matter and energy, time simply cannot exist.  Thus, the ‘Big Bang’ is not only the beginning of matter and energy but also of space and time as well – as the Universe expands, it creates the space and time it needs to expand into.

Thus, change happens and the dimension in which change happens is time.  Without time, there can be no change and without change, there can be no time.

But what about the direction of time?  Many changes are simply not reversible.  This irreversibility can be used to define the direction of time.  Consider a perfectly reversible system like an oscillating pendulum.   In this system, the direction of time would be meaningless.  Irreversible change gives a direction to time – be it is cosmic, thermodynamic or subatomic.

The cosmic arrow of time is defined by the irreversible expansion of the universe. The thermodynamic arrow of time derives from the famous second law of thermodynamics which states that ‘entropy’ – the physical measure of disorder or chaos of a system – must increase with time. This irreversible increase in entropy defines the thermodynamic arrow.  Interestingly, they both point in the same direction, perhaps pointing to an underlying fundamental connection between the expansion of the universe and entropy.  (There is a third arrow of time – the one in our mind, the psychological arrow of time, which is likely influenced by the irreversible changes we observe around us, like growth and decay, birth and death.  The irreversibility of these phenomena are all, arguably, related to the thermodynamic arrow.)

Finally, time has both objective and subjective aspects. Change happening without an observer would also require time, but once the change is observed, the time becomes subjective.

 

With all the media attention, the Higg’s Boson a.k.a ‘the God particle’ has got everyone’s talking these days. But what actually is this ‘goddam particle’, as it was originally described, and later famously misquoted to its present divine sobriquet, that it deserves billions of dollars and our collective attention?

The answer as you may have realized is quite complicated.. though it all boils down to explaining the origin of ‘mass’.

First things first – the word ‘boson’  rings suspiciously Indian – or more specifically Bengali.  It is indeed named after the brilliant Bengali physicist of the early 20th century, Satyendra Nath Bose (not the more famous JC Bose).  SN Bose mathematically predicted a certain statistical behavior of photons (the particle of light or more specifically the boson of electromagnetic interaction), which he communicated to Albert Einstein, who later expanded upon the theory – which became known as the Bose-Einstein statistic. It is a landmark theory in Quantum Mechanics, but somehow, Bose never got the Nobel prize, though he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 1954 , and the name ‘boson’ stuck to designate the particles which behave in the manner he predicted.  Here is a photo of the man from Wikipedia:

So what is the Higg’s boson?  The Higg’s boson is not something that is ‘waiting to be discovered’ or ‘exists out there’.  It is something predicted by a group of physicists in the early 60s.

Predicted for what? Predicted to complete the ‘Standard Model’ of Physics.

 ’Standard Model’ of What?  You and me and the galaxies.   The ‘Standard Model’ is the currently most accepted and coherent theory of how the universe works, that explains three of the four forces of nature – electromagentism, strong and weak nuclear interaction.  The model consists of several fundamental particles, classified as  ‘fermions’ and ‘gauge bosons’.  The ‘Higg’s boson’ was added later.  (Note: the ‘Standard Model’ does not include or attempt to explain the forth force of nature, gravitation. )

The fermions include the familiar electron and the quarks – the building blocks of protons and neutrons.  These interact with each other by 3 fundamental forces, and each of these is mediated by the exchange of a particle of the ‘gauge boson’ category: electromagnetism by the photon, weak force by W&Z guage bosons, strong force by ‘gluons’.  All of these particles have been observed and confirmed.

Why was the Higg’s Boson added to the Standard Model? The Standard model had a big problem, it could not explain why some particles have mass while others are massless.  This is why the Higg’s boson was predicted as a field-particle that would interact with certain particles and generate mass.  This is also known as the Higg’s mechanism.

If the Higg’s boson was confirmed to exist then scientists could be satisfied that the Standard Model was fundamentally correct, and then could probably proceed to try uniting it with a quantum theory of gravitation.  That would complete our understanding of all the four forces of nature.

The extremely high energy and transient existence of the particle require very tedious and expensive experiments to have a fair chance at detection.  That is what the people at CERN have just done and they are 99.9999% sure.  The experiments will go on to study the nature of this particle and how it fits with the standard model of physics.

Physics teaches us that there are only four forces in our universe: Gravitation, Electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces.

The nuclear forces are restricted to the atomic nucleus and hence are not encountered in our scale of experience.

As for gravitation, it is not a real force – strictly speaking. Well, then how does the apple fall, one might ask, quite justifiably, if not pulled by the planet beneath? To answer that, let’s try a little thought experiment. Remember the last time you ‘felt’ a force – a plane taking off, a car breaking, anything. You would recall the feeling of being pushed. That’s what a real force feels like. Now recall the last time you were freely “pulled” by gravity. Say coming down a Ferris wheel or a roller coaster. What did you feel? Not a push or a pull, but the the very opposite: a funny feeling of weightlessness. So when gravity is allowed to act, it does not result in a push or a pull, but in weightlessness – what is otherwise called an ‘inertial state’: the state of an object that is not acted upon by any force.

So, very clearly, gravity is not a force like other forces. Then what is it? This was answered by Einstein in the Theory of General Relativity. Gravity turns out to be the result of a curious interaction between matter and space (and time.. ). Put simply, the very presence of matter distorts and curves space and time around it, so that an inertial body will automatically “fall in” without the influence of any force whatsoever. (How and why this ‘distortion’ happens is not yet known – in other words, we do not, so far, have a quantum theory for gravitation) A force is felt only when this inertial ‘sliding’ is opposed, say by the ground beneath our feet! So that’s gravity.

