Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Happy December 25!

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, and celebrate it today.  I hope it's fun for you all.
Life has boiled down to a few points.  Knowledge, patience, and ambition. Ambition is something everyone seems to have, whether it's living a simple life with a good family and happy existence, fun and happiness, or it can come out to be loftier goals like being a president or wanting to change the world. Patience, however, is a skill that has to be learned and practised. It does not seem to be something that everyone has, and the truth is that it's something I'm still working on myself.  With it, goals can be planned for and worked towards.  Eventualy, our skills catch up with our ambition.
With patience, we can watch our hard pay off towards a rewards that give us something worth more than money.  Skills are gained that give more, gain more, and let us live more.  Doors open that present paths never seen.  Insight is given that allows us to see ourselves in a different light, and gives us a new world to play and strive in.  Knowledge comes with time, and creates a magic that gives us chance to change the threads of time and space.  With ambitions, knowledge, and patience, we are given the chance to become something more.  We are given the chance to become gods.
Now the world becomes more complicated.  As Greek mythology shows us, hubris is the downfall of many men. I call it getting to cocky. Luck plays a part in trying to reach our goals, and while luck can be determined by our actions and our words, we can't always count on the actions of those around us. You may be a perfect driver with a clean driving record, but you don't know about the driver in the other car. Their eyesight may be failing, and their boyfriend may have just broken up with them. Their brakes may not work. It's luck that you cannot change, but we may be able to make the best of it. I will leave the results up to your imgination to create and play with.
What is reality?  If the world is sum of our senses, than is it something we can control the outcome of? Does the knowledge we gain change the world around us? The people we are affects the people around us, and minds seem to attract similar minds. Great minds seem to inspire others, and in turn create a group that was more powerful than before. The interests we have seem to act as a magnet; following those interest lead us to other people with their own thought, emotions, experiences, dreams, and goals.  Taking the time to gain their wisdom will then lead to more knowledge and greater insight. A world is created that never existed before.
Maybe this is the ramblings of a young mind. Someone with too much optimism about the future. Maybe the rules are too cut and dried, and the game is set agianst us from the start. Maybe there is something that only works to give us everything, only to see how we act when we fall. For the time being, it is in our favor to go with the cards that are dealt and make the best of it. Hopefully, the knowledge we gain will give us the wisdom to know when bow out and say Au revoir, adios and До свидания.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

What? Another post?

I am at a point where I am looking forward to a few days off. I've been stuck in my apartment for weeks and the white board and mirrors are starting to get covered in strange symbols. Curves have been calculated, javascript functions have been written down as reminders, and the Russian alphabet is looking down on me while I sleep.  Luckily there's Christmas and a four day weekend coming up.  I can stop and relax and take long walks through the woods. . . yeah. My only fear is I'll open my mouth about one of my many projects and then my brain will go running with an idea.  It's hard to shut this damn thing off, you know.  It seems to be always running in the background, and as soon as it gets acknowledged it just goes on full power until there's no juice left and I feel mentally exhausted. Half of what it comes up with just seems wrong.
Symbols have become fun. It breaks down language and changes it to become something else.  The symbols of set theory turn mathematics into it's own language.  Letters, numbers, scribbles in the sand, they are meaningless unless noises or ideas are given to them. And structure of the symbols is important! English follows different sentence structures than French, so if you write English words into a French structure, you may end up with gibberish. Sort of. Your message won't be as clear.
The rules are there to be toyed with.  How do we tell a good story or poem?  Any way we want. Strip down you writing to it simplest form and join the ranks of the minimalists. Throw editing away and enjoy the craziness of the gonzo masters. Live like a Dadaist and say screw the rules! the world makes no sense.
Write to find a calm beach where there is only insanity.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

What was what?

Don't worry about how to write.  Don't worry about what to write. Don't worry about writing.
What is it about writing that is just so attractive? It's a way to organise and put forth thoughts and see their connection with other thoughts.  I can stop and re-read, re-think, and re-edit.  And no one has to see my thoughts until I think it's worthy to be seen.  I can not only choose what I want you to see, but I can influence how I want you to think about it.
I'm over-thinking, over-thinking, over-thinking all these issues.  This is just a time to step back and let the words type themselves.  The information doesn't have to be there, in fact, this is a time for no thought at all.
There is beauty in life.  Structure and design in nature always seem so simple, yet work so efficiently.  The way the shape of an egg absorbs weight and distributes it evenly across it's structure.  The design of plants in order to gain the most amount of sunlight.  There is little that is chaotic in nature, but it comes about as a trial and error response to chaos.
So many questions, yet so little time to answer them.  That seems to be the number one reason to write, paint, think, and do math: share the answers we have gained to people we can't see.  The people I can't even imagine.  The people who will live, the people who are living, and the people who have similar questions and no answers.
Write just because.  I am so fucking relaxed right now.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Insecurities, sure.

Well,I'm still around.And am I'm ready for this addition of insecure writers support group.
Haven't posted anything for awhile.  I've been writing, but haven't posted anything.  Anybody else have a bin for ideas that seem good, but haven't finished?  That's what I've been accumulating since September.  Good, unfinished ideas. 
It's all wrong.  The stuff I wrote in the past has glaring technical errors, the stuff I write now just doesn't seem fleshed out. I'm constantly hitting blocks while I'm writing, and a lot of the time the flow seems off to me.  I haven't stopped writing though.  Like I've said, none of it's online.
It's just a good old fashioned case of self doubt.  I am having trouble with this damn post because it doesn't sound right.  There's no flow.
I like writing, and I don't stop really.  Writing helps sort out my thoughts.  It's puts them in down in a linear fashion, and keeps me from repeating myself when I think. Writing helps get things done.
I've got nothing right now.  Hopefully this won't last.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Just some after works thoughts by an idle mind.

Someone asked me today "Why?"  It was made in a half humorous way, but it's the kind of question I like.  Gives you room to think.  Gives you a chance at creativity.  Gives the brain a workout, while it comes up with an answer that you can roll over in your mind and shape like clay.
The answer I gave was; "Why is an interesting question.  And an important one.  In fact, it's a question so important that we decided to give it's own letter in the alphabet.  A list of sounds that make up our everyday speech, and the question 'Why?' is one of them.  So it must be a very important question."
At the time, I gave it as sort of a smart-ass answer.  Just give an answer to the question, then just run with the answer.  Try it sometime, it's fun.  Sort of like freestyle, I guess.  Anyways, the question came back when I read something using "u" instead of "you".  Amazing thing language.  We, as a culture, decide what ideas and things are important enough to merit their own names.  The idea of the alphabet being a hall of fame for words give me a smile, but can fall a bit flat.  U are so important that I need every child to learn how to say it.  To be is the question, but are B's and the honey making skills that important?  Auditory stimulus is apparently secondary to the I's ability to C.  And we all know how important getting rid of liquid waste is.  R u following what I am sayin'?

