Gaurav Ragtah (spideyunlimited)

New Blog - "New Delhi to New York"

2010-08-05T21:01:00.004+05:30

Hi everyone,

I apologize for being out of touch with the blogosphere for such a long time. It was mainly due to an overwhelming year of new experiences with new friends in an entirely new place halfway across the world. I'm studying in New York now and my new blog is about my life and experiences as an international student abroad. Hope you will follow me on there:

New Delhi to New York (http://desiinhamilton.blogspot.com)

See you there.

Take care!

Cents = Dollars = Verizon gone mad :P

2009-03-10T12:12:00.005+05:30

Check out this phone conversation. But don't bang your head on the wall. Or the table. Lol.

Yo! Check this out!

2009-02-12T19:42:00.000+05:30

Have a look at:

http://hackaday.com/

Posting after a long time!

2009-02-02T22:42:00.016+05:30

Okay, I just HAD to post this. lol

Engineer's serenade

I was alone and all was dark, Beneath me and above
My life was full of volts and amps, But not the spark of love

But now that you are here with me, My heart is overjoyed
You turn the square of my heart, Into a sinusoid

You load things from my memory, Onto my system's bus
My life was once assembly code, Now it's C++

I love the way you solder things, My circuits you can fix
The voltage across your diode is, much more than just point six

With your amps and resistors, You have built my integrator
I cannot survive without you, You are my function generator

You have charged my life,increased gain, And made my maths discrete
And now I'll end my poem here, Control, Alt, and Delete

--------
*awesome*, I think lol.

And here's my pic in alphanumeric characters representation (the pic I used for the IITJEE, AIEEE and other exam forms)

haha!

And here's a must-watch video! Freak accident at a soccer match...

Comment!!
_____________________________

A New Website

2008-09-08T18:30:00.002+05:30

Just created a new website to help students with maths and physics questions. Feel free to ask any questions here .

http://sites.google.com/site/mathplusphysics/Home

Gayatri Mantra

2008-07-14T09:39:00.003+05:30

The Gayatri Mantra, considered to be the holiest verse of the Vedas, has been paraphrased in different ways. The original Sanskrit is in the shape of a Vedic mantra and forms a formula for daily devotion of all Brahmins in the land.

The mantra:

(oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ) oṃ tat savitur vareṇyaṃ bhargo devasya dhīmahi dhiyo yo naḥ prachodayāt

Interpretation of the mantra by Arya Samaj :

"O God, Thou art the giver of life, the remover of pain and sorrow, the bestower of happiness; O Creator of the Universe, may we receive Thy supreme sin-destroying light; may Thou guide our intellect in the right direction."

General Interpretation :

We meditate on the glory of the Creator;
Who has created the Universe;
Who is worthy of Worship;
Who is the embodiment of Knowledge and Light;
Who is the remover of all Sin and Ignorance;
May He enlighten our Intellect.

The short preamble is simply these four words:

	om
	bhûr
	bhuvas
	suvaha

Om:

As you may have noticed, the preamble begins with Om, the first line of the Gâyatrî Mantra begins with Om and the closing ends with Om.

Om is in everything and everything is in Om. Indeed, the mantric repetition of this one syllable, Om, is of immeasurable value. It is often said that Om is the greatest of all mantras.

For clarification, here are quotes from various Upanishads describing the nature of Om:

I will give you the Word all the scriptures glorify and which all spiritual disciplines express, to attain which aspirants lead of a life of sense-restrain and selflessness. It is Om. This symbol of Brahman is the highest. Realizing it, one finds complete fulfillment of all one's longings. It is of the greatest support to all seekers.

Katha Unpanishad (I, ii, 15-17)

Take the great bow of the sacred scriptures, place on it the arrow of devotion; then draw the bowstring of meditation, and aim at the target, the Lord of Love. Om is the bow, the soul is the arrow, and Brahman is called its target. Now draw the bowstring of meditation and hitting the target, be One with It.

Mundaka Upanishad (II, ii, 3-4)

--------------------

The beautiful rhythmic patterns, soothing ancient sounds and powerful intent make the Gâyatrî Mantra a magnificent part of daily spiritual practice.

The Gâyatrî Mantra combines the effects of mantric sound with the effects of a deep and profound prayer, resulting in a combination which is exceedingly potent.

As with all spiritual practices, this is a vehicle for intent. The stronger and greater the intent, the stronger and greater the results.

Spiritual progress does not succeed merely by means of intellectual reasoning or theoretical arguments, but rather by direct experience. If you would like a deeper understanding of the Gâyatrî Mantra, it is well and good that you should begin with an intellectual understanding of the words and the intent, but that is only a preliminary step leading to your own direct experience of That Which is beyond words.