Which leaves us with one force, electromagnetism. Every force we experience is the result of electromagnetism, be it the stroke of a butterfly’s wing, the mighty push of a jet plane, a warm hug, or a breeze. And that’s something worth a thought or two!

 

Acknowledgement

The images are from the following pages:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/teachers/activities/3012_elegant_09.html

http://www.mutagenes.net/earth-orbit/weightlessness.html

http://philosophadam.wordpress.com/2011/11/14/on-space-as-connecting-us/

Remember “Hotel California” in which the Eagles famously sang “We are all just prisoners here..”?

If you really think about it, therein lies a great truth hidden.  If you define a prison as a confinement beyond which one is not allowed to freely roam, then we indeed are prisoners. Of time –  of the present, to be exact.  And this indeed is a most curious prison, for the present hardly exists.  By the time you say, nay think, “now” its already in the past.  Neither can we bring back the past, nor skip to the future.

We exists only in the present, which itself hardly exists – quite a quaint quandary!   But, you may protest, we transcend the present.  We learn from the past and plan for the future, right?  Yes, truly, that is what makes us what we are: autonoesis.  That strange sounding word is what neuropsychologists call the unique human ability to see oneself as a continuous being through time, to string together memories into one whole concept of self, transcending the nothingness of the present.

Memories, yes, those very memories are what keep us out of the prison of the present.  When the memory fades and shrinks due to diseases of the brain the person becomes indeed very much a prisoner, unable to make sense of time flying by. forever trapped in the evasive reality of the present.  A tragedy, only lessened by the blissful unawarenss of  the one that suffurs from it.  Dementia is when that prison becomes real.

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Email inbox getting bombarded by notifications from multiple Facebook groups?

There is an option deep in the Account Settings to selectively stop email notifications from each group. Here is a direct link to the Settings: http://on.fb.me/hCx2JK

After opening the link, click on the line that reads “Change email settings for individual groups”  and uncheck all the groups you wish to stop receiving email notifications from.

I’m waiting for my flight and popping songs from my iPod.  Undeniably, we’ve come a long way in capturing sound since the first scratchy, yet groundbreaking Gramophone recordings.  However, the  task of capturing sound waves faithfully continues to be a fascinating mixture of art and science.  As the songs stream into my headphones some strike me as truly exceptional recordings.  Consider this as a personal recommendation list for your ears.

1. Man in the Mirror – Michael Jackson
2. Fields of Gold – Sting
3. Its a Kind of Magic – Queen
4. Coming Back to Life – Pink Floyd
5. So Far Away – Dire Straits
6. Blue Eyes Blue – Eric Clapton
7. Amazing – George Micheal
8. Talk of the Town – Jack Johnson
9. Sleeping Child – Micheal Learns to Rock
10. Telling Stories – Tracy Chapman

Of course, this is a completely random list from a random selection.  However, I consider each one of these as an absolute treat-for-ears, and also reckon they would be great for testing new headphones or speakers – having wide dynamic range and exceptional sound staging.

Took a couple of trips on the great Indian Railways in the past month. One of the questions that I kept asking myself was …the title of this post!

The good part: I had an internet enabled smart phone and the Indian railways’ trainenquiry.com portal provided real time train running info.  The bad part: The site, designed for desktop use, was a pain to use from a mobile browser – just takes too many steps and reloads before the desired information gets displayed.

And I kept thinking to myself.. “This could be improved by making it simple and mobile friendly!”

So now, I have written up a small web page which does just that.   Check it out at: http://mtp.sasyabook.com/

Just enter the train number, destination station code (which are printed in the ticket) and indicate if the date of arrival isn’t same as the day of checking, and click “Check”!

Oh.. and remember to bookmark it on your mobile before your next trip on Indian Railways!

October 29th 2010 was World Stroke Day.   The day marked the start of an ambitious 2-year campaign to fight the global menace of stroke.  The campaign, organized by the World Stroke Organization, is nicknamed “1 in 6″.  This to highlight the facts that every six seconds, someone dies of stroke somewhere in the world, and 1 in 6 people are likely to have a stroke in their lifetime.   The ultimate goal is that people, all over the world, should be informed about effective measures for stroke prevention, and learn how to identify a stroke and take timely action.  Six action challenges are put forward as part of this campaign:

1. Know your personal risk factors: high blood pressure, diabetes, and high blood cholesterol.
2. Be physically active and exercise regularly.
3. Avoid obesity by keeping to a healthy diet.
4. Limit alcohol consumption.
5. Avoid cigarette smoke. If you smoke, seek help to stop now.
6. Learn to recognize the warning signs of a stroke and how to take action.

The message is clear – it is your individual responsibility to stay healthy -  and these measures will help prevent not just strokes but also heart attacks, depression and even dementia.  Today is the day to start.

As part of the campaign, we at Calicut city conducted an innovative public health information program, organized by the Calicut Neurological Society (of which I am the Secretary, which explains why this post is here!), the IMA Calicut chapter and the Kerala Association of Neurologists.  This was the “Stroke Van” -  a traveling audio-visual exhibit distributing information related to stroke prevention and treatment.  We went around the city on October 29th, 2010.  Some photos are attached – as you can see, it was actually a jeep!

The real mystery – is not out there

When we see it and wonder, it exists

And as we see more, it extends

- we create as we observe!

Detection alters the path of history

- so says the Quantum Theory

When an event occurs, it truly does define

Not only its future but its past as well!

Imagine what we do..we detect so much

Though in a short yet glorious flicker of being!

And the life forms that came before us

Must have detected much more..

But wait, just by being here, by asking why

We define strict limits to reality, we impose its frame

Thus as we wonder, we truly become

Wondrous, more wondrous

than what we did wonder before!

Inspired by Prof Stephen Hawking’s splendid new book “The Grand Design”