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

4'33"

     The fears that I have are my greatest motivator.  It's simple, really.  I am afraid I am going to die alone, stuck in the house I was born in.  I am afraid that my growth as person will be limited to the world seen through a 17" glowing screen.  I'm terrified my stories of glory will be about the epic raids on a digital world.  And the idea of living vicariously through the written words of dead men is an idea that wakes me up in the middle of the night.
    So I convince myself life is boring and it needs excitement.  So instead of finding something that gives me stability, I find some way to change myself.  I learn math, french, and science.  I drink because I feel that a life of meditation and purity is a wasted existence.  Why?  Because how can I reflect on life if I haven't lived life and tried everything?
     On the other hand, I spend a bit of time meditating.  Meditating only allows reflection.  Problems are put under new light, where answers can be seen.  But new questions and problems surface.  TV, and comedy, makes the problems disappear temporarily.  What I'm saying is I spend more time watching TV than meditating.  Escape is just more important than reflection.
     I don't know what the point of this is.  All I'm doing is whispering my fears into the void.  And I'm not even doing that very well.  So what is fear?  What should we have to fear?
     Heights is exhilarating.  Death is a finale, a note that is worth going out on to see what lies beyond.  Fear is what keeps us at night.  Fear of a death, not of death, is what scares me.  A death without meaning.  A death where nothing gets done, and it's an empty death where you choke on your own tongue, alone.  And that is the death of your physical self.  The hope is to leave behind something worth remembering, a person that people can talk about.  Otherwise, the memory of you will fade, and you will die again.  This time forever, because no one even knows you existed.
     These are fears that can keep me awake.  Not clowns.  Not crowds.  Just the idea that I will never, ever get to experience it all.  Life is too damn short, and there is  not enough time.  How can one person live the life of stability, while constantly jumping from one adventure to the next?  Where does love fit in a life of travel?  How the fuck can people just stop?
     As you lie in your bed tonight, listen to John Cage's 4'33".  Really listen to it, and let it take you places.  You will hear sounds, different sounds, even beautiful sounds and your mind begin a small spin.  Think about motivation, and fear.  Think about love, maybe.  Think about life.  How the stark, dark contrasts of those miserable moments can create a world that appeals to the senses when combined with bright memories of the past.  And sit and enjoy the silence.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

My Second IWSG.

     Today I'm weaving a security blanket of words to help with my insecurities!  That's right, it's time for Aristotle's seceond insecure writers support group.
     The first thing I'll write about is this quote by English logician and philosopher, Bertrand Russell - "Aristotle could have avoided the mistake of thinking that women have fewer teeth than men, by the simple device of asking Mrs. Aristotle to keep her mouth open while he counted."  There.  That's Aristotle's Mistake.  Just saved you the trouble of looking it up.
     Writing has gotten harder recently.  I keep saying it's due to a change in schedule, but there is always time.  I'm not less interested in it, or in learning and and reading.  It's just recently it's gotten harder to start the writing and see it through to the end.
     Part of it does seem to be due to changes.  I'm not working outside anymore, therefore I keep myself in.  I stopped drinking coffee for a few days because I've been drinking more.  Routines that kept me in check have begun to break down.  Why have they begun to break down?  Again, I feel like it's because of change.
     Writer's block affects me more.  Instead of being forced to deal with an idea that just keeps getting played over and over again in my head until I get up to walk it off, I find myself sitting here staring at the screen.  When I'm writing about insecurities, I can type.  The problem is that my thoughts only go as far as the current word.  This is a method that works well for writing about emotions, but it doesn't work as much for times when I want to write about stuff like physics.  I keep drifting off from my work.
     I dropped the routine  because I had to many distractions.  Before the change in job and change in location, I had a place to sit, drink coffee, and work with no distractions.  So the first step in picking a new routine is not to pick a new day, but instead to find a new place to work undistracted for a few hours.  Library might win the competition.
     The fact is, the routines help tremendously.  By simply planning things out in advance, it allows me time to think and work on other things.
     This is a strange post.  It's really me sitting here and working out my problems.  Hello to all of those visiting from Alex's blog.  You've been wonderful and I hope to see you again next month.

Monday, October 1, 2012

Just another post

     I've been wanting to try my hand at writing a romantic story for a couple of weeks now.  The time isn't right at the moment, mostly because my writing style doesn't allow for a love story of the traditional kind at the moment.  I'm long-winded, self-centred, and have a slight obsession with math.  Not so sure if that's a spark for romance.
     Instead of actually writing the damn thing, I mostly just roll ideas around in my head.  They're all based on memories and people I knew and the immortal beings they've become.  Sometimes, I think the story should be based on the more innocent moments, like the story of the two young people smoking cigarettes in a tree.  That story is hard to write, because in reality it was a bright light before what turned out to be a pretty dark winter.
     So then my thoughts turn away from each and every memory that thought brings.  Instead, I think about writing a story about two people who keep finding themselves together time after time.  I see old friends who go through this, and have been going through it since high school.  Hell, it seems like I have a couple old flames that I would like to see turn into a bonfire.  The story has been told many times, and each time it can capture our hearts.  Maybe because it's familiar to us.  Maybe because we hope to see that stuff work.  Or maybe it's just a lie told to comfort us young-uns.  You know, those of us who are starting to develop cynicism in small doses while still trying to hold on to our optimism.
     I've always been fascinated with time.  In one of the earliest versions of this story  I played around with the idea of a super hero who learn to bend and manipulate time based on the strength he gets from a woman.  This was years ago I played with idea, but the character keeps coming back.  You see, they meet while he lived in the mountains.  And the power he felt from her drew him to her.  He uses this power to preform herculean tasks,  and he only grew stronger when she was around.  For a brief time, the two of them separate, and he becomes weaker, and weaker.  Finally, they meet again and he is able to use the last of his strength to push away the demon that was plaguing her.  I scraped it.  Quite honestly, didn't sound that great.
     Do you have to be in love to write a love song?  If you do, then every musician, poet, and author ever has been in love multiple times.  Love has lost its value.  If it's something that be found at the drop of a hat, then what is it worth?  Seeing how a vaguely worded, super clichéd summer jam can make millionaires out of a lot of people, apparently the idea alone is worth more than I can imagine.
     The memories comfort me though, no matter how cynical I get.  Maybe I can add to this genre with ideas that roll and gather no moss.  Meh.  The ideas kinda fizzle, and none of them accumulate into anything interesting any-ways.
     That's it for todays thought spoken into the void by the late night insomniac.  I hope your dreams keep you happy.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Questions of Complexity