Check out my new math/physics blogsite!

2008-05-25T01:40:00.003+05:30

I'll be posting some questions I've solved in math and physics on this site :
http://mathplusphysics.blogspot.com

Do visit it :)

Another fine essay by me :)

2008-04-30T00:39:00.003+05:30

Do not plagiarize !

My views on God and religion

The existence of a Higher Being, whom we commonly refer to as God, has always been a highly debated topic. On one hand are the religious people, firmly believing that God is watching over us from the heavens. On the other hand are the nonbelievers, skeptics and rationalists, persistently stating the absence of any concrete evidence to ascertain that God is real. This causes me to ponder upon what Friedrich Nietzsche once said – “Which is it, is man one of God’s blunders or is God one of man’s?”

The purpose of religion is to serve as a spiritual medium through which man can aspire to attain nirvana, to unite with the Almighty. Unfortunately though, it has indirectly become a major cause for strife the world over. A large number of people tend to misinterpret the norms of their religion, for the worse. This leads to misunderstanding between people of various faiths and communities. If a religion decrees to its followers to worship and believe in only one God, they turn hostile towards other religions. All the terrorists out there were just like you and me before being brainwashed by certain anti-social individuals into believing that it was their duty to fight, and even slaughter, to appease their God. As Blaise Pascal once remarked – “Men never commit evil so fully and joyfully as when they do it for religious convictions”. What they forget is that their religion also preaches non-violence. In fact, every religion condemns hatred and violence. We fight over our Gods but fail to realize that all of us just have different names for the same universal God.

God, to me, is an acronym for Generator Operator Destroyer. I believe God is essentially all the unbalanced energy of the universe – the energy difference between what we do and what we get. And this is why all our deeds, good or bad, come around back to us in a full circle through some form or the other. We learn in high school physics that if we perform positive work on a body, energy gets stored in it, and it loses energy if we do negative work on it. This is somewhat similar to our situation. Do a good turn and you can expect one in return. A simple act of kindness or humanity sows the seeds of goodwill, just like performing positive work on something causes it to gain energy. All the energy of the cosmos is conserved, and all the unbalanced energy between our actions and the consequences we immediately face is what constitutes God – the driving force of the universe. God is the creator, preserver and destroyer of everything in this universe.

The world would be so much better and peaceful if instead of fighting over our religions, we learned to live with brotherhood and global harmony. It hardly matters whether or not you believe in God or religion. You might be an extremely religious person or you might be an atheist but, in the end, what really matters is whether you have been a good human being.

Is Hell exothermic or endothermic?

2007-10-25T09:50:00.001+05:30

The following is an actual question given on a McGill University chemistry mid-term Exam paper:
Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)? Support your answer with a proof.

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyles Law (gas cools off when it expands and heats up when it is compressed) or some variant.

One student, however, wrote the following:
First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So, we need to know the rate that souls are moving into Hell and the rate they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Some of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there are more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that most people and their souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially.
Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyles Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand as souls are added.
This gives two possibilities.
If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.
Of course, if Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.
So which is it?
If we accept the postulate given to me by Ms. Celine LeBlanc during my Freshman year - that "it will be a cold night in Hell before I go out with you" - and take into account the fact that I still have not succeeded in developing even a cordial relationship with her, then (2) cannot be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic.

The student got the only A!

Faster than light?

2007-10-25T09:44:00.002+05:30

The other day i was explaining the relativity theory to a friend. At the speed of light, any object would have infinite mass so would need infinite energy to make it go faster."This means that there is a maximum speed at which anything can travel, and only massless things like light can travel at that speed," I explained.My friend is very bright, and after a little thought he came up with three situations that semmed to contradict Einstein. Is any of them valid?

1. The poles outside barber shops have helical stripes painted round them. If the pole is rotated, its stripes are seen to travel along it. If the rotation is fast enough the stripes should travel faster than light.
2. If you shine a flashlight on a wall, you will see a spot of light. You can make this spot move along the wall by rotating the flashlight. The speed of the spot depends on the distance from the wall and the speed of rotation of the flashlight. If you shine a laser on a target some miles away, the spot of light formed could be made to move faster than the speed of light by rotating the laser.
3. Very small particles, like neutrons, can penetrate matter very easily. Imagine such a particle, travelling at nearly the speed of light, entering a block of glass. The particle is so small that it will not be impeded by the glass, but light is slowed down to about two-thirds of its speed in air. Therefore, the particle would be travelling faster in glass than the light.

My conclusion:
My friend correctly identified three situations in which something travels faster that light. However, none of them contradicts Einstein, whose work could be more correctly summarized as: " The maximum speed at which INFORMATION can travel is represented by the speed of light in a vacuum. "In the first two examples, nothing physical moves faster than light.

