Tag: math

  • Existence – A somewhat pseudoscientific approach towards reality

    Existence – A somewhat pseudoscientific approach towards reality

    The concept of “Tomorrow” implies the event of sunrise and sunset.

    However, the sun doesn’t rise nor set, the earth rotates alternately and elliptically by its axis thus creating the illusions of these events, with seasons as a bonus depending on the amount of solar radiation received on specific areas at a specific time of the rotation with specific durations and conditions.

    Such events inspired the invention of day-night measuring devices. Such as the sundial, which draws from shadows casted by the sun’s powerful beams of protons, determining the approximate time. With light, we determined second and minute. A minute is “one Mississippi” times sixty. Another sixty folds for an hour then a twenty-four for a day. The result, a year equivalent to 365 days, is merely a rough approximation derived from trials and errors, which is constantly being improved upon, all from studying shadows and seasons.

    So, it is safe to say time was not invented, it was perceived, a unit, by mankind. From the sundial, on an elliptically orbiting planet, from the star, to the solar system as one singularity orbiting a supermassive blackhole at the center of the milky way. There to the local group of galaxies to the superclusters… A distance so unfathomably wide where all of a sudden, the speed of light becomes completely meaningless. Almost as though a dying old man is tediously limping his way through the Sahara Desert, on foot, WHILE DYING ON LIFE SUPPORT.

    Now zoom out a little more and we’re at the cosmic microwave background, the observable universe, the light from the big bang. Or was there even one? Best to say the energy from the infant universe expanding from its finest singular point. Fast forward that by 13.8 billion years. That’s:

    “one Mississippi” x 60 x 60 x 24 x 365 x 13,800,000,000 (and don’t even get me started with logarithms)

    If you’re wondering, that’s how many Mississippis the universe has spoken and still speaketh.

    (Honestly not sure how they came up with this answer)

    (Again, 365 days in a year was built upon approximation)

    A doppler shift just happened, it has been happening since the beginning of 1 divided by log x(∞) of one-Mississippi. Also, “1” is a unit perceived as one singularity. As though the universe is so perfectly shaped to allow such a unit to even exist. Zoom in on one* drop of water, does the tardigrade belong to the one* drop of so-called singularity or does it resemble a byproduct of a singularity? What about the billion microscopic entities with a small population of e-coli that gives us nasty diarrhea? All in one* single drop of water?

    Get it?

    1 + 0 is still = 1 because of a general account, with a bit of imagination. It is a testimony of how incapable we are at perceiving imperfections.

    Look, the tardigrade is leaving the tiny puddle

    I guess 1 + 0 is hardly one* at all. Yeah Math is weird, definitively, unreal.

    What is real? You? Me? That tardigrade? This text you’re reading on a 4k device with over 8 million pixels? Or your best friend who is literally a movable chain of proteins consisting of atoms and stardust? Don’t we just love this objective reality? What about the objective unreality? Dreams and imaginations? Visions painted with neurons firing at light speed. Well, metaphysically speaking, it’s there, it happened.

    We are obsessed with the objective reality to an extent: it has to be something we can hold onto that counts. To turn vision into concrete is like taking your finger and smudging air particulates onto a blank canvas, hoping to catch some charred particles along the way.

    Wait, there’s red. Looks like you smudged too hard and now you’re oozing blood, but at least you’re getting some colors. What do you mean it’s intended??

    Fucking loopholes

    Fucking definitive loopholes

    Fucking

    Fu…

    Oh fuck! A solid noun, verb, adjective. Let’s try this:

    “A fucking fuck fucking a fucking fuck”

    It literally makes no fucking sense but sensibly means:

    “An adjective noun verbing an adjective noun”

    Let’s dig deeper:

    We’re taking the actions of prolonging our existence as a joke we use to put shame on another individual.

    Like “Fuck you”, says a male individual to another male individual, without the intention to mate. Yet magically triggers a chain of events. Now, rather than throwing sex organs, throwing fists is almost guaranteed, physically, verbally, or metaphorically, both ideas almost eventually dart towards a certain resolve.

    Unless one got to the point of taking another’s life. Well, we’re all predators and prey, we kill for the sake of sport and food, we kill to gain, and we kill to cover up. Yet nobody wants to be killed. The one thing we all have and is a true novelty also happens to be objectively unreal, life itself.

