Author: Krishnan

Is there always a cause?

People are not always mindful of the cause. They prefer to stay focussed on what they desire. At least partly, that is the problem with the scientific method. Science is focussed on explanation of effects. The causes are only hypothesized.

Today, a kid cried for candy. The kid eventually obtained candy, but it seldom realizes the full story behind it. Mama gave me candy is not the full story. How did mama get the candy? Who made candy? Where? How did candy get there? If a child eating candy can be such a complex process, imagine the list of possibilities in a complex planet.

You may desire something, but to obtain what you desire you have to pursue a path of acquisition. For people who only desire something and dont understand what it takes to make it happen, the desire almost always turns to disappointment.

But to a learner, the pursuit of cause should not be driven by desire.

There are billions of people on this planet. They do billions of things every instant. There are zillions of things happening in this planet every instant.

These are caused by something and they in turn cause something. Understanding a single planet completely, is technically a zillion variable problem.

Understanding the universe may be even more complex.

But, of course, no human attempts to understand or remember everything. Our brains are so limited by capacity or at least we haven’t still exploited the full working capacity of the human brain because humans live in circles of understanding. An artist understands arts and a scientist understands science. Humans dont see past their limited circle of knowledge. And this circle of knowledge is as big as we make it by our effort.

Even knowing more within a circle of knowledge is a challenge to humans, knowing what to know is a bigger challenge.

How much can a human brain learn?

How big is the truth?

We know, at least generically, what causes the waves in the ocean. But do we know enough to understand ocean waves?

Is the knowledge of the effect sufficient to predict the cause or even is the knowledge of the cause sufficient to predict the effect ?

Is there always a cause? I can’t but help wonder.

What does it take to make one A4 size paper?

We start off by doing a small calculation from a reputed text book. The text book is Shreve’s Chemical Process Industries, which is a textbook adopted in the chemical engineering curriculum of many reputed colleges.

An A4 size office paper of normal quality weighs 5 grams. It is easy for one to pro-rate the above table and estimate what it takes to make 5 grams of paper.

Based on 1982 data, to make an A4 paper you would need:

  • 22.5 g  Chemicals
  • 665 ml  Water
  • 3.5 ml  Oil or 5 grams of coal
  • 20 cc Wood
  • 23.76 kJ Power

Well, the story does not stop here. I know that the paper industry has adopted better manufacturing methods and today the specific consumption for making paper could be a little different. Today’s processes use significant amounts of recycle paper, use lesser water. Again, the amount of paper recycled and water conserved in different plants /countries is different, so it becomes difficult to establish an exact global average in a brief article.

Nevertheless, a few parallels can be drawn.

Every time you waste an A4 paper at office, conservatively, I can assume that, you also waste a large cup of water, a spoon full of coal (or oil), another spoonful of various chemicals, energy sufficient to keep a 40 W bulb glowing for 10 minutes and wood whose weight could be 2-4 times the weight of the paper, depending on the amount of recycle paper used.

Every time you throw a piece of paper into a dust bin, imagine yourself wasting all the other resources as well. I’m sure you’ll find it a lot easier to save paper.

Will Smith, a role model to look up to

“I will NOT be outworked. Period… You might have more talent than me,
you might be smarter than me, you might be sexier than me, you might be
all of those things. You got it on me in nine categories. But if we get
on the treadmill together, there’s two things:  Either you’re getting
off first, or I’m gonna die. It’s really that simple.”

-Will Smith, on his work ethic