     Today's been a good day.  How about yours?  Quite honestly, sometimes when your in the middle of your day and it seems like crap, you come home and listen to something soothing, all of it seems trivial.  They tell me that the soothing sounds of the ocean is better than the best opiates.
     I'm sitting here and working on my "Maxwell's Equations" post, but this is going to take some extra time.  As it turns out, I never made it to vector calculus.  Euclid's fifth postulate and the problems that face it just barely escape me.  That's why I read about this stuff though.  I just keep on getting better.
     Before I go on, I'm going to link this playlist here.  I don't want to lose this.  Now moving on.
     For the last three years, I've been a farm hand.  It's in the exciting world of organic farming.  The thing that gets me is, I've had people argue that we need to get back to the roots, or something called natural farming.  There is another movement called bio-dynamics that bugs me because the more I try to understand it, the less sense it makes to me.
     The thing about all these that bothers me is they don't treat agriculture as a science.  The most appealing thing about farming is looking at everything and watching it work.  It's not magic, it's a machine.  Many people object to that term, so let me explain.  A machine is not a soul-less, uncaring, unfeeling hunk of metal.  It's complex, governed by laws that we seek to understand.  I like to use the analogy of a car engine, but sadly I find that example lost on some people.
     I've heard the term "fragile ecosystem" used to describe the earth, so let us try and start there.  The term is used to talk about how hunting creatures to extinction or cutting down forests will lead to changes in global climates.  This is the machine I'm talking about.  Each creature acts as a gear or a cog in it's given ecosystem.  If you remove the gear, or change how the gear works, or even add one, it will change the machine as a whole.  Of course, the world is a wondrous place, helped in part by the complexity of the machine.  We stand back and watch this machine work, and we are taken aback by the fact that we cannot begin to fathom just how each part works.  We see connections here and there, but the complexity is lost on us.  And as Arthur C. Clarke put it "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
    What does this have to do with farming?  Well, the first time someone described bio-dynamics to me, I thought they were talking about creating an ecosystem on a small scale.  Or a small, organic machine.  This appeals to the side of me that is obsessed  with science, logic, and math.  The idea of creating you're own carefully balanced machine that can provide you with food!  People familiar with bio-dynamics understand that it goes so much more than miniature ecosystems.  And when I found about the mysticism that went with it, I was very disappointed.
     I'm working with fungus at the moment, so I get a chance to learn about the workings of fungus and how they can apply to an ecosystem.  It does more than decompose things.  Fungus inhales oxygen and exhales CO2.  There are specific types of fungus that grow on specific types of root systems.  It's said that spores lead to rain in the rain forest.  And these factors work together in an ecosystem to create healthy soil, healthy plants, and healthy animals.
     Farms, and forests, are complex in how each small factor works with each other.  And they are chaotic in that the factors that are most important to the success of the farm, are the things that are the most unpredictable.  Sure, things like the weather can be broken down into a series of equations, but in the end the answer comes down to probability.  This probability is what keeps it going though.  Tonight, I find myself lying here and pulling apart ecosystems in my mind.  And the question keeps coming back around, how do you apply the chaotic complexity of the natural world into the structure world man has created?
     There are ideas put out in the ag world right now that seem new, but can be observed in the forest.  Trees in a deciduous mulch themselves.  It's wild.  They help provide the nutrients that they need.  And they help kill the weeds that would keep their offspring from coming up.  But without the supporting players in the form of the stuff living in the sub-soil, they would be sick all the time.  Can these ideas be applied to a farm?  Can a small scale ecosystem be created?  And would it create healthy plants and animals?  At the very least, this is something that should be done just so we can further understand how ecosystems work.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Opitiks

     Sometimes, I sit and stare at this blank screen while thoughts drift by with no real mass.  The best I can do at times like these is to try and snag them.  Today, however, I have too much I want to write about.  It's all philosophy, math and science, and it's all heaped into a pile in the middle of my mind.  It doesn't do anything there; it needs to be organized into boxes where I can access them.
     My mind has been on telescopes and the world of optics recently.  I started building a mirror for a telescope last winter and now as the nights grow colder and the night sky grows clearer, I keep thinking about finishing that mirror.  I've been working on thermodynamics for the past five months or so, now I want to start focusing on other things smaller than the naked eye.
     I've gotten to a point were I am realizing that there is only great moments in science.  Growing up I heard about Albert Einstein and how great he was.  Right now, it seems Nikola Tesla is in the center of hero worship spotlight.  As Issac Newton once said "If I have seen further, it is because I am standing on the shoulders of giants."  Everyone has their ideas based in the ideas of the people that came before them.  Last spring, I read "Optiks" by Sir Issac Newton.  It's a nice, simple introduction to optics.  It's basic if you know geometry.  Tonight, I'm reading through articles trying to find something explaining James Maxwell's fish-eye lens, which was conceived of 200 years after optics.  Apparently, a lot of new insight into optics was happening around this time.  People were still using the basics laid out by Newton, but were adding onto it with their own equations.
    This is a common theme in the world of science.  People don't just memorize someone else's equation, they use it to solve problems and create new questions of their own.  The more I read about Maxwell, the more he intrigues me.  He came up with theories and discoveries that influenced the next few hundred years of science.  Electromagnetism, thermodynamics, optics, and he even discovered the particles in the rings of Saturn.  But, without the people who came latter, he would have been nothing.
     Wow, I'm really losing focus as I'm reading this article.  Theoretical math and physics is hands down the coolest sci-fi I have ever read.  I'm going to wrap this up.  I'm going to start reading more about electromagnets and optics.  Electromagnets still deal with energy, so it really is just the next step for me.  Optics, though.  Optics is really fucking cool.  Optics deals with light and how light travels and bends to create images for our brain.  And reading about it just made sure that I'm about to spend the next couple of days thinking about it.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Insecure Writers support group