    I mean, how else are you reading this text, you corpse-to-be? i.e. how much longer can you go before your heart feels like it’s given enough? That is, if you’re lucky enough to outlive the average 80% while the proteins and cells in you remain faithful and do the only job nature has for them, Ahem, for you.

    Wait, that’s confusing. Does your body even belong to you?

    To belong indicates possession; to possess implies absolute control. Why did great emperors and dictators fall? If they had all the powers one could ever conjure, yet still succumbed to the same, plain, boring eventuality of the peasants.

    Death, we fear it, we loathe it, some people yearn for it when life in that moment ceases to exist in their eyes. A metaphysical novelty that lets us hang on to our dear life, forcing us to think as a species, and not with our ego. It is the biggest research topic still on an open status quo. What’s in the hereafter? What comes when ego ceases to exist?

    The First Law of Thermodynamics tells us that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. So, this begs the questions. What keeps our chain of proteins and atoms together? Why can’t our brain comprehend itself, when it’s clearly ours to will? What are the gears and mechanics, the nuts and bolts behind consciousness? What’s the bridge between physicality and the unseen? Our ego? A name tag worn on the shirt the same way a Starbucks barista would.

    I wager once our proteins and atoms give out, we, petty insignificant beings, shall convert once more to the miniscule energy that has always belonged to the universe. The same energy from the big bang, is coursing through our veins. The light that cannot be seen, the energy, that fundamentally makes you, you.

    That said, we never died, and dictators never fell, because in a broad sense, we never really lived. This romance of living and dying is nothing but a codependent, semi-toxic relationship between construct and perception where one side is always in denial.

    Therefore, a universe born tomorrow is merely based on the construct of time perceived by mankind, their planet and the light from their parent star, as well as its luminosity, density, and size. This pure hogwash is inapplicable outside of the solar system, because time, life and death, are nothing but units

    In this ever so little, tiny blue dot.

    In an ever so massive, expanding universe.

    A doppler shift just happened, and the universe has grown bigger.

    Well, I’m gonna end here, or does the finale ever exist?

    Ad Finem.

    Ad infinitum.

  • Opening Letter from the Science Editor

    Welcome to new and returning Acadia students! The school year is already in full swing and as your semesters get busy, we hope that you will look out for online and print issues of The Athenaeum as your student-run source of news about what is happening on campus and in the greater Wolfville community. It is bound to be an especially exciting year for the sciences at Acadia as the $22.25 million investment in renovations for Huggins Science Hall and Elliot Hall comes to fruition. This funding, provided by the Government of Canada, Province of Nova Scotia and private donors, will serve to modernize our science facilities for research and teaching use alike while improving their environmental sustainability. 

    Despite the construction in some of our science buildings, research at Acadia is still going strong as Acadia researchers begin the year with $1.8 million in NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) funding. This funding will go towards research in the Physics, Mathematics and Statistics, Earth and Environmental Science, Computer Science, Biology and Geology departments. Of particular interest, will be the development of the Acadia Quarantine Behavioural Bioassay Facility to expand Dr. Kirk Hillier’s work on insect responses to odorants. 

    This year, we are hoping to have wide-ranging articles from all of the scientific departments at Acadia, particularly showcasing the research that happens right here on our campus. We hope to have articles about the work Acadia scientific clubs and societies, graduate students and professors do to enrich our campus and greater scientific community. We also hope to have contributions from students about their own experiences doing research abroad, through co-op or other external opportunities so as to help other students gain perspective about the opportunities they may wish to pursue. New submissions and ideas are always welcomed and can be emailed to [email protected]. We hope to hear from you and to be your source of news about the vibrant scientific community here at Acadia! 

    Sources:  

    http://www2.acadiau.ca/home/news-reader-page/canada-and-nova-scotia-invest-in-infrastructure-at-acadia-university-5806.html 

    https://www2.acadiau.ca/home/news-reader-page/acadia-researchers-receive-1-8-million-in-nserc-funding.html 

    https://www2.acadiau.ca/home/news-reader-page/acadia-researchers-receive-cfis-john-r-evans-leader-funds.html 

  • Tidal Series: Can Tidal Energy Make Nova Scotia Green?

    Tidal Series: Can Tidal Energy Make Nova Scotia Green?

    Briefly describe your background as it pertains to the study of tidal energy.

