Relation Between Metaphysics and Physics
Physics is what has been defined, disproved and restated through ages of human research of all things around us, the keyword being around. People concur or debate over everything under, inside and far away from the Sun. They will deduce theorems and when found logical, term them as axioms. Then every once in a while, there comes along a thought or a phenomenon previously unaccounted for. It tinkers with the shackles with which we bind all happenings we know and understand. A classic example would be the statement on the earth being flat, later being evidently disproved and concluded with the new statement that the earth is indeed, round. There are so many similar comments and theories that have been cemented as fact, waiting for a ‘spirited’ sprite to set release them, only to have a new one to be found out and bound down.
The Relationship Between Physics and Metaphysics
Understanding Metaphysics
When put in paradigm, physics is the understanding of what we see, while metaphysics is the attempt to understand what we don’t. Physics tells you the ‘How’ of all that you see around you. Metaphysics deals with the ‘Why’ of all things, around you and within you. Metaphysics aims to provide the definitive link between the apparent and the spiritual, without making concepts overly religious. Physics will define to the fullest, what can be observed and changed; anything beyond the observable, doesn’t exist. The answer to the exactness of metaphysics is not describable, but can be understood from the classic question: “If a tree falls deep within a forest with no one around, does it still make a sound?”. Whenever something happens within our surrounding, we may notice it with our senses. But when something happens outside this circle of knowledge, do we, or should we, believe that it has indeed happened? Now, if this occurrence from the unknown somehow affects the state of something within our circle of knowledge, how can we explain the chain of events? It is this that metaphysics wants to solve. So, while physics rules the plane of all known, physically realized phenomenon, metaphysics and all its branches sew together the universe of obscure and the phenomenon unexplained by physics. Physicist Stephen Hawking, who yearns to be in the know, said, “My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all”. A point to be noted here is that metaphysics, or even ontology (the study of ‘being’) is not to be related or confused with the deviant sciences like occultism (the study of ‘Forbidden knowledge’) or esotericism (the study of alternative or secretive knowledge). Read the rest of this entry »
The Geography of Britain
Physical Geography
The British Isles is the geographical term for a group of about 5,000 islands off the north-west coast of mainland Europe between the latitudes 50ºN and 61º. The largest island is Britain or Great Britain, which is also the largest island in Europe. It consists of England Wales and Scotland.
The next largest island is Ireland, which is made up of Northern Ireland (or Ulster) and the Irish Republic (also known as Eire). Britain and Northern Ireland, together with a number of small islands, form the United Kingdom of Britain and Northern Ireland, more commonly known as the United Kingdom (which is almost 20% smaller than Italy). In every usage, however, Great Britain or Britain is used to mean the United Kingdom. The Isle of Man, between Ireland and Britain, and the Channel Islands, off north-west coast of France, though recognizing the Crown, have their own parliaments and are self-governing.
Great Britain is just under 1,000 km long and just under 500 km across in its widest part. The most mountainous region is Scotland (with Britain’s highest peak, Ben Nevis – 1,343 m), which also has a wide lowland area between the Grampians and the Southern Uplands, where most of the large towns, including Edinburgh and Glasgow, and three- quarters of the population are located. Much of Wales is also mountainous and in England, the Pennine Range (the ‘backbone of England’) extends to 224 km (although the highest peak is only 895 m high). The rest of England tends to be rather undulating, and not even the large agricultural plains of East Anglia are perfectly flat. In Ireland all the highland areas are around the edge, but there are no peaks over 1,100 m. Read the rest of this entry »
Hardest Math Problem in the World
Growing up, most of my friends (and me) suffered from an illogical fear of numbers, equations, right angles, and the entire conundrum of a subject that is mathematics. Those of us who didn’t were unfortunately labeled geeks, probably something that stemmed from the age-old human reaction that grapes are sour. Of course, we needed to learn how to add or subtract, in case we wanted to check that we got the correct change back from the cashier, but what was the point of learning the Pythagoras theorem or algebra with the x’s and y’s or all those other math terms? Well, that was the logic many of us applied to get out of studying this dreaded subject. But there were some amongst us who wanted to learn those weird theorems with Greek alphabets and imaginary numbers. And sometimes, these math club braniacs would talk about solving the hardest math problem in the world. That is how most of us got to know that there were some mathematical problems that had actually never been solved even by mathematicians who had devoted their lives to it. Today, the hardest math problem is of interest to me. Not because I want to solve it (far from it, actually) but because the fact that there is actually a hypothesis in the world that has not been proven for almost 150 years now is very intriguing.
What is the Most Difficult Math Problem in the World?
There are two maths problems in the world that have received a lot of recognition and attention because they have remained unsolved for several years. While Riemann’s Hypothesis still remains unsolved, Fermat’s theorem which is one of the hardest math problems in the world, was solved only in 1995. Though difficult to understand, we will try and explain these two problems in the next section. Read the rest of this entry »