     Here I am, putting insecurities out there.
      I've been trying to pick out an insecurity for my first Insecure Writer post.  The question "Am I good enough?"  has been plaguing my mind a lot, but that seems to be a question that bothers most new writers.  This question seeps into other areas of my life and writing though.  I have a high school degree, and I write about physics.  In this area I use the question to push myself to read as many textbooks, lectures, and essays I can on the subject.  This question drives me to find people who are also interested and can share knowledge.  This question brought me here, to see If I could prove myself in front of the largest one way mirror known to man.  It's strange, this Internet;  You can see me, I can see a reflection of me, but I can't see you.
     I'm writing this on a Tuesday night, the night usually held for my studies on thermodynamics.  The reason why I'm not is the next of my insecurities.  Focus.  After being diagnosed with Adult ADHD, I have had to develop rituals and patterns to help get things done.  Is trying to cope with this count?  I know it seems like a major hurtle for writing, jobs or a lot of things.  Ugh.  Again, it seems like I all can do is push through it keep learning to cope with it or use it to my advantage.
     I wish I was smart.  I read like crazy because I feel frustrated that I don't know everything there is to know.  The problems rise when I try to test somethings out in the real world.  Sometimes they are mechanical things, test I perform to study physical principles in the real world.  Sometimes I feel compelled to test psychological principles in the real world.  Don't feel too scared, I only try them when people put me in sales positions.  Stuff like this makes me wonder about myself.
     Yeah, I'm nothing but one big insecurity over here.  Isn't that what attracts me to writing though?  I get to show this side of myself for a change.  In the job world, if I crack and lose my confidence, I slip and fall and lose a good position to someone else. Or I lose my job to lack of control on my part.  In the relationship world, having confidence is seen to be attractive.  Here in the void though, it's wonderful.  Three people follow me.  Do they read any of it?  I don't care.  Here, it seems like I can shout until I go horse.  I'm IrishRedFox, a name and a picture.  I am a shapeless idea.
     This opening up thing?  This thing where I lay here and just write about what bothers me?  It bugs me.  I'm scared that as a writer, I no good.  As a thinker, I want to be better.  And I'm not convinced these insecure moments make me better at either.  There is no research, no experimenting happening.  Maybe taking some time to force my eye inward will help me in long run.  It's forcing me to write, after all.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Yummy fried chicken

     And I'm back.  Ever just have crazy week where you have to tie up some lose ends?  Writing is a relaxant; it creates peace by giving my mind something else to think about.
     So I've been thinking recently that I'll never become famous in the blog world if I keep writing about thermodynamics.  Being the follower, or "second-hander", that I am, I need to do what the "in" crowd is doing.  Today, I'm going to write about food.  Since my camera is in the shop though, you'll need to use my words to imagine a succulent and moist meal.
     Let us discuss the science of frying on todays blog.  Frying is an delicious way to cook anything; it has been said that anything can made exponentially better by how much it is fried.  I myself was raised on fried chicken, mushrooms and pork, and I feel I am a better man for it.
      Do you know the difference between a chemical and physical change in chemistry?  To put us on the same page, I will define it.  A physical change is a change you can go back on, simply put.  Salt water, for instance, is a basic example of a physical change.  You can mix salt and water, but if you increase the temperature of the fluid to its boiling point  you can separate its components.  Specifically, the water becomes vapor and the salt stays behind.  Chemical changes are more permanent; the energy we introduce into the system fuel bonds between molecules.  This is something I wish I could explain to you in simple, easy terms.  Instead, I am going to just send you to this other website.
     But that was the old Aristotle.  The new blog doesn't want to talk about boring science shit.  We want sleek, elegant family friendly pizazz.  I want to know how to fry a turkey as big as my head.
     The first thing you need is a vat.  The next step is to fill the vat with delicious oil.  If you're like me, you're using oil that is more or less at "room temperature".  If you're like my dad, there is a very good chance that this oil is full of impurities.  These two factors are playing against you, amigo.  Even though you might have come across this shiny looking blog in a drunken stupor at three a.m. looking for fried food recipes, you're about to find that you'll have to wait a little longer for the oil to get up to temperature.  The first reason is due due to some mathematical mumbo-jumbo about surface area and heat.   I'm assuming you are using a Bayou Classic fryer, because you buy the first thing that pops up on Google.  In this case, the only part of your oil that is getting direct heat is about 104 square inches.  Compared to the 1350 cubic inches of oil you are trying to heat.  Your two dimensional attempt to heat a three dimensional area makes me laugh.
     After drinking more beer while intensely watching the thermometer, the oil will finally reach a temperature between 180 and 200 degrees Celsius. (Quick!  What is the absolute temperature of your oil?)  At this point, you need to place your whole chicken into the fryer.  If you drop it, there is an excellent chance that 392 degree Fahrenheit oil will splash on your clothes.  That is bad.  You should probably memorize the number for 911 before you start.
     Now for the cooking part.  The combination of energy and time is causing a chemical and physical change in the oil and chicken.  You are now an alchemist, but instead of creating something lame like a philosophers stone, you are creating fried chicken.  Let me say this again:  Fried is way better than regular.  This is mostly due to the process that is going on.
     As energy is applied in the form of heat to the chicken, changes are going on in the molecular level.  In chemistry we learn that this heat will cause the degradation of some molecular structures.  In physics we learn that a increase in temperature causes an increase in movement of molecules.  In the case of protein structures, this increase in entropy is causing the atoms that make up the molecule to shake itself free from its chemical bonds.  As the chemical bonds break down, the energetic atom is now free.
     On a macro level, this break down of bonds is causing fat to leak from the chicken into the oil.  This break down starts at 38 degrees c.  At the temperature we are working at, there is a much higher breakdown of the bonds, causing a much higher fat loss.  This release of the fat into the oil is causing the oil to go through its own changes, the most significant of which is causing the boiling point to increase due to the increase of carbons. This increase in the boiling point means you can raise the oil to even higher temperatures, causing a faster cooking time and crispier skin.
     This higher temp also supplies more thermal energy to break stronger bonds.  Since it has the energy to break stronger bonds, the atoms and molecules release have the energy to create stronger bonds.  At this point, people will begin to argue that many of the chemicals created are unhealthy.  They are also savory, and can create visually appealing changes.  As your chicken begins to brown, you know it's ready.  Stick a thermometer in it.  If it's reached an internal temp of 71 degrees Celsius, then you have created enough heat to kill off any dangerous bacteria.
     Well, looks my foray into the cooking blog world didn't go so well.  I must say that the more I do this, the more my tolerance goes up for studying.  Hopefully I'm getting better at explaining this.  If anyone is out there, feel free to comment.       One last thing I want to mention.  As I was researching this, I came across an article on raw foods.  The first thing I will say is this: wash your foods.  As was stated above, the increase in temperature causes the break down of chemical bonds and the formations of new chemicals.  If there is any foreign substances present, logically speaking this introduces more elements and could cause the formation of very unhealthy chemicals.  I'm not sold on the idea of vegan-ism or the raw food movement, but it does bring up a good point about cooking pesticides.  I'm going to read the research it cites.  For now, au revoir to all of my imaginary friends in the void.




This article was inspired by this paper

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Busy week.  Ended one job, moved, and started another in the span of 24 hours.  I want to post something about the number e and some more about thermodynamics though.
     