    I am a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics who uses mathematical models and numerical simulations to do research in physical oceanography and fluid dynamics. For the past eight years, I’ve led a team of Acadia students and research assistants that have researched the potential of tidal energy in the Bay of Fundy. Working in collaboration with other universities, several Nova Scotia businesses, and the Nova Scotian and Canadian governments, our team has calculated the size of the resource and determined the best possible locations for turbines. And along the way, we’ve also learned an incredible amount about the tides of the Bay of Fundy.

    What is the practical resource of tidal power in the Bay of Fundy?

    Most of you are familiar with the incredible tides of the Bay of Fundy: the highest in the world, with a tidal range reaching 17 metres in the Minas Basin, and somewhere between 100 and 160 billion tonnes of water flowing in and out of the bay with each tide. The flow through Minas Passage during a strong flood tide exceeds the flow of all the rivers in the world combined, with the water’s speed exceeding 5 m/s. There must be a ridiculous amount of energy in these tides and tidal currents!

    In reality, the energy we can extract is actually rather modest. The potential energy in raising the water of

    Cape Split with Minas Passage in the background. The turbines are set to be installed in the passage near Parrsboro. Photo taken by Dr. Richard Karsten.
    Cape Split with Minas Passage in the background. The turbines are set to be installed in the passage near Parrsboro. Photo taken by Dr. Richard Karsten.

    Minas Basin by 15 metres is very large (1015 J) but this process takes place over 6 hours and we can only generate power from a difference in water depth–so, at best, we can only take advantage of half of the tidal range. All of this reduces the average power we could theoretically generate from the Minas Basin tides to roughly 10,000 MW. That’s less than half the generation capacity of the world’s largest hydroelectric dam, the Three Gorges Dam in China. Despite having water flow greater than all the rivers in the world, the power potential is that of just one hydro dam (but it would be very large!). It is also four times the size of the current electricity-generating capacity of Nova Scotia, so it is still an important amount for our local energy concerns.

    The potential that exists within the Bay of Fundy tides has been recognized for at least a century, with a recent focus on tidal turbines, which act much like wind turbines – using fast-flowing currents to turn turbines that generate electricity. We have calculated that such turbines could in theory extract 7500 MW from the fast-flowing currents of Minas Passage, which is close to the theoretical limit. More importantly, we found that 2500 MW of power could be extracted from the flow while reducing the height of the tides by only 5%. These numbers were very important to me – they meant that the research was worth continuing and that tidal turbines placed in Minas Passage had the potential of meeting Nova Scotia’s electricity needs. But, they also meant that tidal energy wasn’t a global or national energy solution and (unfortunately) there would be no Nobel Prize.

    The hard work still remains. How can we change these theoretical calculations into electricity? Renewable energy has an unfortunate history of promising large amounts of power, but producing much less. The province of Nova Scotia has set a goal of deploying tidal turbines with an installed capacity of 300 MW, both a modest and an ambitious goal. This will require the deployment of approximately 150 turbines in Minas Passage – a considerable challenge, since only a handful of turbines have been deployed throughout the world. And, given that the turbines will have a capacity factor of maybe 50%, they will produce less than 10% of Nova Scotia’s electricity needs. By our calculations, 150 turbines would have only a small impact on the tides, roughly reducing the high tide in Wolfville harbour by 5 cm. But we are still a long way from getting there.

    It’s also worth noting that tidal energy isn’t just about large, commercial-scale projects. In fact, most of our research has been in collaboration with small Nova Scotia businesses, in particular Fundy Tidal Inc. (FTI), a community-owned company that is trying to bring tidal energy to Digby Neck. FTI’s goal is also to keep the benefits of developing tidal energy in the local communities, something that I support so strongly that I became a shareholder in FTI.

    Should Nova Scotia pursue tidal energy as an energy source?

    In short: yes. But we still need to do a considerable amount of work to determine if we can do this in an efficient, economical and environmentally friendly manner. On what scale should tidal energy be developed? We don’t know yet, but if we are going to reduce our use of fossil fuels, say by using electric cars, we need to substantially increase our sources of renewable electricity. And there is only one form of renewable energy in Nova Scotia that is among the world’s best opportunities, where we can be a world leader in its development. Could tidal energy bring both types of green to Nova Scotia? We have to at least try.

    For more information on tidal energy efforts at Acadia, visit http://tidalenergy.acadiau.ca/.

     

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