Evolution Of Neck-Tie

Necktie yey!

Coffee and Climate Change

Bad Coffee Day

Those; rather, innocent kitchen catastrophes

Like a hint of cardamom in my coffee

It rages my blood to several degrees

I am cursing my nation, for its culinary.

TRANSPORT'S NEW PARADIGM

Ever scene the beginning of transportation system, humanity has been dependent on the usage of non-renewable resources of energy to propel the wagon, steer the ship or thrust and drag  the plane! One way or the other extracting oil from earth has always been a necessity. Leave aside the trauma that oil cause on the global peace, the process is not at all sustainable for the over all energy  requirement of humanity in long run. 

Now is the time to revert the paradigm of drilled fuel to a more appropriate and reliable source of energy that offers better efficiency at low cost. A project (ET3) Evacuated Tube Transport Technologies is on its way to dramatically change how we travel.  It is categorized as "Space Travel on Earth". The company ET3 is working to engineer and calibrate the technology  to make this happen in the next decade. ET3 is silent, low cost, safe faster than jet and is electric. It run on linear electric motors. 

The concept design ages back to 1910. R.H. Goddard designed an airless tube travel system. While ET3 was founded by Daryl Oster in 1980's. 

Working of the ET3 system: The system will run in a vacuumed tube of 1.5 m diameter. the tube will cover the whole earth in a predefined travel route, something like railway tracks. The present purposed track stretches across United States, up to Canada, then  Alaska, over the Bering strait, down through China, across India and up to Europe, finally to Britain. It will connect all the world's major population centers. the tube will be friction less and magnetic levitation. the stations will be air locked to restrict admitting air. The passenger capsule will be small carrying 6 passenger in one capsule. the capsule will be accelerated in the tube be a liner electric motor. Through the vacuum tube without any additional power. 

The speed of the capsule will range from 600km/h to 6,500 km/h. That will allow passenger or cargo travel from New York to Beijing in 2 hours. An ET3 capsules weigh only 183 kg and will carry about 367 kg. (six passengers)  

Tubes are the freeways to prevent traffic congestion, all the while providing a quiet, train-like experience. No sign of food and waiting service available as of yet, but there is a TV for you to enjoy on your short ride. 

To Michio Kaku's classification of alien civilization the importance of ET3 is very clear. It is our grand leap from Type 0 to type 1 civilization. Imagine a transport system that allows you to order fresh chines food from china! yeah-yeah it is possible we need not to wait for it, can be implemented! Of course if only it does not threatens the political and economic policies like Tesla's World System.  

VACUUM AND SPACE

                             

The most fascinating scene in the movie Mission to Mars (to young and childish me) was when Woody removes his helmet and dies to save Terri. Exposed to the vacuum of space, however I was uncertain how the real scenario of such episode would look like. Many movies like “total recall and outland” portray the same concept … Never could forget Arnold’s bulging eyes.

My attempted inception is to make you think about what happens, if we are exposed to vacuum of space! Well as the matter of fact most common perceptions are that blood and other body fluids will boil or body will explode!!

Well according to the astrophysicist team at NASA, “You do not explode. Your blood does not boil. You do not freeze. You do not instantly lose consciousness.”… At least not instantly but, bottom-line is of course you will die, if you are not superman (which you, most probable are not! But, if you are… mail me! )

Let us take the case-by-case analysis on exposure to space vacuum, as shown in movies…

“Outland” instant explosion due to depressurization; on earth we are under the normal pressure conditions of one atmospheric pressure.However, if we decrease the pressure volume increases, according to basic law. So a common myth is you will explode! In the real-life scenario you will not explode because of the containing effect of your skin. However, the air would rapidly rush out of your lungs, leaving your lungs damaged. In a few minutes you will pass out, due to lack of oxygen. Over all your body is going to stay pretty-much intact as far as exploding myth is concern!

“Total Recall” Boiling of blood is generally associated with the same principle that, the boiling point of any liquid is decreased as pressure decreases. However, in this case the blood pressure is quite stable, because of closed circulatory system. But the saliva would start boiling within 10 to 15 seconds. A test subject was accidentally exposed to vacuum in 1965 at Johnson Space Center  the subject passed out due to lack of oxygen within 14 seconds, he probably did not reach a hard vacuum though.  Last thing he claims to remember is his tongue beginning to boil!

Freezing to death as in “Mission to Mars”, this one is not justified too. At least not as instant as it was in the movie. Pressure and temperature has a direct relation, but as far as the rate of heat transfer is concern, especially in lack of medium to transfer it, you are absolutely unlikely to freeze in nick of time. Vacuum of space itself has no temperature. Sun is hot and radiates that heat in the form of light. On earth we receive the light and feel the heat but in space sun’s radiation will not keep you warm. Due to the heat energy gradient, you will radiate away your heat in vacuum. But you would most likely to be dead before you freeze!