   

Friday, August 17, 2012

Thoughts before bed

     Here I lay, a geek that needs to wake up early.  I piss away the hours and feed my insomnia by drafting my blog post, reading the works of the scientific masters, and thinking about C.P. Snow.
     C.P. Snow was recently introduced to me as I scoured the Internet for works on entropy.  Tonight I am reading "The Two Cultures", which seems to be his most referenced work.  This post is not about the essay, mainly because I'm only two pages into it at the moment and really need to head to bed soon so I can wake up early tomorrow.  Writing fills some strange indescribable need, and it helps clarify thoughts.
     What I've read so far has got me thinking.  He's said that there is a widening gap between the scientific intellectuals and the literary intellectuals.  This seems to be everyones focus, so references to the book end here.  However, I want to talk about art and science.
     Sometimes, it seems that so many groups of thought can not get along.  Christians who believe in the big-bang start by saying "Now I know it sounds odd. . ."  Apparently, since I study science, I can't believe in ghosts and spirits.  I read abstracts and scientific papers, but they certainly are not "good literature."
     The funny thing is, artists and writers are why I got into science.  My favorite artist in high school was M.C. Escher because his art was based on math and logic.  If it wasn't for the work of Arthur C. Clarke, I may not have gotten back into science at all.  My first "teachers" after dropping out of college were webcomics like "Irregular Webcomics", SMBC, and XKCD.  Sometimes, when I want to look for inspiration, I watch Vihart on youtube.  If my one and only exposer to science was traditional schooling, I would be the most boring person in the world.
     The more I read, the more I find.  Today, while reading James Maxwell, I was introduced to Lucretius, a roman philosopher who wrote a large poem outlining the works of the Greek masters.
     For the most part, popular culture confuses scientific principles. For every Jules Verne, there are a hundred or so authors explaining how to improve your life by using the many-worlds interpretation to propel yourself to a world.  Trying to sift through them to get to the facts is a god-damn chore.  Don't forget about the people who do understand the theories, but present them to push their own agendas, political or religious.
     It is to easy to get cynical.  Too many people try to paint pictures of an "Us vs Them" view of life.  I see as many people working together as I see people fighting.  For now I'll ignore the motivations; I want to sleep tonight, not hate people.  Art helps progress.  The best can use it as a tool to communicate ideas to everyone.  These ideas can further understanding and help form new ideas.
    When stuff starts to look cliché, it is time to sleep.  Goodnight all of you beautiful shapes in the void.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Fire on high!

 
The deeper I go into Thermodynamics, the more it begins to look like a wonderland.
In the past, I've mechanics explain to me the principles of physics using engines as an example. They could do this without using math or any advanced physics speak, but they still explained it perfectly. We can learn physics without math, especially if we spend 10,000 hours working with the laws in the physical world. The math is doorway to a different world, however; a Narnia or Wonderland where we can learn how to control what those laws can do. Math is the language we use to share the workings of the world, and we can use it create and discover new things.
Math can be a terrifying sight to the newcomer though. It's full of things like imaginary numbers, logarithms, and differential equations. Statistical Mechanics is no different really. I'm focusing today on Boltzmann's entropy equation, which is the product of a constant and the natural logarithm of probability. Feel free to scratch your head.
Ludwig Boltzmann was one the first people to give real weight to the idea of atoms. In works like Statistical Mechanics, he discusses how large complex mechanisms are made up of smaller individual processes. This lead to the idea that something like entropy was the result of the random movements of sub-atomic particles. He derived his equation entropy is equal to k(lnW) to explain the motion of this particles. K is what is now called Boltzmann's constant, W is the potential movement of the particles, and ln is a natural logarithm. Now everybody in the room say it with me: WTF? It's a logarithm of probability? Seriously? Shit.
This is that scary thing I talked about earlier. After staring at this for a couple of weeks now, I can say that logarithms are not hard if you understand exponents. Log 10 is equal to 1. Another way to say this is 10 to the first power is equal to 10. ln is a natural log, so instead of base 10, it's base of e.
Now that you have a very basic rundown on logarithms, it's kind of easy to see why we need it for entropy. If entropy increases due to energy, and some of the increase in energy is due to entropy, then the growth of entropy is exponential. This exponent is dependent on the potential movement of molecules. It is potential because we have no way of predicting their exact movements as the energy increases. It's that drunken walk in probability. What I'm trying to get at is this: the growth is exponential due to the crazy movements of some sub-atomic particles. We find this exponent by taking the log of their potential energy.
OK, deep breath. The total entropy comes when you multiply this exponent with Boltzmann's constant. The constant is the relationship of of absolute temperature and kinetic energy in a molecule of a perfect gas. But really, it's (1.3807 times 10 to the negitive 23 power) joules per kelvin. Isn't that simple? If you just combine all these factors, you can chart the growth of entropy of an isolated system.
Back up a moment, isolated system? Yeah that's right, isolated system. The reason why you should be cursing Boltzmann and physics right now is because a truly isolated system is theortical. Boltzmann even says that in his paper. There is always another system that heat transfer is going on with, usually it's air. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why physics frustrates me sometimes. The equations that meant to be used with real things are based on theoretical things. I'm gonna stop and lie down before my brain explodes.
I can't stay mad though. This hobby helps my understanding of the world. I wonder if this writings will help anyone else.

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Small alien worlds

     I'm not in a thermodynamic mode tonight.  Partly because I do not have a good idea what to do, partly because I've been working some extra hours, and partly because I'm just not in the mode.  On this fine evening, I'll just talk and write to see where I go.  Nobody reads this thing anyway.
     Let's start off in distant land.  It's a good place to start because books like "Through the Looking Glass" and "Planiverse" used to intrigue me.  I'll keep this simpler in more of a "Flatworld" style.
     I'm imagining a 3D dimensional world, but  farther away from their star then we are from ours.  This would cause a world with more light weight gas present in the atmosphere.  Not something as big as Jupiter, mind you, but still bigger than us. The flora and fauna that live there would be invisible.  Well, to us at least.  In this imaginary world, since more light get there, it blocks out the visible light spectrum.  Light still bounces off of these objects, so their eyes would see other wavelengths.  I'm curious to know what we would look like to someone who could only see as high as radio.
     Can't stop myself from finding the calculations of the size of the planet.  Hey, if you're bored and want to build a mind planet, check this shit out.  I'm imagining my planet to have a 10,000 km radius.  Here's a good article if you want to know your planet's mass.  Anyways, the fauna here are built stockier, due to higher gravity.
     The deeper and deeper I dive into the equations and find the relationships between one thing and another, it does seem that we were brought here by a delicate ratio.  But what would have happened if ratio changed?  It would affect the sum of the parts, for sure.  They've found life in extreme places on earth though, so why not somewhere where the situation is different?  Imagining a world with different rules is fun, but imagining an alien world with the same rules as ours seems so fascinating.
     If any explorers find their way here, I'd be curious to know about any alien worlds you can create.  I'll be back to talking about thermodynamics next week.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

The third law.