The barber's pole stripes only appear to move along the pole.

The spot of light at one end of the sweep is different from the one at the other end as it is made up of different photons. Neither system could be used to carry INFORMATION.
The third example has been observed experimentally. Such particles break the "light barrier" and produce minute photonic flashes equivalent to sonic booms.

The Chase ... a poem i wrote

2007-06-20T00:23:00.000+05:30

a chirp, a twitter,
a loud crack,
and a sudden flutter of wings,the winged creatures alight from their abodes;
the distant warning calls of the tribes resounding in the air
Fear sets from one to another, the herds out on the move;

and above the din of the jungle, creeps the striped predator,
slithering ,slinking closer through the tall blades of grass;
helpless prey , looking around with shifting eyes
like those of a scared rat, alert and ready, yet helpless;

a faint sight of the tiger ,the deer set on a gallop,
faster and faster, know one has to go today, fear in their minds,
wanting to live for yet another day;
the hunter spots the weakest of the herd, sets upon him,
the clock of death nears the prey, heart beating rapidly,
sprinting and dodging the nearing predator, a long tiring chase,
knows he can no more outrun him, but his predator persues, relentless;

the deer's legs give way and he falls,
and with a mighty leap, the king of the jungle swipes at the neck of the deer,
and knocks out its life force, its heart beating its final few, and slowly goes cold,
he tears at the meat, drags it to his den,
and feasts on the royal kill,
somewhere distant, the herds panting, one of their tribe snatched away,
know they are safe for now, but now never implies tomorrow...

Some elementary math fundas (fundamentals)

2007-06-20T00:09:00.000+05:30

Here's a test of some very basic math knowledge....
READ the following.. ( and yes, please comment if you have doubts on any of this)

Let a = bThen a² = aband also a² - b² = ab - b² (subtracting the same quantity from both sides of the previous equation)or (a + b)(a - b) = b(a - b)Cancelling common factors on both sides we get:
(a + b) = b
But a = b
Thus we get b + b = b
or 2b = b
ie.
2 = 1

How did we get this result?Think... you ought to know this. Its an elementary level question.

FOR THE ANSWER PLEASE HIGHLIGHT THIS BLOG ENTRY ( click and drag left mouse button)

Ans) In one of the steps, we have divided the equation by (a - b). But as a = b thus a - b = 0.And we cannot divide an equation by zero. Division by zero is not defined.... THE most basic concept of arithemetic.

Spherical Tyres

2007-06-20T00:08:00.002+05:30

A thought provoking idea - what if we use spherical tyres instead of the cylindrical tube tyres. Cars could then move easily in all directions. The groove pattern could be similar to the longitudes of the earth . The normal shaft present in today's cars would be accompanied by another rubber like band around the front two wheels and another one around the rear wheels to allow frontal and sideways movement of the tyres. Think about it ... and let me know...
Adieu,
FOWL

Solar - Hydel - Wind Mill

2007-06-20T00:08:00.001+05:30

Here's my latest invention well its kinda invention- and ive christened it a Solar - Hydel- Wind Mill as will become evident..---
everyone has seen a conventional Windmill - it has a no. of blades depending upon the speed of wind and its duration..
now my mill involves fixation of smaller blades at 45 degrees on the edge of each wind mill blade. each of these blades also has a solar panel .
now in this way when the wind is blowing the wind mill will function properly and when there is now ind only sun then solar panels will work and when there is rain the small blades on the edges of the big blades will cause them to move .. this will allow distribution of windmills in many places not just windy areas.
CYA ,
GAURAV

Another theorem

2007-06-20T00:06:00.000+05:30

I created another theorem . If u wanna ask something leave a comment.

If x is a number with N digits where N>1 then the sum of ' the difference between x and its mirror reverse' and its mirror reverse will be a multiple of 9.

Ex.647
746 - 647 = 99 or 099
99 + 99 = 198
or 99 + 990 = 1089

ADIEU !!!!!

FOWL

Cool theorems i discovered

2007-06-20T00:03:00.000+05:30

well u wont believe it but i discovered 3 mathematical theorems. well over a period of 2 yrs cos wid exams in between terms u can only study

1. if x, n are any natural no.s then sum of digits of (x+1) = sum of digits of ( x+ (10 to the power n ) )

2. if a, b and n are any 3 whole no.s and n >2 then there is NO such whole no. c such that
(a to the power n ) + (b to the power n ) = (c to the power n )

3. if a and b are 2 consecutive perfect squares and b>a thenb - a = root a + root b
if b and a have 1 perfect square between them then
b - a = 2(root a + root b)
and so on...