On sudden exposure to vacuum, a series of injuries leads to death. In a chronological order first of all, there will be expansion of gases in lungs and gastrointestinal tract. Over to this point if you try to hold your breath you will rupture your lungs, ending up with bubbles of air in your circulatory system. In vacuum the water molecules in your body will start to vaporize, after losing moisture from body, you will vaporize water molecule from every single cell. This would lead the body to swell to twice the usual size, breaking capillaries but not skin (No explosion, I promise…). Nitrogen dissolved in blood will not be dissolved anymore, as the pressure decreases the ability to dissolve gases reduces, it would form gaseous bubbles. Overall within 10-15 seconds you will start to feel uncomfortable. But yet it depends on the level and rate of exposure, how long you will stay conscious. However due to lack of oxygen you may not be able to concentrate on taking any safety measure. As your brain is not able to function properly you will experience loss of vision and impaired judgement. Cooling effects will start this point onwards as your nose and mouth will start to freeze. Unconsciousness will still have a few seconds to wait probably followed by blue skin. Once you go unconscious you can still survive this much a few more minutes… as the brain is not damaged and heart is still pumping blood. Even at this point if you are re-pressurized you will survive will non to minor injuries. But if you are not taken back to stable conditions, this limit is the critical threshold. Your blood pressure will fall to the extent that blood will start to boil and heart will stop. This critical verge of survival is not in seconds but minutes, you can survive space for about two minutes with totally reversible damage.

Hey! Do I need not to mention the extent of Sun Burn… I guess not.

GLOOMY TALES

I may sound like someone in early blossom,

and true love is out of reach.

this apocalyptic time when you left me, i could have foreseen.

I may sound like I shall never dream,

of truthful love of faithful twain.

as we rendered a dearth of nightmare together to haunt our rest of days.

How in world I ever believe,

aye! aye! I may sound I conceive in gloomy-tales.

but you should always know this serendipity deceived my soul.

broke my heart and I regret my role...

MUZZLE ANALYSIS

Last night, the last thing I read on Facebook was “Can a penny dropped from a skyscraper kill you?” I felt too sleepy to find out! So I slept, with an assumption that it must! I fascinated fabricating a secret mechanism to make sure the penny hit the target. I had even prepared a list of subjects in my mind as I slept in peace! When woke up the authenticity of the assumption bothered me a lot! So I went on with my following calculations and constrains.

So let us find out would it or would it not kill if we drop a penny from the top of tallest skyscraper.

My calculation would revolve around the present tallest building in world the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. It has height of 829.84 m. Since we are considering a building in Dubai, I would prefer its currency to be used instead of Penny. So we are considering a coin of 1 AED that weighs 6.40g. (It has an advantage of its comparative heavy weight over penny!)

Now before calculating let us discuses some basic assumptions that we will keep in mind.

We are basically comparing the fallen coin with a bullet. However, if we consider the overall aerodynamic structure of bullet, it includes time of flight, mass of bullet, shape, calibre, penetration power, directional muzzle velocity, etc. So, for the purpose of this blog, I would consider only the mass of coin and rest of the assumptions and aerodynamic specification will be assumed to be ideal! Note; that it might affect its overall result.

My calculations will be based on SI system of measurements, primary because, I grew up India and In India they teach us metric system that makes sense unlike in USA or in interior design course all over the world.

When we drop the coin its initial velocity is 0m/s

It is accelerating towards the ground with an acceleration of 9.8m/s

The height of Burj Khalifa is the distance it would cover accelerating i.e. 829.84m.

Using Newton’s third equation of motion;      v²= u²+2as

Where;

v= final velocity or in our assumption muzzle velocity

u= initial velocity; 0m/s

a=acceleration i.e. 9.8m/s²

s= the height of the building i.e. 829.84m.

From the above data we get; V²=16265    (After rounding off)

This would give the value of muzzle velocity approximately 127m/s

Muzzle velocity of various types of gun range from 120m/s to 1700m/s

So Burj Khalifa is making it work! However, had it been a little shorter or any other skyscraper across the globe it might not have had worked under the similar set of constrains!

Hey! Hold your horses!  This velocity is not what we will experience in practice, due to the atmospheric drag. However, after calculating the effective drag force it will continue to free fall till velocity is as high as 70m/s (approximately). After attaining this terminal velocity it will not accelerate further. 

Nevertheless by the end, it will be the muzzle energy that would confirm our calculation. After all is an AED coin drop would match a gunshot is our prime objective. In the given circumstances, the mass of coin has a great significance.

Muzzle energy is the kinetic energy of a bullet as it is expelled from the muzzle of gun. It is a rough indication of the destructive potential of a gun.

Numeric value of muzzle energy can be calculated by;    E=1/2mv²

Where,

E=energy in joules

M=mass of object, ie coin 6.4g or 0.0064 Kg.

V= terminal velocity of 70m/s

From the above data we get; E=31joules

Well as a matter of fact this is an effective value of energy, according to Wikipedia muzzle energy levels of different types of firearms vary from 20- 32,000 joules.

To conclude; Accidental or deliberate dropping of an AED coin from the top of Burj Khalifa is potentially harmful! Ouch!

Isn't it incredible how gravity can make just a slip of coin from hand to hold energy of about 52 joules?

A wise man said it so right, “Ah, Gravity, Thou art a Heartless Bitch!”

Damn! I have evil thoughts!