     Well, I've had my coffee, and I've stretched mentally, so let us get the ball rolling on this paper.
     The Third Law of Thermodynamics intrigues me.  The zeroth law has been around since before Thermodynamics had been called Thermodynamics.  There are miles of writing on the first and second laws.  But the third one is just there.
     Just think for a moment.  If there is energy is in a system, what is the temperature of the system when there is no energy?  I mean absolutely no energy.  The lowest temperature on the Celsius scale is -273.15 degrees.  When you can measure a state at that temperature, then there is no energy.  There is no processes that the energy can create.  And there is temperature scale that uses this point as zero.  The Kelvin scale measures the absolute temperature of a system.
     The story goes that  heat is created by the movement of molecules.  As a state cools, the molecules begin to move less and less, thereby creating less heat and less entropy.  They begin line themselves up into a structure, creating a crystal.  In a perfect crystal, the entropy is equal to zero.
    Here's where the fun begins.  Mathematically speaking, you can't reach zero using a finite number of processes.  If there was a gas at 310 K and we want to cool it down, we could introduce a cooler state for the heat to transfer to.  So, let us whip out our perfect crystal.  The problem is, the crystal will only help bring the gas down to equilibrium, it won't cool it down to Absolute zero completely.  Ignoring entropy for the moment, let us say that equilibrium is the mean of the two temperatures, or 155 K.  To actually bring it down to 0 K, you would need a state lower than Absolute zero; in this case it would need to be -310 K.  As stated, it can't go lower than zero, because there is no heat due to complete inactivity from the molecules.
     So, let us instead figure that we have a cabinet full of these damn crystals.  And we keep dividing the gas in half over and over.  The problem is 0 multiplied by any number is still zero, and no number can be divided to equal zero.
     As I'm writing this, I'm also catching up on convergent series.  Quite honestly, this will by stopping point because this is my limit.  According to most of what I can find, a series can not converge to zero.  And since I'm learning as much as I am sharing, I've hit my confusion point because it seems there are some proofs that claim I can reach zero.   Goodbye, my imagiary friends.  Dinners calls.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

The Insane Mathmatical Ramblings of a Madman.

     Wow, so here it is, my imaginary amigos, a joke in my head that somehow gained momentum and never stopped.  I gonna say right here this may not be safe for work.
     Entropy, sex, and the unseen world.  The discussion that's been in our minds for years.  The questions you never had, and the answers that are non-sequesters.
     Sex, sex, and more sex.  It seems that those of us that think a lot about it are not having enough of it.  It seems fitting that a blogger that talks about thermodynamics is going to think about sex, because it's safe to assume if he has enough free time to look for thermodynamic equations, he's probably suffering from a lack of sexual stimulation.
     Energy, heat, friction, and other principles come into play during sex.  And if I add enough equations into a discussion on the topic, it makes it seem like I've done work for the last week as opposed to watching porn.
     Imagine for a moment you are a young American Philosophy student on a back packing trip through Europe to "find yourself".  You're a philosophy student because you're imaginary and theoretical.  And you meet a German Engineer with low standards during this trip.  During this tale, feel free to fill any plot holes.
     While the two of you are doing your thing, keep in mind that one or both of you are doing work by the scientific definition of the word.  That is, one or both of you is moving.  And energy is the cause of that work.  A lack of energy would make this process that much harder.  What I want the first step to be is to define terms.  While you're busy plowing this person, I want you to be able to accurately figure out the science behind this.
     Since you're American, naturally all your measurements are done in imperial.  But you are in Europe where you have landed a scientist of sorts, so I ask of you to make a good impression.  Use metric.  And protection, but I hope that already occurred to you.
     I am going to make a lot of assumptions here, because there's a lot of information I don't know about you or your partner.  And I'm not all together positive on how to quantify your energy.  But I will say that your partner there, is full of Joules.  And the force they're using, well, that's Newtons.  You could say they're using Joules to make Newtons.
     And now that we've defined some units, we can begin to examine how the first two laws apply to sex.
     From a design perspective, this act is fairly straight forward; insert Tab A into Slot A.  From a psychological perspective, people are stupid and Tab A only goes into Slot A if we're lucky.  Biologically speaking, we are not design for the latter.  Before you go sticking your Tab into random Slots, think about the conservation of energy principle.
     Your potential energy is becoming kinetic energy.  And that kinetic energy is motions of your hips as they move back and forth.  As Tab A goes into Slot whatever, it is going to create friction.  The friction comes as the two planes move past each other, and if your friend there starts moving, then as the opposing force increases, so does the friction.  As said before, the energy has to go somewhere, and if there's a lot of friction, there is going to be a lot of heat.    You can prevent this build up of heat with the simple application of lube.
     Your probably noticing a lot of heat now in fact.  You're young, so you can have a crazy hectic sex life.  If you focus your attention inward, you might notice that your heart is getting a work right now and your temperature is rising.  That's normal, don't worry about it.  That heat your feeling is entropy.  And if your finding that your mind is wandering or math makes your partner really turned on, you can begin to figure out what entropy is.
     Entropy is the measure of the energy being dispersed.  It's energy you had, but wasn't used to drive your hips into your partner repeatedly.  It's the energy that you've lost through heat.
     Try shouting "The amount of energy being dispersed in a system is equal to the highest temperature divided by the lowest temperature!" a couple times to get your friend going.  Now you can use this statement to continue your problem solving.  In this case, either one of you can be the thermodynamic systems this equation refers to.  You and your Germanic friend started your little rendezvous with temperatures of 37 degrees Celsius.  With all the energy you've been using, it's probably safe to assume that the temperatures have gone up.  But your going to have to get some hard core data here.  I need you to take the temperature of one of the systems.  I suggest inserting the thermometer vaginally and using it to get your partner off.
     Now you're going to use that number in the above equation.  I can try using math to guess the temperature, but I'm just going to say it's gone up by a degree, for the sake of sanity.  This will mean that you would have something that looks like 38 degrees c divided by 37 degrees c.  Or 1.027 joules.  Now get back to work, because sex is apparently making your brain work.  Maybe it's the increased blood flow.  Maybe your absorbing all of your partner's engineering knowledge.  Whatever the case, you need it because it's about to get intense.
     I can't really find information to help with what we are about to attempt.  Many engineers have tried, but none have written it down.  And in all honesty, you became a philosopher because the transitive property is the most math you could wrap your brain around.
     The first thing we must do is figure out what the absolute temperture of the system is.  To do this, we need to convert Celsius to kelvin.  We need a number to convert, of course.  When trying to figure out the entropy of steam, they use the absolute temperature of boiling water.  By that logic I've chosen 42 degrees Celsius, because if your body rises above that, you are in for some serious damage.  Let me repeat, if you or sex buddies temperature is 42 degrees Celsius or 107 degrees Fahrenheit, then stop and seek medical attention!  But that's impressive, quite honestly.
    Add 273.15 to the Celsius number to get the kelvin equivalent.  So now you know that heat stroke starts at 315.15 K.
     Here it is, the big finish.  The equation I came here to talk to you about today.  While your working towards your climax, think about this:  the change in entropy is equal to the dispersion of energy divided by the absolute temperature of the system.  You can shout out that or the answer as you climax.  I'll leave that decision to you.
     As the two of you try to reach equilibrium in your post-coital bliss,you might find yourself wondering why your so tired.  Your tired because of all the work you did, and I'm going to leave you with one more equation.  Work is equal to the difference in energy.  If you were energtic then and just barely awake now, then rest assured the answer to that equation is somewhere in the range of "a lot".  Unless we come up with real numbers, we'll never figure out how much work was done mathematically.  This makes the experiment void, and I'll need you to do it again.  If you worry that you'll die, don't.  According to the third law of thermodynamics, you'll never have zero energy.  According to some stories I've heard, your heart could explode.  But the decomposition happening would count as energy.  Just something to ponder until I get to the third law later.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Working title

