Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Questions I had when I was a Kid

In physics calculations, they use sin(x) = x for small x. Even if x is 1 degree, sin(1) is significantly less than 1. If x is very less than one degree, then it will not be of any significance. For example, for any calculations on a road which has some slope, my lecturer used this formula. If this formula does not hold good even for 1 degree, what is the use of that? The road having slope less than 1 degree is itself of no significance.

In sports, why most of the time, the first and second rankers face only in finals? If both face in the first round itself, that would give opportunity to others to reach finals.

When the father is more intelligent and knowledgable than child, why Grahm Bell's father did not invent the telephone?

In telugu/sanskrit, there is a comparison of a king and poet. It says that, when a king dies, one star fells. When a poet dies, one star appears in the sky. It claims that appearing in the sky has more significance. When a star fells after the death of the king, it signifies the impact that was created by the King. How can that be of less significance?

What I understood later on

x is not in degrees, but, it is in radians. If it is in radians, then it has some significance, and sin(x) = x can be used in practical problems for small x. I never had enough dare to ask my lecturer about this.

Generally the tournaments are conducted in such a way that, the winner is the one who can defeat everyone, and the runner-up is the one who can defeat everyone except the winner. Similarly the second runner-up is the one who can defeat everyone except the first two. If the tournament is not conducted that way, then there is no use of conducting that tournament. Because, except the first place, one can "fix" all other places. I understood this, when I got second prize in one tournament. If they had followed the real tournament rules, I would have been in 17th position out of 32 people.

"Father is intelligent than child" is applicable only for the first few years of the child, and the no.of years varies from child to child. After that, everything would change. Many people stop acquiring knowledge after reaching a certain stage. Depending on when they stop acquiring knowledge, there will be difference in the knowledge of the father and the child.

Eventhough a star falling down seems a major incident, it means, after that day, nobody would be aware of that star. When the star goes on to the sky, it means, from that day onwards, people would know about the star, and it will live eternal. In this case, nobody will remember the King after his death, where as everyone will remember the poet forever.

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