An exercise in triviality
In case anyone still thought that physicists play an important role in society, here's an example of the sort of exam question I'll be trying to answer in a couple hours time:
If the law were changed so that traffic in Great Britain travelled on the right-hand side of the road instead of the left, would the length of the day increase, decrease or be unaltered? Explain the reasoning behind your answer.
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The Narnia Code
Just something that was on BBC One last night and is really worth
watching if you're at all interested in C.S. Lewis.
Uncertainty...
Uncertainty is a strange thing. It's one of those things that just seem to, well, define life - at least in my experience anyway. So you'd think I'd be pretty used to it by now. Yet for some reason it just overwhelms me every time. Right now the two big things are those that more or less characterise the student experience at this time of year, well apart from exams - finding a place to live and something to do with my summer that earns me some money. It doesn't matter that I've been here before. This is my fifth year of university and it's always roughly worked out. It doesn't even seem to matter that we have a God who
promises to take care of us and for whom any problems I can see must surely be no
match. But it should.
King Knut
There is an old English story about a Norse king called Knut. One day he told his entire court to follow him down the beach where he ordered the tide to halt. Obviously the sea didn't obey but that was the point. Knut was concerned that his subjects held him in such high regard that they had forgotten he was just a man.
The reason for bringing this up is that Barack Obama's inauguration is today. Judging by the story told in the British media at least, it would appear that this is the most significant event to happen anywhere for decades. The BBC alone has four TV channels and three radio stations covering the event live! Whilst he is a great politician with a lot of good ideas, one would be led to believe that within the next four years he will solve all the world's major problems and leave us living in some sort of harmony that has evaded us thus far. Perhaps it is time for Obama to do something similar to old King Knut.
The story of Knut ends with him telling his people:
'Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings, for there is none worthy of the name, but
He whom heaven, earth, and sea obey by eternal laws.'
My question of the week
The last couple of weeks, whilst sat on library level 10, my mind has been wandering somewhat. Maybe it's a sign that physics really isn't as fascinating as my younger self believed it to be. Maybe it's just the effects of the over enthusiastic heating system getting to me. Whatever its cause, it has given rise to many difficult and not easily solvable question, thus providing even more distraction. My most recent and unsolved conundrum is this:
Does the human mind have an inexhaustible capacity for learning things or is there a point at which for ever new thing learnt something is forgotten?
As a student who's currently devoting a large portion of his life to learning all there is to know about physics, this is a concern. For instance, supposing time is not a constraint, is it possible to know everything or should I be prioritising things? If I do somehow manage to understand general relativity, will I simultaneously forget everything I know about french grammar? If anyone knows the answer to this I would love to hear it.
A post for the sake of a post
A friend was asking me a while back why I don't blog more. To be honest I'm not really sure. I really enjoy writing but it usually has to be inspired by something and that hasn't been happening so much lately. I think it depends some on how far in to term I am. There's
usually a very productive spot around three to six weeks in. Then I hit a prolonged writers block. Or else I have ideas for posts but no time to write them. This has happened several times recently. When I do finally get time I've usually forgotten most of what I was planning to write. So anyway, because this is obviously not one of those 'inspired' times, I figured I'd just throw down a few recent discoveries...
- sometimes there is very little difference between first class and standard. Heading home first class all the way to York for just £24! National Express is actually amazing :)
- 23 is really little different to 22 despite what everyone tells you
- watching Scottish sport means having to be happy with the little things, such as the fact that they scored a try at all
- shopping in December is not a good idea. Downtown Glasgow is so busy right now.
- getting something newer isn't always progress. The library just got hundreds of new computers which seem to spend most of their time randomly crashing.
Rememberance Day
'The past is never dead. It's not even past' -- William Faulkner