     It's that time again, my imaginary friends, for coffee and heat science.    I wanted to talk about the three laws and improve my knowledge on that, but I keep forgetting about entropy.  Specifically, I forget the level of math that goes into it and the depth that goes into that topic.  So I'll talk about the Zeroth and First law today, and start in on the insanity that is entropy next time.
     The Zeroth Law is the basics.  When you read about this stuff, this law sometimes isn't even stated, but it's always implied.  It's good to have an understanding of it, so here it goes.
     Cold is the lack of energy.  Heat is energy.  Energy moves to where there is no energy, heat travels towards the cold.  In the case of heat, it will move back in forth between two states until they reach equilibrium; which is to say, until they're both the same temperature.  Think hot tea with an ice cube.  The heat of the tea transfers to the ice cube, which in turn cools the tea, and they both reach equilibrium.  When they both become the same temperature, they stop transfer.  In this case though, they will transfer heat with air if it's at a different temperature.  Without that explanation, think if two things have equal temperature, then they are in equilibrium.  Or A=B, therefore, equilibrium.  According to transitive logic, if B=C, then A=C.  I hope all my imaginary friends are mathematicians, and only pay attention to those last two lines.
     Ugh.  I've just developed pity for every teacher I've had.  But right now, I'm not going to dwell on it, and I'm just going to move on.
     The First law of Thermodynamics is the conservation of energy principle.  This actually has a place near and dear to my heart because it was the first thing I saw outside of school that applied to physics.  The principle states that energy can't just be magicked out of thin air, and when it's done it doesn't just disappear.  No, energy transform into other energy.  I had a teacher that always added "And it commonly becomes heat energy."  I helped move hay bales as a summer job back in high school.  When bales get wet, you have to keep them in the field for 72 hours, then separate them from the dry bales.  The microboes and bacteria inside the bale are creating a lot of energy.  Try this: if you have a compost pile, stick your hand in the middle of it.  Or you can trust me that it's hot.  Same thing with the hay bales.  So, if you keep them with the dry bales, there's a chance it will start a barn fire.  There is another point of proof of why I am a nerd.
     It also states that the change in internal energy of a system is equal to the heat added to said system minus the work done.  The internal energy is "the energy associated with the random, disordered motion of molecules."  I add heat to the system, in turn the system does work.  It makes something move.  Any heat not being used for work adds to that random, disordered motion of molecules.  This is used extensively for heat engines.  And thats a good place to stop, and I'll talk about entropy next time.
     The truth is, I enjoy math.  I feel like math is a puzzle to solve, and puzzles have always made me happy.  The deeper I dive into this, the more comfortable I feel.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

10 o'clock Rants into the Void

     As I sit here researching and writing my next post, I begin to notice a trend in my own writing.  I am insecure about adding a voice to my writing.  And I am having flashbacks to all the classes I took where I had to write an essay.  To write a technical paper, it seemed, you had to take all the life out your writing.  No longer could you be aware that you were writing for an audience, you could could only treat the reader like a stone being.  And it makes no damn sense.
     There is so much technical jargon that it's hard to make an essay on thermodynamics sound interesting.  And most of those words are over saturated in syllables or straight up Greek.  But the Japanese and Shakespeare have proven that you can take syllables and make them sound beautiful.  Why can't a technical paper be as beautiful as the science it tries to describe?  Why can't we marvel at the artistry of technical writing that is as simple as it is complex like the molecules it describes?  Science is an art, damn-it.  It is an art technically mastered by some and emotionally mastered by others.  Some can describe a complex idea and make it into a household term.  Others seem to cloud their own thoughts behind an impenetrable wall of words.  They need to prove to the world that smartest person in the room is the one with the one with the most syllables.
     Is this a pledge to the people who might stumble upon this?  HA!  You fucking wish it was.  To actually set out to be the most artistic writer of technical science is. . . silly, maybe?  Perhaps egotistical.  Here I sit, though, a man educated by the papers of others before me, and all I really know is what I like.  And those are the people I want to strive to be.  I want to write stuff that runs, no, sprints past your eyes and lodges itself directly into your brain.  I want to stay away from the pompous writing of Ph. D's that have their heads so far up their own ass it amazes us they can even see.  I can only hope that I can stay away from needlessly obscuring my words with meaningless, mindless bullshit.
     I was never allowed to write about extremely explosive materials in a way that could make the reader smile.  It could've offended someone.  But now I'm screaming into a vacuum, in the hopes that someone might here me.  It feels like I have to shake off the voices of others to find my own voice.  Passion and emotion must find their way back into this writing.  And really, who became interested in science because it's a lifeless wreck?
     Math takes intangible and inexpressible ideas and presents them to us visually.  Physics gives these numbers reality and depth.  Each of the sciences gives the numbers something more, until they are something we can hold and caress.  Chemistry gives energy, biology gives life.  Anatomy gives us something to look at and admire, astronomy gives us goals to shoot for.  So why should the writing be devoid of life, when science is not?

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

On the topic of diesel.

     So imaginary readers, did you read about Mariotte's Bottle?  Or maybe his law?  You know the one.  The one called Boyle's Law.
    That coffee maker I talked about is an example of the bottle, which in turn is an application of Boyle-Mariotte's law.   It always brings me a little bit of happiness to see some sort of physics principle play out in the real world.  Just one of those "AH-HA!" moments when you see it.  Or you could take chemistry.  Problem with that is, I can't drink the stuff in chemistry.
     The coffee maker got my curiosity working and I hit the pile of physics essays I've been accumulating.  In Rudolf Claussius work he mentioned Mariotte's law.  So, I've come to give you a small rundown.
     The Volume of gas is inversely proportional to the Pressure of the gas.
     Claussius explains it with a container that change it's size.  If this container was filled with a gas, and  then the container shrunk with the gas inside, then the pressure would increase.  Later, it was explained that molecules are the reason for this.  The gas would still have the same number of molecules, but would be in a smaller area.  Being a gas, the molecules are active and would hit the sides of the container more, exerting pressure on the container.
     This law applies to imaginary gases.  The law calls for the application of a constant temperature.  Here's the thing though, as the pressure increases, so does the heat.  As stated before, as the volume decreases, the activity of the molecules also increases.  Pressure is an energy, and energy changes to become other energy.  In this case it becomes heat.  What I'm saying is, if you change the volume, you change the temperature.
     The most perfect example of this I can think of is diesel engines.  They are an application of this principle.  Gas is released on the downward stroke of the piston.    As the piston comes back up, it compresses the gas, and increasing the pressure.  The gas heats up until it explodes, driving the piston back down.  And as the piston rises again, the exhaust is released from the cylinder.
     All the thermodynamic math is based on statistics.  Energy is observed when it's at a steady state, but we need to know what goes on between states.  Of course, statistics is one of the many classes I took in school that caused me to become disillusioned with math.  And I'm finding that it is applicable to something.
     I've really jumped right into the middle of this thermodynamics thing.  To make myself feel a little better, I'm going to rehash the three laws of thermodynamics, according to C.P. Snow; can't win, can't break even, and can't leave the game.  It makes it easier to remember them that way.  You can not conjure up energy from nothing, it converts to other energy.  You can not return to a previous energy state due to entropy.  And absolute zero is unattainable.
     I might talk about that later. For now, I want to discuss the Carnot Cycle.
     I wish I discovered this cycle earlier.  Last winter I was designing a project in my spare time and this would have helped.  One of Carnot's contributions to physics was the equation "Efficiency = (The difference of temperatures)/the first temperature.
     After spending time working with steam engines, Carnot decided that they could not use 100% of the heat.  This was due to some the heat being lost during the process.  Clausius later called this entropy.  I really, really want to talk about entropy, but I gonna save it for another time.
     As Carnot spent more time working on the problem, he hypothesized that if you increase the difference between the temperatures, then you can increase the efficiency of the engine.  Equations are fun to punch numbers into.  In this case, you can see that to get an efficiency of 100, you have decrease the tempurture to zero.    And entropy  makes this really hard to do in practice.
     Holy sweet Jesus, this stuff really takes a toll on my brain. And the worst part is, I always come out feeling like I didn't say what I wanted to.  Whatever, I'll just keep plugging away at this, and then I'll start feeling like I've gotten somewhere.  On an unrelated note, have you heard about there's going to be some information about the Higgs Boson experiement?  I'm excited to see what's released.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Coffee!

     Okay and now I have my coffee.  Now I've been thinking about Nicholas Sadi Carnot since my last post and what I want to say next, and I'll start it with this: the espresso maker at my place of residence/work is not only great for making bitter, black liquid; it's also good for explaining what the hell Carnot was talking about.
     It was made in Venezuela 14 years ago.  It is a simple stove top coffee maker, and it doesn't need no pumps to make coffee.  This is what it looks like in case you have no idea what I'm talking about, my dear imaginary friend: http://www.cerinicoffee.com/Bialetti-Moka-Express-Espresso-Maker.html . So you pour water into the lower portion and put it on the stove.  Then the magical elves of heat and pressure push the water up through the coffee grounds resulting in liquid caffeine.  Since my brain works the way it does, I like to stare at simple machines while I'm using them and try to piece together how they work.  When I first came across this machine I was reading Carnot's essay "The Motive Power of Heat", which explained this phenomenon.
     Now, the point:  If you increase the heat of fluid, it will expand.  Since the water exists in a rigid container, the pressure in the container will increase.  A fluid flows, therefore it will try to find a place to go.  Sometimes the fluid will make its own path by busting a wall, in the case of the espresso maker, we give a place to go.  So the heat builds and builds until the water goes up through the coffee grounds and then up through a pipe.
     My head has exploded.  In my attempt to try to explain this, I went back through my notes, books and did some further research with Google.  For the time being I must stop, but I will leave off on a final thought.  Look up Mariotte's Bottle.  It uses the exact same principle that I, some young punk with no previous training, have been trying to explain.  This has been fun though, and I look foward to doing more of this.  I'm learning a lot and I hope that through these post I can begin to pass on what I've learned.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

The real number one

     The blog is called Aristotle's Mistake.  It comes from a Bertrand Russell quote.  I came up with the idea for this blog during a small obsession with logic and all things logic related.  So yeah I like math.  And physics.  It's a healthy enjoyment of all things related to how the world works.
     Growing up, my father used to tell me how important it is know how things work.  To that end, I learned how to take things apart (I'm just starting to learn how to put them back together again.)  What I've realized is, physics is rules to how things work.  Think of this way; the world is  a board game, and we are learning the rules as we go along.  Nothing we do falls outside of these rules, but we don't fully understand the rules.  So, we can do something that doesn't make sense at first, but that helps us fully understand the game.  Math is a way to translate these rules to others.
     Now that I've starting flapping my gums a bit, lets talk about some more things that may or may not make sense.  Recently, I've been enjoying books and writing about thermodynamics.  If you walk down into my living room, you'll first notice that my roommates have somehow contained my mess to the table.  Upon closer inspection of said table, you'll notice that it is covered in books.  These are roommates, true, but I'm in the process of reading them.  And yes, they are all textbooks on engineering, thermodynamics, and hydrodynamics.  Then there all the essays and books on the subject in my room.  In short, I want to summarize what I have learned, I really do.  But I'm not sure how.
     The person who let me burrow her textbooks claimed I'm obsessed with entropy, so I'll start with that.  Entropy is . . . disorder!  At a macroscopic level (you know, a large level) entropy is the "waste" energy.  My reasoning for this definition is Rudolf Clausius.  Clausius referenced Sadi Carnot's work in his own essay "On the Moving Force of Heat and the Laws of Heat which may be Deduced Therefrom".  Carnot laid down much of the foundation for thermodynamics and many after him added to it.  Clausius used Carnot's example of a steam engine, and in a nutshell explained how some heat will escape the system.  That's why I call it the waste.
     Ok, I'm done for now.  I'll pick up there later.   I think from now on, when I write, I'll just try to tranq my brain the best I can.  Someone may come across this.  When it comes to probability, the chances of someone even seeing this is slim.  Whatever, it's fun.